How do you "snake proof" an ornamental fish pond?

Question

I want a waterfall type fish pond in the back yard. We live in Florida. My husband is concerned about it attracting snakes. We do have occassional Water Moccasins and Rat Snakes around, but not alot. Is there anything we could do to keep them away? What is your opinion?

Answer 1

Anywhere that sells ponds/pond supplies will have netting that goes over the pond and actually sits in the water just below the water line to help prevent this type of thing. If they don't, you can ask and they should be able to point you in the direction of where you can find some.

Answer 2

I own a landscape company in Minneapolis. My sister and mom each have ponds with fish in them. You didn't mention whether your pond has a waterfall. If it does, I assume you remove the waterfall pump for the winter, yes? If not, you will need to buy a small pump from Home Depot to do this. Those heaters mentioned above are a possibility, but up in my climate they can barely keep up and they're expensive to run. Also, heaters can keep a hole in the ice, but they don't circulate the water to provide oxygenation for the fish. Depending on the size of your pond, without water circulation all winter, it's possible for the fish to breathe up all the oxygen in the water and suffocate. So what we do is take the waterfall pump and put it in the pond so it shoots a plume 1 about a foot in the air. This will keep a hole in the ice and constantly oxygenate the water all winter. If it gets super cold, sometimes an ice dome will form over the pump. You can either hit it with a stick to break it, or just wait a couple days until it warms up and usually it will collapse on itself. One other thing is we put a bit of wire mesh over the intake on the pump before putting it in the pond, to make sure it doesn't suck up a fish. Anything that covers the intake but lets water through is fine (like some of that rabbit fencing if you have any.) In my experience, the pump in the pond gives you the highest likelihood that the fish will live through the winter. You want a pump as least as strong as the one I linked below. Good luck

Answer 3

before u put the pond in put moth balls in the hole that you are going to put the pond in . that will help repel the snakes and the rats and they also have nets to go over your pond . good luck .

Answer 4

I understand that marigolds repel snakes. Start planting and good luck----