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jennifer rose

Jul 8, 2003, 8:36 PM

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Burning Rubber and Snake Prevention

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I confess. We burn our trash in a specially-made brick receptacle, mixing the ashes with yard waste in the compost heap. Non-combustible trash is stashed in a dog food bag for the garbage truck. My gardener insists upon plucking the plastic bottles out of the trash bag and burning them. (He tried to burn a used LaserJet cartridge once, and he’ll never do that again.) Each time, for over a decade, that I’ve pleaded and begged him not to burn plastic, he goes and does it again. This morning, his explanation was that “the fumes kill bugs and snakes.” Not that we exactly have a snake problem, but you just never know when an errant rattler or other pernicious vibora just might climb over the wall. He insists that “back on the rancho,” they used to burn tires to keep the snakes away. Never mind that he never lived on the rancho.

Now, never mind the environmental lectures, but does burning plastic keep vermin and snakes away or not?

(Please no lectures about kindness toward snakes and vermin and natural remedies, because as far as I'm concerned chemicals are good and the only good snake is a dead one.)

(This post was edited by jennifer rose on Jul 8, 2003, 8:40 PM)

Papirex

Jul 8, 2003, 11:12 PM

Post #2 of 4 (821 views)

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Re: [jennifer rose] Burning Rubber and Snake Prevention

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Yes, burning plastic bottles is an excellent way to rid your yard of snakes and vermin. The hard part is catching them and stuffing them in the bottles.

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo

Jim in Cancun

Jul 9, 2003, 8:09 AM

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Re: [jennifer rose] Burning Rubber and Snake Prevention

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Well, since it is impossible to prove a negative I guess we will have to give them this one. I am sure smoke probably does ward of some smarter animals although I was inhaling it at the rate of 3-4 packs a day for 25 years and it never did me any favors. I have never heard that but will check with my caretaker at the ranch and see what he has to say. He almost always has a smoldering little campfire going for his wife to cook on--even though I bought a little 2-burner stove and gas tank--some habits are hard to break. And just last week I lost a pigeon in the chicken coop to a yard-long boa. That is the third one we've found in the chicken coop but the first one actually knosching.

I used to use marigolds, garlic and stale beer to ward off or kill various types of varmints in the garden. The stale beer you just put in a saucer and the little pill/sow bugs and/or snails that might chomp on your little baby tomato sprouts crawl in, drink their fill, get drunk and drown--the marigolds and garlic just scare away some of the other critters.

Will do some more investigation on local lore and report back.

Georgia

Jul 9, 2003, 2:35 PM

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Re: [Jim in Cancun] Stale Beer

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Your beer goes stale?