OC Snake Removal

Eric:  So we have Vic from All City Animal Trapping today and wanted to talk about, Orange County snake removal. So how do you get, get rid of snakes around your house, is a question that we get asked often when people call in.  So give us an idea. How do you do that?

Vic:  It can be tough.  In situations like that, we actually remove them by hand or snare.  Or with some kind of grabbing tool.  As far as keeping them out and that that’s a little bit different, but definitely will help as helpful.  What we typically do is a lot of people will want an estimate on making their fence that they already have snake proof.  Or if they don’t have a fence building a snake fence, basically just something that they can’t penetrate.  Whether they slid their over it, or if they try and burrow under it or something like that.  If you don’t have a gate, your yard is going to be open to anything, you know?  Then when we get calls out, usually somebody has eyes on it and they can see it in the yard, that kind of thing. Then they call us.  We try to get someone out as soon as possible and remove them out however we can.

Eric:  What’s the best way to get rid of a snake?

Vic:  Well, you know, besides that the removal we also can set snake traps.  We can set those around the property, especially in high active areas or areas that people have seen them.  Then also we can set up the deterrent, the snake turn.  Basically what we do is, put it around your property line. It’s essentially, an invisible line that a snake doesn’t like to cross. For whatever reason, whatever’s in there.  But it doesn’t like to cross, so we have to make sure there’s none on the inside before we do that, you know.  So not trapped in kind of a thing.  I know that it works just because we have customers.  It usually lasts about a year. We have customers that do it every year. Haven’t seen a snake since, you know, and that’s going on a number of years now. So there’s different deterrents there’s traps available and obviously luck is involved. You want to kind of be lucky and hope that there isn’t a snake den nearby or something like that.

Eric:  Gotcha.  I’ve heard in the past salt that kills snakes. Is that an old wives tale or is there some truth behind it?

Vic:  I mean, I’m sure it can. I mean, it probably requires a lot of salt, you know. I’m sure you don’t just throw a handful of saw those things just dies there. You know what I mean?  So it’s probably more of a wives tale. But if you’re in close contact with that, then, by any means you gotta do whatever you can to protect yourself. But snakes, they have a bad rap.  They kinda have a stigma with them and I know rattlesnakes are dangerous and potentially can really cause a lot of harm to you.  And even you die you’re dead, but they rattle though. So that’s why I like that you can hear him from a distance cause they let you know, hey I’m over here. Don’t mess with me over here or I’ll have to mess with you and that’s really what they are.  They don’t look really, they’re not on the prowl and looking to pounce on something or attack something.  They’re there and like anything else, if they feel like they’re being threatened or messed with they’ll coil up and, and defend themselves.  So you just got to keep that in mind.  Usually with the snake, if you let them be, they’ll let you be coexists kind of thing.  But there are people out there that have huge phobias for snakes in particular.  If you have children or pets, even because a lot of times we get calls and it’s because the dog didn’t stop trying to go after a rattlesnake or whatever snake it might be. And the dog is just protecting the land itself.  So it’s just it’s tough. 

Eric:  When it comes to dealing with snakes, how to go about handling them?  Well, it’s kind of a scary subject for a lot of people. And I had seen this in a movie once, so I got to ask it can a snake come up from a toilet?

Vic:  I’m sure it could, to be honest.  Because we’ve seen rodents and stuff like that, come up through toilets. And then through plumbing.  All it takes is an opening and a snake to go in the wrong or the hole.  And next thing you know, you know what I mean? It’s not very common. You don’t hear about it a lot, but I’m sure it’s possible.

Eric:  Okay. Does, a snake die when you cut it in half?

Vic:  It does. It might wiggle around, but it would. I think in a short amount of time. Yeah. It might wiggle around and stuff like that for a few seconds or something like that but definitely die.

Eric:  So if a snake dies on, let’s say on your property.  And you just leave it there for whatever reason does it attract other snakes that are alive?

Vic:  I haven’t heard that.  But usually when you see a snake, unless it’s an adult, there’s usually more snakes around. So when there’s a, when a mother lays eggs and has them, there’s usually multiples in the den.  So like I was talking about luck, that sort of thing. Some people are, I guess you could say unlucky.  They might have a ? on their property and that’s why they keep seeing them.  But there’s good ones out there as far as gophers, snakes and stuff like that.  Snakes that eat rats and mice and other rodents or vermin that might be around it.  You might not have a gopher issue and you didn’t know that you have a gopher snake next door or something like that.

Eric:  So, interesting. Yeah. Is this, do you get a lot of phone calls for snake removal? 

Vic:  Yeah. Yeah, we do. Especially in, I’d say the more open areas like Yorba Linda or Lake forest.  That sort of thing where there’s not necessarily houses on top of each other, and more populated cities.  But a lot of times you’ll just see them when they’re hot.  When it’s hot and they’re coming out to get some sun. And then they kind of go wherever they came from. And hopefully you never see them again, which is usually the case. 

But then if you start to see multiple sightings and then you might have a den area.  You might want to do something about maybe installing a snake fence or have a deterrent application or something like that.

Eric:  Okay. And people can go on your website and get your contact info right away.

Vic:  Absolutely.

Eric:  And call you. Okay. Well, fair enough. Thank you so much.

Vic:  No problem.