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Sunday, September 28, 2014

RAIN AND SKIN OH MY


It was a wet weekend...well, a wet Saturday.  Nothing 'outside' got accomplished but there were some inside chores done and that's always a good thing.  Sunday, today, we had to stay in town and run errands for here.  

Now for the one bad thing:


Found a shed snake skin under the sink in the bathroom!  I didn't get a picture of that because, quite frankly, my heart stopped and all I could wonder was where it was.  Running to get the camera was the least of my thoughts.  And hey, we have 11 acres now, the bathroom was not immediately necessary, LOL.  And here is where the story gets better worse:

2nd Family told us that they recently found a live snake under their kitchen sink...a COPPERHEAD!  She quickly shut the cabinet door, put something large and heavy up against it and went to get her husband.  He got a long snake grabber type stick, and his gun and they slowly opened the door.  IT WAS GONE!  I asked them which hotel they stayed at that night but they just chalked it up to life in the country.  Hubby was going to crawl under their house and check for openings.  He suggested I do the same.

I'm still writing down hotel numbers for the speed dial...

No, no...I'll crawl under there, when it cools down of course and see what I can find.  The farmhouse sits up high so it's easy to get underneath.  For a few minutes I thought, "well, snakes eat mice so it's not the worst thing..." then when I heard they had a close encounter with a deadly snake, no.  I'm ready to do whatever it takes to get rid of snakes.  I'll trap the mice, that we can handle.  Snakes in cabinets?  Not only no, but HELL no!

Does snake repellent work?
ANYONE?  IDEAS?


19 comments:

  1. I'm counting on chickens to protect me! I sure share your sentiments and will be watching this for better solutions.

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  2. Not good!
    We had a King Brown snake when we were building outside Darwin in 1975, my husband shot it & used the carcass to start the septic tank!!
    Only one deterrent for snakes as far as I am concerned... a shotgun!!

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  3. isn't this the second shed skin you've found? (shudder, shudder, shudder)

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  4. I hate snakes but try to leave them alone unless they are close to the house. A friend has a couple of solar snake repellents and she swears by them. In your case I think I would borrow someones dog to sniff under the house. It will probably alert you to something being there and might even be able to pin point where it is. Our dog is brilliant for that. He alerted us to a large black snake in the kids play area only yesterday. Good luck.

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  5. I do not like snakes in the best of times but in the house ! I would take the mice , I have cats. There must be a snake removal service down in Texas. When my kids were small I found a snake in their sand box. I did not care that it was a garden snake it was big....that is when I got a pellet gun....good luck.

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  6. I'd be a bit unnerved too. How in the world did it get in? Then to have your neighbors have a live one under their sink. I'm troubled with the big spiders and how they appear. But a snake! Yikes!

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  7. I actually like snakes, but not loose in my house! Eekkk!

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  8. Had a snake in the house last year. The cat alerted us of course before we could get something... it was GONE. found a suggestion of putting a heating pad on the floor. We did that and within 1 hour the snake was lying on it. Needless to say we were prepared this time..

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  9. Had two rattlers in yard several years ago, bit my terrier(he's fine ..got antivenin at vet and spent 3 nights intensive care) killed both. Funny thing our neighbor was a fighter pilot he came over to try and find the snake and kill it but we didn't see it till after he left, when it struck at my other dog and me! We killed it right after. Spoke to a reptile expert at the university here..he said snake repellents don"t work..tried it anyway..made the yard smell so awful kept me out till the rain washed it out! So I trained both dogs (who are never outside without supervision) to come to me when I yelled "look out"! Works (providing you see snake first)..btw..works on husbands too..forgot to tell him one day while out for a walk with the dogs...all three jumped and looked! Keep things mowed esp around house and be cautious before you pick anything up.

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  10. Yikes! That would have gotten my heart pounding, too. Snakes in houses - not a good thing.
    Try spraying that expanding foam sealant around all of your pipes. Since both you and your neighbor found them under your sinks, they could have gotten in from a small opening around one of your pipes. That small opening could be your mouse highway also.
    Good luck!

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  11. Ho-lee-crap! I'd be stuffing every crack, crevice and hole with some kind of expanding spray foam! As for going under the house? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND???????? Not enough money in the universe could get me into tight quarters with a venomous snake!

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  12. Don't know about deterrents. But I do know that I'd be going underneath with several cans of great foam and filling any openings I could find. Including around plumbing and electrical. They have versions for that. While mice might try to dig through, snakes won't. They look for warmth. If they can't find an easy opening though, they won't come in.

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  13. Call the pest control people....maybe Billy....

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  14. How to kill a Chicken Snake : Poke a hole in both ends of an egg. Blow out the contents (ommlett) Close one end(tape/wax/whatever) Use a small funnel,fill the eggshell with salt. Close the other end. Brush with a little egg yolk,leave in the hen nest. When the snake eats it,it will die. The SaltEgg will not hurt anything else that bothers with ittho they may get thirsty. As many eggs as nests,they can be left in the house with no danger to kids/cats/dogs

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  15. 1st Man,

    If you're not going to crawl under the house, may I suggest you contact a professional snake removal company. These companies are all over TX. If we were in town, I would send my husband under the house for you.

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  16. You need to get you some rat snakes (black snakes). We have a lot of copperheads in my area, and with a creek in the back, we should have lots on my property. But we don't - I am convinced it is because we have a big, healthy population of non-venomous rat snakes who eat the poisonous copperheads. Sure - the first one was a bit disconcerting, and sometimes we have to ask them to leave the hen house, but overall, I am happy they are on the job!!

    SnakeInTheGrass

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  17. Geez, I think I would have passed out! Sorry no advice, certainly wouldn't fancy crawling underneath!

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