scrubbedexpat097

Yesterday when I got home from work I unlocked the side door of the covered in breezeway and walked up to the house door. Something caught my eye right before I moved forward to the back door step, a big fat black and yellow snake laying the length of the step and more

I panic at the site of snakes, I can't help it. I was home alone and knew it would be a good 20 minutes before M arrived. I didnt want to lose sight of it but I also couldn't move. It started moving and made it's way along the wall and was heading for the laundry room. The only thing I could grab was an umbrella and an empty flower pot, not sure what I was going to do but I made myself move and tried to throw the pot over it and push it in with the brolly It didn't work and now it was behind the dryer.
Finally M arrived and he spent an hour hunting my snake, eventually he found it curled up behind the folded up ironing board and he removed it. It wasn't a venomous snake, it was probably as scared of me as I was of it but I just cannot act normally when snakes are involved.

Why am I still so scared? Every year since we have lived here I have seen snakes, either dead or alive, around the outside of the house or in the garage, the flower beds or the patio. This is the closest to actually being inside the house and it has really given me the jitters.

I really really hate snakes and I am so glad no one saw me do my panic jump up and down dance yesterday. It was not a pretty sight

Trixie_b

how are you with trouser snakes?

scrubbedexpat097

Pulaski

There's nothing to be ashamed of there, I hate snakes too, and I have slowly come to tolerate them enough to be somewhat calm in their presence. I have also invested in two tools to deal with them, though I have used neither yet, at least not for the purpose I bought them.

Firstly I have a 4ft set of rubber coated snake tongs (which are useful for reaching and grabbing other things, and I severely doubt I would ever use with a venomous snake), and secondly, I have a 20 gauge single shot shotgun, which I can shoot at 6-8ft range and hit, with certainty, a broom handle sized object lying on the ground, which I bought for dealing with copperheads. ... I also have a kit of chemicals and instructions for tanning a snake skin!

Mrs Danvers

You're not alone. We have garter snakes in our yard and though I know they are not poisonous, they still make me brick it. It's the way they move

I wait till it's really cold before I cut back shrubs and stuff because I've found them lurking in them when it's still warm. There's a reason the snake is the villain in the Adam and Eve story.

scrubbedexpat097

But the problem is if these tools are not at hand then it wont work because my biggest fear is the snake hiding up somewhere while I am finding something to destroy it with.

As much as I fear them I made M show it to me after he found it. I had to have proof that it was gone

Englishmum

When we first lived in Singapore (85 miles north of the Equator) the first place we resided in was a ground floor maisonette in a small condominium. One day I nearly passed out when a cobra started slithering its way past the laundry area and into the kitchen

Fortunately there were security guards at the condo entrance so I went running down to them and they took it away (there was a small area of jungle nearby).

However - what they did do was to put a line of sulphur across the entrance to our doors. Apparently snakes can't stand the smell of sulphur and won't cross it (I've heard that ants won't go across a chalk mark either). It might be a good idea to see if you can get hold of some sulphur, no idea where from but maybe an old-fashioned neighbourhood hardware shop or online? I remember we used to use it in chemistry lessons when I was at school.

The snake incident freaked me out enough that when our 2 year rental lease was up we moved to the third floor of another condo lol!

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/sna...-home-recipe#b

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/02/02feb11a.cfm




Some hardware stores like Home Depot, Lowes or Ace (and Amazon.com) sell a product called 'SnakeAway' which contains sulphur.

civilservant

I have a snake as a pet

I have that fear about spiders, however.

Pulaski

So does Nutek - too many legs!

And so do I.

AmerLisa

You did better than me! We'd be moving if I saw a snake in or around my house!

Ailidh

We had a baby rattlesnake (a Western Diamondback to be precise) swimming around in our brand-new swimming pool one morning. The babies are even more dangerous than the adults apparently. My sister came over to initiate my husband into the fine art of beheading rattlesnakes, a useful skill for a Brit to have in Texas.

Keep in mind that non-venomous snakes are very useful and if you found one, it was probably on the trail of a mouse or rat. Rattlesnakes, however, do not mix well with gardeners, kids or border collies, so they sign their own death warrant in our garden...

AdobePinon

I am wary of snakes, but I like them. Here's a nice little 5-foot diamondback I came across a couple months ago...

civilservant

My favourite snake isn't in the US - but has the best name in the world...

.... Boomslang!

hoffage123

Snakes on a plane!


... someone had to say it

I hate snakes too. And wasps. And mosquitos. And spiders. And slugs. Pretty much anything that moves ...

Tegwyn

I hate snakes and spiders, and I have a lovely cat that thought this past summer was a good time to show me her latest catches. I am sitting at the computer chatting on skype when I heard my cat making this strange sound. I look down and she deposited a +- 2ft snake by my feet. (neighbour told me it was just the garden variety) I think I went from a sitting position to hovering over the desk with a final lunge to the door! She thought I was not appreciating it enough so she dragged the thing into the passage way. It then decided it had enough so started slithering towards my bedroom. Threw a shoe at the head which missed but encourage said snake to turn around and slither towards me. I bolted out the way and it then was heading for the lounge. I was able to whack it a few times with a broom and it fortunately did the job. Got it out and heaved in the bin. I spent the rest of the day like this. This kind of stuff seems to happen when my beloved is travelling for work. Murphy's law.