Snakes in the house and garden

[Scotian2012]

We had a cobra in our garden a few months ago. Our 2 Thai dogs did a great job at keeping it at bay, and eventually scaring it off. It returned a few days later and some local gardeners were on-hand to come over with their gardening tools and well, sort the situation out!

Someone said to me that putting down ping-pong balls can be a deterrent! Believe it or not, snakes will think they are eggs I believe, swallow them and end up choking as it gets lodged in them. I haven't tried it yet.

[StevePIraq]

Not so sure about the ping pong balls, sounds a bit cruel to me, anyway can a snake choke? where is it's throat?

A Thai friend has advised to plant lemon grass in the garden, for some reason snakes don't like the scent it gives of so they stay away. Anyway we have bought and panted some around the garden and will see what happens.

[GLCQuantum]

Someone said to me that putting down ping-pong balls can be a deterrent!

Hmmm interesting.

Now where can one find ping pong balls in Thailand?

[H2ODunc]

I live surrounded by jungle. I get many snakes in my garden. The last one was a beautiful 2m + reticulated python. It had just eaten and was sunning itself as it processed lunch. Lots of the green tree snakes and lots of cobras. The cobras are the only ones the dogs kill. Whenever I hear then making a certain commotion I know it is cobras and they win every time. The last was a 2.5 meter king cobra. Only had a couple inside the house and they were ushered out with the broom.
Coming up the mountain once I turned a corner to see my friend the large eagle in the road. startled by the noise of the motorbike he took off dropping a rather large snake which landed. Did the equivalent of shake its head and then slither off into the jungle. Saved by me on my bike !
I took some pictures of the python and will dig them out and post them.

[seamus72]

We came home a few months ago and our rottweiler had a snake in its mouth thrashing it from side to side. He stood over it and wouldnt let us near. Eventually we could get him away and the snake died. Even when dead you could notice the flared head, and was very similar to pic above. Security came and said ' Ngu how' .... Cobra, and took it away. Within minutes my dog had a bad reaction and his eyes swelled up and shut. We took him to a couple of 'vets' who couldn't help, although they advertise as vets, but basically just sell dog food. Eventually got him to the animal hospital on 55/1 who administered an injection, and tablets. Our dog slept in our room that night, and with erratic breathing for a few hours we thought he was a gonna. In the morning he woke us with a lick of the face and a newly formed Popeye squint. We're always paranoid now in the garden, at night especially..

[Vital Spark]

Seamus: Don't get too paranoid about going out in the garden at night. The snakes really don't want to attack you - you're too big for them to eat. They'll only get vicious and start spitting venom if they feel threatened, as the snake did when your dog decided to have a go at it. A few years ago our dog got spat in the eye by a cobra, it's not that serious as it's meant to temporarily blind the attacker so that the snake can make its escape. I just bathed his eyes with some salted water, and a few hours later he was OK. If you tap on the ground with a stick when you wander out into the garden, then any snake that might be lurking around will scuttle off somewhere to hide (I learnt this from our aged landlady).

Your roughy, toughy rottweiler was probably suffering from post-traumatic stress (I can't blame him), and I bet he loved sleeping in mum and dad's bedroom for the night...

VS

[PeteC]

I'd be much more worried about Malaysian pit vipers and Russell's vipers than Cobras. Like VS says, a cobra will skedaddle when it hears you coming. The other two won't and just sit there camouflaged waiting for something to walk by. I don't know if "stick tapping" will work with them.

The Russell's kills more people in Cambodia than any other snake. Luckily we don't have many of either over here on the Eastern seaboard, but you have plenty of the Malaysian pit vipers south of Bangkok. Pete

[StevePIraq]

More beasties in the garden.

Woke up this morning to find one snake and one huge 8 inch centipede dead in the garden. They were both laying next to each other so maybe they had bitten and killed each other, you can see what looks like blood on the head of the snake.

DSC03227-1.jpg (44.13 KiB) Viewed 5497 times

Still have to find a way to keep these things out of my garden

[Dannie Boy]

More beasties in the garden.

Woke up this morning to find one snake and one huge 8 inch centipede dead in the garden. They were both laying next to each other so maybe they had bitten and killed each other, you can see what looks like blood on the head of the snake.

DSC03227-1.jpg

Still have to find a way to keep these things out of my garden

The snake looks like a Malayan Pit Viper?

[Big Boy]

Still have to find a way to keep these things out of my garden

No, please, they are fine in your garden. While they are in your garden, they aren't in mine

[PeteC]

....The snake looks like a Malayan Pit Viper?

I don't think so, but......? See below link. Pete

http://www.thailandsnakes.com/tag/malayan-pit-viper/

[Frank Hovis]

Brown Kukri by the looks of it - harmless. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligodon

[PeteC]

So many snake threads so I arbitrarily picked this one. Mods please move it if you want to. It's cobra egg hatching season, being laid about 50-60 days ago. Have a monocled cobra baby about 30cm long living under the boards of our sala. It sent the wife into fits yesterday. If it stays under there too long it won't be able to get out as no exits other than in/out through the spaces between boards. I really hope I don't have to kill it....and I hope our golden retrievers don't get near it as they're dumb imported blood, not smart soi dogs.

This is the first cobra I've seen on the property in many years. If I stop posting, you'll know what happened. It's strange that we were just talking about the fact we have so many frogs around here this year, now we know what attracted this baby, and probably the mother in the first place. I dread to think we have a nest nearby which means more babies roaming about. Pete

[MrPlum]

Frogs are plentiful on our plot this week and a snake came calling yesterday. I'm reluctant to kill them but the last time I let one escape there were 4 babies and a more serious problem to deal with. I don't think you can take chances when there are children and their friends around. So it was a quick strike, then off with its head.

Then followed a frog hunt to remove them from the pond and garden.

Another problem with pests was a rat which found a haven in my motorbike and chewed through the ignition cables. I used mozzie spray to force it out and boy was it quick. Leapt about 8 feet.

[hhfarang]

We had another meter and a half long spitting cobra in the garden a couple of weeks ago. Didn't even know it until the next morning when we found one of our soi dogs with an eye swelled shut and a dead cobra in the back yard. The last one a couple of years ago got the dogs in 3 out of 4 eyes and I had to take care of the snake even though they were still blindly trying to get at it... so they must be learning. This time he only got 1 eye and they got him without my help. Took the mutt to the hospital in Takiab and an eye wash and some medication got her back to normal in a few days.