Snake News...

[TexasGtar]

So I was working on the side of the house, helping out in the garden area beside our house, cleaning up after the freeze in Feb, planting some fresh plants for the wife and such.
And while I was cleaning up a vine riddled fence, my wife says she saw a baby racoon tail run under the landing. It is just a 2 step landing from the screened in porch that goes down to the ground.

It's maybe 3 feet wide by 6 feet out.

Even though our raccoons seem to come out between 9pm and 4 am I figured she must have seen something. So I get my screw gun and unscrew a deck board on the lower step landing and remove the board and...

the biggest efin snake I have ever seen is all coiled up at the very end of the landing. It was only a 6 foot Western Diamondback rattlesnake that was at least 4 and 1/2 inches wide in the middle.
So I went to get my death shovel and this thing took it's opportunity to make it's hasty escape. They do have a very racoon-y looking tail and are even nicknamed coontail rattlers.

Of course now i must catch this thing so we aren't terrified to go into the side area of the house. This thing slithered across the cyclone fence into the neighbors back area and into the woods and brush.
I reset everything back the way it was and hope he comes back to his hiding hole under the landing so i can be sure he won't bother us again.

Any tips on snake catching would be helpful. I'm making a wood snake tong tomorrow while I wait for it to return. This thing was huge. Biggest snake i have ever seen in real life. I heard the record was like 7 feet something. I think it is over 6 feet long. Maybe pushing 7. I wonder if any zoo's would be interested? Thoughts? What should I do after I catch it? Just hand it over to animal control?

[OjitroC]

I don't live in USA and I don't have a lot of experience of snakes though I did once find a lovely bright red Whipsnake in my downstairs loo (got an animal welfare service to capture it). There are a variety of venomous and non venomous snakes on the land which I see occasionally and avoid - they also avoid me - I wear sturdy footwear, keep my eyes open, take care when picking up wood or stones (scorpions are also around) and take greater care in long grass or undergrowth.

Personally I wouldn't try to catch a rattlesnake, especially as it's large and venomous - I think that's something to leave to people who are used to doing it and who have the appropriate equipment. The snake may well not come back to where you found it anyway - snakes are timid, as it were, and cautious, and not keen on contact with humans so, having been disturbed, it could be reluctant to return.

Having seen a large venomous snake is concerning though and so If there is an animal control service where you are, then I'd phone for advice on what to do.

[EvilGrins]

Only snakes I know how to catch are not venomous, they wil bite you but they have flat teeth and can't penetrate.

I'm a California boy and while we do have rattlesnakes, mostly we see garter snakes more than anything else.

I suppose, if you had to, and as you want to kill it, you could toss a blanket over it to slow it down and then beat all the lumps in the blanket to death.

the biggest efin snake I have ever seen

You've never seen an Anaconda?

[TexasGtar]

Thanks for the info everyone. Snake hasn't come back yet. Still, trying to get things cleared out so we have clear visuals all around everything. If it comes back I'll get some pictures of it.

@EG-Maybe I should have said biggest snake I have ever seen in real life....1 foot away. I watch a lot of nature documentaries..lol Those anacondas are incredible.

[EvilGrins]

Those anacondas are incredible.

When I was still in grade school, 4th or 5th grade, they brought an anaconda in for us to see. That thing was massive!