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so...there is a snake somewhere in my garage


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We store our clothing in our garage and our dryer is out there, so everyone in our family is in the garage every day.  Recently we found mice near our cat's food also in the garage, albeit in a walled off area. In the process of catching the mice, we've caught 5 snakes!! Snakes go where the food source is.  We figured out how they are getting in and plan to plug the area, but before we could we caught 2 snakes.  I texted dh to tell him and he planned to remove them when he got home.  Now one of the snakes is gone.  It is almost certainly still in my garage.  I must move now.

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We've accidentally caught tiny garter snakes with glue traps.  They catch bugs and mice too.  I don't think it's ethical to let animals struggle to death, so if we see something wiggling we tie it up in a plastic bag and bash it, but it's an option if you're talking about tiny snakes.

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Unless it's a rattlesnake...I'd also rather have the snakes than the mice. I would gently relocate them and thank them for going after the vermin for you.

 

Seriously, mice carry disease and stuff. Snakes just eat mice.

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Very seriously, once you've taken care of the mice and plugged the holes, the snakes shouldn't be an issue. They're there because they are providing free rodent control. They're harmless (I'm assuming, since you're catching them). I would suggest clearing brush and shrubs that are really near the house-snakes usually prefer cover, so if you can keep a margin, that will discourage them from coming in.

 

Please do not use glue traps. These are very bad for any animal caught in them, and a slow, terrifying way to die. Mice, snakes, lizards, small birds...they don't discriminate.

 

 

And please, don't burn down your house. The snake has a lot better chance of survival than any mammal caught in it-like, say, a family member.

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Please do not use glue traps. These are very bad for any animal caught in them, and a slow, terrifying way to die. Mice, snakes, lizards, small birds...they don't discriminate.

 

This x1000. I wish glue traps were outlawed here, as they are in other countries.  :(

 

OP, unless the snakes are venomous, they are not going to hurt you. It is really okay! I caught a snake in my garage once, coaxed him into a bucket, and relocated him. It was slightly nerve-wracking, but probably more so for the snake!

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You've had 5 before this?  The For Sale sign would have been up at any house I owned after the first one.

 

I love nature and the Great Outdoors.  I love most critters, including spiders and lizards, etc.  I suspect I'm an example of those who naturally are afraid of snakes - even as a young child.  (I know many children don't fear snakes, but I did.)

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On the snake side here.  I can't like the posts that say they would rather have the snakes than the mice because I am out of likes but mice can carry diseases like Hanta and Plague that you get without even touching them. As others say, I assume these are not rattlesnakes or copperheads or coral snakes but non poisonous beneficial ones. The one in the garage will keep eating any mice.

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Nothing, I just feel really bad for it stuck in my garage (in Florida heat) with no water.  My youngest put out some water for it near the garage door hoping to coax it outside. 

 

I found one hibernating in my bag of potting mix a few months ago and felt like a real jerk waking it up.

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Team snake here.

 

We once lived in an old house that had a terrible mouse problem. Traps were never enough to get rid of them for long. Once a black rat snake moved into the attic, no more mice. We never actually saw anything but the skins he shed, but we were quite fond of that snake.

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My friend had a snake in her garage once. She was walking through the garage and saw it out of the corner of her eye and thought it was a garden hose. When she came back in a few minutes later, she almost stepped on it and it reared up and hissed at her.  :eek:  That's when she realized it was definitely not a hose!

 

I probably would have run screaming all the way into the next county. 

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Team snake here.

 

We once lived in an old house that had a terrible mouse problem. Traps were never enough to get rid of them for long. Once a black rat snake moved into the attic, no more mice. We never actually saw anything but the skins he shed, but we were quite fond of that snake.

 

Near us there is a historic mill, and one of the millers disliked cats. So he kept black rat snakes to keep the mice in check.

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OP do you know if they are venomous or not?  I mean if you know it is a black snake or rat snake it is waaaaay less scary.  I am a big fan of snakes that eat mice but I still FREAK out when I see one.  Well, we had an 8 foot long snake in our yard for 2 years.  One morning I came out and saw it go under the little eclipse we have.  It was stretched out from wheel to wheel front to back.  I could not believe how long that snake was.  But I haven't seen him for a couple of years.  

 

A 4 foot black snake fell into our house when a guest (kid) opened the door to go out to the pool.  I guess it was crawling up the side of the house I don't know...but the kid thought someone had thrown a water hose in at him...LOL.  It took about 6 of us to get that thing out of the house.  It curled up in the corner under shoes and we couldn't tell at first what kind it was so there was much excitement.

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Moments ago, we found another mouse, just sitting there at the door to ds's basement bedroom.  Ds wouldn't let me kill it (throw it out; garbage truck is coming this morning) so I had him take it down to the dirt road and let it go.  I think something was wrong with its health because I was able to catch it (I scooted it into a plastic tub in a grocery bag).

I just spent two weeks trying to catch a different mouse - imagine Caddyshack, but with a big mouse, as big as a vole but with bigger ears, ending with my victory at 4:30 am... in my bedroom.  I'd so much rather have the snakes in the garage than the mice, though as long as everyone stays in the garage, that's the most important thing  :glare:

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