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Snake repellent warning



On Thu, 8 Mar 2001, Judy Murray wrote:
> 
> Mary McDaniel wrote:
> 
> What do you  use for snake guards for bluebird houses?  We have baffles on
> metal poles for raccoon guards, but last year our "friendly" black rat snake
> went over baffle.
>         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> To prevent snakes from coming to your bird feeder you might look at this
> website.
>  http://www.animalrepellents.com/index2.html

Hi Carolinabirders,

I have seen snake repellent sold in Durham by Barnes Supply store on 9th 
street. Both Judy's stuff and the one I saw share the active ingredient 
Naphthalene; it's also found in mothballs. The only real difference 
between the snake repellent and mothballs, as far as I can tell, is the 
medium; the snake repellent comes in small hard chips, like gravel, so 
it'll stay put once scattered.

Note that naphthalene can have some pretty nasty side effects if inhaled. 
For documentation, see http://www.eco-usa.net/toxics/naph.html or
http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001236.htm

The point being, do NOT put this stuff **in** bird houses or feeders. You 
could cause some serious health problems for the young birds, almost as 
bad as being eaten by a snake. If you've got snake problems in a bird box 
(the Wood Duck boxes along Knap of Reeds Creek have some severe ones), 
scatter the repellent in a tight circle around the base of the tree or 
post which is holding the house up. In the case of a tree, better make 
sure the snake is gone first, else you'll be trapping it in the tree with 
the birdhouse instead of screening it out! 

As far as I can tell, naphthalene is fully biodegradable and disappears 
in 2-3 months leaving no environmental residue, so it's entirely safe on 
the ground (though I'd hesitate to use it near a wetland, out of concern 
for amphibians and fish which are often more sensitive to chemicals than 
we mammals).

Good birding,

Josh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/