Has anyone ever found a snake climbing their walls around here? I went home last night and one was slithering slowly up a 2 inch indent beside the front door. If I had reached out for my door, I'd have grabbed onto a snake and would've had to change my shorts.

Does anyone else have snakes around their house? How do you control them?

We have at least one snake in our neighborhood. It controls the rat population. I like the snake.

how big is he? where are you located?

PaperPusher,

It could just be a corn snake. They are good snakes like Cm said they help with the rodent population.

Growing up on a corn/soy farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, we had a corn snake that grew to 9' long and lived in our shed. One day, my dad was backing the riding lawn mower out of the shed and the snake dropped on him. My dad screamed like a little girl then ran into the house to get his .38 then came back out and blasted the snake to bits.

Being on the Miles River, we also had our share of water moccassins and copperheads. These I would plink off with my .22 rifle during my pre- to early teens then scoop 'em up with a crab net and leave on the end of the dock for the ospreys to feed their young.

I would say you and my dad are in the same camp where snakes are concerned! I would pay good money for a time machine and video camera to catch that scream and the whole event on tape.

Cheers!

you're right, I'm like your dad but my little girl was with me so I had to maintain my composure. I'm in the Alexandria section of Fairfax county which I'd consider "in the city" and am surrounded by other homes. My issue with the whole thing is, why my house and why my FRONT DOOR!!?

I'm considering having a priest sprinkle some holy water or something out there in case it was the fucking devil himself.

Just get/catch him out of his hole and then shut all entrances in. They're more active in summer so now is the best time to do it. If its not a copperhead you have nothing to worry about.

/edit Oh yea, what color, how long, etc? If it was climbing I'd say it isnt a copperhead but I'm not the expert.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2005 11:17PM by johnnye.

don't know where his hole is. He was about 4 to 5 feet long and either brown or black

I've been wondering about this, I'm new to the area from across the country and live in a wooded area with lots of toads and deer so I venture there are a good amount of snakes too. What are the poisonous ones besides the rattlers? (They were quite abundant in CA as well). If I see a non-poisionious I won't care but I'd like to know which one might kill me or one of the dogs. Thanks.

The snakes of Virginia!

http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/VHS/snakes_of_virginia.htm

Randy, this is a great site. I'm convinced that what I saw was a ratsnake that was probably climbing to catch birds nesting under my gutter. He was being resourceful to climb up any way he possibly could and that just happened to be the area beside my front door.

I still don't like snakes and if I get the chance, there'll be one less ratsnake in the world.

The only snakes in Fairfax count are Cary and Stidman!

glad you got to sample the notion that this site is NOT about that radio show. It's about other stuff and Freda's death was a fluke that gravitated to this site.

Copperheads, mostly.

this sounds like one of those good reasons to own a gun. :)


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

you can tell a venomous snake from a non venomous snake....poison snakes have slit eyes like a cat. non Venomous have rounded eyes.

I think there might be an exception to that rule.

In the USA all venomous snakes have triangular heads. Unless you count the venomous sea snakes that washed up on a Cali beach recently

one eyed snake Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the USA all venomous snakes have triangular
> heads. Unless you count the venomous sea snakes
> that washed up on a Cali beach recently


Except the coral snake