Owning a hot tub means you have to take into consideration the possibility of having different pests lurk around your yard or hot tub space. Including snakes. So, do hot tubs attract snakes?
Hot tubs do attract snakes, but not directly. The hot tub in your yard or garden will most likely not attract snakes by itself. It is the presence and activities of other animals like rodents and reptiles that draw snakes closer to hot tubs.
Rodents are attracted to hot tubs because of the possibility of finding food around the tub and having a warm space to stay. Snakes are attracted to rodents because they are naturally snake food. So if you have rodents lurking around your tub frequently, it’s only a matter of time before the snakes come for a visit.
Why Are Snakes Attracted to Hot Tubs?
Since snakes are naturally not drawn to humans, there have to be a few reasons why snakes come around hot tubs. Like all other living entities, snakes are also motivated by the drive to feed amongst other factors. Snakes come into your hot tub area because of food.
Snakes are carnivorous animals meaning that rodents, lizards, frogs, and insects do constitute a large part of a snake’s diet. If these animals live in or around your hot tub, it’s very possible to have snakes come around to feed on them.
If the frame of your hot tub is damaged or has a crack, it could be another reason to attract snakes to the tub. The frames of most hot tubs are made from wood.
Poor tub maintenance and leakage can weaken the wood and cause the frame of your hot tub to break or crack at some point. Snakes by nature crave warm and hollow spaces. This is why you find them in burrows and holes.
Snakes also have poor eyesight. This is the reason they stick out their tongues occasionally to have a sense of what lies in their surroundings.
The snake can take the crack or opening in the frame of your hot tub as a burrow or hole in the ground. Since they naturally crave warm hollow spaces, you will likely have snakes living in the cracks you have in the hot tub.
Are Snakes Attracted To The Hot Tub Surroundings?
Snakes do not go inside the hot tub water. Snakes are attracted to the hot tub surrounding rather than the water.
Hot tubs are usually placed outdoors in gardens or yards. Some plants naturally grow in environments such as the Quack-grass and the Myrtle plants. Some of these plants grow vines, thick shrubs, tall grasses, and they spread over large areas.
Plants like these create a perfect habitat for snakes. Snakes like to live in areas with high grasses and thick vegetation. That’s because the plants protect them from the heat of the day and it aids them to hide from predators. Also, it serves as a cover for them when hunting for food.
If you have such plants around your home or hot tub area, you are likely to have a snake problem.
So if you have rodents, cracks in the frame of your hot tub, and tall grasses in your garden, you are inviting snakes into your space.
Related Read: Do Hot Tubs Attract Flies?
Are Snakes Drawn to Humans?
Snakes by nature are not drawn to humans. They prefer to stay away from us but some of our activities and the animals we keep as pets draw snakes closer.
With your hot tub, the presence and activities of other pests around the hot tub like mice and frogs attract snakes.
The warmth the hot tub provides and the plants around the tub makes it possible for you to encounter snakes around the hot tub too.
What Kinds of Snakes Like Hot Tubs?
The only case here is that some snakes are more likely to be found around your hot tub than others. Rat snakes, Bull snakes, Milk snakes, Garter snakes, and Gopher snakes are common types of snakes that you might encounter in your hot tub space.
Though these types of snakes are commonly found around hot tubs and yards, you surely would not encounter them all. The type you might see depends on where you reside.
These snakes are harmless to humans. Many of them are even used as pest control on farms by farmers to get rid of rodents and reptiles that may be destroying crops.
Though these snakes aren’t harmful to you, having them around your home wouldn’t be such a good idea. These snakes can also attract other venomous snakes that want to prey on them such as copperheads and rattlesnakes. Again, it all depends on where you reside.
The types of plants around your hot tub also play a role in the type of snake you might come across. Long grasses and vines will attract snakes because of their protection and shade.
This means you have to take into consideration the type of plants you have around the hot tub. Knowing the type of snakes you have lurking around the hot tub will help you know what steps to take to get rid of them.
How to Keep Snakes Away From a Hot Tub?
If you start to encounter snake activities around your hot tub space or yard, you need to implement steps that will eliminate the problem.
There are precautionary and eco-friendly steps you can implement to reduce snake activity around your hot tub.
1. Mown Your Lawn or Yard Regularly
Since snakes like tall and thick grasses and plants, mowing your lawn regularly will reduce the possibility of snakes coming into your yard. The snakes wouldn’t have any protection from the adverse hot weather nor will they have any cover when they try to hunt.
Short grasses will also make it relatively easier to detect snakes around the yard. I wouldn’t advise you to have grasses and plants around your hot tub. This is because plants wouldn’t thrive in such places. The water in your hot tub should be regularly treated with chemicals like Bromine and Chlorine.
This means when you drain water from your hot tub or you splash the water on the ground the water will kill the plants since it has a high volume of chemicals in it.
If you must, you can install artificial grass around the tub. Artificial grasses are synthetic meaning they can’t be damaged by the chemically treated water from your hot tub.
2. Inspect and Repair the Damaged Parts of Your Hot Tub
Since the frame and shell of your hot tub are likely made from wood, it’s prone to dents, leakage, and subsequently cracks if you do not maintain it properly.
Also, if you place your hot tub on uneven ground or foundation, you are more likely to have cracks in the frame of your hot tub. That’s because there will be more weight on a side of the frame than others if it is not properly balanced.
Because the hot tub is regularly warm and snakes like warm spaces, the cracks that come as a result will create an opening in the base of your hot tub for mice, rodents, ants, and snakes to crawl into and live in.
So, you should inspect the tub regularly to be sure there isn’t any crack or opening and if you notice one, ensure to seal or repair it as soon as possible. If there isn’t warm shelter, you wouldn’t have snakes around.
Related Read: Do Hot Tubs Attract Spiders?
3. Keep Rocks, Tree Stumps, and Vines to a Minimum
If you are someone that loves having that natural feel around your home, you will likely have rocks, tree stumps, roots, vines, and the likes lying around your hot tub.
While these rocks, vines, and roots will give you the natural feel you are going for, they can also be a source of shelter for snakes. Snakes are cold-blooded animals. They are unable to regulate their body temperatures by themselves like we do.
Objects like rocks, tree stumps, roots, and the likes will be a perfect warm hiding spot for the snakes. If you reduce the presence of such objects, you reduce the possibility of having snakes around your hot tub too.
Related Read: Can You Put A Hot Tub On The Ground?
4. Use Thorny Plants
Though some plants encourage snake activity, some plants also deter snakes due to their appearance. If you have thorny plants in strategic places around your hot tub, snakes wouldn’t go near the plants because they can get trapped in them and they can get hurt too.
Common thorny plants you can go for include the Crown of thorns plant, the Red hawthorn, the Silverthorne, or the Flowering Quince.
You can get any of them in flower stores or gardens. In addition to getting rid of snakes, the plants also have beautiful flowers that bloom and can beautify your yard.
Additionally, there are plants termed “anti-snake” These plants repel snakes from your surroundings through their scent. Snakes do not like strong and foreign scents. Plants like Marigold, the West Indian Lemongrass, Onions, and Garlic emit scents that repel snakes.
5. Use Strong Scents
Snakes have poor eyesight. To tell what lies around their environment, they flick out their tongues regularly to pick up the scents and odors around them.
If you use products or plants that emit strong scents, such products will drive snakes away. Products like garlic and ammonia emit odors snakes hate.
You can also use essential oils in your hot tub like cedarwood and cinnamon to drive snakes away.
6. Cover the Hot Tub
Covering your hot tub when not in use is an ideal way of stopping pests from entering your hot tub.
These pests can turn your idea of a warm relaxing evening in the hot tub to an evening of discomfort and some pests can even make your tub space unsafe to stay in.
Do Hot Tubs Attract Rats or Mice?
Hot tubs attract mice and other rodents but not directly. Rats and mice are attracted to hot tubs largely because of our activities while in the tub.
Many of us grill, eat and drink around our hot tubs. The remnants and crumbs from what we eat are what attract these rodents that are also looking for what to eat.
Rodents like rats and mice have a great sense of smell. They can smell food from far distances so if you leave food particles around your home, you are inviting rodents into your yard and hot tub space.
Asides from messing up your hot tub space, rodents can also damage your hot tub. Rats love to chew the wires in your hot tub and take bites out of the wooden frame of the tub.
Having rats and mice around your hot tub means you will occasionally have to make repairs to your hot tub. Not to mention the possibility of snakes being attracted to your hot tub because of rodent activity.
How to Get Rid of Rats and Mice From My Hot Tub?
Having rats and mice in your hot tub isn’t a good thing. They can cause infections, damage the hot tub, and attract other animals that want to prey on them to the tub. So how do you get rid of them?
1. Avoid Eating Around Your Hot Tub
The main reason rats and mice are attracted to your hot tub is the hot tub maintenance. If you eat while inside the hot tub, you will leave behind food, drinks, and other things that might attract rats and mice.
Though eating in the tub isn’t ideal, you might want to eat in or around the tub, and sometimes, you might crave a light snack while in the hot tub which is understandable.
If you must eat while in the tub, you should ensure you clean up after. A clean hot tub wouldn’t attract rodents.
2. Use Traps
There is a wide variety of mouse traps out there. You can vie for any of them that fits your budget. The traps utilize different methods to attract mice and rats around and then trap them.
Most traps wouldn’t kill the rats. They just trap the rodents and then you can remove the trapped mouse or rat and reuse the trap. This makes traps very economical.
3. You Should Repair Broken or Cracked Hot Tub Frames
The slightest opening in your hot tub frame can house a rat or mice and once one rat gets in, you can count on more making themselves feel at home in your hot tub later.
If you notice any opening or crack, ensure you fix it as soon as possible or use metal pads or meshes to cover the crack. Rats can chew through just about anything except metal.
Contact an Exterminator
This is always the last option and one for extreme rodent infestation. If you notice too many rats or mice around your hot tub and nothing you do seems to work out, you can contact a professional exterminator to help you out. Heads up, you wouldn’t be able to use the tub for a while after it has been fumigated.