What To Do If You Find A Snake's Shed Skin Or Droppings In Your Home Or Garage

Finding a snake skin or droppings in your home or garage can be scary, with evidence of a reptile inside your home feeling like a much more urgent matter than finding a snake skin in your yard. After all, a snake in your yard might just move itself along, but a snake in your home might have set up shop. That said, the last thing you should do is panic as making calm, quick decisions is essential to keeping yourself (and your family) safe if there's a snake in your home. So, if you see snake skin, like crepe paper with scale imprints, call a local wildlife relocation service to come and help ASAP. 

If you only see droppings, take a closer look to make sure they are actually from a snake. Snake droppings can be hard to identify without an expert eye, so taking a picture of what you see to ask an expert (or run through a photo search) can be helpful. Do you see small pellets (likely from a rat or mouse) or are they long and streaky with bits of undigested bones or fur mixed in? If it's the second, they are more likely to be from a snake, although these elements are not always present. However, when droppings are seen in conjunction with a snake skin, calling wildlife experts to come take a look for a possible snake relocation is always a safe bet.

Once the wildlife relocation team has left (hopefully with the snake in tow), your next immediate priority is preventing snakes from finding their way into your home or garage again. Just like there are many ways to repel and trap snakes in a basement crawl space, the same can be said about making sure they stay outside the rest of your home, too.

Start by eliminating what attracted the snake into your home in the first place. Is there a lot of snake food available, making it hang around? If so, learning a few of the best ways to keep mice out of your home can solve two problems at once. By eliminating any easy food sources, snakes are more likely to move on.

Next, get rid of any cozy spaces in your home or garage where a snake can nestle in between meals, like a pile of cardboard boxes in the laundry room (or any wood inside the garage — snakes love a woodpile). Finally, look for ways the snake might have slithered inside to find food or shelter. Start closing your garage door all the way, instead of leaving it cracked. Look for any places in the brickwork of your home that might be missing caulk and reseal them. Any other gaps in your home that are larger than ⅛-inch should also be sealed. If caulk doesn't work, wire mesh or sheet metal can also do the trick.