Something Besides the Average Squirrel or Bat Call

I got a call Monday night that was refreshingly different. The guy told me that he had some rental property and the cable guy had been out to hook them up. Well, cable guy goes under the house, works for a while and then comes scurrying out like the house was on fire. He then tells the lady who lives there that he refuses to come back until some one goes out there and removes the RATTLE snake!

Lady calls land lord, land lord calls me.

"Wahoo!" I got a call for something different for a change! Rattle snake? This could be fun! We don't have many of them around here.

What really impressed me was that when I informed him that I do charge for my services and I do that with EVERY call now, he replies, "Of course! I wouldn't expect that you'd do this for free." Great! Now we know where we stand.

I went out there yesterday around noon. The house was low to the ground making travel under there tough for us fat boys. It was a bit warmer than I would have liked and there was a LOT of debris, duct work and furnace machinery cluttering up the underside. Lots and lots of places where a snake could hide.

But, I made my way around under there as best I could looking for snake or at least sign of where one might have been. only one small track in the dusty dry sand that COULD have been a small snake. Or it could have just as likely been the imprint where a wire had been dragged across the sand.

I could not physically get around everywhere under there as the house was just too low to the ground and I simply could not fit. But I covered it the best I could. Finally I decided to leave a trap behind just to see if there was a chance I could catch one. So I left a glue trap with some 10 hour heat pads in it. Then I came out and opened all the outside vents in hopes of cooling the underside so as my trap would be more noticeable. Hopefully, with the heat pads in it, it will look like the warm spot to any snake that happens to slither by.

The question is, did the cable guy really see something? Or did he just want to go home early that day?

Maybe he heard something?

LOL Im going on the same call at 2:30 today! This was a termite inspector tho. I doubt its a rattler heck they are all rattlers to them

Just as I thought. A rat snake

Yup; many times it's "I know it's a copperhead." And I get there to find a black rat snake.

Second trip out there, still.... No sign of snake.

I'd feel better if I could at least find a track.

But, anyway. What cha gonna do, huh?

I get to catch a porky.......

Most likely there was never a snake.

Cable guy was under the place and probably jumpy. I know years ago when I worked for the cable company I hated crawl spaces and dreaded every time I had a work order for a trailer home.

I suspect he heard a rattle or what he thought was a rattle but never seen anything. He was just happy to have an excuse to get from under there.

That was exactly what I was thinking.

BUT, the neighbor, next door call the land lord today and told him that they killed a snake in the back yard. Could have been totally unrelated or as much as I've been bumping around under there these last couple days, I may have spooked it out.

At any rates, I pulled my traps and I'm going back first of the week and dust BOTH houses.

Had a service guy swear he saw a snake coiled up in the middle of the crawlspace and wouldn't go back down there till it was gone. Customer calls me, I go under there, remove the roll of black flexible ductwork support material and tell everyone the coast was clear.

Kevin, I hope you took some safety precautions. I realize that most black flexible ductwork support material is non-poisonous but then there is the vicious black mamba flexible ductwork support material and only an expert can tell them apart.