Erosion control blankets (ECBs) are installed at construction sites to mitigate against soil loss and promote plant growth. Wildlife, particularly snakes, are prone to becoming entangled in ECBs that contain fixed‐intersection, small‐diameter polypropylene mesh with multiple layers (Ebert et al. 2019 Wildl. Soc. Bull.; Fig. 1).
The majority of ECBs on the Texas Department of Transportation’s Approved Product List contain fixed-intersection mesh, which pose a risk to snakes.
Snake entanglements often occur at the edge of an ECB where the snake often passes between the multiple mesh layers (Ebert et al. 2019 Wildl. Soc. Bull.)
Burying the edge of an ECB may decrease the risk of snake entanglement by allowing them to pass over the ECB edge reducing their encounters with the multiple layers of mesh netting.
We hypothesized burying the ECB edge would reduce snakes attempting to pass through the mesh and reducing their risk of entanglement and that there will be a positive correlation between circumference and entanglement
