Interesting And A Bit Creepy Email From A Close Friend

that pic kinda looks like a black snake only really skinny compared to the big boys out here in Arizona! We have a resident snake who dines on quail eggs in the Spring...he has very discerning tastes.

I used to own a company that removed wildlife called Critter Control. This is what I would do..

The snakes and mice are getting in using very small gaps in your home. A mouse can get in a hole the size of a dime. I imagine a snake can get in a hole that small as well.

I would have done a complete exterior inspection and gave you an estimate for closing all the holes. Using things like expanding foam, copper mesh and hardware cloth depending on the size of the hole.

I wouldn't do any of this work until spring and the critters left.


By the way...

"He's also leaving food for the mice in the attic. The food will make them bleed internally, become very thirsty, and leave the attic in search of water"


That is a common statement but it is NOT true. They don't leave. They die in the walls or the insulation. They may or may not stink depending on where they die.

Poison is a much easier way to kill mice and I think the "go outside and die" was an excuse some people in the pest control industry made up so they didn't have to go through the trouble of setting traps.


But with proper exterior exclusion there is no reason to trap the snakes. Just make it so they can't get back in next year. We did such exclusion work with bats in attics all the time. They were a protected species and it isn't really feasible to trap/catch all the bats in an attic. We used "one way valves" after the babies learned to fly and when they left to feed at night they couldn't get back in.

I am really not sure how you would trap snakes this large. Snakes want live food. I guess you could put large glue traps on the paths they seem to be using but, like I said, that isn't necessary an is a bit cruel.

I don't think I could ever live in dry areas where gigantic snakes live. I live in Staten Island, New York and the biggest snake I ever saw was a garter snake. Needless to say, it scared the hell out of me. Kudos to you guys...I would probably never leave the house, or in your case John, I may never enter the house.

Was your post the email? Are the snakes at your house? I'm confused by the title.

We have a few black snakes too, but not in the house. I hope the snake traps are live traps and they get relocated. They do a great job managing vermin. They also aren't dangerous. They'll bite you if provoked, but it's just a painful pinch. I have physically picked up and moved one that was molting right behind my car tire.

I've black snakes galore and find whole skins often...
i'm surprised that you have mice cohabitating with snakes unless they (the snakes) are using your attic for a pantry... . =>))

@Cynthia - Yes, my post was the email. The snakes at my house are all outside (hibernating until Spring). I have seen lots of black snakes and ring necked snakes ion my yard, but never a Copperhead or Timber Rattlesnake - the only 2 to fear here.

@Ed - yes, that was the point, the mice were the meals that kept the snakes coming back.

@John - they did contract with the Herpetologist to have everything sealed. The traps and poison are because my friend was freaking out about snakes in the attic above her bed - even if they are hibernating and fearful of humans. :)

As you calmly pointed out Black snakes are shy and harmless, but they often have terrible tempers if disturbed. And they can, and do bite if provoked, though they are mostly scary if one doesn't like snakes. A number of years ago in eastern PA, we lived in a rural wooded area with lots of Black snakes that got very big and heavy. One day coming home I spied one laying across the macadam in the summer sun. Not wanting him to be hurt I stopped, fetched my umbrella and tried to urge him off the road. He reared up striking at me, and took great exception with my ministrations. I finally had to hook him under the belly and flip him away until he got the message and headed into the grass.

I like to find the pretty little snakes that live around our house. Always a sweet surprise to spy them.

I still am not aware of an effective snake trap. Unless they are setting them to give her peace of mind.

I find it hard to believe a Herpetologist would use something like glue to catch them.

There is a decent chance that IF the snakes eat the poisoned mice it could kill them as well. Though I doubt a snake would eat dead mice.

I would leave the house!

I have to agree with Debbie. I do not like to be anywhere near snakes. Irrational maybe, but that's the way it is. I couldn't stay in the house knowing the attic was full of snakes.

Yeuch! Are they poisonous... BTW, the acorns sound like you have (very damaging) squirrels in your attic too...we get them in ours, except none this year for some reason and it's been brutal outside. Maybe all the snow on our roof is blocking wherever they are getting in.

Black snakes are usually the "good" snakes - although any animal - even humans - will bite if provoked. They mostly eat small rodents and insects - and birds if they can catch them. I don't think those are any thing but black snakes - not baby rat snakes. I've seen "rat" snakes (aka corn snakes) climb walls - and a few years back I had a bird feeder hung with spider wire fishing line, suspended under a large oak limb. To my surprise - the rat snake made it's way down that thin strand, and inside the bird feeder waiting for a little birdy to stick it's head in for a seed. I don't think it ever caught one - but I did see it shimmy back up that thin line, curling around it - and almost making it back to the tree limb before I got a long fishing pole and knocked him down and skooted him off to the woods. Oh - the feeder was suspended not to protect it from snakes - but to try and keep the squirrels out - it was effective for that.

Ohhh I hate snakes!
My house is near a river and also near a rice fields.
So expect creepy crawlers, and slithering kinds would find its way inside my house.
I was sleeping one night, when I felt something fell on my sides(since I was sleeping sideways).
So I thought it was a pesky lizard that had fell on my body. The light was out and its dark,cant sleep w/lights on.
So my first instinct was to grab it and throw it on the wall. Realizing that what I had grabbed and threw on the wall was much bigger aaaaand longer than a lizard! I quickly openned the lights and saw a 3feet juvenile boa snake!!!! I quickly got my blanket and grabbed the snake and put it inside a rice sack. After the andrenaline rush had subsided and realisation had set in...what if I was sleeping so passed out and had my mouth openned...? God forbid hahaha, or if it had constricted arround my neck and I died of asphyxia hahaha. Or when I had grabbed it, it had recoilled back and bit me! Really a terrifying thoughts guys. Oh I surrendered the boa to a wildlife facility here in my area.

Frightening stories, John and Otil.

Makes me thankful I live in the northeast.

Get rid of the food supply and the snakes will leave.

When I was a kid, my family lived in a neighborhood named Briarwood. Its original name? Copperhead Hill. :P

I have ever only seen a dead snake in the wild! While visiting someone on a sheep farm. Otherwise only seen the school snake man's collection, that was close enough, a tame one around my neck. But what I was wondering John is have you used your camera to full effect while the visitor is there? good photo that you have posted.