Found someone sleeping in my tractor today

[semipro]

Opened the hood of my John Deer tractor to jump off my riding mower and there he/she was about a foot away from my face.
Somewhat sheepishly I'll admit I yelled (maybe screamed) and jumped around a bit.



The photo quality is kind of bad. For some reason I was having trouble holding the phone steady.
I'm not crazy about snakes but prefer them to mice. We seem to have a lot of black and garter snakes around the place. It may explain why we don't have the copperheads and rattlesnakes that our neighbors complain about.

 

[Paulywalnut]

Looks like 5 or 6 feet.

 

[semipro]

Does anyone know if there's any truth to the belief that having one type of snake around keeps others away?
Other than the competition for food thing of course. Are snakes territorial?
I guess some snakes will eat other snakes so that might be one reason.

 

[begreen]

My sister used to catch snakes and her triumph was a big black racer like that. She decided to keep it as a pet, but it got away in our basement. She didn't tell anyone, but the next day we heard a blood curdling scream from my mom (hates snakes) doing the laundry. Seems the big guy had curled up for a nap on the warmest place down there, on top of the dryer. Mom would not go back down there until she saw that snake out of the house, yard and neighborhood.

 

[wesessiah]

are its scales smooth or rough looking? it could be a rat snake, or black racer. the black racer will have a cleaner colored, completely solid look with smooth scales. while the rat snake can have some gray/white looking spots/patches/patterns and rough scales. the black racer will be solid gray on the underside with a white chin, and the rat snake will be white with black spots on the underside. black racers will sometimes eat copperheads, but i haven't heard of a black rat snake eating them.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I am ok with snakes but that would have given me a start

 

[semipro]

are its scales smooth or rough looking? it could be a rat snake, or black racer. the black racer will have a cleaner colored, completely solid look with smooth scales. while the rat snake can have some gray/white looking spots/patches/patterns and rough scales. the black racer will be solid gray on the underside with a white chin, and the rat snake will be white with black spots on the underside. black racers will sometimes eat copperheads, but i haven't heard of a black rat snake eating them.

I've always wondered which black snakes we have around here. Next time I see it I'll turn it over and check it out.

 

[firebroad]

Won't have any mice chewing your wiring on the tractor with him around!

I used to have squirrels strip my peach tree, then I put a few rubber snakes from the Dollar Tree around. Now I get peaches.

 

[semipro]

Won't have any mice chewing your wiring on the tractor with him around!

.

That's exactly what I thought. I did used to have mice in the tractor. I'd rather have the snake but would like to know where he is.

 

[firebroad]

Maybe you can tie a bell on him...

 

[Jags]

Maybe you can tie a bell on him...

No shoulders to hold it in place.

 

[firebroad]

No shoulders to hold it in place.

Just tie his tail in a knot...

 

[MasterMech]

Won't have any mice chewing your wiring on the tractor with him around!

 

[Gark]

Found a 1.5 inch diameter snake (dark brown) warming itself in the compost pile when I are areating it yesterday. I was too surprised to get a picture, so it didn't happen. LOL. At least the pile must be 'cooking', because snakes like warm places, don't they?

 

[wesessiah]

found a black snake (rat) just a few minutes ago... i didn't find it, i was cutting up a tree and it evidently came out, and my wife saw it hightailing while she was on the jd. he went over to this little tree to climb it and hide. looked like it was close to 5 feet.

 

[Badfish740]

I found this guy stuck under the deck in some netting that had been put there to keep rodents out:

After some careful pocketknife work he looked like this:

Probably about 4' long. I don't mind rat snakes as they keep rodents down and aren't dangerous. Rattlers you can have!

 

[semipro]

Good on ya Badfish for taking the time to set him free.
How'd you keep him from biting you while you were doing it?

 

[Badfish740]

Good on ya Badfish for taking the time to set him free.
How'd you keep him from biting you while you were doing it?

I had to work from the tail end up-his head was pretty tangled so I saved that for last. When I got close he pretty much wriggled himself loose, but I think he was kind of in shock too-not sure how long he had been struggling. He slithered into a tree stump and I saw him from time to time after that. Not that I'd want to be bitten by one of them, but the teeth didn't look all that big, and they're not venomous.

 

[semipro]

but the teeth didn't look all that big, and they're not venomous.

Yeah, I've just heard that the bite is physically minor but potentially dirty and could easily get infected.
I get cuts and scrapes all the time but somehow the idea of having it inflected by dirty teeth doesn't sit well with me.

 

[firebroad]

Yeah, I've just heard that the bite is physically minor but potentially dirty and could easily get infected.
I get cuts and scrapes all the time but somehow the idea of having it inflected by dirty teeth doesn't sit well with me.

'Specially after it's been chompin' on a rat.