snake too close for comfort

today after lunch , I fond a granddaddy cowsnake strcht across the driveway sunnin itself ,,.. I know they eat mice and such ,.. but my sara insisted it would find its way in the house and or basement ,PLEASE KILL IT she frantically begged , since fall is comin , I knew that was a correct concern ,, so I dood the poor fella in..,, I really don't like snakes , period , a startled chill runs thru my spine at 1st site of one , regardless of good and poisonous ones ,I go my best to kill copperheads and cut hay where timber rattlers have been found , and i try to let the good ones go unharmed as I was taught they keep bad ones away , but don't like them AROUND MY HOUSE WHERE I SLEEP .. oddly this one never moved a muscle to escape ,,. almost like? , he was thinking that he has been close to me so many times in all my travels around the place and I never noticed him or harmed him , so why worry now? . , cant help but wonder if the snake mita rode over in the sleeping combine that I brought from the other farm this morning ,, .///.35 yrs ago in my 1st 150 yr old farm house with my 1st wife , I opened the door to go up the steps to take a shower and found a big cow snake on the carpeted steps,musta got in from the one unfinished room that we had not yet completed ,,.I Shut THE DOOR , and told my wife to take the babies out on the swing ,then I got a hoe and drug it across my new linoleum floor , that was the end of that one too

I would have relocated it. I had to relocate a large chicken snake that was hanging around the house this summer. I feel the posion ones should be killed but usally relocate the "good" ones. The one this summer was almost the diameter of my wrist. I just caught him and hauled him a couple of miles away. I am not like on fellow said"I aintafraid of but 4 kinds of snakes. Big uns and littleuns n live uns n dead uns!" lol

It was relocated permanently.

I do that to any and arr I can get close enough to for that. Have found snakes in house several times. All in the bathrooms. I hate any snake.

Even if a snake is not poisonous it still carries bacteria that can harm you if it bites you.

I've never found a snake in the house, and hope never to do so. That being said, snakes that are non-venomous rarely ever get killed around here. The majority of them are territorial, and will actually keep the poisonous ones away, along with controlling the rat/mouse population. Personally I'd much rather have something like a small black snake in, or hanging around the house, than for the house to be over run with mice, or worse step out the door and find a copperhead lying there on my porch.



Years back I actually witnessed a black snake killing and eating a copperhead that had ventured into it's territory...which happened to be where my wood pile was at the time. Unfortunately I killed both as the way they were lying all I saw was the copperhead, that is until after I had fired the shot and was able to get closer to dispose of the body. The black snake had coiled around the copper head, crushed it, and was in the process of eating it head first.

I know sometimes we must succumb to the pressures from the females to do as they ask, but this is one of those times when the snake would have simply been relocated to another site that was both out of site, and out of mind, if he'd been in my yard.....

We found this thing on our screened porch about a week ago. We like to sit out there in the dark and listen to the night sounds. We don't like all-night yard lights, so it's pretty dark out here in the sticks at night. All the good ones get relocated here, no matter where we find them. I didn't consider this one a good one, ha. . .

funny how different things affect people - snakes don't bother me in the least.

We get the big water snakes in between our hay bales every now and then. It can be a little surprising to lift a bale and see a big snake coiled up - but to me it's no different fear-wise than finding a mouse. I don't like touching them because they can make your hands stink, and their bites aren't going to kill you but they don't tickle either. I just push them along with a boot or a stick.

Now, spiders on the other hand... I get all jumpy just saying the word.

I won't kill a nonpoisonous snake unless it gets in the house. They are better mousers than any cat. However we have every poisonous snake imaginable except coral snake. The copperheads, rattlesnake and cotton mouths get done in pronto. There was a local lady died from a rattlesnake bite last year.

I prefer the snakes stay away from the house, but they don't always understand. Two months ago I came home and only one cat greeted me at the door, found the second one, a five pound, year old female guarding a 4.5 foot long black snake that she had cornered in a back room. She wouldn't let it move until I took it outside, unharmed. A week ago a four foot black snake showed up in the upstairs bathroom about 2 pm, took it out to the lawn and let it go. At 8:30 pm that night one of my small dogs told me it was back, this time in the fireplace, took it further out away from the house and let it go. It has been over six years since one has come in, hope for a longer interval before the next one. I've only had a couple of copperheads around here and they don't bother anyone. They just like to be left alone so we don't step on them and everybody is happy.

have them now inside furnace duct, floors coming up this weekend to get to duct work issues. put camera down and found nest.

Everybody's different. I grew up terribly afraid of snakes. One day I decided this was just stupid, not going to continue living in fear. So, I started studying them. Now, this was back when folks knew where their local library was located and how to use it. Read all I could. Started visiting locally-owned pet stores. (Way before big-box stores staffed by idiots.) Did a lot of talking and looking. After several years of this, finally got the courage to touch one. As often happens, a fear turned into a curiosity. Over the next 30 years I had quite a few snakes for pets. Gave away my last one several years ago, but have no fear of snakes. Never kill them in the wild, poisonous or not. Live and let live. I know how to handle them, but usually prefer to take a picture or relocate if harmful.