How to Get Rid of a Garter Snake: Safe, Humane Removal & Prevention (2025)

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Last Tuesday, a homeowner in Michigan opened her garage door and found a three-foot garter snake coiled around her paint cans. She’d been storing birdseed in a plastic bin nearby. Within a week of moving the seed and sealing a foundation crack, the snake disappeared.

This scenario plays out thousands of times each spring when garter snakes emerge from winter dormancy and search for food near human structures. These harmless snakes don’t want to live with you any more than you want them as roommates. Understanding what draws them inside and removing those attractions solves most problems without traps or relocations.

Identifying Garter Snakes

Spotting a garter snake doesn’t require a field guide if you know what to look for. These slender snakes display three distinct stripes running the length of their bodies in yellow, green, blue, or white against darker backgrounds of black, brown, or gray. Most measure 18 to 26 inches long, though some stretch past 54 inches. Their keeled scales create a matte finish rather than a glossy sheen.

Look for a slightly wider head with large round eyes and light-colored upper lip scales bordered in dark. The tongue is red with a black tip—a reliable characteristic. Some individuals show checkerboard markings between their stripes, while others have faint or absent stripes entirely. Juveniles mirror adult patterns, differing mainly in size.

As opportunistic generalists, they consume amphibians, fish, and invertebrates. These stripe variations and scale patterns help you identify garter snakes accurately, whether you encounter common subspecies or regional variations across North America.

Why Garter Snakes Enter Homes

Garter snakes don’t wander into your home by accident. They’re drawn by two main things: a steady food supply and a safe place to hide.

Understanding what attracts them helps you address the problem at its source.

Seeking Food

Why do garter snakes slip into your garage or basement? They’re hunting for food sources like rodents, slugs, and insects. A single snake can eat prey equal to 15–25% of its body weight in one meal. If mice are raiding your pantry or slugs are munching through the garden, expect snakes to follow the buffet line straight to your door.

Controlling snake food sources means managing the prey first. Urban development can alter natural snake habitats, pushing them into residential areas. Remove the rodent attraction and garden pests, and you remove the reason snakes show up.

Seeking Shelter

Beyond food sources, temperature drives garter snakes indoors. These ectothermic reptiles seek temperature regulation when outdoor conditions drop below 16°C or climb past 30°C. Your basement or crawl space maintains 10–18°C year-round, creating ideal brumation locations when frost lines deepen in autumn.

Habitat fragmentation from urban development pushes snakes toward residential structures as urban refuges. Moisture attraction matters too: heavy rainfall and saturated soil force snakes to seek dry hiding spots. Foundation gaps, overgrown vegetation, and wood piles replicate natural denning sites.

Here’s what draws them to your property:

Shelter Type	Temperature Range	Why Snakes Choose It
Crawl spaces	10–18°C	Stable brumation conditions
Rock gardens	12–20°C	Mimics limestone outcrops
Foundation gaps	14–18°C	Protection from weather extremes
Wood piles	10–16°C	Insulated winter refuge
Dense shrubs	15–25°C	Cover from predators

Removing hiding spots and creating inhospitable environments through habitat modification keeps snakes from settling in. Seal openings wider than 0.6 cm and clear brush within three meters of your foundation.

Removing Snakes Without Harm

Getting a garter snake out of your space doesn’t mean harming it. The key is making your property less inviting while giving the snake a reason to move on.

Here are three practical steps that work together to encourage snakes to leave without causing them any harm.

Seal Entry Points

Snakes slip through openings as narrow as a quarter-inch, so securing your home’s perimeter is like closing the door on unwanted guests. Here’s how to seal entry points effectively:

1. Foundation and walls – Fill cracks with mortar or weather-resistant caulk. Sealing these gaps can reduce snake entry by up to 70%.
2. Door sweeps and thresholds – Install rubber or vinyl strips under doors and garage thresholds to block gaps as small as an eighth-inch.
3. Vent covers and crawl spaces – Cover roof vents, dryer outlets, and crawl space openings with quarter-inch hardware cloth to stop climbing snakes.

Inspect these areas every three months to maintain your sealed perimeter and keep snakes outside where they belong.

Eliminate Food Sources

Remove what draws snakes in before they find your property appealing. Garter snakes arrive hunting food, pests, slugs, snails, and rodents. Cut off that supply and you’ve eliminated their primary motivation.

Start with Snake Prey Removal through systematic Yard Cleanup. Outdoor pet food availability increases small rodent activity by 50% within 20 meters of feeding areas. Store pet food in sealed metal containers and remove bowls nightly to reduce rodent visits by 70%.

Address Compost Control by turning piles twice weekly and avoiding meat or dairy waste. This reduces rodent nesting by 35%. For Rodent Deterrence, eliminate debris piles and seal food waste in covered bins to cut rodent attraction by 90%.

Food Source	Attraction Problem	Control Solution
Pet food bowls	Draws rodents 50% more	Store in sealed containers, remove nightly
Bird feeders	Triples mouse populations from spillage	Clean spilled seed weekly or eliminate feeders
Compost bins	Increases small animals 60% if meat/dairy present	Use sealed bins raised 30 cm off ground
Trash containers	Rodent attraction without sealed lids	Install covered bins with tight seals
Standing water	Raises amphibian populations 40%	Drain puddles, fix leaky hoses

Modify Landscaping

Your landscape design determines whether snakes will settle in or move along. Short lawn maintenance cuts snake presence by 60% when grass stays under 5 inches. Maintaining your yard reduces hiding spots and discourages rodents that attract snakes in the first place.

Focus these yard tasks on habitat removal:

• Remove debris like wood piles and rock stacks that lower snake shelter by 65%
• Switch to gravel mulch instead of soft organic material to cut hiding spots by 70%
• Keep dry edges by fixing drainage problems to reduce moisture and prey by 50%
• Plant thorny plants such as roses along boundaries to block snake crossings by 30%
• Clear 24–36 inches beneath shrubs to eliminate low ground cover zones by 40%

Garden modifications work because snakes avoid exposed open areas where predators can spot them easily.

Creating Barriers

Physical barriers keep garter snakes out of areas where you don’t want them. You can use fencing materials or natural repellents to block access.

Below are two effective methods for creating barriers around your property.

Hardware Cloth Fencing

Think of hardware cloth fencing as a steel curtain for your yard. This galvanized steel mesh creates a physical barrier that blocks snakes from slipping through gaps in existing fences. For garter snake prevention, choose mesh fencing with openings no larger than 1/4 inch—smaller mesh size stops even juvenile snakes. Installation depth matters: bury the bottom edge 4 to 6 inches underground to prevent burrowing underneath. Material durability is excellent with galvanized hardware cloth, often lasting 20 years outdoors. Design enhancements like adding an outward-facing lip at the top reduce climbing success by over 90 percent. Cost efficiency is solid too, running $2.50 to $4 per linear foot with minimal upkeep.

Feature	Specification	Benefit
Mesh Size	1/4 inch or smaller	Blocks juveniles
Burial Depth	4–6 inches	Prevents burrowing
Wire Gauge	19-gauge steel	Long-lasting strength

Attach snake fences to picket or chain-link using zip ties or staples for a custom fit.

Repellents

Repellents promise easy answers, but chemical efficacy falls short in practice. A 1995 University of Nebraska study found that naphthalene and sulfur repellents produced no measurable deterrence in garter snakes. Natural repellents using essential oils show better results, with oil persistence lasting 24 to 36 hours before reapplication is needed.

• Chemical snake repellent products containing sulfur or mothballs fail to deter garter snakes in field tests despite dominating market analysis at 48% of sales.
• Natural deterrents like cinnamon and clove oils create plant interference through scent, achieving up to 45% reduction in snake approaches when freshly applied.
• Ultrasonic results remain inconsistent, with controlled trials showing less than 25% effectiveness and most users reporting no change in snake activity.

Homemade snake repellent using ammonia or mothballs risks plant damage without reliable snake deterrent benefits.

Preventing Future Problems

Keeping garter snakes away long-term requires consistent yard maintenance and smart habitat modification. Mow your lawn short—ideally under three inches—to eliminate hiding spots and reduce snake presence by around 65%. Remove wood piles, rock stacks, and debris to cut sightings by 70% within one season.

Rodent control is equally important since controlling mice and rats removes 85% of the snake’s food supply. Seal cracks and gaps around foundations, garage doors, and utility lines to block entry points as small as a quarter inch.

Annual inspections of barriers and drainage systems maintain a 95% success rate in snake prevention. By removing attractants and eliminating holes, you create an environment where garter snakes won’t return.

Living With Garter Snakes

Garter snakes are beneficial gardeners that naturally control slugs, mice, and pest insects—removing them increases pest populations by 30% within two growing seasons. These harmless neighbors pose no real threat to you or your pets, with over 95% of encounters classified as non-aggressive. Understanding their ecosystem role helps shift community perceptions and promotes coexistence strategies.

Garter snakes are beneficial pest controllers—removing them can increase unwanted pests by 30% while posing virtually no threat to you

You can peacefully share your space with these reptiles through a few practical adjustments:

• Designate snake zones with native plants and rock piles in low-traffic corners of your yard
• Use barriers strategically like hardware cloth fencing to guide snakes away from patios and doorways
• Educate your household on the benefits and risks of garter snakes versus more defensive species like rat snakes or ribbon snakes

Educational outreach within your community builds tolerance and prevents unnecessary removal of these helpful creatures.

Getting Help

While coexistence is ideal, sometimes you need backup. Hiring professional wildlife control services ensures safe removal when garter snake populations become overwhelming or you’re uncomfortable handling the situation yourself.

Most professionals respond within two hours and relocate snakes at least two miles away to prevent their return.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)