Current snake deterrents and repellents can be affordable and don’t always work as well as they should. When building a permanent snake fence, it costs roughly $15 a foot. This doesn’t sound bad, but when the fence has to be 3-feet high and extend a foot into the ground, the price begins to add up. In the same breath, commercial and natural oil snake repellents only work a fraction of the time.
“There are no truly effective, safe and affordable snake barriers, repellents or deterrents on the market today,” Atroc Snake Barrier CEO Eric Pyhrr said in a statement “We made it our mission to create a reliable solution that is scalable to meet a multitude of applications and needs.”
The Atrox Snake Barrier keeps snakes out without chemicals, being obtrusive, or overly expensive. Using a screen material that snakes can’t push through, the barrier sits at 10 inches tall. While this may seem short, its design makes it just as effective as more permanent solutions. Because the barrier curls backward into itself at the top, the snake is pushed away whenever it tried to climb over the overhang.
Herpetologist Dan Krull tested the Atrox Snake Barrier with a variety of snake species in a variety of sizes. Even with bigger snakes such as rat snakes, racers, and coachwhips that can lift up the front part of their body, the C-channel of the barrier stopped them every time according to Krull. More importantly, when snakes were released inside the barrier, they were easily able to get out. If there was a snake in the area when the fence was being installed, it could return to the wild and never come back.
The Atrox Snake Barrier is available for pre-order on Kickstarter. Prices start at $160 for 5-by-5-foot square and go up to $420 for 25-by-25 feet. The project is currently waiting to reach its funding goal.
