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snake in my garage

janeen Jun 20, 2010 09:43 PM

Hi there snake enthusiasts!

I found a rather large snake in my garage here in Denver, Co. It is yellow/gold and black/brown kind of triangle shapes on sides. I don't know much about snakes so I don't know what kind it could be or if it could be dangerous, but after some research on this site maybe a bull snake? I think it may be in the garage because we have had a lot of mice there and in house lately (YUCK)! When we found the snake he slithered his way up a hole between the wall of house and garage. Haven't seen it again but don't know if he's gone. Does anyone know how to maybe trap it or what to do? Any advice would be appreciated!

Much thanks,
Janeen

Replies (5)

varanid Jun 21, 2010 12:14 AM

If it is a bull snake, it'll fix your mouse problem.
I'm unaware of any good methods to trap snakes in the home. You might try having an exterminator kill the mice though; dollars to donuts that's why he's there and if they're gone he'll leave.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

varanid Jun 21, 2010 12:18 AM

really, bull snakes are entirely harmless. There's no reason to panic unless ya'll have a snake-phobic member of the household. Let it stay and eat the mice you're upset about.

If you really want it gone maybe the Colorado Herpetological Society can help you out. Website is www.coloherps.org. They do charge a fee, but IIRC (it's been a long time since I lived in CO) they're based out of Denver, so hopefully it ain't too pricey. If you were over in Grand Junction that might not work so well.
-----
We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

rickgordon Jun 24, 2010 01:57 PM

glue traps

JackAsp Jun 28, 2010 10:17 PM

About the glue traps:

A snake caught on a glue trap is going to be pretty miserable, and can't be realistically released elsewhere with glue traps stuck to it. They can be removed with vegetable oil, but it doesn't like the OP really wants that much close contact with a wild snake.

OP:

It might atually be preferable even for a non-snake person to just accept it as a free exterminator. A cat eats whatever mice it can catch in the open, but a snake goes through the same holes a mouse does and eats the entire family. Oh, they may end up trapped in a corner when actually captured, but the point is if they're between wall layers or up in the rafters the cat ain't gettin' 'em. Which is why those are the places mice nest.

Bullsnakes have some specific neurological adaptations for killing large numbers of rodents. For example, they can use different parts of their body to constrict multiple rodents at the same time, and if one is in a tunnel too thin to wrap themselves around it they can improvise by applying massive sideways pressure to its heart, using the wall itself to kill prey animals in seconds.

And it's not the kind of snake that you're going to surprise and get bitten by. They are fast, smart, alert, and good at escaping. I currently keep one as a pet, and would not expect yours to be as friendly as him, but would, if, anything, expect it to be a bit smarter, having grown up without somebody feeding it and controlling its temperatures perfectly. Mine lives in a 260-gallon cage that's filled largely with ferret tubes, some of which are 25 feet long (gotta love ebay) and can be wound around and connectd to each other in all kinds of combinations. Periodically I change the way they wind adn connect, just to keep things interesting, and he very quickly relearns his way around the new maze, even continuing to use the same exact area (outside the tubes... thank god) as his toilet every single time. In the 90s-00s, I had a pair of pine snakes, pretty much the same thing as bulls, who showed about the same behavior pattern, so I'm guessing it's not just him.

So if a bullsnake doesn't like the Big Scary Garage Monster, aka you, it's gonna know a million ways to get away quickly. Night-time surprises aren't an issue, because it's a day species. And even if cornered and feeling seriously threatened, they usually aren't biters. They puff themselves up, they hiss, they vibrate their tail in an amazing imitation of a rattler, althoug it's not audible from as far away, and they even feint-strike, generally flinchng away at the ladst minute before they actually make contact. I think the reasoning is that if they actually BIT a coyote or badger or bison it would kill them immediately, but if it thinks that it just barely missed being hit by a rattler it backs off.

An exterminator could get rid of mice, and snake, but if not maintained the mice would come back, and then in all probability so would the snake's cousin. Leave it in there and you'll have a low mouse population and a snake that you almost never see. You might even get lucky and have him scare off the occasional skunk or raccoon that's thinking about moving in.

Bullsnakes do, of course, have body functions, but pound for pound far less than mice, and if you're not really obviously smelling it then he's probably doing it someplace you'll never notice, like in the yard or on the roof. Mine likes to stay at human temperatures 90+ per cent of the time, but every morning he hits the warm end of the cage for at least a few minutes, and if he has to poop he does it right afterwards. So odds are your snake's bathroom is out in sun. Not so with the mice that are urinating and defecating all over.

Add in the fact that if someday you accidentally grab a sleeping mouse while reaching into na storage box or whatever, it will probably bite you and can carry quite a few mammal diseases, whereas the snake will simply hiss loudly and buzz its tail and scare the hell out of you... I gotta say, I'm voting with what Fate has opted for here. You've traded up. Kick back and enjoy it. If there was a cute little fuzzy owl living in there eating all those mice, most people would think it was adorable. As, frankly, would I. But a bullsnake isn't gonna fill your garage with guana and tear out your eyeballs with its talons if you somehpw bump into each other wrong, ya know?

All concerned:

This post was longwinded both for clarity and for fun (I live in Cleveland; we don't really have the option of discussing what to do with bullsnakes in the garage here) but was not intended as carpet-bombing against any internet-fidels who dare have different opinoins than me.

SEveral people this summer have interpreted my rambles as flames. Don't. Hop right in, especially if you've got a viewepoint that I didn't already spend a paragraph or two mis-spelling. I rambled because I was drunk and lazy. Clarity is, at least in the short-term, more easily achieved by ellaboration than by editing.

However, oblivious of all that... come on , THIS is actually the kind of conversation snake people should be way more interested in than "How to get yet one more variation of white, yellow, and purple albino."
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0.1 2006 Western Hognose (Bebe)
0.1 age unknown Cane Toad (Hengo)
0.1 2005 White-Banded Sheen Skink (Minerva)
1.0 2006 Northern Diamondback Terrapin (Queequeg)
1.0 2006 Madagascan Speckled "Hognose" (Sigmund)
1.0 2008 Bullsnake (Winkle)
1.2 2008 Eastern Collared Lizards (Pancho, Lupe, and Chica)
2.0 2009 Eastern Collared Lizards (Cesar and Nino)

JackAsp Jun 28, 2010 10:49 PM

While doihg that "fix a typo, add a sentence, fix two more typos, add a paragraph" thing that ramblers tend to do, I completely forgot the " snake was in the house" thing. Granted, he may well not be any longer, but this does add another angle. Especailly since the hole has to be fixed, if you don't want mice from the garage constantly moving into the house.
I tentatively vote: assume he's gone back, patch the hole up, and if you DO see him, remember that they're bluffers, not fighters. Catch him with leather gloves if it makes you or whoever ends up with the job more secure, or throw a blanket over him, grab his tail, and carry him out still mostly wadded up in it.. or whatever... but remember what I said before; you're danger of being bitten by a mouse, as far as both probabiliy AND risk, is immensely higher than from a bullsnake. If h e turns up in the laundry room or something, you'll be surprised and nervous... and then you'll deal with the issue without getting injured or maimed and then you'll go on with your life. Because when it's all said and done, the reason a frightened, cornered bullsnake is as noisy as it is.. is that it's actually less dangerous than a turtle. There are smaller snakes, such as racers and waters, that really do excel at tearing people up. Bulls have very small teeth and powerful bodies, all as part of their tight-quarters-constrictor strategy, and while strong for their size they are no actual match for a human, not even a small child.
About getting the mice out of the house, and perhaps even garage: you might want to look into those ultrasonic devices.
Ultimately, of course, being a snake guy, I still lean toward putting a big fat bull snake back in the garage if he's not there already, because the eating capacity of those guys, at least during the mouse-breeding months, is completely ridiculous.
-----
0.1 2006 Western Hognose (Bebe)
0.1 age unknown Cane Toad (Hengo)
0.1 2005 White-Banded Sheen Skink (Minerva)
1.0 2006 Northern Diamondback Terrapin (Queequeg)
1.0 2006 Madagascan Speckled "Hognose" (Sigmund)
1.0 2008 Bullsnake (Winkle)
1.2 2008 Eastern Collared Lizards (Pancho, Lupe, and Chica)
2.0 2009 Eastern Collared Lizards (Cesar and Nino)

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