I find a couple snakes a year in my front yard, usually harmless gopher snakes, but not always.
So it would be nice to be better prepared for the next one.
Have you've made a snake-catching tool for home use? How did you make it?
Googling, I find this hook-stick:
And this snake hood:
A snake tong:
A snake noose:
Snake grabbers:
I use a rubber padded handle walking stick...it has an "L" shaped handle.
I saw a few of those, which seem easy to make by screwing a flat L-shaped bracket onto the end of a walking stick.
Paint rollers also seem popular (as are rafter hooks):
I also saw a few really simple PVC pipe noose styles:
I haven't found any home-made snake tongs yet:
Any idea which work better (hook or noose or tongs)?
A hook is the safest...for the snake anyway! You don't have much control with it...but it can be helpful to tire it. Tongs are the safest for you! We have no vipers in our Northern-clime...so we can be amateurs without too many problems.
A broom and a bucket seems to work for me
Put some leaves in one of those laundry detergent buckets. Drop it on the side near the snake and push it near him. Get behind the snake and whack the broom behind him. Most of the time they will "hide" in the bucket. Stand it up and slap the top on.
I bought a .410 ga shotgun.
nb
Danny,
You really seem excited by that baby rattler. A garden hoe or a garden rake make adequate snake sticks. Unless you plan you make this a hobby there's no need to get special gear.
Dave M.
Danny D wrote in news:kohpcl$cbo$ snipped-for-privacy@speranza.aioe.org:
Dude, you have a *rattlesnake* in your yard. This is the appropriate tool for disposing of it:
I usually draft a long handled shovel into service. Another time a 5 gallon plastic paint bucket with about 20 pounds of rock in it. Set the bucket on the rattler, until I could go get my shovel to lop off its head. So far - a four foot FAT rattler, a little 3 foot rattler, and a four foot really nasty venomous 'green' m?? rattler. By the way, rattler venom STINKS! Actually almost put a hole in my plastic bucket. Feel really bad about removing such great predators, but they're territorial and stay close by and I hate the possibillity of stepping on one at night, OUCH! and they're fast.
I catch a few snakes a year, and only some of them are venomous.
However, even the 4-foot long adult gopher snake I caught bit me hard, drew blood even, little droplets, but clear as day it struck hard through the skin - so I try not to handle *any* snake by hand anymore.
But I only relocate the venomous ones.
I've been using garden tools; but each time I do, I wish I had better tools, to protect both me and the snake from harm.
Hence why I asked.
I think I'll make the noose and the paint-roller hook; but what I'd really want are a clever way to make the BBQ tongs on a stick!
That's pretty much what I recently did (with the addition of BBQ tongs); but I'd rather a more predictable approach that's safer for the snake & me.
We don't have many snakes in Manitoba, and the few we do have aren't poisonous.
Here's how I catch bees and wasps:
Put a clear glass jar over them, and then slide a piece of thin cardboard under the jar to trap them inside the jar. Then lift the assembly up, take it outside and remove the cardboard so that the bee or wasp flies out of the jar.
Could you do a similar thing with a large plastic basin and a piece of sheet metal or plastic laminate?
Yes, if the snake is on a hard enough flat enough surface.
Sometimes they are; sometimes they're not.
I can easily make the paint-roller hook, and the pvc-pipe noose, but what would be nice is a set of 40" barbecue tongs!
Well, apparantly not.
Let me rephrase the question:
Could you do a similar thing with a large plastic basin hanging from the end of a long pole and a piece of sheet metal or plastic laminate?
I think no matter *how* we catch a rattler, it isn't ever gonna be easy. They're fast. And they can strike in an instant. I've only been bitten once, but it was a shocker as I thought I had control of the snake (it was a big gopher snake and I didn't wear gloves).
With a rattler, I wear gloves and boots and long sleeves and pants. The trick is to capture them with nobody getting hurt, least of all the snake. That's the hardest part, because the easiest thing in the world is to smash it with a shovel. But that's not the goal.
There seem to be three main tools for trapping them:
I'm sure *any* of those tools would be an improvement of what I use, which is BBQ tongs and a garden rake.
I put the snakes in a plastic bucket; but apparently they won't strike through a pillowcase (although a pillowcase seems might flimsy to me - yet - I keep reading about people using them).
With the bucket, I walk it down to the ravine where I cut through the poison oak, and then I lift off the cap of the bucket, and essentially sling the snake into the as far as I can throw it.
I back off, just in case it's still mad at me for the indignity. I've got at least three in that ravine to date. I'm the only one who travels it, so, I doubt they'll be a nuisance to others.
Hmmm... interesting question. Dunno. I relocate them on my property, so, that might make a difference. I certainly know an adjoining neighbor screams to kill them (and the black widow spiders), but, she also complains about poison oak and scotch broom, which isn't anything compared to a rattler in terms of immediate danger.
Googling, these related CA government bulletins come up blank:
This simply mentions how to relocate them:
Here is a list of licensed snake relocators in CA:
This is apparently my local snake relocator:
I'll give him a call later this week to ask what the laws are, but, I think rattlers aren't an endangered species - although everything is regulated in California so I wouldn't doubt there are some laws on what you can do with them once they're in the bucket.
Found this finally:
"LEGAL STATUS" The six species of rattlesnakes found in California are not considered endangered or threatened. The California Department of Fish and Game Code classifies rattlesnakes as native reptiles. California residents can take rattlesnakes on private lands in any legal manner without a license or permit."
I'm not sure what "take" means though. Probably means kill? Doesn't say anything about relocating; but the presumption is that you can relocate at will, I guess.
Digging deeper, my Northern Pacific Rattlesnake doesn't seem to be endangered in the least: Crotalus oreganus oreganus
- U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) = None
- California Endangered Species Act (CESA) = None
- California Department of Fish and Wildlife = None
- Bureau of Land Management = None
- USDA Forest Service = None
Still nothing specific about whether or not you can relocate them onto anywhere you want.
"Take" means kill. I am a snake guy and I don't mind most snakes being in my yard but I might kill a rattle snake unless it was real easy to catch and relocate somewhere far away. I would certainly catch and relocate a Coral Snake but they are very rare. I am sure I could get one of my DEP friends to come get it.
I go get all of the rat snakes, black racers and other benign snakes that turn up in my neighbor's yards, screen cages and in one case, house. I find them a home around here somewhere.
I thought it interesting that they have a number for snake catchers.
Seems to me by the time a snake catcher arrived, the snake would be long gone. In my experience, they don't just sit there once discovered.
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