As MFB says he learned on another thread, rat snakes can climb pretty well, and one demonstrated just how well here. Our house is a modular Cape Cod style. The "upstairs" is still unfinished, though there are pipes and ductwork stubbed in should we ever want to get it done (we use the upper floor as an attic). For several years, I occasionally found a shed snake skin in the attic. From the faint stripes on the skin, I knew it was a rat snake, so I wasn't hugely concerned (hubby and I don't have problems with snakes) though I did wonder what might happen should it ever manage to come in to the ground floor while someone else was here. The skins I was finding were fairly long, so I knew it was a good-sized snake , though I never saw it "in person". It must have been coming up one of the ducts in the wall, there was no other way up there.
Like most Southern homes, ours doesn't have a basement; it only has a crawl space under the house. Once a year we pay a guy to wiggle around under there to check for signs of termites. After one of his regular visits, the termite inspector rang the doorbell. When I answered, I found him slightly breathless and wide eyed, standing on the doorstep. "I don't want to alarm you," he said, "but you got a big ol' dead snake under there." "Oh?" I said, wondering why I should be "alarmed" if the snake was already dead. Apparently, the snake had gotten hung up on something during one of its comings or goings, and had gotten more or less mummified. As the guy had been crawling under one of the heating ducts under the house, he had come basically nose-to-nose with the dried-out remains draped over the duct! "I seen a lot of things, living and dead, under houses." he told me, "but that scared me worse'n anything I ever seen!" "Well, I guess I know why I hadn't seen any skins in the attic for a while," I mused.
