When calling a professional snake relocation specialist isn’t an option you may find yourself needing to capture the snake yourself. While very few venomous snake bites in the United States are fatal, they still need to be taken seriously.
Venomous snakes can be quite dangerous. Bites will often be fatal if left completely untreated. While most people can rely on professionals to move a venomous snake off of their property, for ranchers, farmers, park rangers, and others it might not be so easy.
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Snake Removal Safety Equipment
In these situations having the best gear is crucial. You don’t want the pain or hospital bills that come with a venomous snake bite. While fatalities are rare, some do happen each year so it’s important to respect the potential danger.
If you’re looking for information on the best snake hooks or best snake tongs, we cover those in other articles. Likewise, we assume you’re smart enough to have quality snake proof gaiters or anti-bite snake boots to protect your lower legs in case a bite gets past you.
That leaves us with the actual equipment for removing and relocating venomous snakes off your property: snake bags, buckets, & bucket lids.
The Gamma Seal Lid
The truth is that virtually any really good solid plastic industrial bucket will work as a snake bucket. However, you definitely need a good reliable lid that seals the bucket to make that bucket a good snake removal piece of equipment.
While there are several types of these screw on lids out there, for our money we’re going with the Gamma Seal lid. They have colors to match pretty much any bucket but much more important: they are reliable and will tightly seal any 5-gallon industrial bucket up tight. Then they stay sealed. No matter how many times a big rattlesnake strikes at the bucket lid.
Keeping safe during a venomous snake capture is crucial and the Gamma Seal lids are a great way to do it. Designed to be used by hands or in this case with tongs, they keep you and the snake safe.
Don’t cheap out on the bucket lid when it comes to capturing and relocating snakes. Trust us, that’s not a good time for anyone involved.
5 Gallon Snake Bucket w/ Lid
This is a great example of a bucket and lid combination that can be used to safely capture and relocate a problem snake. Featuring a big 5-gallon bucket made from thick industrial strength hard plastic and a tight-fitting Gamma Seal lid, this is the combination you want.
Getting the two together is a great way to make sure there is nothing hinky with the fit. The bucket is deep enough to keep even larger venomous snakes contained safely, with the lid on top to seal them in for safe transport.
This is good for everyone involved as the snake is safe for transport while it also keeps you safe. Be sure to use the right tools to get the lid on without putting your hands in danger. Tongs should be used to move the lid over the top, and you need to press down with them as you screw it on securely.
This is the perfect bucket and lid combination to capture even some of the larger venomous snakes you can find around the United States and move them to another location. The one caveat, as is true with any
IClover Snake Bag
So now we get to a really interesting one. While there are some professional animal control specialists who use specialty bags to grab and transport a venomous snake, we strongly don’t recommend this (unless you are an experienced professional). Especially for amateurs. The bucket is the much more stable way to go, especially with a secured screw on lid.
On the other hand, there have been some set-ups we’ve seen where the bags are used to line the inside of the bucket, cinched shut, and then a lid is screwed on. For some this won’t be an option but it is another possibility.
If you are going to decide to go with a snake bag versus a bucket for transporting then we recommend going with the IC IClover snake bag. The reason for this is simple: they make snake hooks, snake tongs, and other equipment for any snake round-ups.
In other words, they know their stuff. Going with a random burlap sack to carry a sack full of venomous snakes is an incredibly terrible idea. These bags have heavy duty stitching, secure drawstrings, and clearly understand the importance of making sure the bag is thick in addition to being soft for the comfort and protection of the snake as well as the snake handler.
These snake bags for herpetologists and snake pest control are designed by one of the biggest names when it comes to snake gear, as they are very well known for making some of the best snake tongs out there as well as snake hooks. If you are going to by a snake bag, why not go with one from one of the most trusted names on the market?
Animal Containment Bucket Cap (w/ lock)
Some people might consider this a bit of overkill, but if you don’t have properly labeled buckets to warn people about the contents then you definitely might want to consider a bucket cap that comes with a lock. This way no one opens a bucket with an angry rattler while looking for feed.
Whether you have buckets that are clearly labeled as carrying dangerous snakes or not (and all buckets you use for this purpose should be clearly labeled – though we understand this isn’t an everyday thing for many farmers or ranchers), having a solid lock on top can be yet another layer of security that also keeps others safe.
This bucket top is similar to the ones we’ve already recommended in this article. Basically this fits with any 5-gallon sized industrial bucket, except there is a built in lock on the top that requires the key in order to open. While this extra level of security is probably isn’t necessary for keeping the snake in place since the lid is fine, it does help protect others from opening the bucket and it still offers another layer which is never a bad thing.
These locking snake removal bucket lids are created by Midwest Tongs, a very well-respected company that specializes in creating equipment used in the handling of snakes.
In other words, they are definitely reliable!
Tools for Safe Snake Capture
The focus of this article is very much looking at the best options out there when it comes to safe and effective containers for holding and removing dangerous snakes from areas where they are going to come into conflict with people. However, that doesn’t chance the fact that you still need to have all the right tools before removing snakes from your property.
Once again and one more time we’ll emphasize (for legal reasons in addition to all the others) that hey, if you can afford to call professional pest control that specializes in snake removal then that is almost certainly the best way to go.
However if you’re going to do it, then make sure to check out our posts on crucial tools like:
In Conclusion
There’s no question that when it comes to rounding up dangerous snakes, you need to make sure you have the right safety gear. Snake relocation is a serious business, especially when you have venomous snakes involved.
Ideally you should always want to hire a professional when possible but if you are going to need to handle things yourself, then make sure you have the heavy duty snake buckets, bags, and tools to handle things safely.