Then summer arrived. “I didn’t know what that meant until recently,” he said. Since then, Liboiron says he’s battled an average of half a dozen snakes, both garter snakes and Dekay’s brown snakes — up to a meter long — in his garage, backyard, roof and side vines of his house every day. . Now, he’s looking for a solution that will keep the snakes happy, but let him enjoy his yard with his wife, infant and toddler. “I’ve tried to take some of them out myself, and they’re going to fight back, let’s just say that,” Liboiron said.
Nothing to fear, says the wildlife expert
Liboiron says he uses a broom, a hose and his own gloved hands to put the snakes in a bucket and release them near the river. He says he and his wife have done “everything they could” to stop the snakes from arriving in the first place. They built chicken wire, removed vines from their home, tried do-it-yourself essential oil and vinegar blends, and enlisted the help of animal removal companies — one of which offered to get rid of the snakes for $250 each. Liboiron says that since summer hit, snakes have been a common but unwelcome sight on his property. (Submitted by Adam Liboiron) But according to wildlife biologist Nathalie Karvonen, removing them is no solution at all. “Unless you really change the environment … cut down the forest, dry up the river, take away the natural food sources,” there will always be snakes there, said Karvonen, executive director of the Toronto Wildlife Centre. Karvonen says that while it’s unusual that so many have taken to Liboiron’s home, snakes native to Toronto are actually beneficial to the ecosystem. He also states that they are harmless to humans unless provoked, and even then their bite is mild. The best solution, says Karvonen, is to make peace with sharing your property with local wildlife. “The best thing we can suggest is to educate yourself about these wild new neighbors you have.”
