Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is Off Topic, but I would like you guys help. I have a giant male Corn Snake that got out about a month ago. I'm moving out of this house in 2 weeks. Ive looked everywhere. Another problem is this house will be vacant for at least a year after I leave. So no hope of finding him if we leave without him. Another problem is I live in Oklahoma, if he has escaped the house, hes doomed when winter comes.
I have a big rat in a cage in the middle of the house, hoping he will smell it and go to it.
What do you guys think I should do?
And i'm sorry, Its a real amateur move to loose a snake. My apologies. I moved in this house about a month ago, so I don't know where he could go.
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Got Balls?
Josh Molone

Check around your water Heater,They go there for the heat.

Thats another of my concerns, there is a small hole leading into the attic from the water heater closet.
I'm going to go shine around the attic, maybe ill get lucky.
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Got Balls?
Josh Molone

Since your time is limited, I recommend going all out on trapping and searching for this snake. Baited and unbaited plastic and hardware cloth funnel traps at every corner, glue boards along every wall, and active searches every morning and evening. Concentrate your efforts where temperatures are most moderate since the snake will try to avoid very hot and very cold areas. At least place glue boards in every room and cranny, however.

If you do all this and still do not find the snake, I'd be sad to say he may have found a way out of your home. But keep up the efforts until the very last minute! You never know when they will show up.
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Lincoln, NE
0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly
2.0 Normals, 1.0 Thayeri, 0.1 Thayeri X Alterna, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

How do you make the cloth traps you were talking about?
Also, I really appreciate everyones help!
Thank you, everyone.
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Got Balls?
Josh Molone

GLUE BOARDS , are you out of your mind? How easy do you think it is to get a snake off a glue board without injury? Sure if you catch him right after he gets stuck you may not have trouble using corn oil or something to free the snake BUT as you said already this person has limited time, so what happens if the snake is in the glue board for say 12-15 hrs before you find it? Glue boards are NOT the way to go , come on , that is just plain stupid, unless you don't care if the snake lives!

Anthony McCain

I wouldn't offer this advice if I wasn't experienced with it. If you have worked with glue boards and have had difficulty, please offer your specific suggestions of improvement. Simply calling my idea stupid is unproductive. I admit that I made the erroneous assumption that if the OP were to use glue boards they would check them more frequently than every 12-15 hours, particularly if they are anxious to find the animal.

I have gotten multiple snakes off of glue boards with zero injuries. Actually, I have found more snakes in professional herpetologist funnel traps and pitfall traps that are injured or dead than on glue boards (which was zero).

Finding the animal attached to the board is frightening and first. Yes, getting them off can be a bit messy, but it has never taken me more than a few minutes with vegetable oil, then all remaining "stick" washed away with some warm water and a spot of dish soap.

I purchase glue boards as a four pack from Wal Mart that, if they do contain harmful chemicals, I have never seen their effects. The snakes I have captured this way are more than fine, they are thriving.

The image below is a close-up of a kingsnake I captured this way. You can see there is no damage to the area of scales that were attached to the board. If you would like to see more images of her, I will post them. I did not take pictures of her attached to the board because I was too excited to have her back again.

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Lincoln, NE
0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly
2.0 Normals, 1.0 Thayeri, 0.1 Thayeri X Alterna, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

Sorry if you think my comment was uncalled for. I would think MOST people would do more harm to the animal than good. Perhaps if your experienced (which I admit I am not , nor would I try it to see either)the problem of removing the snake isn't as bad as it may seem. I would be most worried about the belly scales myself and the amount of time the animal was on the glue board trying to escape and possibly pulling off belly scales in an attempt to get free.. But that's just my opinion , maybe that isn't what happens but I have seen mice caught in them and they do about anything they can to try and get off it , even if they leave body parts behind, and I could see a snake trying the same to get free.

At the VERY least this Glue Board stuff isn't the kind of advice I would give to just anyone, that's for sure!

Anthony McCain

Hardware cloth funnel traps are simple and cheap to make. Take some 1/4" hardware cloth, bend it into a square or circular cylinder and secure the joint. So now you have a tube cage, basically. Add a funnel of either hardware cloth or another material to both ends and secure it. Place this at the base of the wall where the animal is most likely to encounter it. You can either bait it or not. This trap works well for snakes, rodents, and many other small creatures that exhibit wall hugging thigmotaxis.

Though this trap sounds safe, and it can be, like all traps it needs to be checked often. A smaller snake will try to squeeze through the mesh openings and can injure themselves. Nose rubbing on the mesh surface can also cause damage. Solid plastic traps are safer because of these problems, but large ones can be difficult to make and tend to have a lower success rate.

To make a plastic funnel trap, take a 2 liter pop bottle. Cut the top away 1 inch below where the neck widens out. This creates a wide mouthed funnel with a 1 inch long lip. Turn this upside down and secure it in the pop bottle using duct tape.
It will look similar to this (though laid on its side):
Bottle Funnel Trap

This is a one-way trap, so it is better to place it in corners or make several and place them end-to-end.
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Lincoln, NE
0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly
2.0 Normals, 1.0 Thayeri, 0.1 Thayeri X Alterna, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

I would suggest avoiding the glue traps.
Unfortunately some of them contain toxins.
Even those that do not contain toxins have a very persistent adhesive which can be difficult remove from the snake....even after you have removed it from the trap.

The duct tape traps are so much easier to use....in my opinion.

Harlin Wall - WALL TO WALL REPTILES!
970-255-9255
970-245-7611

Not always. I had a baby corn snake get out...completely ignore the baseboard heaters...sneak under a door, down 2 flights of stairs, under another door...and freeze solid on my front porch in January.
It was a striped motley het for ghost too. (Aka it was pretty)
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

Perhaps this will help.

Years ago a friend shared this trick with me...it really works!
I have to give credit where credit is due. Bob Applegate shared this trick with me.
Bob is an interesting guy to say the least.

Anyway, get a roll of duct tape. Peel off 3 strips of tape about 18 -20 inches long.
Lay them on a table (sticky side up). Now, you want to overlap the long edges of the tape strips....so that you make a "page" of sticky tape.
Make about 10-15 of these sticky tape pages per average sized room. Lay these pages sticky side up on the floor so that they are positioned with one long edge up against a wall.
Snakes generally do not feel comfortable crawling out into open spaces.... Rather they tend to hug the wall. You can place strips of duct tape around heat registers, across entrances to joining rooms etc. Place them where you most suspect you might capture the snake.
It might be wise to number the tape traps...So that you do not forget to check every one of them. You need to check them all, at least every morning.
The snake crawls onto the tape and gets tangled up.

To remove the tape DO NOT PULL IT OFF.
Get some cooking oil....canola, olive, etc. Using a Q-tip apply the oil to the tape where it is adhered to the snake's skin. The oil will penetrate the glue of the tape and make it easy to remove. Just be patient and gentle. It will all come off.
Rinse the oil off of the snake.
When applying the oil, try not to allow the oil to enter the snakes nostrils (Nares).
As this might harm the snake's ability to breathe.

I have heard of people who were concerned that the tape might cover all of the snake's head...and suffocate it. However, I suspect that they have never tried this technique. The tape would have to cover the entire mouth and both nostrils to suffocate the snake.
Although perhaps it is possible....I have never seen this or heard from a keeper who actually had this happen!

This trick really works very well!!!
Best of luck.

I'm going to lay some of those duct tape traps out today. Thank you guys for sharing your stories, and i'm sorry about your Corn Snake, Kingofspades. I had this beautiful Snow Corn Snake for about a week, then my friend decided to get it out without asking. Within an hour after leaving the lid open, o_O, he was out of there. Next month found him in the hot garage, it was in the hottest point in the summer. Little guy couldn't take the heat.
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Got Balls?
Josh Molone

Hey Josh,

Forgot to mention...
Place strips of duct tape around that rat cage too. You never know...the snake might get tempted by the rat and help you lure him into the duct tape.

On a side note...
I would suspect that anyone here, especially those who keep a number of snakes, have probably been in a similar situation. As time goes by, you will become better at keeping the snakes where they belong...inside the cage. lol.

The important part is that you are handling this situation responsibly and with determination. Kudos to you for that.
Proper caging will usually solve most of the problems involving escapees.
Most rack systems are very secure in this respect. Just something to keep in mind.
Again, Best wishes.
Keep us posted on your MIA snake.

Take care,
Harlin Wall - WALL TO WALL REPTILES!
970-255-9255
970-245-7611

toothpicks layed along the walls sticking at right angles...toothpick moves you know what room it's in...unless you have dog,cat or kids...

tape....I'd just use the 18 inch pieces ....I have done it...it was moved and rolled and had mice at times but never got a snake.......olive oil works also...

look....just really look around....

outside....lok all around outside...I found 2 ways snakes can get out of my house by looking from the outside...I didn't know they were there for 10 years and more...big enough for corns to get out....or baby rats and mice to get in....just walk right in...small holes in the block.....

.....good luck....look again....
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........JY.......

Thank you guys and gals. I know I can always turn to the Ball Python Forum!
Appreciate it.
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Got Balls?
Josh Molone

strips of masking tape. Put many strips of approx. 3' or 4' pieces on the wall, sticky side out, with bottoms barely brushing the floor. Once the snake brushes against one of them, it will come off the wall, and the snake will get stuck, only able to move in a circle. Same principle as the duct tape, but much easier to get off - a little veg oil works great to remove it. You still need to check often as it must be uncomfortable for the snake, but should not risk his safety.

I heard that tip several years ago from Don Soderberg.