Snake Removal in Snellville, GA

Snakes around your Snellville home

Snellville has been fully built up for decades, so people expect it to be past the snake stage. But a yard that has been growing for 30 to 50 years has more snake cover than a new one. Foundation shrubs planted with the house now reach the windowsills. Mulch and pine straw have been piled on every year into deep, damp beds. And the landscape-timber edging and small retaining walls common in yards from that era have rotted into hollow, crumbling spots. Add the mice that get into older garages and crawlspaces, and a snake has food and shelter right next to the house.

The good news is that almost every call turns out to be harmless. Most snakes found around homes here are rat snakes. Georgia has 47 native snake species, and only seven are venomous. The one you could realistically meet in a Snellville yard is the copperhead. Every non-venomous snake is protected by Georgia law, and killing one is illegal. So the right steps are to stay back, identify it, and fix whatever brought it to the house.

Outside? Usually wait it out

Here's what most people don't expect a removal service to tell them: a snake crossing the yard or sunning on the driveway is usually gone within a few minutes to an hour. By the time a technician arrives, there is often nothing left to remove, and you will still pay for the trip. If the snake is outdoors and moving, keep people and pets back and let it go. A call makes sense when the snake is inside, keeps returning to the same spot, or is clearly venomous and staying near where people walk.

Inside? Call right away

A snake inside the house, garage or crawlspace is different. Call right away. The longer you wait, the more likely it is to slip behind an appliance, into a wall gap or under the floor, where it's hard to find. On older Snellville houses the usual ways in are a garage-door bottom seal that has gone stiff and curled, a rusted-out crawlspace-vent screen, and gaps where pipes and the AC line pass through the foundation. Keep an eye on where the snake goes so the pro can find it quickly.

Rat snakes, kingsnakes and the harmless majority

Most snakes found around homes here are gray rat snakes. They are good climbers that hunt mice and rats along foundations, in garages and even in attics. Eastern kingsnakes eat other snakes, including copperheads. Garter snakes and small brown snakes eat slugs and worms in the flowerbeds. All of them are protected and all of them help you. Most people assume every snake is venomous, but only a very small share of snake calls actually turn out to be.

The copperhead and the aging flowerbed

The copperhead is the venomous snake that does fine in suburbs, and an older Snellville yard suits it well. Look at thick shrubs grown over the foundation, deep pine straw, rotting timber edging, firewood stacked against the house and piles of leaves. Its patterned brown skin blends into exactly that kind of cover, so most bites happen to someone reaching into a bed or stepping next to one. Wear gloves and shoes when you work in old beds, and if you see a copperhead, back away and call.

Never try to kill it

Killing a non-venomous snake is illegal in Georgia. It's also how many people get bitten, because the snake can strike farther than you expect, and even a snake that looks dead can still bite by reflex. Snake repellent products and mothballs don't work, and mothballs should never be scattered around a yard. The right approach is to identify the snake from a safe distance, then have a licensed pro remove it and release non-venomous snakes legally.

What the pro does: remove, then close it up

The pro identifies the snake, removes it with proper tools and relocates non-venomous snakes as the law allows. Then they look for why it came. On a Snellville property that usually means mice getting into the garage or crawlspace, a door seal that needs replacing, vent screens that need new metal mesh, and shrubs and mulch beds that need thinning away from the foundation. With fewer mice and less cover close to the house, there is far less reason for a snake to come around.