I am not a fan of snakes no matter what kind they are.
Last weekend while looking out the den window I noticed a black snake entering the pond by the waterfall it was about 3 foot long. He was barely in there 5 seconds before he had nabbed one of the smaller koi.
I ran out the backdoor grabbed the water hose to spray him hoping he would drop the fish that did not happen. I knocked on the window to get my husband’s attention and he came out there I pointed out the snake and told him since it was killing the fish I wanted it dead.
When you have a koi pond with a bog, waterfall, landscape rocks and plants there are a lot of places for snakes to hide while you’re trying to kill them. Finally, after a 20-minute struggle the snake was dead and then he spits out the fish still in tack but it was too late for the fish.
It was a yellow-bellied water snake their favorite meal is fish I guess he thought our pond was a buffet.
The next morning I counted fish knowing we had 11 total 4 koi that were a few months old and 7 goldfish one as big survivor from the last year disaster.
I was missing 2 of the new Koi and 3 goldfish this had been going on since I last counted the fish.
Today I am picking up some lime to put around the perimeter of the pond. It is supposed to burn the snake’s belly lets hope it works.
( Edited I had put sulfur instead of lime lol).
Sonya Lira Photography 
Snakes!!!😬
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Have you tried the sulfur around your chicken coop? I was wondering if it really helped keep snakes away.
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I have not. The 6 barn cats keep them away. They eat them!
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We have two outside cats and one that goes in and out I guess they have not seen the snakes. I saw one yesterday bigger than the other one this one was about 4 ft long I saw it as it entered the pond. I went out there and tried my water hose he looked at me like ” Oh a shower”. I got out the melafix fish medication it has tea tree oil in it well fish hate it I read it burns them. I added it to the pond sprayed the water let it bubble up and out he came that is when I realized how big he was. I saved the fish this time. When my husband got home he cut down all the plants right by where he went out and put out the lime. This weekend we will put hardware cloth under spaces of back porch so they can not live under there.If we do all we can to alleviate places for the snakes to hide before entering the pond maybe it will help.
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Yikes! Those are big snakes!!!!
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Yuck. I don’t like snakes either. Though we have a garter snake in the garden that I don’t mind so much as long as he doesn’t surprise me.
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This weekend we are putting some 1/4″ hardware cloth wire under the back porch where there are small spaces where the last board is close to the ground but the space left is big enough a snake could get through. We cut down the purple showers that were nearest to the pond to avoid hiding places for snakes. They were pretty there but I have them in plenty of other locations in the yard. Right now it is all about protecting the fish. I do not want them to be scared and I can always tell when they are scared by the way they are acting.
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