Tractor and Snakes...

Every now and then we throw the hood open on one of our tractors and find a snake, usually a black snake - taking care of the mouse situation.

Recently I opened the hood on my John Deere tractor and found three black snakes.

The video link below shows my encounter with them.

Anyone find snakes in their tractors?

Snakes Tractor...

I can't think of any harm the snakes might cause so you are lucky having them controlling rats and mice.

Heck, they are mating.

Yep...

We like black snakes, copper heads - not so much...

Would not be pretty if one of them found it's way to the fan blades and belts of a running tractor.

In the winter here it is standard procedure to bang on the hood a few times before starting a tractor or truck as cats like warm themselves by sitting on top of an engine that has a block heater plugged in.

I know of more than a few people who have had an ugly mess to clean up under the hood because they didn't do this.

I see by your video it is a 5055--We have a 5095 and every time I open the hood I will remember your snakes--If I find them under my hood I will probably crap my pants!!!---Tee

You just gave me nightmares for the rest of my life. My wife would never come out of the house if we had snakes like that, let alone ever drive a tractor again. I respect that they eat mice and rats,I hope they get them all. I would leave them alone, I'd be the one shedding my skin. but they still give me the willies.

I never saw a blacksnake here but we do have milk snakes and get a few in the hay barn. I don't mind them but the wife ever saw that she'd never get on another tractor. This is one she found hiding in her clothespin basket. I came home to find a hay fork stuck in the ground. You can see the result.

Cranked up my 450D john deere dozer the other day and a chicken snakeskin blew out of the exhaust! Guess he crawled in there, shed his skin and left. That was a first for me!

With age I have come to realized the benefits of snakes.
I just ask that they keep their distance from me.

We have 3 snakes common to my area.

The eastern black racer
The cotton mouth
And the speckled king snake.

The first one will chase you across the yard if you surprise it.
The second one is a poisonous viper.
So if I got to see a snake I hope it is the third one.

I live in South Texas, these look like what we call blue Indigo or King snakes. They are so black they they have a blue tint to them. We leave them alone they can grow very large in excess of 10 ft. Rattlesnakes are their enemy and that makes them my friend.

They do their part in controlling rodents and an often overlooked benefit is they discourage venomous snakes from hanging around. Some harmless snakes live longer and get much larger than anything other than Eastern Diamond Back and an occasional Western. There's one in my storage that is near 7 feet (I measured his discarded pants). My wife would probably move away if she knew he was living less than 75 yards from the house. Eventhough they sometimes take a chicken, Owls are my favorite rodent exterminator plus bed time lullaby.

I went on a service call one time two countys south of me for a DOA 706 D that had been setting in a remote field for several months because the farmer could not find anyone local to go out in the field to see what was wrong and someone told him about me . I knew the area pre3tty well from my days of coal hauling and had not trouble finding the tractor . It was a nice looking 706 with a year round cab with A/C . Grass was growen up around it about waist high . I pulled my truck up close incase i need to jump it . Got out of my truck and walked up to the tractor and put one foot on the first step and reached up to open the door and as i STARTED to open the door i saw MOVEMENT , there were god only knows how many COPPER HEADS in that cab . One was on the floor plate at the door , couple on the floor between the brakes and clutch couple on the seat . Ah yea NO ain't noway i am messing with this tractor . This made for a vary nervous ten steps to get back in my truck and get out of there . I then went to the farm and had a long talk with the owner and told him that you get the SNAKES out of the tractor and remove ALL the sheet metal and floor plate then you call me and also get it moved out on BARE GROUND and then i will come a see what is wrong and fix it. Never did hear from him . Never went back to see if it was still setting in the same spot. Don't like snakes of any kind.

I gotta tell this.

My dad hated snakes with a passion. On morning when I was a kid, maybe 5 or 6 years old, he went somewhere with his truck. During the morning, Mom killed a big bull snake in the garden. When my dad came home for lunch, he parked the truck by the house and went in to wash up.

Mom said to me, "Let's have some fun with your father", and coiled the dead bull snake on the driver's seat of the truck.

My dad came out after lunch, saw the snake, and panicked. We had a railing made out of 2x4s on the front steps of the house. I kid you not, Dad pulled a 2x4 out of the railing and killed the dead snake all over again. By then, Mom was almost rolling across the yard, laughing.

Dad had two indignities heaped on him. One, he killed a snake that was already dead, and two, he had to fix the railing on the steps.

I was leaving my driveway with my 65 VW. I stopped for a gopher snake to cross in front of me. The snake crawled under my VW, and crawled up into the motor area. Took a ling time to get him to leave. Snakes live a rough life around people.Stan

Here in New Mexico where I live, we have rattlesnakes and I made a snare with a piece of thin wall and a piece of thin cable. I slip it ever his head, pull up on the cable about three in. down from his head and then take him out and cut his head off, bury the head and dispose of the rest! anybody interested in making a snare just contact me. Jim in N.M.

If an inch in diameter, they are good eating!! Jim

One black snake I would have just reached in there and caught it. Two snakes mating nope I would have left them alone. Ask me how I know!

Get some cats to get rid of the mice!!