I'm skipping to new thread. Here are 2 surefire methods to hold down chipmunk (fairydiddle) and squirrel populations. Not so great for skunks though.

Very cool.   Both the dog and the snake.   We have a king snake that show's itself every once in a while.  Not sure I'd tolerate a rattler...

Rubber snakes are cheap, and critters can't tell the difference!  I hang them in my vineyard, and they do scare the birdies away!
Suzi

The snake in this picture is a southern copperhead. No where near as dangerous as a rattler. Last rattler I had is now a skin in the freezer waiting to become a hatband. These guys are a bad bite but they won't kill a dog (usually) and they sure are good looking. You guys have really nice king snakes out there. I haven't seen a king snake here in Va in years.

I use rubber snakes but they do not fool the squirrels. I read recently that the squirrel was just placed on the 10 smartest animals list. I've had them as pets and they are smart as heck - well the little flying ones aren't but the grey squirrels sure are. The rubber snakes don't work on the murder of crows I contend with daily but they do work well on most stuff - not the mocking birds either. My dog won't hurt anything but squirrels. He'll catch baby bunnies, for example, and bring them to me to show off his hunting skill (as a pup was raised with a beagle) and then we just let them go unharmed (well a bit stressed). I got squirrels in the attic and 4 months later we finally got them out but it was hard and expensive and they did a lot of damage and that's where my dog developed his hatred of squirrels - the fig protection's just a perk.

We have garter snakes but I think raccoons and skunks like to eat them.

A long time ago a Country Western song came out about a copperhead, deadly snake.  Little brother got bit, big brother got banned from the scene and watched the doc come, the door slam, the flies swarm, and the bad news come.  He got an axe or something and went down to kill that snake.  Wish I knew the artist and actual name of the song, but I could never listen without tears.
Suzi

I like garter snakes as they eat slugs but the problem is they also eat toads. I have several toad houses to encourage them to stay around and whenever I see a garter snake I have to catch (means getting their horrible smelling musk on me) and relocate. 3 years ago I caught a garter snake with a blue belly - it was really beautiful and unusual. I released it but was really tempted to keep it.

Suzi, we used to be unafraid of copperheads because their bite just wasn't considered that bad. But there's an unexplained phenomenon going on and herpetologists don't have a handle on it yet. Our american venomous snakes are getting more and more dangerous as their venom has increased noticeably in it's toxicity. If you ever figure out the name of that song I'd love to hear it. There's a Stevey Earle song called Copperhead Road but it's about moonshine if I remember correctly. 

Last year the chipmunks were crazy here I wouldn't mind if they ate and finished one fig but they had to take little bites out of all of them so I found this little invention on the internet put a little bit of peanut butter on the plastic tubing  fill half way with water and well you know the rest I got rid of 7 in 1 week it doesn't work for squirrels 

Dave,

do you see the 2 pieces of white tubing thats where you put the peanut butter when they step out onto the white plastic tubing it spins and your problems are over

mgginva what kind of snake is that ?

Ah! Now I understand. That's pretty clever. I've found that havahart traps work fairly well for squirrels as they are very greedy. The exception is flying squirrels. When I got those in my attic all 3 exterminators I had come visit weren't even interested in the hassle involved in getting rid of them and the prices they quoted - prices they said another person might do it for - were crazy. I caught a ton of stuff but not a single flying squirrel.

Dave, 

King Snakes are scary, but they won't hurt ya.  I found out the name of that country western song.  Listened twice, cried twice:    Snake was a Cottonmouth.  Song is by Mel Tillis, 1979.
Suzi

Barry, 

I am definitely having nightmares tonight 

If I ever went out to water my fig trees, and I saw these kind of snakes, laying in my containers.....after coming down from the roof of my car, I'd have to go change my skivvies!

Dave....me too!!    Serpents, I could definitely do without.  I'm sorry I read this thread. 

The closest I ever want to come to anything that looks like a snake is the string that I cut off from my box of NYC pastry-shop Cannolis.  : )

Frank

thanx, I was wondering if they have a nickname down your way. We have some tri- color kings up here also. Haven't seen one of those either for a few years. We don't really have much in the way of hot snakes. Timber rattlers are rare due to den hunters and copperheads. No cotton mouths, corals or eastern + pygmy rattlers like you all have. When I was a kid we could sell the eastern kings to farmers for $25.  Now you just can't find them

I'm very pleased to find kingsnakes around my yard (three very young ones have showed up so far this spring), but if we had copperheads I'm afraid they wouldn't be so welcome. Beautiful pattern, though--and perfect camouflage when they're resting among dead leaves!

I hope I haven't left the wrong impression. As much as I love snakes - and I do - I used to breed them, I don't let venomous stuff stay on my porch. I take them down the road. They sure are pretty but I'd sure rather have king snakes or black rat snakes - I love black rat snakes. When I find those on the road I bring them home. This picture was kind of a joke as we were on another thread about getting rid of skunks. We were talking about motion sensor sprinklers, etc. I thought these 2 pictures we kind of funny in that context. Even though copperheads aren't real toxic I would't risk the health of my dog for any reason. Any reason.

We're on the same page--I used to collect snakes when I was younger and am still always interested to see them. An eastern king was near the top of my "want" list as a kid, but I never had the opportunity to hunt within their range. These days I sometimes move the non-venomous stuff into my yard, but the diamondbacks get hauled away to less populated areas. It's just too easy to step on one in the dark!