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Q:
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i vowed to never ask a question again, but......
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In Relation To:
Kaiya
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as most of you know, ive had a series of escapees recently. i found the biggest threat, the 2 yr old boa. now......
before you read this situation...take into concideration waht im going to say.
DO NOT READ PAST THE STARS IF YOU DONT HAVE SOMETHING SUPPORTIVE TO SAY PLEASE.
recently, i set up a series of traps to capture my missing 2 mo old corn snake.
ive tried the pinkie in the bottle. fail
ive tried the flour at doorways and intervals at the wall. fail
ive tried ripping my house apart. utter fail
ive tried waiting. ive failed miserably at that
so, i decided to set up humane mouse traps. so that when the snake went by, the sticky stuff would get caught to her, and she couldnt go anywhere (i had them tqcked down to the floor)
so, i set them up, go down stairs and spend some time watching mythbusters
i go back upstairs 2 hours later, to check my traps, and i found i my mouse traps, A MOUSE!
now, more than being worried about her getting in the walls and eventually outside, im worried about mice eating her.
now, this mouse wasnt huge by any means, it was a smaller mouse, but still bigger than her. idk if she could take it down.
given this information, shwould i be worried about stumbling upon my cornsnake dead and half eaten by mice?
again, hopefully i find her before that happens.
ive heard awful stories about people leaving prey in with the snakes and them being chewed up.
anyone have any kind of insight to ease my mind?
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Author Comment
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9/28/2009 4:35:42 AM
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iashia
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i never put stars, so dont read past the red words......
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Member Comment
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9/28/2009 6:47:25 AM
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titus
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A two month corn is small you would be shocked at the places they'll get into. I've heard of people finding their snakes in cd/tape players, VCR's, speaker boxes, ext... If there's a hole the snakes most likely found it. Every thing you've tried sounds like your on the right track to finding your snake. I've heard of snakes being gone for months a still being found in mostly good heath.
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Member Comment
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9/28/2009 7:23:04 AM
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Geckofactor
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Mice chew up or eat snakes in captivity because the snake has nowhere to go and the mice have little to no other food they don't hunt down snakes in the wild like jackals. So I doubt you'd have to worry unless you actually caught both the mouse and the snake at the same time then yeah dead for sure and I'm not so sure about using sticky traps to catch a snake I've accidentally caught snakes on those things and it's a serious chore to get them off even when you catch it very quickly.
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Member Comment
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9/28/2009 8:23:06 AM
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sonja
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I agree with Geckofactor---as long as a mouse and a snake are not trapped together, like in an aquarium, the mouse will just go on his way and leave the snake alone. I also agree that the glue traps are not a great idea---they are not humane to mice, the mouse gets stuck and slowly dies of starvation, and if you did happen to get your snake stuck on one of them, it would be a nightmare to get him unstuck, especially if he wiggles around and gets *really* stuck.
To find your snakes, keep searching. Search even places you have looked before. And be patient. I have had a couple escapes over the years, and almost always find them again---once it was even 3 months later when I found a milksnakes strolling across my kitchen one evening. I can't stress enough to keep searching over and over, especially in the room where they got loose.
Good luck.
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Member Comment
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9/28/2009 8:30:29 AM
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sparky
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I would avoid the sticky traps. I almost lost my mojave female when I put up a sticky corner molding and she stuck to it.
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Member Comment
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9/28/2009 8:41:19 AM
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Krestie Kate
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I lost a lizard that got out to a sticky trap. He got his face stuck and couldn't breathe. Needless to say he's gone now. Be very careful useing the sticky traps on any animal that small as soon as she gets stuck shes going to fwail (sp?) around and get her whole body stuck. Which also may result in the death of your snake.
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Member Comment
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9/28/2009 8:44:48 AM
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Geckofactor
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I agree on the just keep looking especially with it getting cold now it may go out into the open more to get warm. I once had a candy cane corn escape and I didn't find it for over a year when I finally found it I didn't even know what it was sitting ontop of the mouse rack it had been sneaking into the racks eating mice or eating escaped mice and had a small scar but really in all around good shape.
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Member Comment
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9/28/2009 8:59:18 AM
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Sony Raju
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be careful kellie, but dont stress out. corns are really teeny at that age, and they can and will go wherever they feel comfortable. just keep looking, and look in small places you may have not thought to look before hand....
and you better have been doign your homework!:)
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Member Comment
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9/28/2009 10:02:24 AM
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aaron
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I lost a six month old king years ago, and it showed up four months later, after I'd completely written it off.
Avoid sticky things, especially with young animals. You may find the snake that way, but stressed, dead, or inseparable from sticky things. I've heard many a story about snakes and duct tape ending in disaster.
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Author Comment
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9/28/2009 10:11:21 AM
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iashia
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ok, i read this and ran upstairs and burned the sticky things. i did set out aa few more bottle traps tho. winter up in wisconsin gets pretty brutal, so im putting my cards on her either packing up her hiding spot and moving to the rep room where its warm, or not making it through the winter.
thanks for the advice on the sticky traps. i would have been devasated to see her like that. i cried last night when i killed that mouse on the trap (even though ive killed hundred of mice for my snakes over the years) it hurts me to see an animal suffer.
and yessir sony, i did my homework =)
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Member Comment
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9/28/2009 1:36:39 PM
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Izzy
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At least with the mice in your house, there's a chance your little corn, baby though it may be, is eating... I would dose her for parasites when she turns up again....
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Author Comment
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9/28/2009 2:09:36 PM
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iashia
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oh you dont have to worry about that. as soon as i catch a glimpse of that snake, ill lunge, put her in a above optimal conditions isolation container, and straight to the vet. any snake that gets loose in my grandmas house, goes to the vet. this house is ancient. i feel like im going to catch some incurable diseaase if i sit on the porch with no sandals on...
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Member Comment
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9/28/2009 3:02:22 PM
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Sonja K. Reptiles
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Not my first, but I had an escapee - one of my mexican black king snakes - recently, and I was a little stressed since I had been cleaning out in my reptile room and the doors to the outside had been open for hours! Her cage was the second to the last one after 6+ hours and my heart sank when she wasn't there. I looked that night and the next day - which was feeding day and she missed out on that. And, I must have been tired... or maybe just lazy - LOL.... and I had failed to take care of the ziploc bags that I had thawed the rodents in. Next day I went out to check if a couple of my snakes had ate overnight or not, saw the bags, went to take care of them, and what do you know... there was my king snake curled up in one of the bags! LOL Must have smelled sooo good in there to her! : )
More often than not, we find our critters... but I know how nerve racking it is when they are missing! Congrats on finding your Boa!! One down, one to go! : )
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Member Comment
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9/28/2009 3:09:36 PM
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Izzy
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*LOL* sometimes I think houses are like people.... once they've caught everything, they don't get sick anymore, your house is probably immune to everything by now, and is the safest place to be without shoes on...
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Member Comment
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9/28/2009 4:49:45 PM
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JohnJohn
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I agree with everyone else. Just keep looking. And when you feel like giving up, keep looking some more.
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Member Comment
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9/28/2009 7:33:20 PM
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Herpetological_Girl
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My male boa got out 2 weeks ago, and early last week we finally found him- 4 days after he escaped. I did the same thing with flour traps, sound traps, and a f/t mouse trap. The same night I found him I had just gone out to get live mice to use as bait. As soon as we had the mice set, I heard a noise from the living room.
I found him in a box in my bag of perlite....lol
I live in an apartment with holes in the wall, and crevices to get behind every cabinet and appliance in the entire place, so I feel you. Try setting some sound traps. Plastic bags and gift wrap semi-crinkled along the walls or in places you think she'd pass by. That's what did it for me. "Around 9-10, just turn off the lights and wait about 30 min. Have a flashlight handy so you can investigate every sound." That's what I read on here and it worked for me :)
Good Luck! I'm sure she'll turn up :)
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Author Comment
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9/28/2009 8:14:30 PM
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iashia
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so, everyone knows winter is comming.
what if she got in my vents? will she move if i turn the heat on?
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Member Comment
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9/28/2009 8:15:13 PM
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AAS
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I think I'm 2 out of 5 for finding escaped baby snakes. If you have any stacked cages, don't forget to look between them over warm spots. I found my hypo glades there once, somehow quite a bit bigger than when I lost him a couple months prior. Had a Japanese ratsnake disappear for about 4 months, found him scooting across the floor one day. Old TV show ditty... "... when you least expect it, you're elected, it's your lucky day...." Good luck.
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Member Comment
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9/28/2009 8:24:21 PM
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Geckofactor
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No, no guarentee the snake would move if you turn on the heat I have a friend that lost a ball python he found it when he turned the heat on and after a few days the house started to smell it was obviously in the ventilation system.
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Author Comment
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9/28/2009 8:40:39 PM
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iashia
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oh great. greaaaaaat. we had to turn the heat on, coz its lower than 46 here tonight. i hope shes no where near he vent systems. i hope shes curled up in a little ball somewhere in my room.
anyone any tricks that have worked for them they want to share, please?
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Author Comment
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9/28/2009 9:07:45 PM
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iashia
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SIDE NOTE *this has been bothering me for forever*
is it pronounced *meta bal ism* (metabolism) since metabolic is pronounced meta ballic
or
*met ab o lism* (metabolism) and would metabolic be pronounced *met ab ow lic
(((((has nothing to do with the snake, im just curious. think of it as entertaining my imagination away from the possibilities of my snake))))))))))))
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Member Comment
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9/29/2009 2:35:21 AM
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amarilrose
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*met ab o lism* (metabolism) www.thefreedictionary.com/metabolism (my favorite online dictionary, it has pronunciation sound bytes, click the pic of the speaker to hear)
I don't remember if you had this as a blog topic before or as an iHerp Answers post before, but the biggest trick to finding lost snakes is patience... and luck. Thus far *knock on wood* I have had a 100% recovery rate of escaped snakes... and I haven't had any escape for years. I think I pointed this out to you before, but if you put down some jar lids along walls and in corners as little water bowls, that will go a long way to keeping your snake alive long enough for you to find it. The shortest escape we had was a few weeks (maybe a month), and the longest escape we had was a very young Chinese Ratsnake who was missing for a little over 6 months, and he did in fact grow noticeably in that time.
Iashia, since you now know you have mice available in the house, I would say there is no time you should give up searching; you could even find this snake after a year or two with a food source present... though I hope you find it much sooner!! I live in central IL, I grew up in northern IL, and my in-laws live in northern WI near Eau Claire, so I'm pretty aware of the way winter treats us, but I would have to say that no matter what the age of your grandmother's house is, if it gets warm enough inside the house for you to be comfortable in the winter, your snake will probably be able to find enough places to keep warm & survive. I can't make any guarantees of course, but my main point is don't give up! Keep doing what you're doing! :)
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Author Comment
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9/29/2009 3:52:23 AM
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iashia
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Yea =) you know its all i can do, keep trying =) someone told me in a blog to just keep swimming. for the life of my i cant remember who it was, but that is like imprinted on me now, when i get sad or angry, lol, i think internally, 1, 2 breath (just keep swimming) 1, 2 breath (what do we do we do) 1, 2 breath (just keep swimming) lol =P thank you who ever that was =))
i evaluated some of the techniques that ive been using, such as the bottle trap
i dont think the bottle trap is ever going to work in my situation. now that i have a live (non intentional) food source in my house, with live squirming babies, a dead one, probably doesnt look all that apeasing, so i think that idea went straight out the window. but im not too worried, i dont like having dead pinkies all over my house anyways. i do think my best bet now that winter is comming is setting up a few warm places like blankets over heat pads and monitering them throughout the day, and setting out water for her survival.
as for me being worried about crushing her, i was holding the male corn lastnight, showing my grandma was they looked like, and something happened like she dropped something, and he basically flew out of my hand on the bed and across the room in like a split seccond (i retrieved him well fast enough) but i dont think i would be given the oppurtunity to crush her, theyre just too fast. which, makes me very happy (not that shes too fast, that i dont think i can crush her)
lol, thanks about the metabolism thing, =) i love analyzing our language and earning about it.
winters do get pretty bad in the northern central area. (though kast year was pretty warm) lets hope this year (and not only because of my missing snake, but because i hate snow) that we dont get hit with some series of freak blizzards. do you remember the blizzard of '91? idk if it would hit eau claire, or IL, but it was awful, and a few years back, 3 blizards back to back, like a good 15 feet of snow. (shudders) i hate snow.
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Member Comment
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9/29/2009 10:06:30 AM
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shellboa
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Have you tried setting your bottle traps on or near a gentle heat source , like a human heat pad set to low with a towel over it. or put some water and a towel by one of those heat pads and see if you find it cuddled in the towel. When I was at the distributors, most of the dead snakes were more from dehydration than starvation...
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Member Comment
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9/29/2009 10:58:20 AM
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WingedWolfPsion
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Yes, don't use the glue traps--they're very dangerous, they'll kill the animals.
Check for your snake in any lower areas of the house where there is water. Snakes instinctively head down when looking for water, because that's the logical place for water to be. I once found an escaped pueblan milk in the basement shower, drinking water droplets from the floor. She made her way down 2 flights of stairs to get there.
If you have mice in your house...well, the baby snake is unlikely to be eaten by the mice. They're really quite good at taking care of themselves. The snake may, however, find the baby mice to be a good meal. (Always remember ...if you see one mouse, assume you have lots).
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Author Comment
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9/29/2009 12:24:50 PM
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iashia
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yea, i had my bottle traps on a white 2 x 2 heat pad for a few days til the pinkie started sto shrivel up and look like a lump of mottled flesh (it was nasty)
the sticky traps are gone. ive got a bunch of plastic bags set up along the walls tho.
and that makes me feel really good that the mice will probably leave her alone. now, the three things im worried about is, 1) shes in the vent system, which i will be taking apart tonite or tomorrow night. 2) theres a hole in one of my closets that idk where it leads to, but theres a pipe going down the middle of it or 3)she somehow got in the basement, which is freezing cold, and its like a crawlspace thats been dug out more than a basement, and theres no way in hades that im going down there.
what are the chances she'd go to someplace thats really really cold ? the upstairs is fairly warm, almost always 80+ where the donstairs is 60+ and the basement is 40 and below?
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Member Comment
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9/29/2009 1:49:37 PM
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WingedWolfPsion
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She will, if she needs water badly enough--but finding her way back out again is another story. The basement here is quite chilly too, but that is where the milk snake went in search of water.
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Accepted Answer
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9/29/2009 4:55:42 PM
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Sparkle
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On the BIG plus side, at least it's a corn snake and, in the wild, they can survive pretty chilly weather. Unlike a tropical snake which would just end up getting a respiratory infection right away. I think Nate brumates his corns in the 50's, so for sure it will survive that...and if it's in the house somewhere, I'm sure your grandma keeps it warmer than 50's! So, keep looking, and "just keep swimming"! LOL, I'm gonna have that stuck in my head now too... :)
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Member Comment
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9/30/2009 3:40:29 AM
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amarilrose
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"do you remember the blizzard of '91? idk if it would hit eau claire, or IL, but it was awful, and a few years back, 3 blizards back to back, like a good 15 feet of snow. (shudders) i hate snow."
...I think '91 saw a nasty cold snap in the Chicago area, but not a blizzard, if I'm remembering right; like -15° F for a week straight, with a lot of wind making for a deadly wind chill. School was cancelled due to extreme cold! There wasn't any snow!
I agree completely with Kristin (Sparkle), your grandma's house should stay at survivable temps for a corn snake, even through a WI winter. :) I don't however think you'll get much more than extra work out of tearing apart the heating ducts in the house.
Good luck Iashia! :)
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Member Comment
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9/30/2009 3:49:17 AM
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Member Comment
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9/30/2009 3:56:07 AM
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Author Comment
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9/30/2009 1:33:51 PM
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iashia
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lol !!! =)) i love them, when i have some time, shat last one will b my avatar
GOOD NEWS!!!!!!!
no i didnt find her, but here the situation
when i found out the corn was gone, i blocked up all holes that shes could get down. a few days ago, i moved the reps into my room. so they are out of the old room. i put a towel under the door to bloc ker. last night, i found her shed under that towel, so shes upstairs somewhere FORSURE. the vents have been blocked off for a while, and so have the holes, and that shed is recent, so now, its just a waiting game.
and, i rescued a baby ball python last night. her scales are messed up, like someone pulled a premature shed off, and shes extremely overweight, so i have lots of work to do on her.
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Member Comment
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9/30/2009 1:36:57 PM
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Sonja K. Reptiles
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That is a good sign!! Stay positive and you'll have that little one back before you know it! : )
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Member Comment
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9/25/2010 3:42:37 AM
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Dezzy242
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Keep looking. Sounds like things are starting to go your way!
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Member Comment
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9/25/2010 3:38:02 PM
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WingedWolfPsion
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That's great! Now, a snake cannot survive without water, but she is still going strong upstairs--where is she getting water? Wherever it is, that will be a place to look.
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