Snake Removal in East Cobb, GA

Snakes around your East Cobb home

A creek ravine is one of the best places a snake can live: rocks, fallen logs and deep leaf litter along the banks, frogs and rodents to eat, and shade all summer. In East Cobb, many back yards drop right into that kind of draw. On a house built into the slope, the lower level, the basement patio and the walkout door sit at the bottom of the yard, next to the woods. So a snake on the lower patio or in the ivy bank isn't strange here. It's living where it normally lives.

Here's the reassuring part. About nine out of ten snakes people call about are harmless rat snakes, and most people assume a snake is venomous when it almost never is. Georgia has 47 native snake species, and only seven are venomous. Near East Cobb homes, the copperhead is the one you could realistically run into. All non-venomous snakes are protected by Georgia law, and killing one is illegal. If a snake is outside and moving, the best thing is usually to leave it alone. It will usually be gone within the hour.

Outside vs. inside: when to call

A snake crossing the yard or sunning on the retaining wall doesn't usually need a pro. Keep pets and kids back and let it move on, which it nearly always does within minutes to an hour. By the time a technician arrives, it's often gone, and you'd still pay for the trip. The time to call is when the snake is inside the house, garage or basement, or when it won't leave a spot where people walk. Call right away. A snake indoors is harder to find the longer you wait.

What you're most likely seeing

Most snakes around East Cobb homes are gray rat snakes, good climbers that hunt mice and rats along foundations and in the woods. You might also see eastern kingsnakes, which eat other snakes, copperheads included, and small brown and garter snakes in the flower beds. All of them help you by eating rodents. Killing one is illegal, and it's also how a lot of bites happen.

Copperheads on the slope

The copperhead is the venomous snake that does well in suburbs. Its pattern blends in with dead leaves, which is exactly what covers the slope between an East Cobb yard and the creek. Watch out in ivy banks, leaf piles and stacked firewood on the downhill side, and along the edge where the lawn stops and the draw begins, especially at dawn and dusk in warm weather. If you see one, back away and keep children and pets back. Don't try to kill it or move it yourself.

What draws snakes uphill to the house

Snakes come close to a house for two things: overgrowth to hide in and something to eat. On a sloped lot, that usually means thick ground cover running from the ravine right up to the foundation, and mice or rats living around the lower level, the deck or the garage. Thin out the ground cover near the house, keep firewood and clutter off the slab, and deal with any rodents. That does far more than any snake repellent. Most repellents don't work, and mothballs should never be used.

Basements, garages and the space under the deck

Snakes get into lower levels the same way mice do: under a garage door with a worn bottom seal, through a gap around a pipe or a foundation vent, or through an open basement door on a warm evening. A pro removes the snake, then finds and seals that gap. If rodents drew it inside, those get dealt with too. Otherwise another snake can follow the same trail.

How a pro handles it

First the pro identifies the snake from a safe distance. Then they catch it with the right tools. A harmless snake gets relocated, never killed, and a venomous one is removed safely. Next they look over the property for whatever drew it in, whether that's ground cover, a rodent problem or a gap at the lower level, and tell you what to change. That last part is what keeps you from calling again next month.