"Back to my original concern... has *anyone* had success with snake repellents so I don't have to resort to other means?" As someone who loves snakes and would much rather you resort to other means than killing snakes, I wish I could recommend a good snake repellant. But unfortunately the reality is that products like Snake-a-Way are generally ineffective but highly profitable because it is easy to make big money on the second largest fear (I think fear of flying is first) that people have, because most people are desperate enough to try anything. Folk remedies like mothballs, lime, etc. aren't effective deterrents either. If anyone ever invents a snake deterrent that actually works, the multibillionaire who invents it and patents it will be better known than Bill Gates. Alas Snake-a-way is not that invention. I would also add that killing them individually won't really solve the problem either. If it did you wouldn't still have so many to kill. When you kill several snakes other snakes will move in to take advantage of the habitat niche and the prey supply that is available. As long as you have good habitat and good prey you will have some snakes to contend with. I think the things you have already done with habitat near your house are the best you can do. Snake-a-way is the deterrent I see most often recommended, so if you really want to try a repellant you might give it a go. But I would be prepared for the potential to be disappointed with the results.

Dear heavens, you don't have to tell me about mice, voles, chipmunks, and squirrels. I've got a bumper crop of them too. As usual, kimmsr is right (a sweeping bow to kimmsr). The pile is quite dry. Although garter snakes do eat earthworms, they also like other things, and I suspect they are hunting baby voles and baby chipmunks. Slugs don't seem to be present in the compost, but the snakes will go to my gardens to hunt slugs and toads. I have a crazy neighbor lady who feeds the squirrels and chipmunks. Bless her heart (She goes out every night with a bucket of unshelled peanuts and puts them in the feeders for the rodents. Gee, I don't know why the rest of the neigborhood is having a chipmunk infestation. I find chipmunk holes all over the place, along with empty peanut shells. I had a general chat with her, just to see what she's thinking, and she informed me that she hates the hawks that hang around because the hawks are after her squirrels and chipmunks. She is not of this planet. I'm rooting for the hawks. :-) Sure enough, when leaving for work one morning last week, a beautiful red tail hawk was tearing apart a squirrel on my front lawn. Anyway, it looks like there is a 'munk nest (probably voles too) hanging out in the compost area. A garter snake buffet! Ah, voles. Don't you hate them? Honestly, aside from snakes and a cat, there's not much that works. Neither the snakes nor that cat are all that good at eliminating large numbers of rodents in a short period of time. I tried the granules -- you know, the sharp ones that are supposed to be uncomfortable for voles. It obviously didn't work, but then I learned that voles, especially the females, have very complex underground runs with many exits. They also seem to make new ones quickly. All I did was give them an obstacle that caused them to use alternatives. Did the predator urine thing too. Coyote urine. Despite the fact that we have 2 dogs that pee in the yard and it doesn't seem to deter the voles, we thought it clever to purchase expensive, smelly coyote urine. But again, given their ability to use alternate runs and their propensity for making new tunnels, it had little effect on the voles. Of course, neither voles nor chipmunks are as simplistic as we are, lol, and I found a study that essentially said that predator "byproducts" may keep the vermin at bay for a day or two. Eventually the drive to forage for food and/or find mates outweighs the risk of *possibly* encountering a predator. Success breeds success, and when the critters venture out to eat or mate and find no imminent threat, they start to ignore the urine. Sigh. I use mouse traps baited with grains, apples, or peanut butter and put them at the entrances to the vole runs. If you're worried about something coming into contact with the trap, cover it with a pail turned upside down over both the hole and the trap. When and if the vole is attracted by the food and exits the hole -- snap! It's ugly, but it's the only "sure kill" of any given vole. Keep doing it until you go several days without catching anything. Then try moving the traps someplace else where there are entrances to vole runs. My only concern is accidentally killing moles. Those star-nosed moles are especially cute. It's usually easy to tell the difference between a vole hole and a mole hole, as the mole hole will usually show loosened, slightly piled, soil around the outside of the hole. It looks obvious that something pushed up some dirt. Vole holes are usually "clean" with no sign of loosened soil at the entrance of the hole. I let the cat handle the chipmunks. It's not terribly efficient, but I don't want to deal with chipmunk carcasses. I used a havahart trap once to catch the chipmunk that was burrowing under the house's foundation. Ok, now that you've caught it what do you do with it? Drive it down the road a few miles and let it out at someone else's house? How to win friends. :-)

Snakes have territories just like any other living creatures. They do not congregate. I agree with the other poster who said that if you kill a snake, another will move into the vacated territory. Some types of snakes kill other snakes for food. King snakes, for instance, kill and eat rattlesnakes. I wouldn't want to run into a copperhead either. What is their preferred habitat? Do they like tall grasses? If so, keep your property free of tall grasses. If your compost has rodents which are attracting snakes, fix the compost so that it cannot harbor rodents and snakes cannot get into it. I live in the desert. There are seven types of rattlesnakes in this state, New Mexico. I keep most of my bushes trimmed up off the ground so that I can see beneath them and they don't offer good places for snakes to hide. Most of my plants are spaced so that they don't grow densely and offer hiding places. There is a snake free zone around the house, which is devoid of plantings. Being aware is prudent. Being proactive for your own safety is smart. Educating yourself, so that you can recognize different types of snakes is a very good thing. Lorna

I've composted for years and never had an issue with any kind of animal in my compost. The compost cooled off a lot a while back, and I've been using the "let it sit" approach instead of turning etc as I did through the summer. I took something out to the bin the other day and saw some dirt in a little pile to the side of the bin. The next day I saw compost spilling out the top and when I looked in I saw that it had obviously been thrust there from a burrow in the back of the bin. I'm not sure what's in there, but I think I'll be emptying the bin this weekend. It's not finished compost, but it'll be close enough to finished by the time the garden is ready for planting (mid May around here).