As the nights turn cold, snakes seem to vanish from yards and trails. They haven’t gone far. Every fall, they look for a place to wait out the winter, and some of the best spots they can find are right around our homes.
Snakes don’t really hibernate
Snakes can’t make their own body heat. When temperatures drop, a cold snap can push their body temperature to dangerous levels, so in regions with real winters they slow down and rest. For reptiles, this state is called brumation. Matt Goode, an assistant research scientist at the University of Arizona, summed up the logic for Arizona Environment: when it’s too cold to hunt or mate, “Why waste energy?”
According to the pest control company Rentokil, brumation can begin anywhere from September to December and usually lasts until March or April.
Where they go
To survive, snakes need a shelter below the frost line. Jeff LeClere, an amphibian and reptile specialist with the Minnesota DNR, quoted by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, explains that ice crystals forming in their bodies would kill them. Since snakes can’t dig, they borrow existing spaces:
- deep crevices in rocky outcrops;
- abandoned animal burrows, old wells and caves;
- hollow tree stumps and other snakes’ dens.
A single winter den, called a hibernaculum, can shelter one snake or thousands. Many species come back to the same den year after year, which is why a yard that had snakes last fall often has them again.
The spots around your home they choose
Near houses, a stable, sheltered space is just as good as a burrow. Rentokil lists the places where snakes most often turn up in cold weather:
- crawl spaces and basements;
- garages, sheds and barns;
- woodpiles and piles of debris;
- storage areas, including boxes of holiday decorations that rarely move;
- boiler and utility rooms.
How to keep them out before it gets cold
Snakes don’t chew holes: they use the gaps that are already there. Check around pipes and cables, torn screens, damaged soffits, crawl space vents and the bottom of garage and cellar doors, and seal what you find. This is the same weak point we described with the detail of the front door that lets snakes in every fall.
- Stack firewood on a pallet, at least 12 inches off the ground, away from the house.
- Keep the grass short and shrubs trimmed back from the walls.
- Deal with mice and rats, which attract snakes in the first place: here’s where rats go in winter.
- Don’t count on mothballs: Rentokil calls these repellents unproven.
The limit
Most snakes around American homes are harmless and even useful, since they eat rodents. But some species are venomous, and it’s hard to be sure at a glance. If you find a snake in your basement or garage, don’t try to catch it: keep pets and children away and call a wildlife control professional. And remember that a sleepy snake found in winter can still bite if it’s handled.
Seal the gaps, lift the woodpile, and the snakes will wait out the winter somewhere else. That’s the trick.
