Snake on a boat

DougM

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Jul 24, 2005
2,242
Beneteau 323 Manistee, MI
I subscribe to the theory that all snakes are nine feet long and poisonous...
 
Dec 27, 2011
279
Oday 272 Pensacola
RATTLER! Wow, I'm impressed! Had a copperhead on mine last year. Must have been in anchor well as I went to bow, then back to cockpit for some tool, then back to bow. Did not see it on first trip to bow. Wife has gotten in habit of stomping on anchor locker before we leave the dock. She's be taking a swim if it made an appearance after we left the dock.

No suggestions as to how to keep them off...
 

Zed

.
Aug 19, 2015
96
West Wight Potter 19 Bar Harbor
RATTLER! Wow, I'm impressed! Had a copperhead on mine last year. Must have been in anchor well as I went to bow,
Sealed anchor pipe with little door? No way a snake could get below through that with a chain or anchor rode in the hole also. $24 chrome on bronze at West Marine.

Copperheads are way more poisonous than rattlers.
 
Feb 14, 2014
7,400
Hunter 430 Waveland, MS
i have heard moth balls will keep them away but have not tried it
that works!!

You can buy "snake away" but it is just moth balls ground up with kitty litter. They can't climb up a waxed boat and there are cones that you can fit on the lines to stop all critters.

I would hang a cheese cloth bag with moth balls on each dock line . You should be rid of them first. They do lay eggs.
Jim...
 
Jan 19, 2010
12,362
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
I would hang a cheese cloth bag with moth balls on each dock line .
That sounds like the winner to me. I hang a stocking hose full of mothballs in my boat over the winter and early spring to keep wasps out and to keep birds from making a nest in my boat. Works for that too. The naphthalene in moth balls also kills mold spores. BONUS! However I am a trailer sailor so I simply open the hatches as I drive down the road to the water and the smell is all gone by the time I get to the ramp.... might be very different if you have to live with the smell. I keep the stockings in a mason jar when I'm not using them. I guess an old mayonnaise jar would work just as well and less likely to break if you drop it.