Caught my snake

[xsubsailor]

 Back in December ( or it could have been Nov, ) I got up from my chair to  go to the bathroom and saw what looked like a ribbon laying in the floor. As I got close, it headed for the bookcase so I realized it was a small snake. The bookcase is on those super slider things so I slid it out and sure enough it was a skinny little rat snake. It was about 16-18 inches long and maybe 3/4" in diameter. I grabbed it and started to get up off the floor ( this requires me to hang onto something ) and it wrapped it's tail around a spindle of the end table, pulled out of my hand and hauled ass. It was under the china cabinet in the dining room and I wasn't about to move it. It was also bedtime so I decided to look the next morning. Not going into what all is in the dining room, but let's say there is a lot of places for it to hide so I decided we could co-exist until he showed up again.

 It's not unusual for my dog to bark at things outside the front door but today I was sitting here at the computer and she started barking right beside me. After I got myself off the ceiling I saw she was going from one end of the dresser to the other and was interested in something behind it. Flashlight in hand, I started checking and sure enough Mr. Snake was behind there. It was too far back to get hold of so I used one of those reacher things with the rubber cups on the ends to get hold of it. We played tug-of-war for a few minutes but I finally got him out so I could get hold of him. He'd done a little growing, now he was about 3' long and about 2" in diameter. 

 He is now an outside snake. 

[Darrell]

I assume that you are single. There is no way in h-e-double-toothpicks that my wife would allow me to wait around to remove a snake from the house.  Congrats on the win!

[Garufa]

1 hour ago, Darrell said:

I assume that you are single. There is no way in h-e-double-toothpicks that my wife would allow me to wait around to remove a snake from the house.  Congrats on the win!

If even so much as a roach gets in the house, I will have no peace until the thing is gone.  Doesn’t matter what time of day.

If a snake gets in the house...my wife will finally learn that guns do have a purpose.  

Edited June 12, 2021 by Garufa

[papa61]

Glad you found it before it got too big to go back out whichever hole it came in. Just remember, he's still alive so he is eating, when food runs out he'll go away. I caught one years back when I lived outside town. he was not happy.

[RED333]

Glad you got you house guest.

Funny story, 31 years ago we moved in to our first and only house, yes we are still in it. I get up the first day to a noise coming from the closet, look and find 2 rat snakes making bacon. Wife goes off and runs out side. I get the snakes out with no worries, I know what a good snake looks like. Now the wife is mad as a wet hen, tells me if there is any more snakes she is leaving. a few days latter I find another rat snake under the water heater, no, I did not tell my wife.

A few years latter we, the wife, 2 kids and my self walk down to the road, We have to cross a low water bridge. I am at the road, wife and kids, son 4, daughter is 3, are on the bridge. wife screams LOUD, I look back and she is 30 feet away back up the drive, kids still on the bridge, with a 3 foot water snake! I am still giving her a hard time about leaving the kids on the bridge.

At that time we had a stray dog that took up with us and came running when the wife screamed, by that time I had moved the shake off.

[No_0ne]

I own one acre.  As long as the snakes are nowhere on that acre, I'm OK with them.  If they're on the property, let alone in the house, I immediately go into territorial killer extinction-level mode (maybe not immediately, sometimes it's preceded by a brief bout of screaming like a little girl).  I know all the arguments about how beneficial snakes are, "good" snakes and "bad" snakes, etc.  As far as I'm concerned, they're all deadly psychopaths bent on murder and mayhem ...

[BJB]

Rat snakes are a Good thing. I even have my wife convinced of that. Not only will they keep your rat population under control they wil eat rattlesnake and copperhead. As long as they stay away from her chicken eggs we are good. 

[No_0ne]

46 minutes ago, BJB said:

Rat snakes are a Good thing. I even have my wife convinced of that. Not only will they keep your rat population under control they wil eat rattlesnake and copperhead. As long as they stay away from her chicken eggs we are good. 

As long as they're at your house, eating your rats and your snakes I'm good with them too ...

[Ronald_55]

I wish we had rat snakes. The garter snakes don't do much to cut down on the moles or gophers.  

[Snaveba]

My wife and I had to save a family of Carolina Wrens from a rat snake this evening. I’m not sure how it got to the box on the side of the house but I heard a commotion and saw the snake half in the box. Must have dropped down from a tree branch. By the time I could get to the box it was all the way inside. We saved 4 of the 6 soon to be fledglings. Once I got the snake out, I relocated it across the street and we put the baby birds back in the nest. 

I know it was interfering with the circle of life and all that jazz, but we have been watching the baby wrens grow. The snake can eat some other birds  

 

 

 

[BHunted]

7 hours ago, Ronald_55 said:

I wish we had rat snakes. The garter snakes don't do much to cut down on the moles or gophers.  

Got a bag of these and spread them all over yesterday. Last night was first night of the experiment. Camera caught a fox walking the front flower bed, he looked and ran like hell. I mainly got them for the birds and a mole. Have to see how good they do over time.

Amazon.com: Outee 7 Pcs Realistic Rubber Snakes Fake Snakes Christmas Gift Black Snake Toys for Garden Props to Scare Birds, Squirrels, Scary Gag Rubber Lifelike Snakes Halloween Pranks Props: Toys & Games

 

[jpx2rk]

I may have to order those bag of snakes, we've got birds issues here.  Some dove's keep wanting to build nests on our downspouts under the house eaves, and or sit on the mailbox and crap all over the handle.  Starlings and similar birds want to build nests on our front porch.  One even died a quick death by flying into the storm door.  I have put those plastic owls out on all sides of the house, but the owls performance seems very dependent on the exact location they are placed. 

I have put one rubber snake on the brick mailbox structure, it has helped.  I placed that one on the back of the brick so as to no scare USPS people.  LOL

[Darrell]

I  put some rubber snakes up on the beams that support the porch roof to deter the barn swallows. One started a nest right next to the snake. 

[bersaguy]

Well since we are talking snake stories I have one from years back. I had an older brother that was crippled from polio when he was 4 years old and he could do most things for himself because we had his home built to make him independent. He worked for the Federal Government as an accountant. Well when you live alone if something is moved in your house you will know it. He kept coming home from work and things had been moved in his house several times in a week. Nothing big, little nick knacks on end tables and coffee table, a coffee cup knocked of the kitchen counter and broke so he called me and ask me to come up and search his house so I did but didn't find anything. The problem went on for a second week and I had a day off and a key and I had him open all the drapes so I could watch from outside. About 4 hours into the morning moving from room to room looking I spotted the problem. He had a chicken snake about 8 feet long in the house. I watched and waited for it to move into a room it could be caught easily and I went in and caught the snake in under his bed. I used a broom to sweep it out from under the bed and grabbed it. I put it in a box and waited for him to come home and showed it to him. We both wondered how it had gotten into the house and finally figured out, it came down the Chimney. He had Barn Swallows that had built nests in the chimney and had babies in the nests and there was a tree next to the house. The snake climbed up the tree and began to climb into the chimney and evidently fell to the bottom and out into the house. I took the snake home and released it in the woods behind my house. Soon as all the baby Swallows had left the chimney and flown away I went back to my brothers house and put a hardware cloth screen over the top of the chimney so no more birds or snakes could get in it.

[pop pop]

I killed a snake, yesterday, 4' long, in my back yard, about the size of my thumb or a little bigger. Don't know what kind it was but it was predominantly black, small head, with yellowish spots/markings on it. Anyone know what it was? Hate any snakes. 

[Snaveba]

Sounds like a King Snake. Those are good snakes. 

[No_0ne]

1 hour ago, Snaveba said:

Sounds like a King Snake. Those are good snakes. 

It is, at least now that it's dead ...

[Darrell]

The only snakes that bother me are sneaky snakes. So long as I see them from a few feet away we can co-exist. But those that sneak into my path and only reveal themselves at the last moment are definitely BAD snakes.

[Alleycat72]

Here's a fun one for you. Snakes are very hard to see with a thermal. The Texas guys we hunt with tell us that hogs eat snakes and the only rattlesnakes that survive are the ones that don't rattle and they have a lot that don't rattle.  I don't even care if it's true or not. I have my snake boots and the snakes can have the brass. 

[pop pop]

Where can one purchase snake guards/leggings.  I see hunters wearing them on TV. The kind you wrap around the calf of one's legs. About 18" tall. Does anyone know? I have checked at Bass Pro with no luck. 

[Dirtshooter]

My wife would leave and never come back to this house if  a snake was in it. When we moved here there is a 12x12 barn style shed and she was going to use it for her crafting. Well when we moved here we just put all her totes of stuff in there, so about 6 months later we cleaned it all out and I found several snake skins, one was 7 feet long. She said you wanted a chicken coop so have at it. Well about a year or so later I found the 7 foot long chicken snake over the door. She also doesn't like the little lizards or chameleons, I am not exactly sure what the scream would sound like if a bear or gorilla got in the house, but I have a good idea. So when the blood curdling scream comes I ask her where is it? I go catch the poor little creature and put him outside.

[Erik88]

For some reason, I've found 2 of those HUGE  disgusting cockroaches in the house we just purchased. Never had these in a previous house. A few weeks ago I went to dispose of one in the toilet and that sumbitch flew off the toilet paper and climbed up my hand at warp speed. I screamed like a girl and I hit notes I didn't know I was capable of.  My wife laughed so hard she almost cried. I told her next time she can deal with the cockroach. 

[Swamp ash]

I'm glad to hear this wasn't a tragic zipper incident!

[Gurn]

20 hours ago, pop pop said:

I killed a snake, yesterday, 4' long, in my back yard, about the size of my thumb or a little bigger. Don't know what kind it was but it was predominantly black, small head, with yellowish spots/markings on it. Anyone know what it was? Hate any snakes. 

The local copperheads and rattlesnakes will be glad you killed it.  

[ReeferMac]

On 6/12/2021 at 7:42 PM, BJB said:

As long as they stay away from her chicken eggs we are good. 

We get 2-3 of them a year out in or near the coop. 

Every single time the egg production drops suddenly, she asks "you think its their food?"