Looking for the best way to catch or kill a huge black snake.

[Sprydawg]

Wife was scared by the big snake one night but I was not home to re-locate the guy. I have been trying for months to catch him with no luck. Golf balls not working...night day i have been trying to catch him but he is sneaky...He ate a hatching of chicks in one day and eating eggs all the time...

Any recomendations welcomed...

 

[littlefork]

Couple of ideas, deer netting twisted and held down with either stakes or bricks, they go thru the holes and get stuck, you can cut the netting to release it, or you can get sticky pads like you use to catch mice only bigger for snakes, you can pour oil on it to release the snake. We had a den of black snakes in our basement and both of these methods worked equally well, I bought a case of the sticky pads online.

 

[Ole rooster]

One member on here used a minow basket. They go in and can't get out. Put an egg in there and set it out where you think he's running.

 

[mulewagon]

The minnow baskets work for smaller snakes - some folks have caught lots - but the six-foot chickensnake who was chowing down on my chicks didn't fit in that one inch opening! We caught him one day when he made the mistake of taking a nap after breakfast, perhaps with a view towards being in place for lunch...

We know there's more than one snake, as we'd lost chicks and eggs on successive nights. So now I put the mamas and chicks into a snake-proof cage each night (there's no way to snake-proof the coop). And any broodies get a "bed check" at random times to make sure nobody is curled up under there!

 

[ctbagley]

We just caught a large rat snake this week-end using twisted bird netting (it is lightweight black nylon). We twisted the whole roll into what looked like sausage links using zip ties every 5 feet of the 100 foot roll. We then laid it around the perimeter of out chicken pen (fluffing it up to make it more tangly). The snake we caught tried to go through the netting, got caught, could not back out and got more tangled in it and that was that. We cut him out of the netting and dispatched him to snake heaven. He was about 6 1/2 feet tall! One less snake to snack on our eggs and chicks.

 

[jamband]

You could try leaving a warm damp towel on the floor as sometimes they will curl up underneath it to sleep. I would just always beware that the black snake might be the only reason you haven't seen copperheads etc. Just something to consider.