Posted on 05/27/2018 11:59:54 AM PDT by ETL
A Texas man who had just moved into a new home in Morgan's Point Resort was shaking in his boots after a surprise guest showed up at his front door Tuesday.
A nearly 7-foot reptile, later identified as a Texas rat snake, was coiled around the grille on the homeowner's door. As the man went to turn his key in the door, the snake moved.
-snip-
The Texas rat snake is a non-venomous reptile that's commonly found in North Texas. ..."
"Texas rat snakes are excellent climbers and there have been occasional reports of Texas rat snakes climbing the sides of brick walls on buildings," the center explains on its website. "This can be the result of the snake detecting the presence of rodents, which often seek shelter in attics."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I let my chickens out and they LOVE copperhead snakes. In the long run they chase them out of our property.
Five minutes after I got home on Friday might my wife screamed bloody murder. It turns out she had stumbled upon a 5’ black rat snake in the stairwell to our basement. I have spent my entire life hating/fearing snakes and had never even touched one. Obviously, I can’t have snakes living in the house and knew I needed to man up. Going against every instinct I had, I picked it up just behind the head. He didn’t give me any trouble, just wrapped himself around my arm a couple of times and patiently awaited his fate. Once I let go of his neck in the grass outside he quietly went about his business. That experience totally changed my perspective about snakes, at least black rat snakes.
OMG. I didn’t need to see those pics.
Are these the same snakes that sometimes end up in toilets? They climb high to where they sense prey is — rats in attics, etc. Then they come down the plumbing vent pipes in the roof?
Have heard this is true, and have heard it’s an old wives’ tale. Not sure what to believe.
"Hey, baby. That's cold!"
"Red touch yellow, kill that fellow"...
Learned in boy scouts. Red and yellow killer fellow, red and black friend of jack. Same thing. We just were taught not to kill things in nature, like that never happened.
I know that coral snakes are native to Florida, but I can't recall having seen one in decades. They seem to have been effectively eradicated in virtually all populated areas of the State, largely because of the saying I quoted.
King snakes seem to be doing fine in Florida...
Good way to keep the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons away.
Them snakes on the bricks must be mortar snakes.
Went out on our patio last night and just about stepped on a 4 foot + rat snake. Hubby stopped me. We tossed over backyard fence and soon at an army of my guineas were trotting over to “help themselves”. They were happy, but my little snake did not seem thrilled. I did not stay to see how the interaction went, but I think the birds won.
Yes, I kept a couple of rat snakes as pets, in my youth, here in Florida. They're constrictors, like a Boa.
I never needed to visit the pet store to buy mice for feed. I just went into the backyard and caught various lizards (mainly Brazilian Anoles) to feed my rat snakes—which seemed to do the trick.
When I owned a Boa, I did go to the pet store and bought mice for about 69 cents each. That would have been in the late 70's...
I wondered why some snakes followed patterns on bricks. Mortar snakes.
Yeah, I like rat snakes, until they find the henhouse. Once they start eating eggs, they rarely go back to rats. Eggs are such an easy source of protein.
Found a five-footer the other day nearing the henhouse, so I relocated it. Haven’t seen it again. They can get kind of cranky, but this one was pretty docile.
We saw a speckled king snake a few weeks ago. What a blessing!
I’ve been into snakes since I was 7 years old, and had many pet snakes throughout my life - garter snakes, green snakes, red-tailed boas and a ball python.
But without doubt, the meanest, most hostile and aggressive one was a yellow rat snake that I took home in eight grade from my science classroom for the summer because my science teacher was on a sabbatical and he asked me to care for it in his absence
He routinely would try to strike at me through the glass, hitting his nose in the process. When I tried to handle him, he would bite me, actually drawing blood on one occasion.
I was really glad when the science teacher came back and I was able to return it to the classroom.
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