What Geoff says is true. A caution though - plenty of fox terriers (and terriers in general) get killed by snakes here in Australia every year. They do alert you that snakes are around.....but there can be sad consequences to that too. Keep the grasses down around dwellings, do not leave tin, piles of wood and rubbish lying around in the warm weather, wear long boots, have a snake bite kit/bandage on hand and be prepared that you will see them.

I live in Italy and thankfully we dont have majorly poisonous snakes around but we do have several species of vipera that can be quite nasty, especially in spring when some of them clinb on tree branches where they can get more sun than on the forest floor (imagine having one fall on your head). Fortunately we also have other snakes like the Biacco wich is a larger, often entirely black variety of the Green Whip Snake (Hierophis viridiflavus), and in fact in venetian dialect it's called 'Carbonasso' because it's black like carbon, that actually hunts other snakes and small mammals, and if one decides to move in your garden you are pretty much sure to have solved your vipers and mice problem. That is why when we found one near our house we actually created a small 'snake oasis' nearby in hope it would stick around, and when it decided to move in we saw the rats from the nearby stream and the occasional passing by viper disappear almost completely.

I'll have to look up the best places to build kookaburra perches now. Great idea! Thanks.

Dogs are not disposable snake-prevention kits.

great video. always wondered about snakes.

I used to have Jack Russells for fox control, when I was younger. Yes they are good snake and lizard killers but I loved my dogs. Eventually the snake will win and I lost 4 terriers over a period.Decided not to keep terriers as they were killing too many Blue tongue lizards and small Dragon lizards. Besides I like snakes.

This does not apply to the Eastern Brown Snake in Australia. They are not shy and do not slither off when they see you. So far the Tiger Snakes, Copperheads and Red Bellied Black Snakes do retreat when they see me. The Eastern Brown Snake comes into my verandah to sun itself and when I come out the door it raises its head and says hello with its tongue lol. I'm not prepared to get a dog or cat because the wildlife is more important to me. I have to compromise and have a much more orderly garden than I would like. I have plenty of kookaburras and other birds of prey but there are plenty of snakes of all sizes here.

5 cats will take care of your snake problem.