the great snake mystery
Contributors to this thread:Small Game
From: olddogrib
10-Jun-24
True Wildlife Detective
True Wildlife Detective
Since snakes seem to be the hot "topic du jour", I encountered a mystery this weekend up at the "happy hunting grounds" that's a real head scratcher! When I opened the door to the camper early Saturday morning, I knew I had a dead mouse by the smell. Actually, a double! I set traps all year even though I only catch them in cold weather. It was mid 40's but that's a balmy dawn for the Blue Ridge Mtns., even in June. Ignore the mouse on the left that's easily recognizable, he died in a snap trap and isn't part of the mystery. There is a barely recognizable one on the sticky trap, mostly a patch of fur. It has some kind of chemical or acid that dehydrates them or something, and that's all that was left. This all happened in less than a week when I mowed last. Ol' "no-legs" is the mystery. I stayed awake in biology class. Snakes hunt by movement, vibration, thermal, chemical detection and even infrared in some species. Most of all they are not carrion eaters, they hunt live stuff. What on earth lured this snake to his demise on the sticky trap? The dead mouse? Why? The trap had not been moved by the mouse struggling. He was a bit over a foot long, but smaller in diameter than a pencil and couldn't have swallowed that mouse intact if his life depended on it! It was solidly stuck to a trap on top of everything else! Maybe it was the great grandchild of the one I'm holding in the "What's this guy?" thread!
From: Zbone
10-Jun-24
Looks like a young Black Rat Snake, probably was attracted to the mouse struggling in the glue trap or perhaps was just slithering alone when crossed the trap...
From: Corax_latrans
10-Jun-24
I’m with zbone on this one, pretty much…. I would put my first money on the rear end getting stuck in passing, and the rest got glued up as it writhed and wriggled, trying to get loose.
From: 4nolz@work
10-Jun-24
Have you ever tried the arrow/bucket? The antifreeze prevents the smell.I caught a small rattlesnake on a sticky trap like that once.
From: Zbone
10-Jun-24
4nolz - Antifreeze will keep dead mice from stinking?
From: 4nolz@work
10-Jun-24
Yes if they are submerged in it
From: Zbone
10-Jun-24
Thank you sir...
From: drycreek
10-Jun-24
I used to mow my neighbor’s pasture once a year, you can imagine how tall the weeds were. I always strapped on my sixgun (model 63 S&W .22 LR) to shoot (at) rats. Occasionally I hit one, they were almost always hauling ass. I killed a big one one day and made a round or two and noticed he wasn’t where he died. I got off the tractor to see, curiosity had the better of me. About 20/30 feet from where I had shot him was a 5’ long coach whip in the process of swallowing the rat. Now this was a field rat, probably a foot long tail and all. The snake tried to get away but was unable to lift the rat up, so when I didn’t try to close the distance he just settled down to trying to swallow the rat. I’m sure, as the rat was still warm, that the snake was just doing what snakes do, and the rat was alive to him. Her ?
From: spike78
10-Jun-24
Wish I had 100 snakes around here the mice are awful and have ruined quite a few things in my basement and shed. I’m at the point where I want to catch and stock snakes all over the yard. Might have to try the bucket trap in fact I have it ready to go from EBay.
From: olddogrib
11-Jun-24
drycreek, You know when your post gets out, we'll all have to start using steel .22 rounds to prevent collateral damage from lead poisoned snakes, lol! There probably are few rats large enough to stop a .22 round, but common sense is scarce amongst the bunny huggers and DC elites!
