Tips on how to flush out an escaped corn snake?

a reply to: Nyiah



Here are some things you can try.

Do you have a dog?

My dogs will find a snake in a second! We get bullsnakes and rattlers in the house fairly often (no idea how they get in). The bullsnakes get in the ductwork. The rattlers are generally in the basement along walls. All I have to do is tell the dogs to find the snake and they'll find it. The know not to try to catch them (because rattlers look almost identical to bullsnakes unless you know them), but they will alert on them and identify where they are.

Snakes give off a very potent pheromone which dogs can easily pick up on even if they're not tracking dogs. Just let the dog smell the terrarium and tell it to find the snake. Even untrained dogs can do it easily.

originally posted by: butcherguy
I am pretty sure we have two escaped ball pythons somewhere in our house. I say pretty sure, because my daughter told me about the one being missing, but then she bought another one... and I haven’t seen it for a couple of months... and she hasn’t bought any rats to feed it for that amount of time too.

It's a club everyone joins at some point, I guess. I did expect an escape at some point, but I figured a year or two, not next season, lol

Anyway, to update on this -- she's still loose. And DEFINITELY in the bedroom and hiding somewhere in there we cannot find. Kid did a good job building lure traps all over her room (including putting out her bathing dish, snake takes a regular quick dip)

She's keen enough to wait until the kid falls asleep or leaves the room before she runs out for a drink or bath. We've been finding slither marks on the plastic bag noise spots we laid out, a wet bathing dish exterior & water trails on the towel under the bathing dish to different directions each time.

We did put out a pinky, but she didn't fall for it.

Tonight, the Battle of Wits begins anew.


This would be so much easier if she was a full-grown adult, an escaped 4-5 foot long snake would be soooooo much easier to deal with than a damn foot and a half long skinny little smart-ass baby danger noodle.

a reply to: Nyiah

You consider getting one of those horns the Indian snake charmers use?

a reply to: ketsuko

I thought I responded to this, but I guess I never hit post?

Anyway, yeah, kiddo's already subbed to Emily there, she's one of her favorite resources. I was describing the video to her in pretty simple & vague terms, "A blonde girl in a video I saw showed a lot of the things you're doing. Although, she also said she once lost a snake for 6 mo---" "OH! That's Emily, Snake Discovery is great, I subbed on dad's account way back." Lol, I guess I should check hubby's subs once in a while, since it's the primary YT account we use for the TV anyway XD


And to update a week in, the Legless Bandit is still on the loose. We HAVE noticed a distinct sharp drop in our late spring/early summer household bug populations. Tree ants occasionally, but mostly house spiders like the brown house spider, daddy long legs & once in a while, jumping spiders. The "northern standards", if you will. Those small populations that evaded the spring Ortho application I did a few months bacl suddenly poofed, and I'm pretty sure Sherry's eating them.

The kid worked her ass off booby-trapping her bedroom. She's got long paper towel tubes & some with TP tube extensions, worked up into essentially funnel traps (that's genius, seriously) The snake has a serious obsession with the scent of bacon and usually goes ape in her habitat when we cook it. So we've been letting the older kid cook up a few slices of bacon to munch on (that kid, 13, thought she hit paydirt with that deal) The younger snake-owning kid has been dipping a bit of paper towel in the grease, and putting it in the tube enclosed for a while, and set up to allow the odor to permeate and hopefully lure her in them. When she's ready to set them out, she just tosses the paper towel out. She folds the dry part around the dipped end just so that grease doesn't soak the tube.

It's worked to a point, in that the snake has definitely gone to investigate and subsequently knocked the tubes around circling/climbing on them. But not going in them yet, damn thing is too smart for her own good.

We have the habitat on it's side on her bedroom flood set up normally like usual. We're hoping it lures her into either the bedding to tunnel, or into her humidity box to have a sauna session. She's DEFINITELY been doing both, just not when we're around (or not awake) apparently. I do hourly snake check rounds (just a quick peak in rooms to see if anything was moved, or maybe get lucky and see her) She waits until everyone's either out of the room during the day or asleep at night like now to go for a jaunt in the humidity box. She keeps it just brief enough for me to miss her by the next check. EVERY. TIME. Wherever the hell this snake is holed up in that bedroom that we cannot find, she has clear sight of us and works it to her free-roaming advantage.

She's also checked out, but not entered, the slew of small boxes/cave structures the kid built, and has knocked over stuffed animals (snek likes soft stuff)

She's also smart enough to avoid all the plastic noise traps entirely. THAT makes this way harder, because now I'm not hearing random rustles and running off to check everything within earshot. It's probably going to boil down to just randomly crossing paths, whenever the snake feels like it I guess.

Just so you know, I am enthusiastically following your lost snake adventure, and I hope you find her. The stories of your daughter's efforts are really interesting! I wish her the best in recovering her friend. I suspect she'll get her before too long, especially considering the effort and creativity she's put into capturing her.

I love snakes and seek to help them whenever I can (rancher and all). Snakes are great neighbors and always welcome here (not the rattlers in the house so much, but that's rare).

We've got tons of snakes here, bullsnakes mostly, and they are most welcome critters! Bullsnakes can be absolutely beautiful too...when you learn to distinguish them from rattlers (which is easy when they're still, but not so easy if they're moving fast). Plus their hiss is so loud you can easily mistake it for a rattler. They're not nice and tame like your daughter's corn snake, but they're equally cool. And, they get really big around here too; we've got some which are 6-7 footers and bigger.

I've actually been bitten by more than a couple of them, and they bite HARD too. I grabbed a small one once in our henhouse one time (about a 3.5 footer) and she got me right on the web between my thumb and index finger. I wanted to put my gloves on first, but she was moving so fast I just had time to reach under this brick and grab her with my bare hand and she lit me up. Left a hell of a mark for quite a while too. They're not poisonous, but they will bite. Most of the other times I got tagged was on the shin/leg while trying to scoot them off the road with my shoe so someone wouldn't run over them (yes, I will actually stop and do this when I see one). Absolutely awesome hunters though, and they will put a serious thumping on rodent and vermin populations!! But I digress.

Wish your daughter the best of luck in her corn snake pursuits! And I look forward to future updates such as you have been posting!

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
Just so you know, I am enthusiastically following your lost snake adventure, and I hope you find her. The stories of your daughter's efforts are really interesting! I wish her the best in recovering her friend. I suspect she'll get her before too long, especially considering the effort and creativity she's put into capturing her.

Lol, she may entertain you with a lengthy adventure then, because she's still evading everything & everyone. Snakes can go quite a while on low food, but we're hoping she's nearing the end of free lunches -- I haven't seen a house spider in a while now.

She didn't take the bacon scenting bait, she didn't even take the whole pinky bait, or scenting new funnel tube traps with another pinky. Definitely nosed around everything and gave it serious thought, just < sigh > won't take the damn baits.

She still gets in her bathing dish, we're finding occasional wet streaks out of it a few times a week. She gets in her humidity box here & there, but we're finding these after either being out for the day, or asleep for the night, etc. She waits until we leave or snooze, I swear she does. I'm pulling all-nighters as late as I can, alternating my timing, lol, and this slithery s# is still besting me.

We're giving the flour trick a try, even thought it's sinking into the carpet in the bedroom. Kid tried her best to build up a thick enough layer in all her chosen spots, to see if the snake will slither through it. We tried this tracking method before with her moss bedding, and she did slither through it leaving an obvious trail from pushing through it like a plow, but I think she caught on. Now she avoids those. God damn it.

I'm actually not sure if I should be pissed, or impressed.

I love snakes and seek to help them whenever I can (rancher and all). Snakes are great neighbors and always welcome here (not the rattlers in the house so much, but that's rare).

We've got tons of snakes here, bullsnakes mostly, and they are most welcome critters! Bullsnakes can be absolutely beautiful too...when you learn to distinguish them from rattlers (which is easy when they're still, but not so easy if they're moving fast). Plus their hiss is so loud you can easily mistake it for a rattler. They're not nice and tame like your daughter's corn snake, but they're equally cool. And, they get really big around here too; we've got some which are 6-7 footers and bigger.

I've actually been bitten by more than a couple of them, and they bite HARD too. I grabbed a small one once in our henhouse one time (about a 3.5 footer) and she got me right on the web between my thumb and index finger. I wanted to put my gloves on first, but she was moving so fast I just had time to reach under this brick and grab her with my bare hand and she lit me up. Left a hell of a mark for quite a while too. They're not poisonous, but they will bite. Most of the other times I got tagged was on the shin/leg while trying to scoot them off the road with my shoe so someone wouldn't run over them (yes, I will actually stop and do this when I see one). Absolutely awesome hunters though, and they will put a serious thumping on rodent and vermin populations!! But I digress.

Wish your daughter the best of luck in her corn snake pursuits! And I look forward to future updates such as you have been posting!

When I was a kid in Florida, one of the places we lived had issues with rattlers, lol. I was stuck with mowing the lawn, so I was also stuck with checking for snakes, and carting the glass mixing bowls with me to place over snakes I found -- my mother would round up one of the neighbors to collect them & run them over to the "woods" (swamp) to release them.
They were ornery things, but I guess I'd be an ornery danger noodle if I were stuck in American Australia, too, lol.

That place was interesting to live in with the wildlife, in the boonies. I had the privilege of seeing a FL panther resting in our front yard one night. Another time, we had a big-ass gator stroll down the street one & about scared the freakin' piss out of my grandmother once when she came to visit from out of state before she moved there herself. Always had her dog along for the trips, so doggo had to go out at night, obviously. Never seen an old lady hustle her ass back inside so fast before, lmfao.
"Grandma, what's wrong!?'
"THAT IS A BIG ALLIGATOR IN THE DRIVEWAY!"
< I peek out the living room window, and sure enough, about a 6 footer out there >
"He'll leave soon, she can pee then."
"She can pee in the bathtub tonight!" rotfl XD

I actually got in a fight with a small gator once over a fish! Also in FL (Marco Island). Caught a really nice sized Bass in a waterhole on the golf course during a fishing contest. There was a couple alligators sunning themselves on the far bank. There were always alligators there. As soon as I caught the fish it jumped. One of the gators, the smaller of the two, saw it and eased into the water. The fish jumped again, and the gator started casually heading toward it. I started reeling faster. The gator started swimming faster. I started reeling really fast, and so did the gator. It was a race. Pretty soon I was reeling so fast the fish was just skipping across the top of the water. The gator was now hydroplaning across the water coming after it! (Did you know, gators can swim REALLY fast?!) The gator arrived at the bank about the same time the fish did, and grabbed the fish by the tail as I pulled it up on the bank. By this time I was backing up more than reeling, holding my bent fishing rod over my head hoping the alligator would let go. What a story this would be, right? IF I could save the fish!

I was so excited about the fish I wasn't even thinking...this was an ALLIGATOR!! (small one though, maybe 3.5 to 4 feet). Each step I took backing up, the alligator would choke up on the fish. Now half of the fish was in his mouth. My buddy tossed the ice (and our sodas) out of our cooler at it, then just threw the whole empty cooler at it (said it was all he could think of). The gator wanted the fish more! One last step backwards and the gator now had the whole fish in his mouth. In a flash the gator whipped it's head around, snapped the line, and bolted off into the water with his ill gotten lunch.

My buddy and I stood there looking at each other kind of incredulously, and laughing. Both of us simultaneously said..."Welp, there's sumthin' that'll prolly never happen again!!"

That was a nice fish too, dammit!

edit on 6/24/2021 by Flyingclaydisk because: (no reason given)