Snake question
 

After 4 years we found our first snake on the lanai. We have a pool and we have been told they do attract snakes, however, the lanai (the big "bird cage") is pretty well sealed except for maybe the door sweeps.
It was about a 2-3 foot long garter snake....working harder at trying toget away from me than my wife was trying to get back in the house.
We are the type we throw all the doors along the back of the house surrounding the pool wide open when the weather starts to allow it.
Now that we have had a visitor, are there any tips to keeping them away? Out of the house?
Closing all the doors is not an option. I am not worried about garter snakes but if they find their way in so might the poisonous variety.
Just curious.
Well, I need to see if I can find my wife:laugh:

BTK

Yeah, that snake was much more scared of being found than people can be of it (although that can be hard to believe)(LOL).

Many of the areas in TV are not that snake-populated, If the area has been stripped bare, then built up, there's probably little to no game for a poisonous snake to hunt. Before worrying about it, you may want to check with the county animal control regarding what you can expect where you live. Also, they'd have the better advice regarding critter-proofing a residence.

How?
 

How did the snake get into the lanai in the first place? This makes me very nervous! :22yikes:

First the good news... you wont have any mice! Now the bad news... snakes are magicians and will get in somewhere, somehow. I had 2 blacksnakes living in my basement in rural Pa for years... they (named Helen and George) took up residence on the top of the cinderblock wall above the oil burner... I suppose this was a cozy spot for their home. I found snakeskins in the basement when we did the pre-purchase home inspection... figured they were blacksnakes, which they were, and figured I was lucky to have free mouse extermination for my mountainside home. Gotta admit I was shocked the first time I saw Helen and George slithering toward the house one day when I was outside. Old George was over 5 feet long and fat as my forearm. Helen was leaner but almost as long. We watched to see where they got into the house and the 2 buggers slithered vertically upward over 3 feet to where the siding met the block and squeezed through a space 'bout the size of the key on my computer keybord. All was fine until one day I heard the Mrs exclaim... "that's where I draw the line... " Turns out she was down in the basement and there was ol Helen and George all curled up together in domestic bliss when suddenly a tiny 3rd head pops up and I'm thinking... uh-oh... we got ourselves a family... A case of expansion foam and a few months later our friends were gone.... probably to the neighbors.
I think we can all live together in harmony. Some day I'll tell yall 'bout the nest of timber rattlers in my neighbors window casing.:MOJE_whot:

Omg!
 

:22yikes::22yikes::22yikes::22yikes: (to the Psycho Music) I won't sleep tonight!

When I was still doing my morning show in New York, I had to leave the house about 4 a.m. One morning, I walked through the back hallway to the entry door to the garage. I turned on the hall light and reached for the door knob, and there was a live snake wrapped around the knob, inside the house.

I don't know how it got there, I don't know how it climbed up the door three feet to get to the knob, but there it was sticking it's tongue out at me. I grabbed a towel, wrapped it up and heaved it over the hill across the road.

What a rude way to wake up in the morning.

We'll get to the snakes later.

You were on Television in New York? Tell us about it!

Smelling Salts Please!
 

Do they have a fainting icon? I'm actually light-headed! :sad:

So right Chelsea. The only good snake is a dead snake as far as I can see.

And like the line in Fiddler on the Roof;

"God bless the Czar and keep him far away from us."

That goes double for snakes.

"On the other hand" (also from fiddler on the roof) Im sure the snake wasant too happy to see you either Jan!Especially when you threw it across the road!!:clap2:

It was radio and it was upstate New York. I'll tell you about it sometime.

I remember you!
 

I remember it well Jan! Was so shocked to catch up with you in TV! Small Small world for sure!

Watch out for snakes if you open your sprinkler control box. I have a garder that lives in mine. The little southern ringneck snakes are plentiful in TV and harmless. I captured 2 of them for my grandson to see when he was visiting last Easter.

Suggestion --- call in Sarah's chopper??

Nonie (aka Mother Teresa) You are truly a pure, kind soul if your compassion for animals extends to snakes. I wish I could find an even neutral feeling for snakes. They frighten me, beyond logic. Maybe started back when I was a little kid and heard about that one that got us thrown out of the original Paradise. I am in awe of you Nonie. And love you even more.

no snakes for me!
 

Thankyou so much for your kind words Gracie but snakes are definitely not my cup of tea! Bernie is the snake lover. I dont hate them, I just cant stand looking at them and heaven forbid one should come within 50 yards of me, I would be up on our rooftop screaming my lungs out!!:eek:

I feel the same way about worms and anything else that doesnt have legs and slinks along on its belly!

In the past two months our neighbor across the street has caught two garter snakes in those "sticky" traps that Massey puts in the garages. We managed to get them out alive and took them away from the neighborhood and released them back into the "wilderness." She is petrified of snakes and had to have someone else deal with them. Couldn't bring ourselves to kill them as they are harmless and are part of the "circle of life." (as Disney would say)

Bless you two. I'm one of the lucky ones -- I even like snakes. When you get to know them, they truly are marvelous creatures and do far more good than harm. The only time I don't want to be around a snake is when they are shedding their skin and that's because they really are foul-tempered then. Guess losing that skin doesn't feel too good.

Agree! Snakes are probably the most misunderstood creature there is, and I suppose we have Eve to thank for that......

Snakes get rid of mice, most door-to-door peddlers and other such vermin. It's a shame many people don't give them a chance and want to kill first.

I guess it's just like dealing with different people - prejudice and bias is tougher to shed than a snake's skin.......

Last spring, at our home in Georgia, I came into my kitchen one morning and there was a 4 ft snake sunning itself in my kichen window sill! I still don't know how it got there. I had gone out onto the back porch the night before, and left the door ajar. So I have to assume he came in then, and spent the night in my house! I had to find a neighbor to get him out and get rid of it, I still don't know or care what kind it was. I just know he's dead now. And as soon as I could get to the grocery store, I bought MOTH BALLs and placed them all around the doors going outside. The smell drives them away..they stink, but they work. And I still have nightmares about snakes. But haven't seen anymore close to the house, thank goodness!