Snake Removal in Senoia, GA

Snakes around your Senoia home

Senoia sits in snake country. The pasture, fence rows and wood lines around town are good hunting ground, and they run right up to the back of the newer subdivisions and the yards of older homes. In town, the shady beds, stone walls and the dark space under old porches and crawlspaces give a snake somewhere cool to rest. Out on the edge, the line where a freshly sodded lawn meets brush is where snakes tend to show up.

The good news: most snakes people call about here turn out to be harmless rat snakes, and genuinely venomous calls are rare. Georgia has 47 native snake species, and seven are venomous; around a Senoia home the one you'd realistically see is the copperhead. Every non-venomous snake is protected by state law, and killing one is illegal. The right response depends on where the snake is.

Outside: usually best left alone

A snake crossing the yard or sunning by the driveway is passing through. In most cases it will be gone within a few minutes to an hour, often before anyone could get there to remove it. Keep children and pets back, give it room, and let it move on. The calls that do need a pro are a snake inside the house or garage, one that keeps returning to the same spot, or one you believe is venomous near where people walk.

Inside: call right away

A snake indoors is a different story. Older Senoia homes have plenty of places for one to disappear — gaps around plumbing under the floor, an open crawlspace vent, the space behind a baseboard or under a porch that connects to the foundation. The longer you wait, the less likely it is to be found. Keep an eye on where it goes, keep everyone out of the room if you can, and call.

Rat snakes, kingsnakes and the copperhead

Rat snakes are the most common snake around homes here. They climb well, so they turn up on porches, in eaves and in outbuildings, usually following rodents. Kingsnakes eat other snakes, copperheads included. The copperhead is the venomous one to know: it blends into leaf litter, pine straw and woodpiles, and it's most likely at the shaded edges of a yard or along the wooded border of a newer neighborhood. Most people assume a snake is venomous when it isn't, which is exactly why identification comes before anything else.

Killing a non-venomous snake is illegal

Georgia protects all of its non-venomous native snakes, and harming one is against the law. Going after a snake with a shovel is also how many bites happen — they can strike farther than people expect. Our crew removes the snake safely and handles a protected species the legal way, without anyone getting within reach.

What brings snakes in: food and overgrowth

Snakes are drawn by two things: something to eat and somewhere to hide. Around downtown and older homes, the food is usually rodents. On the edge of town it's rodents, frogs and insects along the brushy border. Overgrown beds, tall grass against the foundation, firewood stacked by the house and clutter under a porch all give cover. Cut those back and handle any rodent problem, and the property becomes much less interesting to snakes.

Under the porch and in the crawlspace

Many older houses in Senoia sit over crawlspaces, sometimes with open lattice or missing vent screens, and porches with open space underneath. Those are cool, dark and often full of mice, which is why snakes end up there. After removing the snake, a pro can close vent and foundation gaps with metal screening and point out where rodents are getting in, since that's what keeps pulling snakes under the house.