Nearlythere1 Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 Hi All, Does anyone have any tips or tricks to keeping the unwanted wildlife out of the house and garden? Not sure how much of a problem this will be, but interested to get everyone's thoughts on this. Our friends in Townsville don't seem to get many problems, in the suburbs, however, relatives in Brisbane, up the mountain, often come home to find carpet pythons and others sat on the doorstep or in the drain pipes etc.. Would love to hear your experiences... :chatterbox: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaska Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 Really depends where you live. We are in a suburb but with a lot of bush around the outside of the area. We get a decent amount of spiders, lizards etc but not seen any snakes around the garden. Other friends on the edges of the suburbs get them though. Noone has ever been bothered by them - they tend to leave you alone I think. We did have our first red back spider this week though (from the patio not in the house thankfully) which is a bit of an eye opener as I have got quite complacent and things don't really bother me as much as they did before I moved here. In terms of prevention - we keep the hedges and bushes trimmed back from the house which has cut down what comes in. Also do a 3 month spray of Mortein's outdoor barrier spray. We also have one of those plug in repellers. We definitely get a lot fewer spiders in these days. I'll be honest. The most irritating wildlife here are the ants. They get absolutely everywhere in the warmer months. We had a 1p size blob of Weetabix in the sink and thousands tracked across the ceilings to reach it during the day when I was out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearlythere1 Posted September 6, 2014 Author Share Posted September 6, 2014 Really depends where you live.We are in a suburb but with a lot of bush around the outside of the area. We get a decent amount of spiders, lizards etc but not seen any snakes around the garden. Other friends on the edges of the suburbs get them though. Noone has ever been bothered by them - they tend to leave you alone I think. We did have our first red back spider this week though (from the patio not in the house thankfully) which is a bit of an eye opener as I have got quite complacent and things don't really bother me as much as they did before I moved here. In terms of prevention - we keep the hedges and bushes trimmed back from the house which has cut down what comes in. Also do a 3 month spray of Mortein's outdoor barrier spray. We also have one of those plug in repellers. We definitely get a lot fewer spiders in these days. I'll be honest. The most irritating wildlife here are the ants. They get absolutely everywhere in the warmer months. We had a 1p size blob of Weetabix in the sink and thousands tracked across the ceilings to reach it during the day when I was out. Hi Alaska, Thanks for the info.. We're looking at suburbs because of the dogs.. Their only little, just a mouthful for a python etc.. I've visited a few times and have seen the ants, they're quite resourceful aren't they.. Is that Mortein's any good then? Can it be used with pets around etc? I've seen a solar powered snake repeller online for about $160.. Don't know whether they're just a gimmick though... Thanks for sharing your experiences.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brisbane Bri Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 As Alaska said. You need to keep the vegetation trimmed back especially around the ground so it is less attractive for snakes. I have a friend around the corner to me who had a pet rat, put the cage outside on the window ledge at night time and were awoke in the night by a snake that had got into the cage and ate the rat. To help keep webbing spiders away from the house keep outside lights of as these attract insects which in turn attract spiders. There is not a lot that you can do for ground spiders though. Ants come into your house looking for water and food. Ant-rid can sometimes help if the ants are sugar eaters but you need to keep putting it down until at least 2 a week after seeing no more ants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Chickens keep away pretty much everything and you are allowed 6 in a suburban back garden. Only seen a snake twice and both were very small. Snakes help keep the rats down tho :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmjg Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 As well as trimming the vegetation back, eliminate loose piles of debris and put piles of bricks, timbers, firewood well away from the house and play areas. Basically if it makes a good spot to hide, hide in it they will. If you remove the habitat, you will remove the critter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2bpepperrogers Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 Hi everyone, thanks for the useful tips - we're moving out next September, hopefully to northern suburbs of Brisbane and have 2 cats - quite worried about them trying to catch spiders/other critters as they love that here. Concerned they're going to get bitten or stung! Also, the wife is not good with spiders so any tips on keeping them away are great. Any other ideas on preventing the ants getting inside? When we were out in April they managed to get into sealed tuppawares! thanks Claire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calNgary Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 Chickens keep away pretty much everything and you are allowed 6 in a suburban back garden.Only seen a snake twice and both were very small. Snakes help keep the rats down tho :-) We live semi rural on acreage and i can count on one hand how many times ive seen a snake on our land in almost 8 years. Quite a few friends and neighbours have had plenty near their homes/ in the garden and all have chickens, i was actually told by the realestate agent when viewing various homes in the area that chickens attract snakes.,lol.. hence i dont and wont have chickens. Cal x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ptp113 Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 It really isn't a problem. Still don't understand why poms go on about this so much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 Hi All, Does anyone have any tips or tricks to keeping the unwanted wildlife out of the house and garden? When I first arrived in Australia (in country Victoria) I was struck at how bare people's gardens looked. Then I learned why - snakes and spiders! If you provide ANY places for them to hide, they'll come. So, no shrubs that reach down to the ground - choose plants that have a bare trunk or stalk. No rockeries. No compost heap - get one of those barrel composters suspended off the ground. Sheds and garages are a haven for spiders, because you've got piles of stuff which rarely gets touched. We bought plastic storage boxes for tools etc similar to this: http://www.bunnings.com.au/lifetime-brown-storage-box-_p3191376 which have turned out to be spider-proof. It's true that snakes are more scared of you than you are of them, so even if they are in your garden you may never know. However, it's a different story with the dogs - they can move fast, they can smell the snakes and they'll chase them, so I would be very worried about them. It sounds crazy but I would really recommend getting some chickens and letting them roam the garden - they will eat the spiders and scare off the snakes and your dogs will be a lot safer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 It really isn't a problem. Still don't understand why poms go on about this so much It does depend where you go. I've never seen a snake in all my time living in Sydney, but I nearly trod on a red-bellied black snake on the main street of Noosa coming home from a restaurant one night (we reported it on return to the hotel and they got a snake catcher to come and pick it up. Highlight of the holiday!). I saw several brown snakes when I lived in country Victoria (from a distance, thankfully), and one of my work colleagues went out to his car at lunchtime and found a brown snake snoozing on his passenger seat in the sun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VERYSTORMY Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 Have seen two in the last week. There have been 11 people bitten in WA for this season so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skani Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 It sounds crazy but I would really recommend getting some chickens and letting them roam the garden - they will eat the spiders and scare off the snakes and your dogs will be a lot safer. Large snakes - eg pythons - will eat chickens. Smaller snakes will go for chicks, eggs and mice which may be attracted to chook food. So, even if you are in a python-free area, you need to secure your chook yard. Hardware stores such as Bunnings sell very fine mesh for this purpose - which they call Mouse and Snake Mesh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith and Linda Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 We live on the Bay-side at Brisbane and my wife, whom is petrified of snakes had seen more than the average Australian, both in the house/garden and when out walking. she refuses to walk anywhere near where there are trees/bush's so we tend to stick to the beaches and grassed parks when walking the dogs (limits possibility of ticks too). We have a couple of the snake scarers in the garden electronic pulse/vibration things, You used to be able to get the liquid "shoo snake" and spray that around like the mortien stuff but no longer legal in qld/aus. We also have a couple of the plug-in rodent/spider sonic things in the house, we have an annual pest control and I further enhance this externally if the ants start coming in. We also use a long feather duster sprayed with mortein and run around the internal coving, lights etc. We have Ghecko's which keep the spiders down outside, but send the dogs mad, and the wife with all the ghecko s#it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobj Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Snakes and spiders...Leave them alone and they will leave you alone or, call a snake handler if you must. As a fresh from UK young man, was given the daily task of removing snakes and creatures that had fallen into our new 18 km long trench (new road we built) for six months, out from Broome, WA. Must have averaged 11 snakes a day, a couple of king browns each day and several species of big spiders. Have lived and still living in dangerous snake country, taipans in the garden, here in the Mackay district, brown snakes and tiger snakes while fishing, in northern NSW even trodden on about 12 and had 2 snakes slide over a foot. Been bitten by 2... In the hotter months, we will get 3 snakes a week, on average in the breezeway. No big deal. Sadly, too many people who know sweet nellie about them, try to get rid of them...They are part of the environment, so, as I said earlier; leave them alone. And still fascinated by their beauty. You people have more chance of being knocked R sover by a car, than being bitten by a snake, or spider. Cheers, Bobj. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 sounds crazy but I would really recommend getting some chickens and letting them roam the garden - they will eat the spiders and scare off the snakes and your dogs will be a lot safer. Please don't do that. You will encourage snakes in to your garden. We learnt the hard way and lost 5 chickens to the big pythons. Since we haven't had the chickens we haven't seen any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerberus1 Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 It's true that snakes are more scared of you than you are of them, so even if they are in your garden you may never know. However, it's a different story with the dogs - they can move fast, they can smell the snakes and they'll chase them, so I would be very worried about them. It sounds crazy but I would really recommend getting some chickens and letting them roam the garden - they will eat the spiders and scare off the snakes and your dogs will be a lot safer. From personal experience, I wouldn't really recommend getting chickens to scare off snakes. If anything, they're a magnet for the local snake population. We had numerous snakes around while we had the chickens, haven't seen a single one since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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