Can Snakes Come Through Doggie Doors? (+How to Keep Them Out)

Yes, snakes can definitely take advantage of dog doors to get inside, but you have a lot of options at your disposal in order to help minimize or even eliminate this possibility. The first option is simply to upgrade to an electronic door.

There are doggy doors that work with a magnetic key or even by means of a microchip, so that they only open when your dog needs them and safely lock into place when they are not in use.  Your next option is a dual-flap door upgrade.

If your dog is big enough, you can install two flaps in a dog door, instead of one, and if they are heavy flaps then snakes have a hard time pushing their way inside.

Finally, commercial snake repellents and certain scents can help to keep snakes at bay. In your kitchen you’ve even got quite a few of them already stocked. Cinnamon oil or powder, for instance, produces a scent that snakes dislike, and they also aren’t fond of onion, garlic, white vinegar, or cloves and clove oil.

For the remainder of this article, we’ll answer some popular questions being asked this week about keeping snakes from using your dog’s door. Does Irish Spring really keep snakes away? What about ammonia? Read on to find out what works and what doesn’t work – the answers you need are waiting in the sections below!

What keeps snakes away from your backyard doggy door?

You can pour a little white vinegar close to your doorstep and this can repel snakes from visiting. If you want to take it a step further, a lime snake repellent that you’ve mixed with hot pepper oil can take the repellant properties up to a new level.

Snakes really hate the fumes, which they’ll taste when they flick their tongues to check the scents in the area, so this repellent recipe can really work a treat to keep those snakes away from your doggy door.

What smells keep snakes away from a doggy door?

Snakes dislike a number of household smells and you can take advantage of this to help keep them away. Garlic and onion powder, for instance, smells unpleasant to them, and they don’t like cloves or cinnamon either.

Oils are better than powders for this and also allow you to make a spray that you can use to ‘snake proof’ your door once a week to help dissuade them from making a visit.

What is the best snake repellent for dog doors?

Ortho produces a snake repellent called ‘Snake-B-Gon’ and this is considered by many to be one of the best. You can also use competitor products such as SerpentGuard, Victor VP364B, and Nature’s Mace to good effect when trying to keep snakes from using your doggy door to get into your home.

Do moth balls really keep snakes away from doggy doors?

No, despite what you may have heard, mothballs will not repel snakes and they aren’t really a very safe option anyway. Your dog might well decide that they look tasty and try chewing them and they could even swallow some and get very sick from it.

As such, even if they did work, mothballs would not be an appropriate means for keeping snakes out of the doggy door. This solution just has too much potential to harm your dog.

How do I keep snakes out of my garage doggy-door?

Don’t leave food in your garage and more importantly, remember that snakes like to eat rodents, so you need some rodent traps inside so that there will be no rodent smells to attract those snakes. Beyond this, you could install a dual-flap system with heavy flaps, provided that your dog is big enough to push through.

Heavy double flaps will be much harder for a snake to push through and this may dissuade them from trying to come inside.

Will ground cinnamon repel snakes from my dog’s door?

Yes, and as a matter of fact, cinnamon is one of 3 scents that is actually recommended by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection services as a safe and effective means of repelling snakes. The other two scents they advise are eugenol and clove oil, which snakes also seem to find nasty.

Sprinkle a bit of cinnamon on both sides of your dog door and be sure to refresh it every now and again for best results.

Does Irish Spring keep snakes away from doggy doors?

Nope. While some people advise that flakes of Irish Spring will keep away rodents and thus, by association, rodent-eating snakes, there is no truth to this particular method.

While Irish Spring definitely has it’s own distinctive and trademarked scent, there is no evidence to support that snakes or rodents find it repellent, so you are better off trying another method to keep them away.

Does ammonia keep snakes away from doggy doors?

Actually, yes, snakes really don’t like the pungent smell of ammonia, so this is something which you may take advantage of. Soak a few rags in ammonia and then place them into small coffee cans with some holes poked in the lid.

Bury these cans so that the holes are exposed and place them close to the area around your backdoor doggy door. The smell should help to keep snakes away and every couple of weeks you can take them out of the ground and replace with fresh ammonia rags to ‘keep up the perimeter’’

How do I get rid of snakes in my yard naturally?

Snakes don’t like strong smells that they aren’t already used to. As such, you can use scents like cinnamon, sulfur, cloves, or even white vinegar to help to keep them away. Oils are best, but you can also sprinkle powder or pour liquids in strategic areas and this will help to make your yard an off-limits spot for snakes.

What attracts snakes to your yard in the first place?

Things that can attract snakes to your yard start off with the food variety – birds and mice. If you’ve got a bird feeder then birds are attracted and those dropped seeds can also attract rodents. High grass is another factor, as are convenient water sources.

Finally, just leaving out old cat food for too long can also put the smell of meat in the air and snakes can be attracted to this, so be sure not leave those foods out for too long.

Kevin "Ken" Davies

My name is Ken and I’m one of the staff writers at Petloverguy.com. I’ve cared for pets most of my life starting with hamsters, turtles, and snakes. Then moving up to parakeets, guinea pigs, and even ducks.
I currently live with two yorkies and a chihuahua mix.