Snakes in the house

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Wednesday, August 10. 2016

A friend told me yesterday the amusing story of the Ring-Neck Snakes which have been invading their house in upstate New York. His Mrs. is so uneasy about snakes that she has been stuffing towels under her bedroom door.

They can't find their entry point. My friend smashed one with a book. The guy knows nothing about snakes. I advised him that Ring-Necks are pleasant harmless critters and you should just pick them up and put them in the woods out back. They won't even snap at you.

Snakes rarely enter buildings except for Yellow Rat Snakes which like barns with rats and mice. However, I googled Ring-Necked Snake + houses and found a professional snake remover who seems to deal with that fairly often.

I suspect they just like to explore tight spaces, and then find themselves in your living room with no way out.

Posted by Bird Dog in Natural History and Conservation at 14:48 | Comments (11) | Trackbacks (0)

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I live on a creek in Georgia. Little Noonday creek. There's lots of Banded Water Snakes there. They have never come into my house but will come into your garage if you leave the door open.
There is gold in that creek and I have panned it for 20 years. Dig down the bedrock then fill a bucket and pan it. But you have to be careful - there's cottonmouth and water moccasins. They tend to stick close to the creek so I've never seen one close to the house.

#1 oolioo (Link) on 2016-08-10 16:20 (Reply)

Where I come from, central Mississippi, a cottonmouth is a water moccasin is a cottonmouth.

The only way for me to tell the difference between a water snake and a cottonmouth at any distance that gives me comfort, is the cottonmouth swims high on the water.

On land they look too similar. That's the water snake's problem, though.

#1.1 LWS on 2016-08-11 15:28 (Reply)

Black Racers are often found on pool decks in Fla. Gators enjoy sunning themselves on boat docks, too.

#2 Oldblood on 2016-08-10 17:20 (Reply)

Oh, those kind of snakes. I thought it was an article about the Clintons.

#3 Mike M on 2016-08-10 17:36 (Reply)

When I was a child in Franklin, Mass. we had an Eastern Ring-Necked snake that came into our basement every year and had babies. They were 3" long, about 1/8" in diameter and cute. We'd try feeding them oatmeal or such out of bottle caps. Eventually they'd just leave.

Mom was raised on a farm during the Depression. A snake in the basement having babies didn't faze her a hair. Neither did her kids playing with them.

#4 RonF on 2016-08-10 18:13 (Reply)

Release mice in the house to deal with the snakes.

#5 rhhardin (Link) on 2016-08-11 08:31 (Reply)

Fond memories of my first marital abode. Little shack in the woods, middle of 17 acres. House just sat on the ground, and in summer a parade of garter snakes would slither through the bedroom wall and out the other side. Freaked the wife out, but the cat had hours of entertainment.

#6 rich whiteman on 2016-08-11 13:44 (Reply)

Au contraire, I find that black snakes are just fine invading my 1812 log cabin. The interior has wallboard over the logs, and in the gaps snakes apparently find shelter. There are shed skins in the crawlspace attic.

One of the maintenance duties for a log cabin is to plug knotholes that arise when a knot falls out. My father-in-law was once faced with a dilemma as he approached such a hole with a bucket of cement too late to prevent a black snake from slithering inside: plug the hole, or leave the exit open? (He plugged the hole).

Mostly they don't appear inside the living space, but I've found a youngish black snake coiled up on a floor, and every now and then, a garter snake dangles briefly from a ceiling beam.

#7 Karen Myers (Link) on 2016-08-11 14:04 (Reply)

My parents built their home in 1964 in what had previously been a field since Noah got off the Ark. I remember for a several years, we had speckled king snakes show up on the carport repeatedly, in Mom's clothespin hanging hamper on the clothesline, and on an enclosed porch. Mom was hysterically fearful of them, but Dad would just pick them up and throw them out of the yard.

I suspect they were accustomed to traveling through the field and just found this damned house in their way. Probably around 68 or 69 was the last time one was found in the house.

#8 LWS on 2016-08-11 15:35 (Reply)

Finding one's self trapped in a living room with no way out... a common occurrence at cocktail parties, I find.

#9 Jablonski on 2016-08-11 16:25 (Reply)

That just makes me sad, to hear about someone smashing a nonpoisonous snake with a book.

#10 Texan99 on 2016-08-11 23:04 (Reply)

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Wednesday, August 10. 2016

Snakes in the house