Essential Oils to Repel Snakes

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published this tech note on how the department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) can use clove essential oil or cinnamon essential oil to repel brown tree snakes. I don't know if this technique works with other types of snakes.

Here's a short version, but I suggest you read the entire tech note if you want to use this technique.

To make a spray to use directly on snakes, combine one percent essential oil, one percent sodium lauryl sulfate, and 98 percent water. When you directly spray the mixture on the snake, the snake will leave.

If you have an enclosed structure where snakes might be hiding, you can fumigate the structure:

1. Saturate a piece of absorbent material with one of the oils.
2. Pass hot air directly over the saturated material to volatilize the oils. DO NOT USE OPEN FLAMES TO HEAT THE OILS. The heated air, when using clove or cinnamon oil, should be no hotter than 190 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees below the 200-degree-Fahrenheit flash point of clove and cinnamon).
3. Direct the heated air into the enclosed space that may house snakes. Snakes will emerge and leave the treated space.

(I'm wondering if you could actually use a diffuser in the space and diffuse the oils. It would probably have to be a strong diffusion. If anyone has ever done this, let me know how it worked.)

Unfortunately, these techniques work only for driving snakes away and don't prevent snakes from entering enclosed spaces. The oils don't harm the snakes.

The USDA warns to only use unadulterated oils. The tech note also mentions eugenol oil. Eugenol oil is made from cloves, and eugenol is a component of clove oil.