Snakes are nature’s most notorious reptiles. Their appearance might often be misconstrued as to the amount of danger they possess. If you live in a snake-infested region, these poison-filled mesopredators might often give you an untimely visit.
Therefore, let us discuss whether or not garlic can work as a snake repellent and also some of the essential DIY remedies to keep the snake away.
Does garlic keep snakes away?
Garlic is an excellent remedy for keeping snakes away. As snakes are repulsed by their odor, they may be used to produce a variety of snake repellents. It is freely accessible in practically every corner of the world. Individuals who live in snake-infested areas may simply use it to repel snakes.
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Snakes often come uninvited into our house. There are multiple reasons why snakes are often attracted to giving us a visit.
Some of the prominent reasons behind the snake’s visit to our house include the presence of mice in our house, several gaps in between the structure of our houses, bushy gardens and dense backyards, leaf piles, and so on.
Even though snakes might look cute to many of you, their activities and nature are not that cute at all. There are thousands of species of both poisonous and non-poisonous snakes all around the globe.
And as a matter of fact, all varieties of snakes are present in all regions of the United States of America.
They are quite actively present in the hilly regions of different parts of the world. Snakes are also present in both high and low lands, as dense forest areas are available almost everywhere in the world.
As a result, you always need to be careful about protecting yourself from these notorious reptiles. For that, garlic can be the best thing for you.
If you live in a snake-prone area, it is quite possible that you might see 3 to 4 snakes daily in your kitchen, bathroom, living room, and so on.
So, to prevent these snakes from giving you an untimely visit, let’s take a look at some of the elements and how effective they are in terms of keeping the snakes away.
Garlic:
Garlic does scare away snakes. Because, in general, snakes cannot stand the smell of garlic. Therefore, you make several snake repellents using garlic and spray it around your house.
Garlic plants:
Garlic plants are considered one of the best snake repellents of all time. The smell of garlic plants often confuses snakes. As a result, they couldn’t move conveniently and often lost their way.
Garlic plants give off an awful smell that the snakes can’t seem to tolerate. These plants have a unique kind of oily residue whenever a snake tries to pass over it. That’s why garlic plants work as one of the best snake repellents.
Garlic powder:
In terms of making the repellents, garlic powder also works as an excellent component. Garlic powders do contain the authentic smell of raw garlic.
Therefore, as snakes can’t tolerate the smell of garlic, they can similarly not tolerate garlic powder either.
Why do snakes dislike the smell of garlic?
Garlic does contain sulfonic acid. Besides, it contains an oily residue in its body that the snakes can’t tolerate at all. That’s the reason snakes dislike the smell of garlic.
Whenever we cut onions or garlic, we ourselves tend to cry over the chopping board. This happens due to the presence of sulfonic acids. It is the sulfonic acid that triggers our tear glands, causing us to have a burning sensation in our eyes while chopping them.
Just like that, for the snakes, this sulfonic acid makes them drowsy, and as a result, they might often lose their way. That’s why snakes dislike the smell of garlic.
How to use garlic to repel snakes?
There are a variety of ways in which you can use garlic to repel snakes. Some of them are discussed below:
Use garlic with rock salt:
Rock salt causes excessive irritation to the skin of the snakes. On the other hand, snakes can not tolerate the smell of garlic anyway.
Therefore, you may combine these two prominent components in order to make a mixture out of them and use them around the perimeter of your house to keep it protected from snakes.
Use garlic with peppermint oil:
As snakes have a very strong sense of smell, any unpleasant smell can cause them severe discomfort. For this, to take full advantage of it, you may use garlic with peppermint oil in order to make an effective snake repellent.
Use garlic with onions:
The combination of garlic and onions is the most fatal combo for snakes. Garlic and onions individually can repel snakes quite well. However, when these two ingredients are combined, the snake repellent gains a new level of effectiveness.
Therefore, you may use them to make a strong and effective snake repellent.
Use garlic with limes:
You may also use garlic with limes in order to make another effective repellent for snakes. You may mix the garlic juice or oil with lime juice and spray it around the perimeter of your house.
Use garlic with cloves:
Snakes possess an unmatched level of hatred towards the smell of cloves. Therefore, you might also infuse clove oil with garlic in order to make a snake repellent.
Use garlic with cinnamon oil:
Snakes also repel cinnamon oil. So you can make an effective spray by infusing garlic with cinnamon oil as well.
Use garlic with any oil to make a garlic-infused spray:
Apart from clove or cinnamon oil, you may also use garlic with any other oil in order to make a garlic-infused oil. This infusion might take several days.
Therefore, use any other essential oils like coconut oil, almond oil, and so on, with garlic in order to make an effective garlic-infused spray for repelling snakes.
What other smells do snakes can’t tolerate?
Apart from garlic, snakes can’t tolerate the smell of onions, cloves, cinnamon, ammonia, white vinegar, marigold, smoke, lemongrass, lime, peppermints, and naphthalene.
Snakes dislike the smell of ammonia and naphthalene the most because of their strong smells. Also, they can’t tolerate the smell of cloves, cinnamon, and peppermint because they have residues of essential oils in them.
Moreover, onions also contain a certain kind of oily residue in their bodies. Furthermore, they have a strong odor due to the presence of sulfonic acid, just like garlic.This sulfonic acid triggers a burning sensation in the eyes of the snakes.
Therefore, these are some of the other smells that the snakes can’t tolerate.
What are the best homemade snake repellents?
Making snake repellents from natural ingredients is simple if you have a few common household items on hand. Besides, the things that are used for making natural and homemade snake repellents are very common items that we often use in our day-to-day lives.
Therefore, here are some of the best homemade snake repellents that you can easily make at home without buying any extra items from the market. Those are as follows:
Garlic and onion mixture:
First, take 4-6 cloves of garlic and cut them in half. Then take half of an onion and cut it into circles so that you can separate them in the shape of the rings. Use 4-5 cups of water and 1 tablespoon of salt.
Boil the water for around 2 minutes and wait for mild bubbles to appear in it. Then, add the onion and the garlic to it and boil it for another 4-7 minutes.
Take them off of the stove and let the water, garlic, and onion infuse together overnight. The next day, pour it in a spray bottle and spray it around the perimeter of your house in order to repel snakes.
Mixture of essential oils:
Take a spray bottle of moderate size and pour in one tablespoon of cedar oil, one teaspoon of clove and cinnamon oil, and lastly, two cups of water.
Shake it well and another effective snake repellent is absolutely ready to use! Make sure to shake it well before every use for better effectiveness. You may also produce a garlic infused oil spray by combining garlic with any other essential oils.
Garlic paste with infused oil:
In a blender, add 2 cups of water and 10–12 garlic cloves. Blend it until it becomes a fine paste. Then, add garlic infused oil to the paste. Blend it once more so that the oil gets mixed with the paste nicely.
As it is paste, the odor itself is very strong. Therefore, only a few drops would be enough to repel the snakes from entering the premises of your house.
Final thoughts
Despite the fact that there are a plethora of snake repellents on the market, nothing beats garlic. One of the most efficient methods for keeping snakes away is to use garlic. Since snakes are intimidated by their odor, make a variety of snake repellents using garlic and use them as per necessity.