Garter snake came in my house
 

And I'm skeeved out. He blended into the carpet and I keep thinking I usually walk around barefoot, and frequently with the lights out. I know he was harmless, and that I'm overreacting, but that doesn't seem to be helping.

I've come across rattlers when I used to hike and they didn't particularly freak me out, I'd just avoid them by back tracking etc.

Any help would be appreciated.

Well, whats the "rest of the story"? Did you have a bad time getting him out?

What I would do with my grandson is have him be the snake and see what it's like with me trying to get him out of the house. Should at least get some good laughs if you can find the right kid to play with:rolleyes:

Oh I can really commiserate with that critter in the house.

Our cat Oreo brings in live critters (so far no snake tho) all the time and has taught our new kittie Weezie to do the same!

We had a mink frog at 1am upNorth, jumping around the bedroom and screaming (I didn't know they made that sound)
and I had to get the Oreo net and catch him and take him out!
(luckily I shut the closet door just before they moved towards it. Getting him out of THERE would be difficult.

I love nature but I confess I get eeeuuu
.
those things are in the house. I typically react with a screech of my own. Hubby and I have become very good with the net! We use a butterfly net that is sold for kids, to remove critters.

I think a snake would be difficult and very fast and alarming!
Have you removed him yet? One ploy we have done is leaving the door open to "outside"...many live critters will leave if given the chance. Second idea is a dark box for him to hide in....provide one, and check often to see if he is in it. Make the opening rather small...as they like that. Check your sunny areas often, because snakes need to warm up. Maybe he is looking for a warm place for winter?

Ee
.
would be a frightening experience. Even though it's a harmless snake - it's still a snake - and I totally understand the fear even just seeing one can cause. I know everyone says "they're as scared of you as you are of them" but that still doesn't make me feel any better! :o

Until you locate him I think I'd wear my shoes in the house. Do you have any indoor pets? They'll find him for sure. Here in GA there was just a story on the news about Copperheads being found in homes due to the lack of water outside. They're looking for a drink.

Good luck finding him and getting him back outside. Hopefully you can find the access area he used to get in there in the first place. Maybe put a shallow pan of water near a dark area and see if that's what he wants. MrsD's suggestion of a net is good, too. At least you can keep him confined until you can get him outside again.

He was removed within a half an hour. I checked online and it said to contact the fire department. I didn't know what type of snake he was at that point. My glasses were in the bedroom with him, and the sucker was fast, so I wasn't going to chance it in case it was a baby rattler.

So, the physical problem was resolved quickly, and intellectually I get it's a non-issue at this point, but I had to turn the lights on and put shoes on when I got up through the night. And I keep checking the carpet like a new one will appear!

Just be aware that it's a possibility. If it were me I'd wear shoes all the time in the house now!

I'm not sure where you are geographically but here in GA snakes are trying to find water and they're appearing in some very unexpected places. I just assume all snakes are poisonous and keep my distance from them.

I'm glad to know he's been relocated and isn't intruding in your space anymore. :)

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If ya can't beat em, eat em!

Thanks, I'll wear shoes and be careful of not allowing access to new critters in the future. I thought I was maybe overreating.

Well done to the fire department. That's really good they came and got it out for you. We have snake catchers here. They'll come and retrieve the snake/s and relocate them back in the bush. Any type of snake in the house is a scary thing. Yikes.

Umm... While that's true, IME, that's also how many of the critters have gotten into our house to begin with - drawn to warmth, smell of food sources, water, curiosity(?).... and we have had that idea backfire; the mate/parent of the intruder came looking for its lost one.

Over the years, our abode has been invaded by all manner of bugs, birds, bats, mice, squirrels, chipmonks (3 this week alone), stray cats & dogs, raccoons (2 this past winter), and snakes. (I'm probably leaving something out but I just woke up.) This has resulted in certain procedures we've adopted:

1. Stay calm (or get control, or find someone who can)
2. Control any children/pets until
3. Identification of intruder & assess possible danger/risk (venom, rabies, bird flu, etc.)
4. formulate an appropriate eviction plan
5. execute same

HTH,

Doc

I guess we've been very lucky...

Squirrels are the most common here...all have run out on their own. The red ones upNorth, also.

Birds as a rule do not. But one Xmas eve hubby came in the back door at night and unbeknownst to us 2 house wrens were roosting in a bird's nest I kept in a little Tiffany holder by the back door frame (which is a closed in porch). He startled them, because we don't come in or out that way late at night. They then flew into the house all over in a frantic rush. We just shoo'd them back the way they came and out they went. Turns out they found a small hole in the screen and entered the porch that way!

We've had one bat in the bedroom which went back out the open window we prepared for it.

Chipmunks will go out also, but they take more time about it.
We've also had raccoons, and except for one who wouldn't leave the garage, they left too. The garage one I had to coax out with a turkey leg and other offerings. I made a trail along the floor and when it got out we rushed up behind it and closed the door. We had the door open while doing some work there one day and it moved in during daylight.

I really knew the frog would NOT be smart enough to find a door, so I caught him and tossed him in the lake so the cats wouldn't go back and bring him in again.

We have 2 cat doors, but they can be closed off. We just forget sometimes. In summer I leave my window open because of the heat, and that door is usually how the cats bring them in.

UpNorth this summer, our Weezie found a sparrow at 1am... so his nest on the ground was where he was roosting for the night.
We've never had them catch a bird in the night before this year!

We've had small things in the attic, so we keep a live trap. Also a sonic screaming thingey works well. We had a handyman examine all the high spots on the house this spring and he found 2 entries...and they are now closed.

The most difficult I think are the night flying squirrels. They are very difficult to get rid of.

snake story too
 

once in awhile these little beasties come into our houses. My mom had a tiny hole in her laundry room, and a rat snake crawled into her bed sheets. I went to shake out the sheet before I put it in the wash and this huge posenious looking snake dropped right on my toes. I did the freakie deek dance and neighbors could hear my screams I am sure. the snake make a bee line back out side, and that hole sure got plugged up. sorry you had the critter bother you, but try not to let it scare you unreasonably. I don't care for them eithor, and especially not on my toes. Years from now, you may even smile about your encounter like i do. ginnie

Oh, ginnie.... what a surprise that must have been.

I like your term "freaky deek dance"...it is very appropriate.

I have a funny "snake" story too. This does not apply to homes however.

This spring I was shopping at WalMart, and on the way to the check out I passed the toys, and decided to see if they had any large insects made of rubber or plastic. Our kitten then was very playful, and I recalled one cat we had Sheba who recently passed away, playing with a giant ant, my son had once.

So the insects didn't move me, but there WAS a rubber garter snake. Since we have them on vacation, I thought it would be a toy to get Weez used to the concept!

But I didn't expect the checker salesgal to react to it when she found it on the belt! I was talking to the lady behind me and the checker let out a screech thinking it was real. Many people turned to stare, and all 3 of us had a good laugh. I didn't do it on purpose ...but I don't think she believed me when I told her it was for a cat toy. A big reaction all for $.99! LOL :p

MrsD, my kids played that joke on me when they were young. They had a rubber snake that looked very real from a distance. They thought it'd be funny to put it on the ground beside my tomato plants in the back yard. That thing scared the daylights out of me. It looked so real - especially when I really wasn't expecting to see it. Needless to say, I looked around carefully from that day on before stepping off the porch into the backyard. :o

Oh, that's funny.... probably not to you...but I love stories like this!

You know, my son had several fake insects, and one was a fly.
The plastic fly was not that big really, about the size of a deer fly.

Well hubby's aunt who we shared the upNorth home with was a very testy unpleasant person. She never was satisfied no matter how much we cleaned everything when we closed up.
It is impossible to get everything, and some things do happen during the winter, like dust blowing down the chimney and bugs dying on windowsills, etc.

So one year when our son was a bit older, he decided to put one of his flies in the egg holder in the door of the frig. This is a 1/2 size frig like some mobile homes have. It runs on propane.

Well she really thought it was real...and all the cousins heard that story. And told us and we got a supreme kick out of it all!

Gee Doc, that's so NOT what I wanted to hear.

My landlord CLAIMS he's never heard of it happening in the 30 years he's owned the property. Of course, I might just trust the snake's word over his...

The doors were open in when a repair man was here to (DRUM ROLL, Please!) fix the gap in the back door letting roley poley's in, in the summer, and worms in, in the rain, and the front screen door for many diverse insect life forms.

I had lived at the beach the past 20+ years, until recently, and was spoiled by that fairly critter/bug free envirnoment.

What? Which part? :confused:

I think most climates & environments probably have their associated pests/plagues of mankind, and who can blame them? (Ever seen the Over the Hedge movie?) We humans have got it pretty good. Best to just be acquainted with the locals/neighbors and their habits.

Besides, as can be seen from this thread, they can make some of our best anecdotes (in hindsight, of course. :rolleyes:)

Doc

I was actually just trying to kid you about your laundry list of critters was all.

"Over the years, our abode has been invaded by all manner of bugs, birds, bats, mice, squirrels, chipmonks (3 this week alone), stray cats & dogs, raccoons (2 this past winter), and snakes. (I'm probably leaving something out but I just woke up.)"

Totally off topic I'm sorry...
 

I used to live in a beautiful old settler's cottage that had been transported from beside the river in my capital city. It was cut in two and transported over 100k and across a tiny stone bridge and put together again situated in a beautiful rural valley.

I also had this Giant Green Jumping Huntsman spider who used to live in the right hand corner next to the screen door on my back landing. It was the scariest thing, but was really just looking for food I guess. :eek:

I bought a Boy Scouts booklet of the snakes in that area when I moved there as I was living on 10 acres. Turned out there were something like 26 different types of snakes and 6 of them were deadly. lol What can I say? It was Paradise.

I wonder if Dr. Smith ever watched "The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes", or "Soylent Green" or "The Day of the Triffids"?

Just with a name like Dr. Smith, I just wondered.

So much cheese - so little time....
 

Except for KT (familiar w/ the title - just haven't gotten around to that one yet) those and many, many more. We're both (wife & self) kind of aficionados of cheesy flix. Yup - we're MSTies. ;)

Doc

Oh, Lara...that is really interesting!

We live in a woods, at home and at our vacation place.
The spiders at home are not much.

But in the North woods...they are MANY. Took me a long time to get used to using outdoor toilet facilities, aka outhouse, up there because of them. But with time, I did conquer the distaste some.

But I would not be comfortable with the biggies you describe!
I saw a science channel show about Australia spiders, and they are very creepy IMO.

If hubby is around, he usually puts the spider out using a broom. I really only scream now if one gets on me. They tend to fall off the trees in the woods onto you sometimes there.