Snakes...in a house!

[nathanm]

Woke up this morning to loud screaming and some babble about a snake. Turns out there was a coachwhip laying there in my living room. Had it not been for the screaming and the cats threatening it, it would have been much easier to just grab and toss outside. 

So yeah, if you find a snake, do a good job of keeping the animals back and they won't feel so threatened and become so difficult to deal with. That is all.

[Ed W]

We've had garter snakes in the house from time to time.  They're about as long as a pencil.  That doesn't prevent my wife from climbing on top of a chair, though. 

[nathanm]

We've had garter snakes in the house from time to time.  They're about as long as a pencil.  That doesn't prevent my wife from climbing on top of a chair, though. 

lol, this one was at least 3 or 4 feet long. Big sucker. It would have been much funnier to watch she who must be obeyed freak out over a little garter snake that I would have happily had crawling on me.

What's going to be less funny is when the hatchlings start coming out of the woodwork (figuratively, I hope) in a couple of months and the screaming becomes a daily occurrence.

[rwarn17588]

Interesting. Where I grew up, snakes didn't come into the house (usually through the basement) until the onset of winter to stay warm.

Maybe even the snakes think it's too hot outside.

[Hoss]

Interesting. Where I grew up, snakes didn't come into the house (usually through the basement) until the onset of winter to stay warm.

Maybe even the snakes think it's too hot outside.

My cousin's inlaws have a boathouse up on Grand that I usually got invited to several times a summer.  One summer it was just my cousin's family and I up there.  We (just my cousin and I) drove into Jay to get some adult beverages and when we got back there was all this catterwailing about a scorpion by his wife and daughter.  We expected to see something like on 'Clash of the Titans' with as much noise as they were making about it.

Turns out it was as big as the length of the top knuckle on my pinky.  Talk about worked up over nothing.  Put him in a coffee can and reintroduced him to the wild.

[nathanm]

Turns out it was as big as the length of the top knuckle on my pinky.  Talk about worked up over nothing.  Put him in a coffee can and reintroduced him to the wild.

Yeah, now that she who must be obeyed is back home, I'm getting a bunch of guff about how I put the snake in the back yard. This non poisonous snake who might do me a favor and eat some mice or something. 

It would be nice if Marshall's came cold. Stupid Oklahoma strong beer laws. 

[Ed W]

True story.

We met a woman who claimed that garter snakes and copper head had cross-bred in her neighborhood.  "And if they bite you, your leg just turns to black jelly!" 

Until a couple of years ago, a herpetologist lived on the next street.  The kids caught snakes and asked him to identify them.  He moved away, unfortunately.  These days, when a neighbor sees a snake, the first response is "Kill it!"

[PonderInc]

I have a friend who lived in Indonesia for a few years.  Their house was infested with dozens of cobras!  (And they had little kids.)  (This gives me the creeps just thinking about it.  I've never fully recovered from "Riki Tiki Tavi.")  They had a "snake wrangler" come de-snake the house.

Did I mention how glad I am NOT to live in Indonesia?

[cannon_fodder]

I've seen King Snakes, Copper Heads, Garter/Garden snakes of different varieties, Rattle Snakes (not sure what kind), Cotton Mouths, and Rat snakes in the wild in Oklahoma.  The only snake in Oklahoma I have ever killed is a 5+ foot long Rat Snake that was eating livestock (chickens, chicken+goose eggs, baby swans, etc.) as well as song birds at my uncles place.  The snake got REALLY mad when I tried to relocate him and after he tried to bite my ankle he lost his head . . . sorry.  Not his fault, but he had to go.

But at my house all we ever see is garter snakes no more than 12" long.  Usually 6" long and about as thick as a pencil.  I've never seen one in my house or garage.   The biggest danger they pose is peeing/musking on little boys who try to catch them.

My boy is free to catch them and bring them inside to identify and keep for a couple days, or just show off to the neighbors and release them into the bushes.  Many snakes LOVE roaches, and roaches will infest my house or at least my garage if not kept in check.  So snakes are fine in my book and no one bothers screaming when they are seen (though my wife will call the boy to catch them).

Things people should know about snakes in Oklahoma:

1) Most water snakes are NOT water moccasins/cotton mouths.  Stop shooting them.  Cottonmouths swim with their entire body on the surface, most snakes just have their head up.   Now if you are sure and you swim/fish in the pond and feel threatened I won't fault you for it . . . but still, it isn't really needed.

2) No Oklahoma snakes eat people.  They don't want to be around you.  Leave them alone and they will probably run away asap. 

3) Rattle Snakes rattle to tell idiots to leave them alone.  If you heed the warning, it is a non-issue.  If you don't, I kinda hope the snake wins (not that you die, but learn a lesson).  Also:  if you kill all the noisy rattle snakes on your property for several generations you can bread a quieter family of rattle snakes.  Which pretty much sucks for all parties involved.

Nothing is more scary on a hike than the sound of a rattle.

4) Copperheads have many different patterns and are the hardest to ID of poisonous snakes in OK (Rattle, Cotton Mouths and Copperheads).  If a snake has a neat looking broad blotchy stripe like pattern, leave it alone.

5) The following website rules for IDing snakes, in Oklahoma and offers a cool field guide:


http://www.oksnakes.org/  <-- GREAT website.