4ft Snake Climbing My Swing Chain

[steve urquell]

I live out in the woods on 24 acres. We have snakes around. I have a basket hanging under my porch roof and I've had black snakes try to find a way to get to the birds that nest in it. Right now house finches have a brood in it.

This snake couldn't get to the birds and I didn't hurt him. He probably takes care of mice around here and maybe eats a few copperheads. He was very placid. I grabbed a stick and lifted him off the chain and set him in the yard.

Didn't even try to strike at the stick. Not the biggest black snake I've seen here but it's neat to see how well they can climb.



https://youtube.com/shorts/TWlJaD5LPGI?feature=shared

[contender1]

Glad to hear you didn't hurt him.

Yes,, they are good to have around & are harmless. (Unless you are something it might eat!)

Their climbing ability is fun to watch!

[steve urquell]

Glad to hear you didn't hurt him.

Yes,, they are good to have around & are harmless. (Unless you are something it might eat!)

Their climbing ability is fun to watch!

Thanks. I have never felt the need to harm these guys. Here's my biggest one.
He hung around here for years and I carried him away from the house many times. Nearly caused a few heart attacks when leaving the house and almost stepping on him laying on my breezeway.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I wonder how he would have gotten back down. It's hard to envision him doing a 180 on the stick and passing by himself on the way down. Maybe just let go and drop?

The last few years I've been fortunate enough to live where there are no snakes at all, it would seem. I've been here 7 years and haven't seen any, and the neighbor has been here 11 years without seeing any. Since this is volcanic country and much of the soil is powdery pumice I've been told that the pumice gets in between the snake's scales and irritates them, so they don't live here. Whatever the reason, that makes me very happy.

DG

[upr45]

We had a snake cause an outage by climbing galvanized steel i-beam to get at a bird nest.

[steve urquell]

I wonder how he would have gotten back down. It's hard to envision him doing a 180 on the stick and passing by himself on the way down. Maybe just let go and drop?

The last few years I've been fortunate enough to live where there are no snakes at all, it would seem. I've been here 7 years and haven't seen any, and the neighbor has been here 11 years without seeing any. Since this is volcanic country and much of the soil is powdery pumice I've been told that the pumice gets in between the snake's scales and irritates them, so they don't live here. Whatever the reason, that makes me very happy.

DG

When I went to grab a stick and came back he was doing exactly that. He had his head down and was doubled climbing back down over himself. I have heard them thumping on to the porch off the chain before but it was because they were reaching way out off the chain trying to get in a bird bottle I had on my porch wall near the ceiling.

We had a snake cause an outage by climbing galvanized steel i-beam to get at a bird nest.

I heard a thumping sound one night and had one wrapped in my AC condensor fan. I had chipmunks nesting in the condensor and the snake was after them and got caught when the fan started. Had to cut it into pieces it was wrapped so tight.

[Bazoo]

We have them around here as well. Plus some other good varieties with patterns. Once in a while they will get the baby barn swallows that nest on our porch. It's at that time I think about blasting them, but they are just doing what they do.

[jsizemore]

Rat snake.

https://srelherp.uga.edu/snakes/elaobs.htm

[Barry54]

Talk about stink!
A dead snake stinks worse and sooner than other dead critters in my opinion. What a mess to have to clean up!!!

[dverna]

You will need to "kick it up a notch" on those wasp loads.

[Rickf1985]

We have black snakes and garter snakes around me and I fully welcome them around the perimeter of the house. When the snakes are present I have no mice whatsoever. Problem is that they will follow the food so once they clear out the mice they move on, and the mice come back. I am about due for a couple snakes to show back up.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Talk about stink!
A dead snake stinks worse and sooner than other dead critters in my opinion. What a mess to have to clean up!!!

I think that you're absolutely right about the stink made by dead snakes. That has also been my experience. When I lived in the Sierra Nevada foothills in N. Calif. we had a hayfield, and when it was mowed a couple of diamondbacks would always get chopped up. The very next day if you walked through the field you could smell them... almost nauseous. Whenever we ran across one in the open and killed it we would cut off and bury the head, as we'd heard it said that the meat-eating hornets, wasps, some bees will feed on the dead snake, and if they ingest the venom it doesn't seem to hurt them, but if stung by one of them you can get a dose of it. Is this fact or fiction-- I've never know for certain, but would still follow the practice out of an abundance of caution. I have observed hornet-type insects dining on them in great numbers. Also, that smell might be the reason why the rest of the snake was always gone the next day, scarfed up by some wandering predator, or more likely a buzzard. Buzzard's not only possess great eyesight, but a keen sense of smell. I ran across a buzzard's nest once out in the forest. It was a broken off hollow tree about 10 ft. above the ground. The smell was just ghastly. Of course, the hornets would have a hard time beating some of the members here on the forum to the dead rattlesnake if it was lunchtime.

DG

[waksupi]

That's a Boone and Crockett snake!

[Handloader109]

Had one in bush about 6 ft off the ground last year trying to get to a bird's nest. left him alone. I had about a dozen telephone poles of various lengths out in our front pasture against our south fence. Power company gave them to me about 4 years ago while the replaced about half of the poles in our area. I used a few but gave these to a friend to use for a new barn. Moved them yesterday and found 3 King Snakes in/under and around them. Yeah, they moved off after a bit.

[Mk42gunner]

It seems like a fall doesn't hurt blacksnakes. One night as I got out of the car I heard something that made me think of a five pound ham being dropped a couple of stories.

Turns out it was a fiveish foot blacksnake wrapped around a robin. The robins' nest was about twenty five feet up in a tree.

I'm sure glad it didn't drop on me.

Robert

[steve urquell]

We have them around here as well. Plus some other good varieties with patterns. Once in a while they will get the baby barn swallows that nest on our porch. It's at that time I think about blasting them, but they are just doing what they do.

We do too. I've seen speckled kingsnakes and I even had a black racer. The name fits, fastest snake I've ever seen.

Rat snake.

https://srelherp.uga.edu/snakes/elaobs.htm

Yep. We just call them black snakes.

It seems like a fall doesn't hurt blacksnakes. One night as I got out of the car I heard something that made me think of a five pound ham being dropped a couple of stories.

Turns out it was a fiveish foot blacksnake wrapped around a robin. The robins' nest was about twenty five feet up in a tree.

I'm sure glad it didn't drop on me.

Robert

When they were after the bird bottle it was "thud, thud, thud..." over and over. They didn't mind falling from 6ft up for sure.

[beemer]

I think that you're absolutely right about the stink made by dead snakes. That has also been my experience. When I lived in the Sierra Nevada foothills in N. Calif. we had a hayfield, and when it was mowed a couple of diamondbacks would always get chopped up. The very next day if you walked through the field you could smell them... almost nauseous. Whenever we ran across one in the open and killed it we would cut off and bury the head, as we'd heard it said that the meat-eating hornets, wasps, some bees will feed on the dead snake, and if they ingest the venom it doesn't seem to hurt them, but if stung by one of them you can get a dose of it. Is this fact or fiction-- I've never know for certain, but would still follow the practice out of an abundance of caution. I have observed hornet-type insects dining on them in great numbers. Also, that smell might be the reason why the rest of the snake was always gone the next day, scarfed up by some wandering predator, or more likely a buzzard. Buzzard's not only possess great eyesight, but a keen sense of smell. I ran across a buzzard's nest once out in the forest. It was a broken off hollow tree about 10 ft. above the ground. The smell was just ghastly. Of course, the hornets would have a hard time beating some of the members here on the forum to the dead rattlesnake if it was lunchtime.

DG

I'll Tell you what else stinks about a buzzard..

Several years ago I came around a sharp curve and ran up on several buzzards dinning on a flat possum pie. The buzzards took off and I actually had one over the hood of the car. He was was really straining to gain some altitude. You can probably guess what happened, I got a couple good squirts. Talk about rotten, I almost threw up wild hosing the car off.

[Brassmonkey]

Lucky, only snake I’ve seen around here in 4 years was a baby garter.

[steve urquell]

I'll Tell you what else stinks about a buzzard..

Several years ago I came around a sharp curve and ran up on several buzzards dinning on a flat possum pie. The buzzards took off and I actually had one over the hood of the car. He was was really straining to gain some altitude. You can probably guess what happened, I got a couple good squirts. Talk about rotten, I almost threw up wild hosing the car off.

I was recently driving in to work in my Miata with the top down, came around a curve to a similar sight only they had altitude and were circling overhead. I had the thought of how bad it would be to be bombed on my head from above with the top down. I don't know if Ajax would wash that off.

Thank God they held it in. Hope I never experience that in my lifetime.

[Texas by God]

Today, I tried to stop a 5’ chicken snake from entering the yard. From the vibrating Snapper mower I tried to hit it in the head with my Wrangler .22 pistol…..
6 shots later, it tried to leave with a flesh wound on its neck…..
The zero turn cut that plan short, however!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk