How To Repel Snakes From Your Yard With A Little-Known Cinnamon Hack

Snakes have had a bad reputation since the Garden of Eden, and there's a reason humans have evolved to fear snakes: some can kill you. People wake up in cold sweats dreaming about rattlesnakes, water moccasins, and copperheads, but most snakes that people encounter in the United States are not venomous. Garden snakes play important roles in American habitats by keeping rodent and insect populations under control, but that doesn't mean you necessarily want to invite them into your yard. And if they're there, removing them by picking them up is ill-advised unless you're an animal control professional or a snake charmer. There are ways to safely repel snakes from your yard, and cinnamon oil is one of the best, as it's low-cost, organic, and widely available. 

Cinnamon oil contains eugenol, the pleasant aroma that makes your home smell like cinnamon, but it's also used in organic farming as a pesticide and herbicide. Alas, you can't just fumigate your yard or sprinkle some ground cinnamon around to keep snakes away. The U.S. Wildlife Service emphasizes that to effectively repel snakes, you'll need to spray it directly. This will irritate the snake and disrupt its sense of smell. Fortunately, preparing a snake repellent spray with cinnamon oil is easy.

Cinnamon oil can be a skin and eye irritant, so it's recommended that you wear gloves and keep it away from your eyes when preparing your snake repellent. It can also be toxic to pets, so keep any outdoor animals away while spraying. Just fill a spray bottle with a cup of water, add a ½ teaspoon of cinnamon oil, and shake well. Keep the bottle on hand for the next time you see a snake in your yard. When one shows up, try to spray the solution on its head. You can also spray specific sites where snakes enter or exit your yard, but the USDA advises that this is ineffective. 

Before you start spraying any old snake that shows up in your yard, however, a little herpetology might help you to better identify venomous snakes so that you can live alongside the beneficial ones, and maybe even sleep better at night. As well as a snake repellent, cinnamon oil has a lot of surprising uses around the home. For example, it can destroy fungus and contribute to plant health. And mopping your floor with it might even get rid of ants in the house.