Nothing like a snake in the Kitchen

[Basil]

To liven up an otherwise boring evening!

I was sitting here ripping some CDs into my iPod and the wife ran into my office in a panic yelling "There's a snake in the kitchen!" Luckily it was not a Rattle Snake, just a harmless New Mexico Milk Snake:

Kind a pretty actually. First one of these I've seen in 15 years living here.

 

[Silverghost]

I see the bands are red, black, white, black, red,......if they were red, black, brown, black, red...would that make it a New Mexico Chocolate Milk Snake??! :laugh: Enquiring minds want to know!!! LOL

 

[AngliaGT]

Man! I hate it when that happens!(Never).
Glad it wasn't poisonous.

- Doug

 

[Deleted member 8987]

You ain't lived until you are sitting down to dinner with the wife and kiddies and two Pit Vipers come crawling out from under the kitchen sink.

You kill one with a machete, the other disappears....family is sharing space with dinner on the kitchen table.....and 20 minutes later you find the bugger has crawled INSIDE the leg of the gas stove.

WHACK!

Next bad thing is a Fer de Lance in the grass........even the natives ran off when they see a Fer de Lance.

Lomalinda, Colombia, 1980......

 

[DrEntropy]

Must be somethin' in the air. Last Friday mornin' I walked out here to the garage, opened the overhead and went in for the first cuppa... walked back out, stepped past the barrier of kultch (I'm in flip-flops here) and right onto a black snake. HARD. I went straight up, snake tried to strike (out of panic/pain, certes) and coffee went flyin'. Lost half a cup. Snake slithered INTO my garage. I'm of the opinion he's badly injured or kacked. Haven't seen him since. Don't hear any "snakey" sounds, but so-far no odor. Not about to move the mountain of stuff in here just to confirm a snake presence. Not that big a herpetology fan.

 

[GregW]

Luckily it was not a Rattle Snake, just a harmless New Mexico Milk Snake:

Or a coral snake. I had to look up the difference in the stripe pattern since it has been so long.

 

[Guest]

I heard they taste like chicken and it's already in the kitchen...

Milk snake, eh? Maybe it just needed to borrow a cup.


Milk snakes aint bad, it's the ~cheese~ snakes you gotta watch out for.

 

[Mickey Richaud]

One of my favorites from the late sixties:

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Somehow fits, don't it? :cooler:

 

[vagt6]

Some folks get all panicy about snakes, but fact is most snakes are very good to have around. One snake can eat a lot of rodents/pests, it's amazing.

My neighbor years ago in Roanoke was a herpetologist (e.g., reptile expert) at VA Tech. Said a couple of (non-poisonous) snakes in the backyard will keep ALL the mice away!

Beautiful, the milk snake.

 

[Healeysince59]

Had a big rattler in the garage about 10 years ago. Recently we had a Gila Monster in the garage. Stood around and watched it for about 10 minutes until it went behind some stuff and, being basically stupid, took no pictures. Do have pictures of a pair of rattlers in the back yard that were - uh - engaged, but If I posted them Basil would ban me for life. Here's a picture of a guy that decided to take a dip in our pool.

Marv J

 

[Basil]

Had a big rattler in the garage about 10 years ago. Recently we had a Gila Monster in the garage. Stood around and watched it for about 10 minutes until it went behind some stuff and, being basically stupid, took no pictures. Do have pictures of a pair of rattlers in the back yard that were - uh - engaged, but If I posted them Basil would ban me for life. Here's a picture of a guy that decided to take a dip in our pool.

Marv J

Had on of the in the garage a couple of years ago. We have lots of them around, but they don't usually get close to the house.

 

[DrEntropy]

That's what surprises me. The things heading into the dwellings. I WANT the things in the back yard, even tell the neighbors my back yard is a snake's paradise.

Most would-be B&E morons take one look and move on. "CAUTION: SNAKES!" signs have been discussed as well. Haven't felt the need to be that blatant, tho.

 

[Gliderman8]

Found a couple of baby snakes in my backyard a few weeks ago while mowing the lawn. When I told my neighbor, he wanted to know if I killed them?... No, I just let them be as nature intended.
We have a creek behind our house where ducks flock to. Every now and then I see a red fox going for dinner and sometimes he wins.

 

[aerog]

Yeah. Ick. Had a black "racer" run into the house one day. Opened the door and he "ran" in. Went all over the place until I chased it into the bathroom and cornered it.

In a related but slower-paced story, one day we noticed a <span style="font-style: italic">huge</span> eastern diamond-backed rattlesnack on a taxiway near the hangar. It was 5-6ft long and slowly crawling toward the hangar door. I had visions of this sucker finding a way into one of the airplanes then finding it again at a bad time. We closed the door but it had a big rubber gasket on the bottom that the snack pushed through.

I finally turned it away with a hose and cold water, it went off to the adjacent golf course.

 

[Healeysince59]

We don't hassle them. We have a problem with pack rats and the snakes help keep the population down.

Marv J

 

[Guest]

My neighbor years ago in Roanoke was a herpetologist

I heard there's no cure for that...

Recently we had a Gila Monster in the garage. Stood around and watched it for about 10 minutes until it went behind some stuff and, being basically stupid, took no pictures.

You're lucky, I heard the snakes that are smart enough to take pictures are the most dangerous... Spy snakes???

Yeah. Ick. Had a black "racer" run into the house one day. Opened the door and he "ran" in. Went all over the place until I chased it into the bathroom and cornered it.

He's a runner, that's part of his job. If you wouldn't have chased him, he wouldn't have "went" all over the place. He was headin' fer the bathroom after all...


Thank you all very much, I'll be here all week...

 

[Gliderman8]

I had visions of this sucker finding a way into one of the airplanes then finding it again at a bad time. We closed the door but it had a big rubber gasket on the bottom that the snack pushed through.

I remember reading a story some years back in "Soaring Magazine" about a glider pilot that took a guy up for a ride (I think it was in the southwest). Just after releasing, the passenger in the front seat heard a "rattle". Turns out that a rattler crawled in to get out of the heat.
The article went on to talk about "flying the plane" even when bad things are going on around you. I bet they had to clean the seat out from the passenger :smirk:

 

[Twosheds]

I remember reading a story some years back in "Soaring Magazine" about a glider pilot that took a guy up for a ride (I think it was in the southwest). Just after releasing, the passenger in the front seat heard a "rattle". Turns out that a rattler crawled in to get out of the heat.
The article went on to talk about "flying the plane" even when bad things are going on around you. I bet they had to clean the seat out from the passenger :smirk:

Back when I worked at a drop zone, the pilot, after dumping a load of student jumpers, asked the jumpmaster, "Are you afraid of snakes?"

"Why?"

"There's a snake behind the left rudder pedal. I didn't say anything while the students were still in because it might have freaked them out."

The pilot wasn't afraid of snakes and the landing was uneventful. The black snake had wedged himself in there pretty tightly, though, and didn't want to be removed. Probably scared of all the noise and hubbub.

 

[GaryBeu]

My cat brings live snakes into the house as "presents" for me...mostly just harmless ringnecked snakes.

 

[DNK]

That's one thing I will miss if I do move from here to the south.
Nothin here venomous,snake nor bug.