Gray rat snake infestation

Found a young gray rat snake in the garage the other day. He was about 3.5 ft long. Lucky I found him otherwise he would have dehydrated and died in there. I have a dehumidifier running 24/7 and even with a small AC unit running, it still gets around 95 degrees in there during these hot Florida days.

He only squirmed a little bit when I picked him up but calmed down quickly. The following day we drove him out to the national forest and set him on his way. I'm surprised we haven't seen any of these critters haunting the bird feeders lately.

Was walking out by the old reptile building and something odd caught my eye by the generator. Well, well. A good sized gray rat snake was crawling out of it, hopefully on patrol for those danged rodents that have been chewing up the wiring in the generator. Still haven't gotten that fixed, btw, as the yellow flies have been pretty fierce and I didn't want the technicians to have to get chewed up rewiring the thing for me. They probably would have charged me double.

By the time I called Connie over to show her the snake, he was all the way out, laying there in front of the generator just watching us, not really acting all that concerned about it. And by the time I went to the house to grab my camera, he decided to go back into the generator to have another look around....











I gave him a talking to, telling him he was welcome to prowl around looking for rodents, but the bird feeders were strictly off limits. I think he was around 5 ft long, so he could easily snag and eat our cardinals. Not that I think he would purposely ignore me, but I'm going to be keeping an eye around the bird feeders anyway. If I catch him there, he gets to take a ride out to the nearby national forest to live among the other exiles.

Pretty cool! I wish I could find snakes that often here.

Rich,

he's Just reporting for duty. so those mice don't chew the wiring anymore.

Been keeping my eye on the bird feeders in case the big guy decided to stake them out for a meal, but haven't seen him around lately. But this morning I was watching a humming bird near one of those feeders and he acted pretty strange. Tail feathers all fanned out and not landing on the feeder, weaving all around it instead. Sure enough, a small gray rat snake was perched on a tree branch close to the feeder. So had to go out and pull him out of the tree. He's only about 3 ft. long. Only musked a little bit but beyond that didn't seem at all perturbed about being handled. Got him in bagged up and will run him out to the national forest later today or tomorrow.

Hmmmm ? I'm starting to get the feeling that I paid to much for my grey rat snake

Exotic snake in the North is a pest in the South LOL

Ah, had to evict that big gray rat snake shown tucked in the generator. We found him prowling on the porch today, and we have way too many birds roosting there to allow that. We have a whole herd of young carolina wrens hanging out around the porch and there are signs of new nests in any opportune area as well.

He didn't much like being picked up but didn't try to bite. Just thrashed around and musked. So we took him out to the national forest and set him on his way there. Too bad, as I was hoping he would take my advice and limit himself to where the rodents tend to hang out. He could even have snagged a squirrel or three and been OK with me too.

Wow I am late to the party but I found this thread amazingly interesting... This is something else.. They sound kinda cute though, what you really should do, take a little bit of a natural nail polish, or something that might stick to them for a while and dot it on the head or tail so you can see who's who! You can write a snake child book about their adventures in your backyard.. maybe not the feeding part but finding the machine and investigating, interaction with the people etc..

I had bird feeders where I used to live, and I love birds; but I'm just in awe of how beautiful those snakes are. It's good they stalked feeders of someone who knows how to handle them. I can only imagine their sad fate with someone else. It is fascinating to see the pictures of them doing what they do.

This is pretty hilarious to read. We have problems with black rats here, I usually gather them up and take them out to the country. But of course Ive been looking to get a baby for myself and so we havent seen a one this year.