Haha. Yes, they do go after the rodents, which is good, but I guess I'd rather have mice in my house than snakes. The friends who gave me the adult feral cat I mentioned, now have a bunch of feral kittens around. I may get one, but ol' Mick won't be happy about that I bet. When one cat I had disappeared in 1990, I lived here til 1993 with no cat at all, and I will never go through that again. Traps, poison, whatever, cats are the best, easiest solution IMO. Snakes: When a buddy and I were ripping my old porch out in 2003, which was a wooden deck a foot or less above the ground, the biggest snake I've ever seen in the wild came slithering out. It was probably 3 inches around, stout, maybe two feet or so long, snapping its mouth, very aggressive. It had patterns on its back, something like a cottonmouth I was thinking. Supposedly there are no poisonous snakes around here for miles. There was a large enough hole in the sill plate of my house, now exposed, made by rodents or whatever, so I'm sure he was slithering around in the crawl space under the house. I was freaking out, but my buddy said it was a "Northern Water Snake," not poisonous (ARTICLE.) There is a creek about 20' from my house. He was quite correct in identifying it and knowing it wasn't poisonous, as I found out later online. I killed it, and there was another one in my yard about 10 or so years ago, I killed that too. I don't care if they're beneficial or not, they creep me out. This is a stock photo of one:
Interesting, Ms. Foxy. We don't have bull snakes around here, but they sound as creepy as Northern Water Snakes. There were, supposedly, rattlers around here maybe 50 or so years ago, before I moved here. Lotta current stories, but no real evidence since. So should I get a new kitten for the mouse problem? Funny, as a kid I liked snakes. I had a plywood cage with a screened front that someone gave me and I had a garter snake in it, I was 10-12-ish. I wanted to keep it in the basement and I couldn't figure why my mom freaked out and absolutely ruled against it, lol. Now I get it. RIP, Mom, I'm on your side now. I am busily working on my 3rd Stinger, and am NOT thinking about snakes.
I've always had a lots of black snakes. For some reason, I have a population of mice that ebbs & flows...every few years I'll catch several in snap traps indoors, then I'll go a couple of years without catching any. The black snakes here eat all sorts of stuff (even other reptiles), so it's not just the rodents that attract them. I've always viewed reptiles as the canaries in the coalmine regarding the health of my local ecology, so I like seeing them. I've only seen one poisonous snake since I moved here (copperhead), and they are rarely deadly to humans...it was at the far end of my lot, so it lived to see another day. Otherwise, I may have escorted it off this mortal coil. The aggressive little bugger struck at my front end loader. (That did make me back up.) This is a pic under my crawlspace when I was installing my water softener: I've been under there with the termite inspector and it seemed that every other time he pulled back insulation there was a black snake laying up there. If you don't have a problem with poisonous snakes, and snakes are generally there because of nuisance critters, why would you want to get rid of them? Heck, I let that copperhead near my woods live because I'd rather have it than the rodent population it keeps in check (and copperheads are black snake food.) If you lay down more snake repellent, you'll see more mice. edit to add: I just reread your post. You just don't like snakes. Sorry, don't know why I asked the question...you already answered pretty much everything I typed. I'm such a bad listener. I didn't like snakes either until I moved here, and for some reason I changed. Maybe I don't "like" them as much as I "don't hate" them.
John said: " . . . snakes are generally there because of nuisance critters, why would you want to get rid of them?" I hate mice but they don't give me the creeps. Snakes do. Dealing with this stuff, plus the never-ending maintenance on the house/yard/barn is starting to get to me.
I'm getting there, too. My HVAC went out the other day and when I looked in the crawlspace, it was flooded! I did not have it wrapped/sealed, but got a cheap job where rolls of plastic was laid down. I have no idea where the water came from (we had bad storms & hail & tornado warnings the day before), and the plastic acts as a pool lining, but because the sheets overlap, the water can seep through & get underneath, so it never evaporates. I wonder if I need to get bigger gutters. The guy was able to get the HVAC going again, but a retirement home is looking pretty good...except for the humans and the mandatory vaxes.
Oh, that sucks, @John Brunner. I worry about that all the time, having had a major water leak in the crawlspace about ten years ago. It's not convenient or pleasant to go down there, so it's not a place that I visit regularly.
I waited a day, then bought a pump at Lowes. When I got it home and broke it out, most of it had already bled down into the ground. I have no idea where it came from. The water pooled at the slight downhill end of the rambler, but there is no plumbing down that end. There was lots of pooling towards the front of the house, where maybe gutters overflowed? Again, there is no plumbing anywhere near there, so the upside is that it's not my well's pressure tank or anything like that. I guess we all know that sometimes this stuff is more of an emotional drain than it is a problem physically addressing it. I envy my friends who grew up in apartments so lack the skills to do this stuff themselves...their only thought is to call a contractor. I think the rest of us burden ourselves with "Why should I pay someone..."
We've always been like that and thankfully both of us are pretty handy. Trouble is, we're getting older and all the bending, stooping, ladder climbing, etc. isn't that much fun anymore.
The Oregon Blue Snake After spotting this rare snake at a distance and throwing rocks at it, I noticed it wasn't moving. A sudden wave of bravery overcame me and I approached it with cell phone camera ready. It turned out to be a piece of blue bailing twine. Be that as it may, my laundry boast two pair of undies that day. My favorite walking road along a hayfield is always full of snake tracks. I am not opposed to tail shaking, but if rattling is heard, I reach for my .22 Colt just to realize I don't pack heat anymore. A common East Oregon bullsnake or gopher snake. They can look a bit rattlesnake until you get close enough to check for rattles or head shape. Here is one from last year on the hayfield road. So far this season I have seen only one snake and it was dead. Shot by what looked to be a .45 bullet. Even though it was dead, I wouldn't get closer than 10 feet. It sure looked to be a rattler. The rancher that has the field, does pack a .45 and would never kill a bullsnake since they are his only weapon against gophers. He hates rattlesnakes and the only good one is a dead one. This accounts for the single gunshot I heard about an hour earlier before I embarked on my daily tail shaking.
Good grief, I never, ever thought of that, but I'm sure you are correct. Any institution having anything to do with health (including veterinarians) have been gaslit by the whole covid fiasco. Highly educated of course, and devoid of critical thinking, they follow "the trusted institutions". Florida is looking better and better, assuming at least some geezer homes there don't require it.
John, regarding your flooded crawlspace, that seems like a problem that should be fixed, whether it's gutters or whatever. It will surely get mold in there, not a good thing. Mine doesn't flood or have any water in it but even in mid-summer, just from the humid air, it will get a mildew odor which seeps into the living room if I don't do anything. I have a big window fan blowing into one vent, pushing the air out the others and that fixes the odor. So far this year, I haven't needed it but probably will soon. That pik you posted, is that a mongoose?
Well, upon further review of the officials...I just did a quick search and may have shot my mouth off without knowing what I was talking about. I thought for sure that folks who were in such facilities got vaxxed because they had to. None of them mentioned any fellow inmates who did not and how such "unclean" were dealt with (meaning segregated from the general population.) The quick search I just did indicates that only staff have vax mandates (and some mandates only apply to nursing homes), not the inmates. It might be true somewhere, but not by what I can find. Sorry.
So you put a window fan outside to kind of pressurize the space? Hmmmmm... Yeh, the pic is a mongoose. Sounds like you need one (or two.)