My neighbor's young daughter saw a couple of snakes slither under our house yesterday. There is about 3' of overhang not resting on the foundation and there is less than a foot clearance. Naturally, she has no idea what sort they might be; but I would like to get rid of them in any event. If it were a cave, I would use some gasoline mist, but this is my house and I do not think so. Any thoughts? If I tossed some dry ice in there, I wonder if they would come out?
I think from what you described that you have a couple or a nest of Black Mamba's. Be very careful. They are not only lethal, fast and aggressive, they are very smart and actually border on cunning. At this moment they are aware you are planning on taking them down. So they are doing the same. As I type this they are trying to get into your house when you sleep. Be very careful. Good luck with your Black Mamba party.
Are you next to an airstrip? Is Samuel Jackson nearby? Loop(y) is just trying to obfuscate - they are probably Cottonmouth's & he's more than hapy to go in with nothing but a flashlight & a knife between his teeth.
'Tis true. The pool of defication and urine that I would profusely excrete from fear would drown them.
If it is a relatively small foundation, I would say take a couple of waterhoses and try to flood the ******** out. More than likely you probably have a couple of rat snakes (at worst) that are living under your house. You can bet that you have very, very few rodents living under your house now. You'll eventually catch the snakes outside your house again. When you do...
Snakes don't bother me much. Every summer from '58 through '65 we spent a couple weeks kind of camping in Arkansas on the Caddo River. There were cabins and a plumbed outhouse/shower out back. We swam in the river all day using an oil drum and 2"x12" raft we anchored in the middle of the river. At night we hunted water moccasins with .22 rifles and five cell flashlights. We usually got five or so every night. I also had a .22 revolver with ratshot in it in case they got too close, which happened a few times. The first time we put in to float the Pedernales in 1970 just outside Johnson City, the water was really high and we floated over a nest of moccasins, but none got in the boat. As Mrs Idahorn2 says, she married me anyway. We only saw two more the whole trip. If these snakes under the house are rattlers, I'll kill them; otherwise just see if I can run them off and put a small mesh screen up. There are plenty of rock piles for them to nest in only a few yards away. The water hose is a good idea; should be fun.
^^^I guess you might be aware of this, but there's a good chance you were shooting water snakes, not moccasins.
There was a nest of moccasins in the shade of a low-water bridge just upstream a bit from where we swam. We would sometimes drop in a shoe-box size rock and watch them come up with their white mouths wide open. I was only 9 when we started hunting them but the owner's kid was about 14 and knew that pit vipers have roughly triangular shaped heads. Unlike rattlers, who are pretty timid, moccasins are aggressive and will come after you. They seemed to like to swim to the light. More often than not we were able to recover bodies because they seemed to prefer shallow water at night. Maybe the cottonmouths ate or ran off the other water snakes, because all we ever got were the real deal.
I work with an extremely large employer who provides life insurance for 100,000s of Texas employees and has for decades. As far as we can tell we have never had a claim made for a death due to snakebite. I am sure it happens, but it can't be very often as we have never seen it. Even with all of the rattlers in Texas and all the Texans stupid enough to hunt water mocassins at night with a pistol full of ratshot. But right this minute, I have two deaths we approved this week for death due to bee stings. Completely unrelated and in different parts of the state. Not even Africanized bees either, just nice little honey bees. Some people are allergic.
My mom is allergic to the point that any bee sting or ant bite like a fire ant can kill her. She has been clinically dead twice and then revived. Both of these were when she was younger. She could not take it now. She takes nitro pills and some injection with her but she knows it won't do much good unless she gets to a hospital very quickly. F water moc's.
Never had a bee sting, but wasps have gotten me many times. In the sixth grade one hit me square in the back of the head as I was walking to school. Woke up about ten minutes later on my back. Mowing the yard, I put my hand on a nest; they got me seven times before I made the house. I love to kill them. I suppose bee stings are more vehement in some way; a different toxin. We didn't hunt snakes with ratshot; we had .22 rifles (usually a bolt action and my Browning semi-auto). The pistol with the ratshot was for when they got within 5 or 6 feet. I had been a good shot with targets, but hunting the snakes really sharpened the skill. Really a lot of fun; more than rabbits, squirrels, or birds. Stupid--probably; but in doing it several years we never came very close to a bite.
Isn't it interesting how where we place our fears. I bet many people will not swim in the gulf because of the fear of sharks, yet bee stings kill more people.
Yeah, well a bee can sting, even kill you, but he can't eat you. I'll go ankle depth on the Oregon Coast, but that is about it. I just say the water is too cold.
non-venemous snakes are a benefit and not a nuisance. I am pretty sure I have a snake in my front entry gard pond rocks. mainly as two years ago the toads were loud as hell trying to mate in the pond. I woudl go out at night and pluck or 6 out an evening and go toss them over neighbor's fences half a block away. Now I will get an occasional chirp, but that's about it. Unless the toad population has fallen dramatically in the last two years something is helping keep the toads at bay. Plus I found a big garter sort of snake with red lines on the side of it a couple years ago in the same area. Anyhow try to identify the snakes and if they are harmless let them do their job and keep the varments out from under your house.
