Found a snake in my front yard

Zmokin

Copperish in color, very small, thought it was a young one, then doing some searching, I'm pretty sure it was a common thin tail snake, babies are about 3 inches, adults are 8-12 inches typically.  So I caught an adult.  Found it's primary diet is slugs.  so I kept him in a small terrarium for the day to show the wife & son when they got home from work & school.  Then I let him/her go back where I had I discovered it so it could resume it's life and eat some of those obnoxious slugs in my landscaping.

tarheelmatt

Interesting... I found one Sunday about the same color and length you indicate.  Also, ironically, I found a slug too.  They were both under some pots for herbs in the garden.  I placed him in the woods though.  

RRP

In these parts we have the black rat snakes and the hognose snakes. They are actually rather common here in our woods and they love to find a warm place in the sun to stretch out. That sight startles many folks, but they are harmless and beneficial! Typically they are about 3 feet long. I have never killed one and don't ever intend to. I just use a forked stick I keep my garage, pin it's head down and then grab it tightly behind the head. Immediately they will coil around my arm which is kinda cool. BTW I've been doing this for 60 years now so it doesn't bother me! I can't tell you how many I have relocated for neighbors over the years! LOL

tarheelmatt

RRP said:

In these parts we have the black rat snakes and the hognose snakes. They are actually rather common here in our woods and they love to find a warm place in the sun to stretch out. That sight startles many folks, but they are harmless and beneficial! Typically they are about 3 feet long. I have never killed one and don't ever intend to. I just use a forked stick I keep my garage, pin it's head down and then grab it tightly behind the head. Immediately they will coil around my arm which is kinda cool. BTW I've been doing this for 60 years now so it doesn't bother me! I can't tell you how many I have relocated for neighbors over the years! LOL

Most do not startle me.  Just before that we had our little girl out in the back yard.  Wife freaked out.  I told her I didn't know what it was, but I knew it wasn't poisonous.  If it were a copperhead, that is common around here, I would have taken him out, unfortunately.  

tarheelmatt

That snake was a wiry snake.  He was difficult to handle.  

henapple

My favorite snake 

DMW

Funny story re: snakes. One of our locations had a power outage yesterday that impacted multiple buildings, including one of our labs that my team uses remotely. Turns out a snake crawled between 2 posts in a power sub-station. That snake is no longer, but created quite a hassle for us.

tarheelmatt

DMW said:

Funny story re: snakes. One of our locations had a power outage yesterday that impacted multiple buildings, including one of our labs that my team uses remotely. Turns out a snake crawled between 2 posts in a power sub-station. That snake is no longer, but created quite a hassle for us.

Happens a lot believe it or not.  

I had to investigate a burn out out in the middle of nowhere in Devils Lake, ND in the dead of winter.  The culprit of the burnout was a rats nest.  4160V to ground, they didn't see that coming.  

I never ran into the snake thing, but other guys have.  They short phase to phase or to ground and zap, they're outta here.  

RRP

6 years ago I got a frantic call from  neighbor lady. Seems her son left a patio door open and for some reason a black snake came on in! It went through a den and ended up in a bathroom. That is where the gal first saw it and FREAKED OUT! She called me in a panic because once before she had seen one 3 years before sunning on her patio where she also sunned! Anyway I cornered the snake in the bathroom and what most people don't even think about - even with their long slender bodies a snake has to pee and poop!!! and nature just made a concealed organ area for that!
Not sure it was from the screaming woman or fright of the cornered snake itself, but before I could get it out of there wrapped around my arm that poor snake must have pissed and sh*t all the way out the door! LOL

Ozzie_Isaac

I found a worm ...

RRP

Ozzie_Isaac said:

I found a worm ...

find some more and let's go fishin!

henapple

They way I deal with snakes 

Fred19Flintstone

I thought you said you jump on the picnic table while screaming to She-Bear to kill it.

badinfluence

@rrp hog nose snakes are rear fang venomous.  They are harmless to a human unless you are allergic to the venom.

they are one of my favorite snakes as they put on a show when cornered by huffing and puffing alot then they roll over and stick there tongue out and play dead. It's so damn cute. Lol

NPHuskerFL

@DMW Almost every year we have a snake or lizard decide to become the path of least resistance. I had a facility a couple of years ago lose 12 compressors due to a sudden brownout. Fortunately they had phase monitors on the large HVAC units that trip for loss of phase, phase reversal, voltage spike and drop and voltage unbalance. That saved those large AC units but, they lost other vital refrigeration units compressors and motors. The snakes are out and about now that it's warm and staying warm and the daily rain drives them to find higher ground.  

Firemanyz

@henapple AAAA++++++++++ 

THE BEST SNAKE IS A DEAD SNAKE. 

NPHuskerFL

As much as I'm not a fan of snakes (& we have a lot out here) I don't mess (kill) with the non poisonous ones. At the most we might capture and release toward to backside of the property toward the marsh.  They keep a delicate  to the ecosystem that we need to have (and some of them will eliminate or lessen poisonous ones).  Sadly a lot of them we encounter are of the poisonous variety.  

nolaegghead

I don't mess with non-poisonous snakes.  Our last facility opened up on one side to the swamp.  Had huge gators sunning, nutria running around and one area with hundreds of water moccasins (cotton mouths).  One snake got in the building and bit a woman who ended up in the hospital for a week.  We'd find snake skins in the ceiling insulation. 

I probably shot 200 hundred water moccasins and a few dozen nutria (invasive species and cause wetland destruction).   Occasionally we'd see a wildlife and fisheries air boat trucking around in the swamp with a guy on the front blowing nutria away with a shotgun.   We've moved and we're about 600 yards away next to the railroad tracks.  No more snakes but we did have a train engine derail and plow through our parking lot.  

fusionhq

We kill them all!! Mostly because I have a 7lbs dog, and it wouldn't take much to knock her down. Also, every snake I have seen/killed is a moccasin. Bad bad news for humans and dogs alike. My neighbor across the pond killed two last Sunday. One big around as his arm. .22 with a scope and rat shot is what he uses. I use a .17 break barrel gamo with scope. 

Wolfpack

tarheelmatt said:

DMW said:

Funny story re: snakes. One of our locations had a power outage yesterday that impacted multiple buildings, including one of our labs that my team uses remotely. Turns out a snake crawled between 2 posts in a power sub-station. That snake is no longer, but created quite a hassle for us.

Happens a lot believe it or not.  

I had to investigate a burn out out in the middle of nowhere in Devils Lake, ND in the dead of winter.  The culprit of the burnout was a rats nest.  4160V to ground, they didn't see that coming.  

I never ran into the snake thing, but other guys have.  They short phase to phase or to ground and zap, they're outta here.  

Wow- Devils lake- brings back memories. Last time I was there it was 55 below 0- saw a guy at the airport throw up a cup of water.  It froze before it hit the ground. Directions to my customers place-  land in grand fork- drive two hours west and take first left. It's not quite the edge of the earth but you can see it from there. 

BuckeyeFork

RRP said:

I just use a forked stick I keep my garage

You're my boy Ronnie!

RRP

BuckeyeFork said:

RRP said:

I just use a forked stick I keep my garage

You're my boy Ronnie!

Thanks...I think...

It wasn't until I started having back problems about age 60 that I even reverted to using a forked stick! Before I prided myself in being fast enough to just grab the back of the snake's head!