The best time to night drive?

I've done OK this past week.

4 Yellow Rat Snakes - 3 Dead Yellow Rats
5 Garter Snakes - 3 Dead Garter Snakes
3 Dead Corn Snakes

I have been trying to catch some Corns and am always a few minutes late. I've done pretty good in the past but I never researched the right time to Night Drive. I know going 45 to 30 minutes before sunset and 1 to 2 hours after sunset and is best when the temp is 80 and humid.

My question is, does the moon have anything to do with having good nights or not? I live in Jacksonville, wanted to compare note (so to speak) and find out when some of you have the best nights, what is the weather like and so on.

I'm not having bad luck as you can see and I know it is hit or miss but if I can perfect my night driving skills and know what nights, weather and all is best so I don't pass it up when that night arrives.

I also guess I am frustrated that I missed those 3 Corns and have not found any live ones but the good thing is that I found the right area to look.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! your an evil person :wavey:

That's a hell of a thing to say to someone but I alson find myself in a quandary to the author's real meaning.

i dont live any where near corn territory, but do live in south texas, and hunt the roads whenever i get a chance. many people will say that the moon has alot to do with snake movements and i would tend to agree with them. around the new moon is long considered the best time to road cruise. many say that snakes move very little, if at all, during a full moon because the chance if being seen by a predator is increased. i have however seen data that would suggest that snakes are out during full moon. personally i belive that snakes move most every night, but prefer to be out around the new moon.
with the way gas prices are, i would (perverbially speaking) put all my eggs in one basket and only hunt on nights that seem to have the best chance of being producrive (ie. warm, humid, moonless nights)
of course take all this info with a grain of salt as i have only found one live snake this season at night (7-9 nights) and it was just a western diamondback rattlesnake.

JAGSnake said:

That's a hell of a thing to say to someone but I alson find myself in a quandary to the author's real meaning.

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I am going to guess by the way it was said that the poster was trying to make light of field collecting. Many people do not believe that any animal from the wild should be kept. What these people do not realize is that we would have no new blood, morphs, species, ect with out WC animals. Ever animal anybody on this board owns is a direct desendant from WC animals. There animal maybe a striped ultra lava lavander F2000 or just a normal F1, but it is a decendant from WC, and many people have yet to realize this.

Note. if anybody has a striped ultra lava lavander let me know i would be interested in one, if the price is right ( i am willing to pay about fifty bucks)

Jag, Been a while since I went road cruisin', but as I recall, it was always best on a fairly humid evening after a good rain. One night in particular, I remember finding several ribbons, a scarlet king, few DOR garters, and a small eastern diamondback. You mentioned in your introduction post about not finding any getula . Try to find a place where there is some illegal trash dumping going on, I have found more Florida Kings digging through old pieces of carpet matting than I have in their natural habitat. I think the old trash attracts rodents :shrugs: :cheers:

And welcome to the forums, BTW

I went to the N.W. side of Jacksonville yesterday where they are starting to build new houses. Back behind one of the properties was an old structure. I have a feeling it was and old shed that only had a tin roof on it some time ago. I spent an hour flipping this tin over and I found so many snakeskins under it along with mice but I did not see any snakes. There was a fresh Canebrake and Pygmy skin but I must have been a day or so late. I have searched so many trash piles in my life and still have not found a King Snake or an Indigo Snake but being on the endangered species list I don't plan on finding one around here with all the building Jacksonville is doing. I've caught or seen, dead or alive just about every snake in Florida except a King Snake and that is the 1 snake I really want to find.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

When I lived in Poway, CA I would catch Kings all the time but for some reason Florida isn't as kind. <o></o>


About Night Driving

It was great when gas was around a dollar or so but now it's almost not worth going. Heck, for the amount of money I spend on gas for a few nights of driving could buy me a corn snake or king snake but the fun and excitement of driving down the road and seeing a snake you want crossing the road is priceless.

I haven't really tried road cruising. Sounds like Mike, and Mike give some good advice. Maybe David (Crazycorn) will chime in. I know he does allot of road cruising and has allot of luck finding corns.

mike17l said:

I am going to guess by the way it was said that the poster was trying to make light of field collecting. Many people do not believe that any animal from the wild should be kept. What these people do not realize is that we would have no new blood, morphs, species, ect with out WC animals. Ever animal anybody on this board owns is a direct desendant from WC animals. There animal maybe a striped ultra lava lavander F2000 or just a normal F1, but it is a decendant from WC, and many people have yet to realize this.

Note. if anybody has a striped ultra lava lavander let me know i would be interested in one, if the price is right ( i am willing to pay about fifty bucks)

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I also would like to comment on what you just said.

The Corn snake I found was in my neighborhood. If any of my neighbors would have found it in their yard, it would be a dead Corn snake. I am pretty friendly with the people on my street and ALL of them do not have the same understanding (ignorant) when it comes to snakes. The good thing is they know I like snakes and 3 of my neighbors will come and get me if they have 1 in their yard. I drive around semi-rural areas and as I have said, just about half the snakes I see our road kill. If I was there at the right time they would still be a happy LIVE snake today.

If I went into the middle of the forest and collected these snakes I can see why some would be upset but saving snakes from being ran over is another thing. I know once that subdivision is built those snakes that left their skins under the tin are as good as dead the minute they wonder into someones yard. If I went into the middle of the National Forrest and collected snakes I can understand why some would have a problem with it. I know some might say, " instead of keeping it why don't you just move it off the road". I do, all the snakes I have found except for this 1 Corn Snake I have helped off the road but I think the odds of that snake not crossing that road again is very low. I can't save every snake but if I choose to keep Corn Snakes that I find crossing the road, I think (IMO) he is better off in my care.

The Corn Snake I have now will never die from being ran over or by the shovel an ignorant man uses and will probably live twice as long in my care than he would have left in the wild given his situation when I found him.

Great topic...

Cruisin is one of my favs. In Oviedo Fl. we would go an hour before nightfall, till an hour or so after. Unless it had rained. You could go all night in that case. In this part of Oviedo it was swamp. Yellow and Scarlett King heaven. Ribbons, Garters and water snakes all over as well.
If you feel so inclined, we would go out about two hours before sunrise as well from the end of May through August.
Today, I live near the Withlacoothchee State Park in Lakeland. Two good, not to busy roads go right through. Yellows, Corns, Banded Waters and Eastern Diamondbacks on a regular basis.

Check out this link, I find it very informative and will put most of the suggestions to the test this year http://www.scserp.com/SCS_Night_Driving.htm

I agree with the others....hour before sunset and a couple hours after. Probably 80% of the cool things I've found have been on roads. My first rock rattler, blacktail, western diamondback, eastern chain king, pygmy, scarlet king, scarlet snake, and many, many others.

I love crusing but gas is making it harder and harder!

The closer to full moons the more I feel my pickings get slim.. New moons seem to have ben the most productive for me.. I found the Rosey last night, but I think that will be my biggest find this year, considering where I cruise.
Lots of helpful information in this thread.. :cheers:

Regards Tim of T and J

TandJ said:

The closer to full moons the more I feel my pickings get slim..

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One of the big theories I keep seeing in literature for this is that the predators (birds of prey mainly) are out in force for the rodents and the snakes as they are easier to see so you find that populations of both seem to hide to avoid this deadly confrontation. Seems logical to me. I know personally my mammal trapping is very poor on full moon nights as well as my road cruising success for herps.

Something else I noticed.. On new moon nights, I often have and owl or two follow me for a while, waiting to see what pop's up in my headlights.. Really kind of neat when the owl grabs a mouse or rat in front of your eyes.. Smart birdie.

Regards Tim of T and J

I am heading towards the Okefenokee Swamp area tonight, low will be around 70F, I am guessing the temp around 9PM will be in the high 70'sF if not around 80F. it just rained yesterday up there so I am guessing hunting should be good tonight.

We're supposed to get some rain here soon so hopefully it will be here and gone by 7pm so I can check out some of the roads around the house. We are a block away from a canal so hopefully some corals and scarlets will be spotted, but this early in the game anything will be welcomed...

Lisa and I had a great night...

We went to Withlacootchee late this evening about 5:30/6:00 to do a little hiking and some cruising. This portion of the forest has those classic white-sand dirt roads you see in pics. We left about 7:15 to go back through the forest. Nada; not a flippin thing.
So we stop by the convenience store for the after hike essentials; water and Peanut M&Ms. Then we started the 25 mile straight shot on 471 back home through Withlacootchee.
PAYDIRT! We saw a little guy crossing the road so I spun around to get him and bam! Right there was a Pygmy Rattler. Cute little fellow; gave me the full show. The striking, the herky, jerky motion everything. Lisa had a blast. She never really has done this before we met. Oh ya, the first snake fortunately got off the road (we never saw it again).
We also caught a juvenile Yellow Rat Lisa fell in love with so we have a new edition at least for now.
Total count of the night-
2 dead Banded Waters, 1 dead Ribbon.
3 Banded Waters caught and released, 1 Ribbon ditto.
1 dead Yellow Rat
BTW, the Pygmy I took down a road and released.

My son and I found some really good roads about 30 or so minutes from here that I feel will provide many snakes quality snakes in the future. Tonight we just came across a couple I really don't care about but took their picture anyway.

Found some great road I feel will provide some great snakes in the future but tonight we found the following, better than nothing I guess.





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