Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We fed our baby corn (super okeetee phase) late at night...and by morning he was gone.

We searched everywhere, tearing the whole house apart in all the places he might have been. Between, books, movies, in shoes, under tanks, clothes, closets, every corner, in and out of everything...NO LUCK.

Then we decided to put out tape traps to catch him. (Duct tape on the floor at night so he'd crawl over it and get stuck)

The problem with the tape was that you have to check it every couple hours to make sure he's not tangling himself up in it cause they can suffocate themselves in the tape.

So after a sleepless night we turned up with no snake.

We eventually came to the conclusion that he must have gone outside because the door has a small space underneath.

Then two days later we found him in the basement coiled up in a corner on top of the kleenex box.

We figure he went out of his cage, down a vent and to the furnace in the basement, out of the furnace filter and under the door in the washroom, onto a soft box of kleenex.

The thing is...that when we found him has had a huge bulge in his belly...he must have found a tasty treat on his adventure through the house. So far we did a fecal sample and everything seems fine.

So if you loose a snake don't give up...he might be where you least expect him. Thought I'd share that with everyone.

He's now in a better tank than he was before...with a nice tight fitted lid.

Congratulations, that's a happy ending!
I worry though, about the duct tape. I think you could pull his scales right off with it fairly easily, anybody heard of that before?
-----
Jeremy J. Anderson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you go on Melissa Kaplan's website you'll find many different ways to catch missing snakes. One way is with tape, either duct, or packing tape works best.

If you do catch a snake with it though...you are supposed to be very very careful when removing the tape otherwise..yes the tape may damage the snake's scales or skin.

For more info on catching snakes read the guide on the Kaplan website.

>Melissa Kaplan........No Thanks
I was talking to a guy at a local pet store who had used the same "trick" to catch a lost king snake.
Well, the tape did the trick...his snake was caught...AND one of it's eyes was basically ripped open. The tape had stuck to it's eye and in it's struggles it....well, you get the picture.
There was a post either here or the rat snake forum a few months back where someone was trying to find ways to get tape "unstuck" from their snake. I think there was some skin damage in this instance.
-----
Remember, my posts are MY opinion only.
Jimmy (draybar)

I agree, using tape to catch a snake is dangerous to the snake. Having spent half hour carefully prying a garter snake off some ducktape used to cover a hole in a side of a glass aquarium, mentally hearing the snake screaming (I know snakes don't scream but I could still feel his pain) it would be the last thing I would use to try and catch a missing snake. I think I would rather never find the snake again....though I would worry it would starve to death somewhere in my place.

Kaplan's site doesn't impress me all that much. There's good info on there, but also a lot of not so good....like tape traps for one thing.

The snakes can't get off the tape on their own, what if the snake runs into it nose first? you may find your snake, but you may also find your snake dead (or like the one who ripped his eye on it)

For cornsnake info, go to a cornsnake site, like any of the ones that sponsor this forum. That other site seems to "specialize" in far too many completely different species of animals to me. IMHO

BTW, CONGRATS on finding the snake, I still have hopes of finding my MIA here somewhere....If the cats don't find her first!
-----
Dianne
AKA IcedGoddess
0.1 Snow (Ruby)
1.0 Anery A (Breaden)
0.1 Amel (Edana)
0.0.7 Normal het-snow (no names yet)
1.1 Bloodred (Vlad the Impailer and Natasha)
0.1 Anery Stripe (Morticia)
1.0 Candy Cane (Kane)

1.3 Cats (Alexys{f}, Mikki{f}, Timothy{m}, Seven{f})
0.1 Child
1.0 Boyfriend
IcedGoddess Creations
Castle Serpents

>>I had two escape last November...never saw them again.
I have an old house with many avenues of escape available for the snakes but I also have nine cats and four dogs.
I just keep hoping to see one of them in the yard when I'm mowing or maybe hanging out in the wood pile.
No luck yet, though.
I did try a bottle trap, but to no avail.
no tape though!!!!!
-----
Remember, my posts are MY opinion only.
Jimmy (draybar)

My buddies use duct tape and swear by it.But it's normally for pythons and boa's.

to check the basement FIRST!

Over the summer my dad picked out the snake he wanted (his very first- I got him hooked), named it and everything then it escaped on me a few days later. He was devistated. I also had a second escape from the same container (which has since been retired) another depressing find.

HOWEVER, one night I went to the basement for something and BOOM, there was the first one slithering by the foot of the basment stairs. Though on a long shot I'd snoop around some more in hopes that my dad's snake was around. For some reason I got an inkling to check behind the counters next to our washer and dryer, sure enough I caught a quick glimse of a tiny tail. It was my dad's snake!!

Both had managed to make it from my SECOND STORY BEDROOM to the basement. My dad things they used the stairs, I'll bet my bottom dollar it was the vents....

BASEMENT FIRST! (though might take a day or two to get down there)...

I also found a third escape (my fault this time) in a basement here (my townhouse after I moved out)...

Thats four escapee's and three found in the basement (one is still MIA)...