I have just encountered snake (garter) number 2 on my kitchen countertop! Now I am not about to lie about being someone who is going to be concerned about killing a snake that finds my kitchen a happy habitat. I live in Minnesota, we have just been through a long winter, but I cannot live with these things in my kitchen! We started seeing them about 3 years ago when a development began across the street - we first saw them in the basement in the fall, then spring, last fall was when I found the first one on my countertop. I am at my wits end!! They can live in my yard, but not in my home!!! We do have rock around the foundation and around the deck of our above-ground pool, We dont have much for heavy shrubs around the house and we keep them trimmed. There is an open field on ten acres next to us which Im sure has a nice population of mice. We have yet to find a mouse in our house, but thats likely because the snakes may be getting them. We thought we found how they were getting in, closed it off, didnt see any for a year, but now they are back. Now what? Do we have to dig up around the entire foundation to look for other entry points to get rid of them? Or should we get a cat or mouse traps, we also live where there is much marshy land, which the frogs/toads like. Help I am getting desperate!!!

I'm no fool, I don't like the poisonous ones. But other than that I'm not afraid of snakes. But I do understand phobias since I have one with cockroaches (go figure that I stay here in Florida!) Anyway, last week while in the veggie patch, I noticed the dog growling and jumping at something. Sure enough, it was a HUGE striped rat snake. I made her stop since it's harmless and I don't want her messing with snakes since we have killed rattle snakes here. Later on that afternoon I go to the chicken coop to gather eggs, I opened up the hatch to the nesting boxes and this snake is inside one of them, trying to swallow a golf ball, with a real egg laying right beside it. So I grab a stick and try to sweep it out of the coop, the stick is brittle and keeps breaking off. I finally get it out of the coop on the ground, still the golf ball is in it's mouth. So I go to look for the pitchfork only to pick it up and move it off the property - when I get back it is gone - the golf ball lying there where it finally managed to spit it out. So I'm searching for it, can't believe it disappeared so fast. Then I looked up in a close-by tree and there it is, out on a limb, sticking it's tongue out at me. So I gave up for about and hour and went back to check the coop - it's back in there AGAIN trying to swallow another golf ball. I chased it back and forth all over that chicken coop but it got away through the chicken wire and into another tree. The next time I will get a pair of gloves on and snatch that sucker up and dispense with him to the neighbor's property.

snake away products are made from the same stuff as mothballs. They will not repel snakes, make your house stink and you call the poison center for advise and we tell you to take them out from under your house. Do NOT put 8 boxes of them in your attic either! Carry a hoe. Very simple. Use it to beat around the bushes, flower beds and the snakes will run off. I have a friend who has 6-8` rattlesnakes breeding in her driveway and always a few copperheads around the property. She gardens all the time and has never been bit. She lives in the middle of nowhere near San Antonio. Snake central. Snakes eat rats. Rats carry disease. Enough said. Copperhead bites swell a lot and hurt a lot. Crofab (the anitvenom) is rarely if ever needed though we can`t convince some people of that. The antidote was NOT formulated using copperhead venom so it`s only partially effective. The bites can swell for weeks afterward, especially if it`s a leg and you get up and walk around. Coral snakes, they inject with venom in their BACK fangs, what this means is they have to grab on, start chewing and get those back fangs into you. So they have to hang on for more than just a few seconds. Envenomation is very, very rare. The anti-venom is no longe made in the US, there are some bottles from Mexico available in the US and a few that the expiration date was changed. I think the closest vials are in Florida. Talk about expensive, not only is the anti-venom out of the world but you have to have it flown to you. Coral snakes are also the most timid snake in Texas and are usually found in pairs. It is a neurotoxin. Your hospital bill was so much because the cost of cro-fab is several thousand PER vial, that is then marked up by the hospital. Not having access to your records I could not tell you if it was warranted in this instance. If you get bit by a snake in some parts of Texas they give crofab as soon as you walk in the door, there are some pretty toxic snakes here but our copperheads are not nearly as toxic. You may send any and all snakes to Galveston and I will be happy to have them in my backyard. Anything that eats rats if OK in my book. With 3 brothers I have no fear of snakes. I think the few snakes that were here all drowned in Ike. Finally, get some chickens or even better guineas. They will chase out any snakes. Guineas don`t even need a coop, they will sleep up in your trees. Good watchdogs too. Tally HO!

Thanks, Mike! I would never have thought that's what it was but am delighted to have another one. I'm surprised at the color variation between juvenile and adult. Last spring I had a big Eastern Rat Snake watching me garden, before it meandered over to a brush pile probably for lunch. It was actually solid black on top. I have added a couple of pictures of it to the same album if you want to have a look at it. Is this one big enough to have hatched this year? Thanks for your help, Anna