Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
A funny thing happened to me earlier this week... I stopped at home to forage for lunch one afternoon (it's about a 7 minute walk), and decided to check on some seedlings in my reptile/plant room while I was home. When I opened the door, I noticed a strange, perfectly round burrow in the soil of the large rubbermaid tub that my turtle lives in. The large (~24" diameter) pot that I keep a Norfolk Island pine tree in also had four similar holes dug in the soil:

Three are visible in that picture; the fourth is behind the tree trunk. Looking around a bit more, I began to notice other things out of place... a small plant knocked over, a bag of potting soil left open, and strange noises coming from the corner where I keep empty pots. I looked in the bag of potting soil and found my male black milksnake coiled up inside, and his mate under some clay pots nearby. Sometime between the time I left for work and the time I got back, they had both escaped from the cage that they'll be sharing for the duration of the breeding season. Luckily they didn't get too far (and couldn't have; the door stays closed to keep the heat/humidity in), but they seemed to have had a pretty good time while they were out. I feel very lucky that this escape story had a happy ending. Has anyone else had a milksnake get out and into their potted plants like this?

Thanks,
Nate

HAHA thats way funny!!! Glad you had a good ending though!! I had a huge WC gopher snake get out when I was a kid and my mom got stuck with it cruising all over the house all day while I was at school. She isn't a snake fan but she tolerated them on my behalf. This is before cell phones so she had no way to get a message to me. So I come home later that night after practice and she is sitting way up high up on the couch with a yard stick watching tv. She had placed towels under every door in the house so that my snake could only be where she could see him in the main living room area. He was a 6 foot big boy. It was a very humorous site to see her there like that and my snake was right next to the side door looking up at me like...."Get me away from that woman pleeeease!". She still talks about that to this day some 20 years later
-----
~Markus

The very existence of flamethrowers means that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves..."You know, I really want to set those people over there on fire...but I'm just not close enough to get the job done!

N/P
-----
King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

Glad it worked out and you found them Nate!! About 25 or so years ago while I was a young lad still in college (ahem, yeah I am a "seasoned" herper LOL!!) I had a five foot grey rat I captured escape from its temp enclosure I was housing it in. It was Friday and I decided to go out with a few buds to a local college campus pub in New Orleans. I got home rather late and bleary eyed, took one last look at the ratsnake cage and noticed it was MIA!! So here I am cussing and muttering under my breath, tearing my room apart, and trying not to wake my folks. I found the sucker under my TV stand and it was not happy I found it!!! Being in the condition I was in and not happy to have to deal with this at that time of night when all I wanted to do was go to bed, I just thrust my hand out and grabbed the big fellow. Surprisingly enough, I didnt get tagged LOL!! I promptly placed him back in his cage, doubled up the security on the top, and proceeded to crash!!!!

The principal came to my elementary school classroom oh 55 years or so ago, and told me i had to go home to round up an escaped snake. When I got there I found my mom and my grandmom, who lived with us, in two chairs in the living room, warily eying a third chair. Turns out when my mom carried the vacuum cleaner up from the basement, an escapee wiggled out and took refuge in the springs of the chair. It was promptly returned to its cage. Nothing was real secure back then.

But I have to kick myself: I have a baby eastern king loose in the house right now and have only myself to blame for apparently not fastening the cage's lid securely. I keep telling myself it'll show up, at the same time worrying it's gotten into the ductwork to a place it can't escape from. Damn. I like your "found before known to be lost" story better.