How Rats Might Attract Snakes to Your Yard

Both venomous and non-venomous snakes are likely to be attracted to the easy food source that is offered by a rat colony. Rats are highly social animals who rarely live alone and often live in large family units, making an established rat infestation on your property even more likely to attract an equally large number of snakes and their family units. The relationship between these two pest populations, while perfectly natural in the grand scheme of things, is nothing that the average person seeks to bear witness to in their home or yard. The safest way to deal with rats and snakes in a residential area is to have them removed by a certified professional who is trained to take the appropriate steps to prevent these pest problems from recurring.

Are all snakes dangerous to have in my yard?

While many snakes are completely harmless to humans, they may bite if they feel threatened. Nearly every snake is just as afraid of a person as the person is of the snake, so it is likely for snakes to respond to all interactions with humans as potentially threatening.

Should I kill snakes that I find in my yard?

Although it is normal for folks to want to protect themselves and their families, it is dangerous, unkind, and irresponsible for homeowners to kill every snake they find on their property. The environmentally conscious and ethical response when finding a snake in your yard is to hire a trained professional to remove and relocate the snake in whatever way is appropriate for the snake’s species, size, age, etc. in accordance with local and federal regulations. The benefit of hiring a professional is that they’ll know how to inspect your yard thoroughly for any hidden colonies of snakes or other pest populations which may also need to be addressed, such as rats.

Will snakes come into my house to eat rats?

While rats are happy to invade a human’s home in order to find shelter from the elements, eat food, gnaw on other materials, and reproduce in fast succession, snakes are much more hesitant to enter an occupied human dwelling. Snakes will only do so in order to eat food, and unlike rats who tend to infest and populate a human residential area if they can, snakes will usually leave a human home as quickly as it can after feeding.

For fast, reliable help, contact West Termite, Pest & Lawn.