Rat snakes eat rats - so WTF are these snakes eating???
Good news - not poisonous. I know this because I found a 3' 1.5" diameter rat snake in my yard last week!
I'm sure they leave the house to go hunting. Not like there are any rodents left there at this point. Bet the neighborhood is light on squirrels too.
any of the locals know where in Annapolis this is? mmp eta: n/m - the link I posted below has it. Broadneck - St. Margaret's. That makes sense - there are usually plenty of good snakey hunting grounds along the water.
Also re: basement insulation - an unfinished basement is typically just concrete/concrete block. Usually when you finish a basement you build standard wood walls inside the concrete walls, then install some sort of vapor barrier and insulate, then install drywall. Keeps everything all nice and snug and dry feeling. So the snakes were tunneling in the layer of insulation between the concrete walls and the drywall.
I am scratching so hard, I am afraid I'll draw blood. I don't even really have a thing with snakes! Or, I don't have a thing with a snake. An infestation is, apparently, another story. Ugh.
Rat snakes are probably the only snakes that don't scare me. I don't know why. They're so big they're almost cartoonish and they give no fucks. We used to have them in one of my barns. We had a rat problem and the snakes would come rolling up the aisles at night and disappear in to rat holes. I'd rather a snake than a rat any day.
Let me be clear, I don't want one living in my house. But as snakes go, they're not that bad. One at a time. A dozen is bad. That's too many.
So what kind of house and/or inspection do I need to guarentee that THIS doesn't happen? And I don't even even always hate snakes.
You know...I bet a good termite inspection would have found at least a couple of snake skins. Probably wouldn't' have really brought the whole situation to light, but they would have had some clue. They aren't standard in all areas around here.
Also this house backs to a fairly large wooded area and then water.
LOTS of places for snakes to hunt and hang out between coming back to the den. This kind of thing is not going to happen in a dense suburb or a city. there you just have to worry about the bee's nests the size of your bed.
I have no idea why the squirming and noping in this thread is giving me so much glee. I like snakes and I'd still freak the fuck out if this was my house. But for some reason I'm just all, "HAHA! SNAKES!"
Rat snakes eat rats - so WTF are these snakes eating???
Good news - not poisonous. I know this because I found a 3' 1.5" diameter rat snake in my yard last week!
I'm sure they leave the house to go hunting. Not like there are any rodents left there at this point. Bet the neighborhood is light on squirrels too.
any of the locals know where in Annapolis this is? mmp eta: n/m - the link I posted below has it. Broadneck - St. Margaret's. That makes sense - there are usually plenty of good snakey hunting grounds along the water.Â
Also re: basement insulation - an unfinished basement is typically just concrete/concrete block. Usually when you finish a basement you build standard wood walls inside the concrete walls, then install some sort of vapor barrier and insulate, then install drywall. Keeps everything all nice and snug and dry feeling. So the snakes were tunneling in the layer of insulation between the concrete walls and the drywall.Â
YWIA.
Well, I guess I can take a moment and be thankful I don't have the money to finish my basement.
I'm sure they leave the house to go hunting. Not like there are any rodents left there at this point. Bet the neighborhood is light on squirrels too.
any of the locals know where in Annapolis this is? mmp eta: n/m - the link I posted below has it. Broadneck - St. Margaret's. That makes sense - there are usually plenty of good snakey hunting grounds along the water.
Also re: basement insulation - an unfinished basement is typically just concrete/concrete block. Usually when you finish a basement you build standard wood walls inside the concrete walls, then install some sort of vapor barrier and insulate, then install drywall. Keeps everything all nice and snug and dry feeling. So the snakes were tunneling in the layer of insulation between the concrete walls and the drywall.
YWIA.
Well, I guess I can take a moment and be thankful I don't have the money to finish my basement.
Nothing stopping them from making nests in the upstairs walls. The basement is just the obvious choice.
(I'm a terrible person. I'm sorry. I just can't seem to stop.)
But really, this is very unlikely to happen. There are always black snakes along the little creeks and shit all through this area, and the guy who owns the pest company that came out to see this house was still all, "I have NEVER seen anything like this." (way more details in the link to the local paper I linked previously) It's not typical. At all. Indian burial ground seems not unlikely.
I live a few miles from this house. There was a snake on my porch yesterday. I flipped out.
Yeah.,.. I'd be cutting out some drywall and checking out the insulation if it were me. LOL
Would a home inspection not have caught this? We are *hopefully* getting ready to start house hunting. This or a spider infestation is the stuff of my nightmares...
Ugh. I have a huge snake phobia. Even the little ones. We had a perfectly harmless brown snake in our house a few years ago. I had just woken up to get ready for work and when I went out to the foyer, I saw something on the ground. I thought it was one of my son's plastic snakes and nudged it with my toe. When it started slithering, I freaked, screamed for DH to come save me. lol He casually picked it up and threw it out the front door and went back to bed.
I would seriously need medicating if I were these people. I would be so scared the next house would have the same problem.
I am scratching so hard, I am afraid I'll draw blood. I don't even really have a thing with snakes! Or, I don't have a thing with a snake. An infestation is, apparently, another story. Ugh.
Me too, except I hate snakes. I'm just glad I didn't open this thread at night.
I have no idea why the squirming and noping in this thread is giving me so much glee. I like snakes and I'd still freak the fuck out if this was my house. But for some reason I'm just all, "HAHA! SNAKES!"
Someone is going to send you to a corner here soon.
Just looking at this picture gave me some mild anxiety.
MH's relative has a house in that area and has a similar, but more minor, snake problem. Theirs have been kind enough to stay in the basement but they are still removing a few a week.
I don't mind snakes but I would feel a lot differently if it was my house they were infesting.
How did this not come out during the inspection? C'mon now.
Same reason termite problems aren't promised to come out during inspection. Or chimney problems. Or structural problems. Home inspections really only look for surface issues. If you want people peeking inside your walls you have to pay extra.
Pest inspections are a thing though. Always something to consider.
MH's relative has a house in that area and has a similar, but more minor, snake problem. Theirs have been kind enough to stay in the basement but they are still removing a few a week.
I don't mind snakes but I would feel a lot differently if it was my house they were infesting.
yeah, I don't know anybody who lives along the water in AA county and doesn't at least find a few snakes in their yard/garage/deck/whatever every summer. They like water. Well...rodents like water. So snakes like water. Particularly all the little bitsy in and out creeks that create nice undeveloped swampy areas in basically EVERY waterfront community in AA county.
MIL still tells with horror the story of finding one in her master bath toilet on the tail end of the renovation they did to their current home before moving in. They've since put mesh over all the vent pipes...
OMG I have the biggest case of heebie jeebies right now.
I would probably flop over dead if this ever happened to me. I do not live in a place where snakes are even all that common. I have seen a snake (outside of a zoo) twice in my life. One was when hiking in the Smokies and one was a tiny one on the side of a bike trail we biked on outside of town a ways. That's it. All these stories about snakes in the house, snakes in the barn, snakes in the yard are making me hyperventilate a bit.
My coworkers were just discussing this story and I wandered over to participate. I have inadvertently cemented myself as the person who probably has been too close to too many animals...because somehow I ended up being asked, "Ok, wait - how many kinds of animals have you been bitten by??" and apparently 6 is a lot.
(snake, iguana, horse, dog, cat, hamster)
Also apparently having been bitten by more ticks than I can reasonably count is also weird.