# Eeek ! Found A Shed Snakeskin in the Cellar



## Beaglemom3 (Aug 29, 2012)

DF found a shed snakeskin on the workbench in the cellar this morning. We're thinking it's a harmless garter snake due to its small size, but have called a wildlife management service to do an inspection of it and the house (they'll check for bats, mice, etc. too in the inspection).

Last June, a larger, non-garter type snake was seen in our driveway. Not sure of the variety.

Three years ago, we had a cotton mouth removed by a professional removal team. It is believed that it may have hitched a ride here from a plant nursery down south as there were two new houses built around the corner and a large flatbed truck delivered a huge amount of landscaping plants.

I am unsettled.

Anyone have a similar situation ? I'd like to hear about your experiences. I live in Massachusetts, very suburban, 10 miles due west of Boston. It's a jungle out here.

"Snakes, why did it have to be snakes" (Indiana Jones)


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## ronparise (Aug 29, 2012)

15 years ago when I first moved to my new home in Florida,  (a surburban area just outside of Ft Myers) I was meeting the neighbors....6 of us were standing in a circle in my front yard chatting.  And a black snake ran (do snakes run?)  right through our circle. They call these things black racers for a reason.  I jumped. my neighbors didnt. They were used to it

Some years later, I found a snakeskin on the lanai between my back door and the pool. I just picked it up and put it into the trash.

Another time I was head and shoulders into a group of Palmetto Palms with a pruner,  thinning them out. About a foot in front of my face was a yellow red snake of some sort. sunning himself on one of the palm fronds...I killed him

And just this year I found a small black snake in the skimmer basket of my pool.. I used a net to scoop him up and toss him into the yard


ive only seen one alligator though.  He was just crossing the road from one drainage swale to another


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## Don (Aug 29, 2012)

Look at the skin, particularly the underside after the anal vent to the end of the tail.  If each of the rows are single scales going straight across, then it is venomous. If they are two scales that interlock at the center, then it is safe.
There are seven other ways listed at the wikihow web site. 
http://www.wikihow.com/Identify-a-Venomous-Snake


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## justmeinflorida (Aug 29, 2012)

When we bought our house last year...there was fencing all the way around it, except the backyard (don't ask me why  ). DH & his friend were digging up the ground to put the back fence up. There was a large mound of dirt (or so we though) in one of the back corners. When they went to dig it up they found out it was a HUGE palm tree root. So they got the chainsaw out and started to cut it up, when all of a sudden I saw bits blood on the chainsaw. Well needless to say we found a very nice sized black snake cut up in a couple of pieces. I felt bad for the poor thing. Not DH's fault either it was under the root but I've asked him to please extra careful using the chainsaw.


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## Beaglemom3 (Aug 29, 2012)

justmeinflorida said:


> When we bought our house last year...there was fencing all the way around it, except the backyard (don't ask me why  ). DH & his friend were digging up the ground to put the back fence up. There was a large mound of dirt (or so we though) in one of the back corners. When they went to dig it up they found out it was a HUGE palm tree root. So they got the chainsaw out and started to cut it up, when all of a sudden I saw bits blood on the chainsaw. Well needless to say we found a very nice sized black snake cut up in a couple of pieces. I felt bad for the poor thing. Not DH's fault either it was under the root but I've asked him to please extra careful using the chainsaw.



Hmmm, chainsaws and snakes...... this has the making of a very bad horror film ! :rofl:  All that is needed is that it takes place on a plane.

I hope we have a better ending, but I'm not ruling out the use of a chainsaw.


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## Passepartout (Aug 29, 2012)

No big fan of snakes here, but they have their benefits. They hold down the mouse population, and when the mice are depleted, the snakes just leave.

Beyond the unexpectedness of snakes appearances, there's that biblical bias thing. We are taught from a very early age that snakes are just plain _evil_. Personification of the Devil and all that, when really, they are just another critter of creation.

So lighten up. Finding a skin just means it was well enough fed to outgrow it. It took a lot of mice to grow the snake. As far as I know, Boston and environs are not particularly home to humongous poisonous vipers. If there are, it would be good to study up on their appearance and habits.

Jim


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## Beaglemom3 (Aug 29, 2012)

Passepartout said:


> No big fan of snakes here, but they have their benefits. They hold down the mouse population, and when the mice are depleted, the snakes just leave.
> 
> Beyond the unexpectedness of snakes appearances, there's that biblical bias thing. We are taught from a very early age that snakes are just plain _evil_. Personification of the Devil and all that, when really, they are just another critter of creation.
> 
> ...



Jim,
  Thanks,  I needed a good leveling talk. It has helped. You are right, the occasional field mice visits are less. 
  I'm not horrified about snakes, just having the evidence that one was in my house (cellar) is unsettling. 
  Doug is home today (I am at work in my w/c) and will be there for the "critter wrangler" visit.
  Thanks again.


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## Rose Pink (Aug 29, 2012)

I've not found any snakes in my basement, just spiders.  I'll take the spiders, thank you.  It was kind of creepy, though, when I found a tiny pile of spider legs on the bathroom floor.

I think a snake skin would be kind of cool--as long as the snake was no longer in it.  Was it pretty?


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## ampaholic (Aug 29, 2012)

Beaglemom3 said:


> "Snakes, why did it have to be snakes" (Indiana Jones)



When I was a teen in So Cal - we used to hunt rattlesnakes with a stick with a wire attached. We were getting them for dinner.

If you got practiced you could snick off the head liklity-split and with a little cleaning have 3 to 5 pounds of yummy for the frying pan.

Different strokes .....


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## rhonda (Aug 29, 2012)

This is my year for snakes.  I stepped on a rather large gopher snake in my garden -- quite by accident, of course.  I screamed as it slapped my leg at the calf.  I was wearing flip-flops ... ugh.

The next day my DH freed two gopher snakes caught in the netting we'd used to protect our smallest apple tree from the birds and pesky ground squirrels.   A few weeks ago I came very close to a rattler who was lurking below our grape vines.  

My stable is full of stories this year, too.  Plenty of close encounters were recorded this summer.


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## Icc5 (Aug 29, 2012)

*Rat snake*

A few years ago my daughter found what she called a rat snake in a watermelon bin where she worked in Produce.  She brought it home and of course it got out.  Two weeks later when it was caught under a chair was when my wife let me know it had escaped two weeks ago.
Bart


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## heathpack (Aug 29, 2012)

Here's what I found sitting on my patio two weeks ago:






A little bit less menacing.  I gave her to a veterinarian friend of mine.  Now she is the pet of a six year old girl.  Her name is Snow White.



H


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## Talent312 (Aug 29, 2012)

To deal with snakes, get some cats.
The cats at our house have a way with snakes and other critters.


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## dumbydee (Aug 29, 2012)

I have always heard that cats will keep snakes away; however, I have cats and I found a snake skin in my laundry room off the garage.

We had only lived here about a 2 months when I went out to do laundry and saw something sticking out from under the washing machine.  I stuck my barefoot toe over to see what it was when I realized it was a snake skin.  

I threw my clothes down and ran back into the house and out the front door.  Needless to say someone else had to do my laundry for over 3 months.  I am terrified of snakes and get chill bumps all over just talking about them.  

We have been in our house over 4 years now and have not found anything else in the house/garage.  We did put mothballs in the garage and laundry room immediately.  

My dogs cornered a 6 foot long garden snake in the backyard this summer and my neighbor said they killed one in their yard this year.


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## Haley (Aug 30, 2012)

Snakes are the creepiest creatures in the world((( I hate them, if I saw snakeskin in my house I would set the whole place on fire...just in case)))



___________________________
scrabble


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## Beaglemom3 (Aug 30, 2012)

dumbydee said:


> I have always heard that cats will keep snakes away; however, I have cats and I found a snake skin in my laundry room off the garage.
> 
> We had only lived here about a 2 months when I went out to do laundry and saw something sticking out from under the washing machine.  I stuck my barefoot toe over to see what it was when I realized it was a snake skin.
> 
> ...





Haley said:


> Snakes are the creepiest creatures in the world((( I hate them, if I saw snakeskin in my house I would set the whole place on fire...just in case)))
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I think we're related !

Oh, the Wildlife man came today. Very professional and informative. He thinks it's a big one (DF told me that it was "small" just to keep me from feebing out).No nests found.  He plugged up a hole in the foundation and set glue traps. If the snake is inside, it is hoped that he'll slither onto one of these glue things and then we'll call the man to have it removed. They don't kill them unless they absolutely have to, so the slitherly fellow will be removed from his glue-state (they use Mazzola) onto a snake place in the Blue Hills. That's about 17 miles from me. Not far enough, but it'll do. 
Will update.


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## Rose Pink (Aug 30, 2012)

I use sticky traps for spiders.  Sometimes they just go around them.  One day, our cat stepped on one and then freaked out trying to run with it glued to her feet.  The snake ones must be  more sticky than the spider ones--maybe like the rodent traps?  Anyway, be sure you have no pets in the area of the trap.  

Did the wildlife man say what kind of snake it was for certain?  If you know it isn't venomous, you could rest easier.


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## Rob&Carol Q (Aug 30, 2012)

Don said:


> Look at the skin, particularly the underside after the anal vent to the end of the tail.  If each of the rows are single scales going straight across, then it is venomous. If they are two scales that interlock at the center, then it is safe.
> There are seven other ways listed at the wikihow web site.
> http://www.wikihow.com/Identify-a-Venomous-Snake



Pardon me but What the Heck?!?!   You'll know it's venomous as you die a shrieking and painful death...

Something to think about...the snake left that skin because it's bigger now!

Sleep Well...


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## Beaglemom3 (Aug 30, 2012)

Rob&Carol Q said:


> Pardon me but What the Heck?!?!   You'll know it's venomous as you die a shrieking and painful death...
> 
> Something to think about...the snake left that skin because it's bigger now!
> 
> Sleep Well...




Lovely. Thank you.


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## Beaglemom3 (Aug 30, 2012)

Don said:


> Look at the skin, particularly the underside after the anal vent to the end of the tail.  If each of the rows are single scales going straight across, then it is venomous. If they are two scales that interlock at the center, then it is safe.
> There are seven other ways listed at the wikihow web site.
> http://www.wikihow.com/Identify-a-Venomous-Snake



Thank you. Good info. The Wildlife man could not make a definitve identification. He did say that venomous snakes are rare in these parts.


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## dumbydee (Aug 30, 2012)

I was told that the snakes will come in to shed there skins then go back out.  The reason they come in is to find somewhere safe to shed the skin.  I suppose they are vulnerable while shedding.  

The above is something I heard not something I know but it made me feel better to think the snake had left the premises.  We stopped up the hole that we found also.  

The skin I found was about 6 foot long....very scary    

Good luck hope they catch the snake.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Aug 30, 2012)

Rob&Carol Q said:


> Pardon me but What the Heck?!?!   You'll know it's venomous as you die a shrieking and painful death...
> 
> Something to think about...the snake left that skin because it's bigger now!
> 
> Sleep Well...



Very few people ever die from a snake bite because the venom dose isn't big enough.  Snakes eat small animals, and the amount of venom delivered is what is needed from a critter with a body mass no more than a few percent of a typical adult human.  It's enough to make you sick, but generally not fatal unless the victim is weak, infirm, or a small child.


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## SueDonJ (Aug 30, 2012)

Beaglemom3 said:


> I think we're related !
> 
> Oh, the Wildlife man came today. Very professional and informative. He thinks it's a big one (DF told me that it was "small" just to keep me from feebing out).No nests found.  He plugged up a hole in the foundation and set glue traps. If the snake is inside, it is hoped that he'll slither onto one of these glue things and then we'll call the man to have it removed. They don't kill them unless they absolutely have to, so the slitherly fellow will be removed from his glue-state (they use Mazzola) onto a snake place in the Blue Hills. That's about 17 miles from me. Not far enough, but it'll do.
> Will update.



EEK!  NO!  See if you can get him to take it further west, maybe out toward Amherst on the Pike?  The Blue Hills are less than ten miles from me!

There must be something in the water in Massachusetts.  Did you also have that weird mass hatching of millions of tiny little flying insects about an hour before sunset last night?  It was disgusting!  I opened the back door for just a few seconds and hundreds of them invaded the kitchen; we had to get the vacuum and wave it around the room to get them all.  I still don't know what they were - looked like teeny-tiny blue ants with gossamer wings, and they naturally died a couple hours after they hatched.  The bats had a field day with them out back.  Yuck!


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## Beaglemom3 (Aug 30, 2012)

T_R_Oglodyte said:


> ......but generally not fatal unless the victim is weak, infirm, or a small child.



Or in a wheelchair ?

 



--


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## shagnut (Aug 30, 2012)

Reminds me of when my ex (husband at the time) moved into a house in Orlando.  I went in the screened in porch and there a big coiled up snake!! I started screaming and a neighbor came over with a hoe and killed it. When she did a bunch of little baby snakes came out of her . Neighbor killed all of them too.  I demanded to move but he wouldn't let me, dang I knew I should have left him right then and there.   shaggy


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## Rob&Carol Q (Aug 31, 2012)

T_R_Oglodyte said:


> Very few people ever die from a snake bite because the venom dose isn't big enough.  Snakes eat small animals, and the amount of venom delivered is what is needed from a critter with a body mass no more than a few percent of a typical adult human.  It's enough to make you sick, but generally not fatal unless the victim is weak, infirm, or a small child.



You can quote science all day long but you missed one possible/probable outcome...at least in my case.

*Dying of Shock!  *


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