My snake encounter last night

lisar wrote: Okay last night not 2 minutes after I got off the phone with my sister Cheryl, me and gene (dh) were sitting outback well I threw my cigarette at the bucket and it landed in the shadow of the bucket, well I hit a snake apparently it was hiding in the shadow of the bucket and it started to run off, well I yelled snake and gene jumped up and told me to watch it he ran in and grabbed my shotgun, I am yelling at him to hurry up cause the snake is now going at the house and getting closer to me. He comes out with my shotgun, and the thing is close to the house at this point. He shoots it 4 times. On the 4th shot he cuts it completely in half. Then he goes down there to mess with it and see it and the front half of the snake still wants to fight. I was yelling at him to shoot it again and he wouldn’t. We aren’t sure what kind it was. It was a big snake. About 4ft long and it was a pretty good size around. It has stripes but they were hard to see very well. He didn’t think it was a cotton mouth because of the shape of the head. He thinks it might have been a rat snake. But I am not sure cause this morning when I saw it, it kinda looked like the stripes were a dull orange. So I don’t know. I do know that we are getting some cats now. ASAP. And some moth balls. I don’t want the snakes that close to the house. It scared the mess out of me.

Does anyone know of anything that will help keep the snakes away from the house.

moped replied: YUCKY girl

The only way i know is to sell your hosue and move to Canada.......LOL

lisar replied:
LOL... Thats a long way away from me.

cameragirl21 replied:
yeah...a mongoose.
idk if cats will do any good, i have cats and a much smaller snake still followed me right into my house.
you can put out golf balls...they swallow them and can't digest them...after that, they won't be back for more.
also means you probably have rats around, just fyi.
also, a snake that big will easily eat a cat.

lisar replied:
Yea I know thats the problem. But I have always heard that if you feed the cats to begin with to keep them around there and then only feed them like every other day they will hunt for food. They are natural hunters. But I dont wanna starve a cat. I have never heard about the golf balls thing. I will definiltly get some of those. I dont mind the snakes in the woods or anything but not that close to the house. If lexi would have walked out there to take her dog out I just dont know what would have happened. It was an aggressive snake, cause when I scared it, it started comming towards the house. But I was on the steps. And we have killed a few cottonmouths out there already which are very poisnois (sp?). I just hate taking that chance. KWIM?

cameragirl21 replied:
oh, ITA, i like snakes but not enough to have huge ones close to my house and yeah, I'd be very worried for the kids.
The snakes are coming around because there is food near your house, must be rats to attract that big a snake. The cats would help with that and they'd hunt even if you fed them if they were the hunter types but they wouldn't really get the snakes, they'd just get rid of the rats which may keep the snakes away.
Try the golf balls, just throw them around on the grass, the snakes think they're eggs (which they also eat in addition to rats, mice, etc) and try to eat them and then they can't digest them.

KingMom replied: We have a cat and live on 5 acres. I've been there for 6 years and not seen a single snake!

I'm sure I'll see one tonight!

holley79 replied: I have no clue. We had a water mocassin come up from the creek and was on the back porch. Them stupid things are territorial as all get out also. I don't mind the rat snake or the black snakes because I know they keep the rodents down. If it's something I don't reconize and can possibly be potentionaly harmful I shoot it. We have had some weird snakes since Ivan.

idk, is it possible snakes get "blown in" from other parts of the world? Sounds stupid of my doesn't it.

luvmykids replied: At Lowe's or Home Depot you can buy a fake owl....they are said to keep snakes away because they're a big predator of them. I haven't tried it yet but at the kids' preschool they had one and swore it worked. Also marigolds, they don't like the odor for whatever reason, I have a pot of them by each door.

There's something else, I think it's called Snake Away, that you can sprinkle around the house. It's non-toxic to people and other animals but has a money back guarantee that it'll keep them away.

BAC'sMom replied: Everything Monica said. Mothballs, Cats or a Goat will work or knock him the head with a hoe.

gr33n3y3z replied:
LOL yep they work good
the hoe that is

sparkys2boys replied: Im voting on the move to Canada too..lol.. we have garter snakes a few inches long here and i've seen two in my life!!! I can't imagine you guys that have huge snakes around.. ewwwwwww.

lovemy2 replied: A snake big enough that it needs to be shot that close to my house:noooo:

If that was me - Jen I would be living next door to you in about FIVE minutes

z613 replied:
x2!

lisar replied: Thanks everyone we got 2 6month old cats last night. they are outside cats to beigin with so that helps. I am gona try the marigolds and put a few around the outside of the house. We have killed alot of poisnoius snakes out there already so I am very leary about any snake at this point. KWIM? Thanks for the advice everyone.

And for the rats, I know I dont have any, but maybe my neighbor could he has this old nasty barn on his property thats probably where the snake came from.