Reptile & Amphibian Forums

One of my snakes is on the run... My wife and I are thinking that this baby snake, 3-6 months old, must have gotten out when we were cleaning cages and now we can not find her. I have not had very many snakes get out on me but in all my previous experience they have never gone far, for example one time when I had to house my snakes at my moms house I had one that got out and we could not get over to my moms house for a week and we found it hiding in the closet in a box about 6 feet from the rack.

I have check in all my cages to make sure there is not a mix up, I have check all the boxes and stuff that is in the room... basically filped the room upside down,then I found a loss piece of trim in a closet and found a hole in between the dry wall and the air duct for our furnace. I have opened up my duct work to look into it and see nothing, I also have put a line of flour in the ducts to she slithers through it, those have sat for a few days and I see nothing, now I really don't know what to do. At this point I have not smelled any thing that would make me think she died, and I know that she can last a little while with out food... So what would you do?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Matt

I have yet to have an escapee curl up and die on me - they all come out eventually. Helps to keep the room dark and to have the smell of food around to help lure them out.

Good luck!

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Tosha
JET Pythons

nihil facimus sed id bene facimus

That sucks. Check under your washer and dryer or fridge. Especially if any of those household appliances are close to your snake room. Good luck!

Good looking snake, BTW!
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Sed et serpens erat callidior cunctis animantibus terrae quae fecerat Dominus Deus...

I think I am going to make a trap...I will let you know how this goes because it will not be until this weekend that I have time to draw up this plan of mine...

I think I might be mildly crazy but I am going to get this little rascal!

Matt

nightime flashlight walks.....

and pull every box in the racks again...then again every couple days or even everyday....they like hiding in back of boxes, especially if there is heat source....

they also like pushing out boxes....letting out more snakes...

....nightime and flashlights work well....they stick their heads out of places and keep watch.....
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........JY

I like using glue traps. I've never had a problem using them to catch snakes, super easy to get them snakes off of them, and it is easy to set them *everywhere* you can possibly think of because they are cheap.

Homemade funnel traps from pop bottles work well too (depending on the size of the snake). Place them along the bottom of the wall at corners and under couches with a bit of rodent bedding inside.
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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
2.1 Normals, 1.0 Thayeri, 0.1 Thayeri X Alterna, 0.1 Whitesided P. catenifer sayi, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

I read else online that people use glue traps but I was thinking that the glue on those things are wicked, my father and law had one by his washer and it nocked on the side of it and we couldn't get it off, not to mention the glue stuck bad to everything. I just figured if I used one on a live snake it would get into the scales and just make more problems.

What is your experience with this?

Right now I am thinking of making some type of trap with a trap door to it where the snake can get in but it will not get out.

Matt

Glue traps work great and can be attached to boards or heavy objects to catch larger snakes.The TRICK is to put vegtable oil on the trapped animal.It breaks down the glue with no side effects.

I once saw an escaped hatchling albino burm my friend had caught with a glue trap. It's insides were now stuck to the glue trap apparently from it's struggles to get free. It was still alive and still trying to get free. I would not use one! I would think the warmer the trap is, the worse the glue is going to be as well. Think of road tar-cool, not too bad. Nice and warm, it's a nasty sticky mess. They are really good for spiders though, even though most people only use them for rodents.

About a year ago I had a baby escapee. I researched and found a couple of ideas that worked for me.

1. Put a small amount of flour in all the doorways of the house at night. They will leave a trail in the direction they are traveling.

2. Place a small mouse or whatever they are eating in a plastic rodent cage in the middle of the room.

I walked into my kitchen to find my baby pastel trying to get at a mouse in a cage.

Good luck!