How To Keep Snakes Out Of Your Yard

With the summer months approaching, it is important to protect your yard from snakes. Poisonous or not, snakes can be harmful to your pets and children, so follow these tips for keeping snakes from living in your yard.

Keep your lawn mowed

The first and biggest deterrent to snakes is properly maintaining the grass in your yard. Snakes prefer tall grass where they stay hidden from predators like hawks, falcons, and owls.

Snakes will stay in areas where food is easy to find. Their main diet contains grasshoppers, spiders, moths, mice, and other insects and rodents. Another way to deter snakes from frequenting your yard is to eliminate the food source.

Bugs and rodents live in tall thickets of grass so they can hide from birds and eat leaves and roots.

Mow your yard every week or every other week to ensure that grass is only a few inches tall. If you wait until your lawn is too unruly to mow your yard, there may already be snakes living in your yard.

You should practice caution if bugs are flying out of your grass as you are mowing it. If bugs are already living in your grass, they could be attracting snakes.

Just Right Lawns ensures that the yards we tend to are properly mowed and maintained. We will come weekly or bi-weekly to ensure your grass does not turn into a habitat for bugs, rodents, and snakes.

Remove Yard Waste

Yard waste piles offer a suitable home for snakes to live. In the summer months, snakes like to coil up and sleep in cool, shaded areas. You will want to remove the following waste from your backyard.

• Firewood Stacks
• Compost Piles
• Fallen Leaves
• Dead Brush

Our lawn service will distribute grass clippings to ensure that these piles do not turn into a home.

Manage Outdoor Items

Snakes are creative about where they live, so manage any clutter around your house. A snake can burrow underneath, coilin, and slither into small places. You will want to check and ensure the following areas are clean and open:

• Flower Pots
• Tarps
• Furniture
• Garden Sheds
• Plastic or Inflatable Pools
• Boats
• Children’s Play House

Properly Maintain Landscaping

Flowerbeds, bushes, and shrubs offer a perfect shaded area for snakes to live. They will prefer low traffic areas that tend to be overgrown and out of sight.

Our Just Right Lawn Landscaping Service will go through this checklist when working on a yard.

• Remove dead leaves and twigs
• Cut back low hanging branches
• Prune shrub overgrowth
• Remove unwanted sprouts, plants, and weeds
• De head dead flowers

Remove Other Pests

Small rodents living in, under, or around your home can lead to larger snake problems. If you see a small rodent living in your yard, you should install a trap system, or give an animal removal company a call.

Companies like Critter Ridder, an Austin based humane animal removal business, will come to your home and remedy your rodent and snake problem.

Pest control companies will work with you to safely remove any unwanted animals and manage snake deterrent systems.

Manage Surface Water

During the summer months, snakes will look for cool places to lower their body temperature. Because snakes are cold-blooded, they will search for different environments to either cool down or heat up their blood temperature.

If your home has a natural stream, a man-made pond, or a drainage ditch, consider either draining the water or installing more precautionary snake measures.

You can install a small mesh screen or plastic fence around your property along with your fence as a snake barrier. Snake fences are common to ranches and farms where snakes are a nuisance to livestock and workers, but they can also offer another line of protection for your backyard.

We Can Help

We can help you manage your yard from the lawn to the landscaping. We strive to keep our customers’ yards safe and healthy so you can enjoy summer worry free.

Best Grass for Lawns in Texas

What is the Best Grass for Texas Lawns?

Hot summers and mild winters make Texas a unique area for grass growth. The size of the state means that Texas residents span a few different climates.

In the panhandle, or the northern part of Texas, rainfall is more common, and winters come with snow and freezing temperatures. In central and southern Texas, near Austin, residents struggle through blazing hot summers and long periods without rain. West Texas weather is hot and dry. It resembles the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona.

The grasses that grow best in Texas are few. They need a combination of defensive properties that resist heat, cold, and drought.

What Grasses Grow in Texas?

The most common and healthy-growing grasses in Texas are:

• Buffalo Grass
• Bermuda Grass
• Carpet Grass
• Bent Grass
• Blue Grass
• Centipede Grass
• St. Augustine

Best Grass for Texas Lawns

These grasses are good for high traffic areas with minimal shade. Just Right Lawns of Austin has extensive experience with these grass types.

Buffalo Grass

It’s one of the few grasses native to Texas. It grows wild in central and south Texas. The buffalo that used to populate the Great Plains used this grass as one of their main food sources. It grows in all seasons and stays low enough to ensure minimal maintenance. It can survive even in the drier, more desert-like places of Texas and is great for large expanses.

Bermuda Grass

Bermuda is durable, versatile, and easy to plant. It boasts superior heat and drought tolerance. Central and south Texans use this grass most often for their lawns, but it’s tough enough to cover athletic fields and parks. Even in hot, dry areas, it will maintain a green color year round. It also grows fast once planted, as long as it receives moderate maintenance.

Carpet Grass

You’ll find carpet grass growing most often in coastal areas. As another of Texas’s native grasses, it has an affinity for wet soil that is low in nutrition. Its blades are rigid and coarse, and it grows dense enough to resist insects. Mowing this grass is easy, but the grass thrives most when at its full length. Since it loves wet soil, lawns with carpet grass away from coastal areas will need regular watering.

Best Looking Grass for Low Traffic Areas

This grass is great for beautiful views and open areas. If you’re landscaping and area with low traffic, this grass might work for you.

Bent Grass

This grass is a low-growing, thin-bladed, extra-dense grass. When mowed, its density ends up uniform, forming a perfect carpet. Bent grass is most often used on golf courses in Texas. The top of the blade is soft and the bottom rigid, making it comfortable and strong at the same time.

Best Grass for Various Regions in Texas

For use only in certain regions of Texas.

Blue Grass

Better known as Kentucky Blue Grass, it grows best in the northernmost areas of Texas. It’s more tolerant of cold than heat and tends to absorb and use water well. It needs regular care but is resistant to traffic. Its soft blades make it great for lawns or use on athletic fields for many sports.

Centipede Grass

Some of its stalks resemble the segmented body of a centipede. It’s a low growing grass that comes from China. It survives well in mildly cold temperatures, so it works best in the south and southeast, and near San Antonio. It doesn’t go dormant and bounces back from Texas cold snaps with healthy, green blades.

St. Augustine

This grass is a widely used warm season grass. You’ll find it most often in tropical Africa, Australia, and Mexico. The moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and non-stop summer heat help St. Augustine reach its full potential. Its blades are wide for soaking up plenty of sunshine, but it will struggle in the winter.

What Features Does Texas Grass Need?

Unusual weather patterns in Texas mean that Texas grasses need to be:

Drought proof

Texas reached serious drought conditions in October 2010. 70 percent of Texas was in drought conditions in August 2014. The state is still under drought conditions today. To keep grass looking healthy year-round, you’ll need to plant a deep-rooted grass that can survive long periods without fresh rainfall.

Heat resistant

Most of Texas shares the long summers and short winters of Mexico. Temperatures reach beyond 110℉ on the hottest summer days. Your grass has to absorb and use that non-stop sunlight that shines from morning until dusk. Grass with wider blades is better at resisting heat.

Traffic tolerant

Texas’s long warm season means people use their lawns for most of the year. Grass can take some abuse from foot traffic, but it will eventually take too much damage to sustain its growth. Grasses with flexible blades in softer soil are more tolerant to year-round traffic.

Cold resistant

Even a single cold snap can destroy your lawn. Even though the Texas winter is mild, temperatures dip below freezing. Even people in the southern extremities of Texas need to prepare their lawns for deep cold. There are a few grasses that will struggle through the summer but flourish through the winter.

Make sure the grass you’re planting or maintaining is right for your region. Also check for characteristics that pertain to where you use the grass.

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Tips for Choosing a Texas Lawn Care Company

How to Choose the Right Texas Lawn Care Company

Almost everyone in Texas – from Austin to San Antonio wants to have an attractive landscape, with a flourishing, weed-free lawn and healthy trees and bushes. Making that transpire is a team effort, where you and your lawn care service each play a significant role.

Think about keeping your grass green pretty much the same way as having healthy teeth. Your dentist offers routine care in addition to guidance on avoiding problems and warning signs to look for. Between visits, you floss, brush and follow suggestions for any specific care.

You really want to have that same type of relationship with your lawn service. Routine weed killer treatments and fertilizing alone won’t ensure a lawn you’re proud of and appreciate being in. For the ideal results, you need to partner with someone who: is knowledgeable in what they do; can clarify what you should do, such as how to water your lawn and mow your grass effectively; and can help you identify threats to your lawn from bugs and diseases.

Five Tips for Choose a Lawn Care Company in Texas

So, how do you find a Texas lawn service that matches the criteria we want? Texas Lawn and landscaping service websites are a great place to begin. Here are five important things to look for when trying find a company to take care of your yard.

What Are the Routine Lawn Care Programs?

Analyze treatment programs from lawn service provider to lawn service provider. Do they offer both turf maintenance and ornamental tree and shrub care? Are lawn care treatments customized to particular varieties of turf? For instance, what makes your neighbor’s warm-season grass flourish won’t automatically be what your cool-season grass needs. Look for statements about how treatments are good for lawns, trees and shrubs.

Make Sure You Hire a “Full Service” Lawn Care Company

The demands of your lawn can shift from season to season, year to year. Just like you wouldn’t go to a dental practice who just does cleanings, you really want to work with a lawn care company that can provide extra services when you need them.

At a minimum these should consist of identification and treatment of diseases and insects, and service calls between routine lawn treatments if you notice an issue. Other typical yard services to look for incorporate aeration, overseeding and lawn pest control.

Be Familiar With Who is Taking Care of Your Lawn

When it comes down to lawn care technician training, the more the better. This goes for not just knowing the best ways to administer turf treatments effectively and safely. They should really be able (and willing) to address questions you have about your treatments, your yard’s fundamental needs and how you can meet them, and alert you to something you may want to keep an eye on.

When it comes to the techs themselves, the fewer the better– at the very least in regards to who deals with your property. You’re better served by having the same dedicated service technician or tech team visit after visit. By doing this they get to really know your yard and can stay on top of any problem areas.

Preventative Lawn Care is the Way to Go

What tips and info do they provide to lawn service customers? According to where you live, there are particular insects, lawn diseases, and other complications that can arise with lawns, trees and shrubs. When you know what to look for, you’re able to get in touch with your lawn care company for a service call, so the problem can be identified and addressed before harm is done.

Check Out Customer Reviews Online

Have a look at the experiences of other customers. Consumer services such as Yelp and comparable services for your area are great sources of relevant information on lawn company quality and customer satisfaction.

By doing some research on the web, you can narrow the field of landscaping companies. The next step is to speak with the lawn care services that made your short list

That’s your chance to ask questions and get the answer you didn’t find on their web sites. While the specifics of top quality lawn care differ from location to location, ask these questions to help you in arriving at the right decision.

Just Right Lawns Fits the Bill!

Just Right Lawns is Austin and San Antonio’s premier lawn service provider. We take the time to answer all questions and help our clients better understand their lawns. If you want to learn more, fee free to contact us today!

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Infographic: Guide to Texas Grass

Need lawn care service in Austin or San Antonio Texas? Contact Just Right Lawns today!

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