Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We put out glue traps to catch a mouse that got in our house. We live in the country in Tipton County Tennessee. We think he found his way in through our attic. We are leary there might be more up there. Please help me figure out what we are dealing with.

Thanks!

That is a young Black Ratsnake, a harmless and very common snake in the eastern US.

In fact, your glue trap may just have killed the best mouse control you could have had in your attic. While that snake is totally harmless and presents no danger to you or your family members and pets, it would probably catch and eat at least 1 mouse a week and it would be better at finding them than a glue trap.

Take out the glue traps, remove areas where the mice are feeding and hiding, and leave the snakes to do the rest for you. You won't even notice they are there (as was the case prior to the glue trap).
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Actually, in the 6 years we've lived here. We have never had a mouse or a snake. We have cats outside and one inside. I figured this was one brave little mouse! hehe

I'd been looking all over the net to try to figure out what he was. I guessed maybe a ratsnake but wasn't sure.

Thanks!

A mouse trap caught a superior mouse trap! Now that's irony, but kind of sad .

Yeah it is. We didn't even know we had a snake or snakes apparently living with us! I liked to have wet myself when I saw him on the trap though! Now that I know he's harmless...I feel kinda bad!

At least the mouse is gone and will quit trying to eat our food and our cat will stay out of the cabinets and off the counter now!

A few truths I have learned:
1. There is no such thing as "the" mouse. They always come in plurals.
2. One mouse is gone . . . but if there was a reason for that mouse to be there in the first place, there's a reason for more to arrive. Truth is, I doublt there is a house in America without at least a few mice in or around it.
3. Cats handle mice only in proportion to their immediate appetite. I have seen a full contented cat watch a mouse run by six inches away and yawn. Snakes are really more dependable, and they don't ask to be petted or let in and out.

FYI-
vegetable oil or mineral oil will free the snake in 30 minutes or so of careful work.
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V.P.
Austin Herp. Soc.