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My mom killed some sort of ratsnake (accidentally)

M

m1n054

New member
She was very shocked when she came back from work today and was going to throw a rat trap (with dead mice in it) that she left outside this very morning into the garbage. She found out a snake had crawl into the trap attempting to eat the mice. Really bad luck for the snake as not only got cold, it also rained the whole morning and hasn't stop yet.

Felt really sorry for the rat snake :(

Here are some pics.
WARNING: not pretty pictures :(
 
I'm pretty sure that's a black rat snake, not a tiny baby but also not very old. Sorry you guys had to find him like that ): In the future I would advise against using those types of sticky traps. There have been instances where people's pet corn snakes have gotten out and found there way onto a trap like that. Sometimes if you find them early enough you can use some vegetable oil and SLOWLY work the snake free from the trap, but sometimes, as was the case here, the snake dies before you get to them.

On another note, many people view those types of traps as being a very inhumane way of dealing with a mouse problem. The mice die very slow and terrible deaths, are in a lot of pain, and usually die of dehydration. There's a change a living mouse stuck to such a trap could also be eaten alive by another mouse or something similar.

There are lots of much more human traps available out there! And if your corn snake ever escapes, or another rat snake comes around your house, there's a much smaller chance it will ever get caught and killed in a trap.
 
Oh my god, I can't believe it but this rat snake is alive!!! I had a feeling that she might be alive but she did not moved one bit when I touched her, so I put her inside the garage and after a couple of hours my mother started noticing she's alive! No eye movement, she was frozen stiff and wet. I honestly thought she was dead but she's very much alive! We pour olive oil into the rat trap and it didn't help much but very carefully we started removing the snake out of the trap and she's now out. She wasn't moving much for a while then after the bath she truly came alive.

Unfortunately there's still some pieces of glue there... I'm gonna try getting him/her to a vet ASAP and see if we can do something :D At the moment the only thing I got for her is a VERY small tub (6qt) and a poorly made hide. I have no intentions of keeping her, I just want her to be OK to be released back into the wild :D
 
Good save. And now you and your mum know you are right in the proper territory to have the best natural rodent controllers one could ask for.
 
Glue traps are horrible and transfer disease very rapidly. Just get the snap traps at ranching stores that look like big clothes pins. No need to cause suffering for the mice or other unfortunate victims, no need to touch dead/dying mice, less disease transfer, and best of all- no way to snap your own fingers!
Glad the snake was savable. Hopefully she survives.
 
Well I just don't know how to approach my mother regarding the trap subject. She doesn't usually lay the traps outside the house though, I have no idea why she left the trap like that. I don't think either my mother or my step dad are concerned with the method being inhumane, but my mother do hate having to deal with rats being alive and stuck in glue... They have tried several other things for the mice too and it hasn't work either... so it's hard to convince them to move away from what have work for them.

That's kind of why I want to put the snake back into the wild, since they are kind of a natural pest control. I'm gonna try the bucket trick though, see if that works better than the glue.
 
m1n054 said:
Well I just don't know how to approach my mother regarding the trap subject. She doesn't usually lay the traps outside the house though, I have no idea why she left the trap like that. I don't think either my mother or my step dad are concerned with the method being inhumane, but my mother do hate having to deal with rats being alive and stuck in glue... They have tried several other things for the mice too and it hasn't work either... so it's hard to convince them to move away from what have work for them.

That's kind of why I want to put the snake back into the wild, since they are kind of a natural pest control. I'm gonna try the bucket trick though, see if that works better than the glue.
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Good idea! Maybe just explain how finding the baby snake was really disturbing to both you and your mother and you would like to find an alternate method of trapping the mice! The bucket idea is better since it does kill the mice a bit faster, and it's not likely that a snake would drown in a bucket since they are generally good swimmers.

I'm really glad the snake survived though! I hope it ends up being okay.
 
There are plenty of alternatives to glue traps (horrid things...I've had to kill rats trapped in them that people have put down to end their suffering). There are the traditional snap traps, and there are ones that have a box with a battery and it electrocutes the mouse or rat instantly. Just open the door and dump out the dead animal. Very fast and effective and no traps to set. The light goes off on them when the animal is killed. They kill instantly. Much cleaner and I'm glad that this ratsnake got free.....Personally I'd just keep it on clean paper towels with a good UTH and thermostat...just like a cornsnake and make sure it's fully warmed up and healed and then turn it loose unless the weather is too bad. Otherwise, I'd overwinter it, feed it through the winter and then turn it loose in the spring. I've kept w/c snakes that were in bad shape temporarily and given them a few meals (they've taken f/t without issue) and then turned them loose later. The paper towel will allow you to keep any wounds clean and you can more easily see any issues. Make sure you keep this animal in another area away from your captive animals. Either one could be vulnerable to anything the others might carry and you don't want parasites or disease in your current collection.
 
MegF. said:
There are plenty of alternatives to glue traps (horrid things...I've had to kill rats trapped in them that people have put down to end their suffering). There are the traditional snap traps, and there are ones that have a box with a battery and it electrocutes the mouse or rat instantly. Just open the door and dump out the dead animal. Very fast and effective and no traps to set. The light goes off on them when the animal is killed. They kill instantly. Much cleaner and I'm glad that this ratsnake got free.....Personally I'd just keep it on clean paper towels with a good UTH and thermostat...just like a cornsnake and make sure it's fully warmed up and healed and then turn it loose unless the weather is too bad. Otherwise, I'd overwinter it, feed it through the winter and then turn it loose in the spring. I've kept w/c snakes that were in bad shape temporarily and given them a few meals (they've taken f/t without issue) and then turned them loose later. The paper towel will allow you to keep any wounds clean and you can more easily see any issues. Make sure you keep this animal in another area away from your captive animals. Either one could be vulnerable to anything the others might carry and you don't want parasites or disease in your current collection.
Click to expand...

Yeah... I don't like the glue traps either... sometimes more than one mouse gets caught and the other mouse ends up eating the other mouse. It's really nasty to throw away too.

Regarding the snake... he got away. Was giving him a soapy bath to take out all the glue that was left (when I first bath him I took a lot of glue, but he still had a little bit) he just jumped out of my hands into the ground and as much as I wanted to grab him he was really defensive and he ran away. So dumb of me, but I couldn't grab him between him being soapy and kind of like attacking me.

Hopefully he can make it out all right this winter. I didn't have the resources to take care for him anyway, no UTH nor thermostat, not even a plastic tub for its size, just a very tiny plastic tub that I use for my baby corn snake feedings and a big hide for my ball python that was basically half the size of the tub. Hopefully nature can take better care of him. There's still a bunch of food around the house though, just not enough heat I suppose. I did warm him to 80F before he slipped away, so I hope that helps him something.

I removed any glue traps that he can fall for, threw away the hide and clean the feeding tube with a bleach solution. I don't think I'll use the tub for a long time though, I'm starting to feed my snakes in their enclosures.
 
I'm sure he'll be fine! Glad he didn't end up dead in that trashcan...he's got a second chance now.
 
Always refreshing to see someone who has their heart firmly in the right place!

With a little TLC and time. I'm sure the little rat snake will be okay!

Great save! And so awesome you never gave up hope on this lil fella.

I thank you, the snake thanks you, the mice in the area hate you!

Two out of three isn't so bad!

Again, thank you for going the extra mile to save an innocent victim.
 
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