Well, they swallow them whole, but are usually crushed on the way down. I did feel bad about him regurgitating some back up on me.
As big as he was, I'm sure he'd been living there a while and just ran out of rodents. My MIL complains because she's got rats. I keep telling her if she'd quit killing the kingsnakes, the rat problem would be gone! They kill any snake they see.
I understand being afraid of them, but seems the rodents are much more dangerous...both from a disease standpoint, and just plain destructiveness.
I had second thoughts about removing him, but I knew he'd eat all the eggs, and I'd love to have babies. This is my first big hatch. My cat disappeared, so I have no rodent control besides the chickens, right now.
As far as the poisonous ones, we only kill the ones up by the house. If we are in the woods, several acres away, we leave them alone. The ones we see the most are the copperheads, and they can have nasty attitudes. They're pretty aggressive, so if we see them up here, they are gone. The cottonmouths usually go away if they hear us coming. We haven't seen/heard any rattlers, but I am sure they are here.
I tend to leave things alone, unless they are caught in the act, like the snake was. If I hadn't
seen him eating the eggs, he'd be given the benefit of the doubt, and left alone. We have a large coyote population on our property. I have never seen any evidence of them coming into the cleared area around the house. No tracks, no missing animals (except maybe my cat, but I have no proof) and I won't shoot at them. If I see them around the cleared area, I might yell or shoot into the air to remind them this is my area, but anything in the wooded area is considered "communal" property by me. Same with the mountain lion. She stays away, I stay away. I like having them close, and see no reason to disrupt them. I know a lot of people don't agree with that, or understand it, but that is how we live. Now, the boys aren't allowed to camp overnight outside, even in the cleared area. I don't want to tempt fate, and I know the kids don't really understand that, but they accept it. It's just
not allowed.
I wish I'd gotten some better pics of the snake (it was a black rat snake with the red and white markings) but DD was panicking and it was making the snake nervous. I do have to say that even though he spit up a little egg, he never musked me! He was a very nice snake. Thank goodness!
Thanks for all the support! I know it's not for everyone, but you just don't see snakes that big, that often. I think the record for that kind was 8 feet. He's probably only got a few more years to go! LOL!
Shelly
if a red racer has made it to 18 inches. Occasionally I see a bull snake over a couple of feet. What I wouldn't give for a good rat snake under my neighbors shed.
