MANY of us have, at one time or another, encountered snakes and some of the encounters have turned out nasty.
While most of the snakes are harmless, they can still cause injury through bacterial infection and a lot of bleeding, due to an anti-coagulant in snake saliva.
Snakes are fast, hard to kill, dangerous when injured and can strike even when they appear dead.
Thus, when these uninvited guests come into our homes, we wishes we were equipped with information on how to handle them.
Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokesperson, Tinashe Farawo, said the authority helped communities with the problem of snakes by sending Parks officials to capture them.
“As an authority, our policy is not to kill snakes, especially the python species,” he said.
“The python is facing extinction.
“As for all the other snake species, we allow them to live in their natural habitat hence we encourage people to live in harmony with snakes.
“We encourage people to use snake repellents to make sure the snakes stay away from human surroundings and to keep their surroundings clean so that the snakes have no places to hide.
“While the parastatal has challenges which are not peculiar to those affecting other companies, we have enough human resources to handle whatever arising situation.”
Farawo disclosed that over 37 pythons were recently captured by the authority in Gutu.
Snakes love to:
l Live in damp and cool places.
l Live near streams.
l Sneak into garage walls or retaining walls and
l Live in wooded areas.
There’s a reason snakes always seem to show themselves under your porch or in debris piles – it’s where they thrive.
A fast and easy way to let snakes know they’re not welcome is to:
l Clear any debris in your yard.
l Clear away leaf piles.
l Clear away wood piles.
And if you love to water your yard often and keep sprinklers running routinely, this too, can attract snakes. Reducing the amount of times, you water the yard will help to lessen the amount of snakes that visit you.
Fix up common issues in the home
If you want to know how to keep snakes away from your house, you need to correct a lot of the common issues around a home that allow snakes to enter your walls.
The garage is the prime spot where snakes enter, so fix and repair any holes where snakes can enter.
Top 10 tips for snake safety on the website knowledge about snakes advise many things to do, among them, leaving the snake alone.
l Leave snakes alone because of almost all cases of snake bites, a reported 99 percent, occur when people attempt to catch, pick up or kill snakes.
l Perform snake prevention techniques in your home or property, that’ll lower the amount of snakes there, and lessen snake encounters.
l Use specialty snake handling tools when picking up or transporting any venomous snakes, or any snake that you can’t identify, or which is aggressive.
l Wear snake boots and or snake gaitors on your feet and legs when walking through snake country.
l Wear gloves. If you know it’s a non-venomous snake, you should still wear gloves, construction gloves or leather work gloves, or even thick welder’s gloves, to protect you against bites when handling or holding snakes.
l If you are up against a spitting cobra in your suburban backyard lawn, wear glasses, as these snakes tend to aim for the eyes.
l Buy a snake trap. These traps secure the snake on a sticky glue pad, where it cannot strike at all. You can then safely transport the snake.
l Hire a professional snake removal expert. Experience is important when properly handling wildlife; in thecase of snakes and in properly identifying the snake species.
l Learn your snake species, particularly in your area! Education is a wonderful tool in helping you keep safe around snakes.
l I should say it again. Don’t kill snakes. Don’t shoot them, don’t hit them with a shovel.
The best way to get rid of snakes is to ensure you do your best to make your home and yard a place they don’t want as a habitat.