Rattlesnake in my garage!!

[lytlesnake]

I didn't even know it was there, but I managed to crush it's head with the garage door! It only had two knots on it's tail, so it couldn't even rattle. Probably hatched last year.

See, I have this mess of feeder mice in my garage. I never really meant to breed mice, but I had a few extras a while back and one thing led to another.... now I've got way too many feeder mice out there.

I had left the garage door open last night, so in case I needed to do some work out there, I wouldn't bug my neighbor opening the garage door at a late hour. I fell asleep on the couch and the garage stayed open all night. So I closed it this morning. Then a while later I opened it back up to do a few mice chores. I look down and there's about a 2+ foot rattlesnake that had been smashed by the garage door. It had just eaten at least one mouse, then was either on it's way out, or coming back in for another one.

I feel bad for the poor rattlesnake, but since I was wearing flip flops with no socks at the time, I'm kinda glad I managed to unwittingly squish it. I usually wear shoes and socks out there, but not this morning! I'm also worried one could bite my dogs. I knew that this could happen for a while, and had planned to get rid of the mice before the weather got warm. Well, it's warm enough now apparently.

I'm going to have to get rid of the entire feeder mice population immediately. I've been hesitating because it's not a fun job, but now there is no other option. There's a gully on one side of my house that leads right up the hillside. I imagine the snakes can smell my garage way up the canyon when the wind is blowing that way. Soooooo..... I'll be gassing mice for a few days. I'll post a picture of the rattler tomorrow when the light is good. I don't really want to go out there tonight, in case there's more of them.

It's probably a Southern Pacific, which are very common here. I fact, one episode of that show Venom ER chronicles the story of a guy who died when he was bit somewhere in the canyon where I live. He said he stepped on a rattlesnake so big he thought it was a log! It's definitely a very bad idea to be breeding mice up here. Look for pics tomorrow!

 

[malt_geckos]

awwww, poor little guy! I hate when stuff like that happens. Like one time I was driving and I thought a little black snake was just a piece of tired from someone's car's tire peeling. I noticed it was a snake and was too late to swerve away from it.

 

[T&KBrouse]

Poor guy.

I can guarantee you theres more out there if you have mice in your garage.
We had a rat system we called "Ratcatraz" and we always had a few wild snakes patroling the perimeter for escapees. Occassionally, we'd find a small corn or rat snake in a mouse bin with a full belly, unable to get out.

 

[lytlesnake]

Yikes! You mean you guarantee there's more rattlers in my garage? That's why I didn't go out there last night. Good thinking! I think I'll wear steel toed boots and jeans with sweats or long underwear underneath while I'm cleaning up the garage.

I do feel bad for the snake, but I would have felt worse had it bit me or one of my dogs, or a neighbor, etc... Rather sketchy. These guys are too young to have rattles, so I'll have to be extra careful.

Ratcatraz huh? I call mine Mouschwitz. Got that from my cousin who works at Disneyland.

This is just not the place to be breeding mice. There's a lady up the street who breeds fancy rats too. I think even if I were to get a carbon air filter on my exhaust fan they would still smell it, so the mice have simply got to go.

 

[chad ramsey]

i couldn't ever bring myself to kill a rattlesnake. they are to cool of an animal for me to kill. i've grown up with them so i'm prefectly fine with them being around. they'll leave eventually.

 

[lytlesnake]

I hear ya man. It's a beautiful snake. Had I known it was there I would have tried to catch and release it. Sad thing is, it just happened to be right where the garage door closes before I saw it. I'm glad I didn't get bit by it, but other than that, there's no glory in this.

It was too hot for the boots and jeans. I haven't seen any signs of more of them yet. I've been burning incense in hopes of not attracting more, and I close the garage door when I'm not working out there now. It's actually smaller than two feet I think, haven't measured it yet. So I am pretty sure it's just a yearling with only a few sheds under it's belt. I can't take a pic right now because the rechargeable batteries I've got seem to be incompatible with the chargers I bought. They're supposed to work.

 

[Gregg M]

Thats unfotunate... I feel the snakes were there before your house was... What I am getting at is we should be causious when we are living on land that supports wildlife of any kind... Its not a good idea to swim in the ocean during certain times of the year because of sharks and jellyfish... You should not picnic in the woods when bears are coming out of hybernation... It is also not a good idea to be walking around in flip flops when you know there may be rattlesnakes around... I know when I am at my house in the poconos, I am always keeping an eye out for timbers and coppers... But when I look out for them, its not to avoid them... LOL... I also leave them on the property... Last summer there was one under my steps for a month straight...

When you leave a garage door open filled with a snakes natural prey, you might as well just catch the snakes and put them in the garage yourself...

 

[lytlesnake]

Yep. I'm sure it came down the gully from the hills above. They have been found around here before I ever bred mice of course too, just not by me. Trust me, the rattlesnake population in this canyon is in no danger. They are quite plentiful. As I said, I didn't do it on purpose. I had no idea it was there until it was already dead. If you think I'm stupid for leaving the garage open you're probably right, but I had no intention of attracting rattlesnakes so I could kill them. I respect them as much as any other animal.

 

[chad ramsey]

i respect them almost more than any other animal. they strike so hard and so fast. it's unbelievable to me. they are just simply amazing creatures.

 

[lytlesnake]

Thanks for reminding me!

 

[popcikle]

i was watching man vs wild a few days ago (btw bear grills is fake) and bear was at this village in some dessert and they hated rattlesnakes. thay shifted through the sand with huge sticks searching for rattlers, and when they found them they smacked them with the sticks untill it was paralized and then cut off its head!:behead: the head still tried to bite them but they took it back to camp, left the head in the sand and ate the body. it was pretty gross.

 

[lytlesnake]

Yeah I was watching that show earlier tonight and that Bear guy was cooking up a big monitor lizard, then he ripped the head off a snake and ate it's body raw!! The dude is a freaking freak.

 

[popcikle]

i know, right? he kinda creeps me out sometimes.

 

[DillanSimpson]

Did you kill it on purpos?


sorry can't spelll.

 

[skooge]

Here is a rattler story for you guys. This happened years before I was born. This back when there over population of ratters on the farm. My Dad has containers full of rattles. We had nabers(sp?)that lived less then a mile from a rattler den and they were also finding them around their house. Well one day they found one in there house. I guess that was the last straw. So two of their sons asked my dad if they could take care of the den and he said the could. He thought they just go up there with a couple of guns and shoot a bunch. Fast forward to 5 years ago when one of the 2 sons started bringing his family to our church. Well during a conversation, the den was brought up and told us how his brother and him disposed of the snakes. They poured gasoline and diesel down the opening and then put a stick or two of TNT in there blew the den up! This is back when you could go into town and buy TNT.