ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area How to get rid of snakes???

Even in bayou country, snakes are the least dangerous things in crawl spaces!

Carry a 'ticker' to check any ducts or pipes before you wiggle under them. many a repairman has been killed by a 'hot' piece of ducting.

Take the floormat from your truck with you. Use it to kneel / lay upon. It will protect you against sharp rocks. In soft areas I will lay upon a 32" x 24" piece of plywood.

Wear gloves; many hacks leave all manner of sharp trash in the gravel, for you to find 'the hard way.'

When you're finished, make damn sure you know where the family cat is; many a tradesman has accidentally locked kitty in the crawl.

Finally, a small broom is great for removing assorted cobwebs from your path.

Good point Reno.
I agree the sloppy work under a "crawl" is more dangerous than any critter you will encounter.
Inspectors seldom do more that a quick glance in there with a flashlight ... if they brought one.
I surprised the hell out of an installer once by actually crawling under a trailer. In a way he was pleased tho, since the work was good.
(SE was strapped up and the penetration was sealed)

I had an issue with a rattle snake once - well not me... Helper dude did....

Working on a REALLY OLD FARM HOUSE... It was habited by a bunch of people living in the house full time.

So anyway me aand another guy are cutting in outlets - I cut the hole, then drill down to this guy (Mike) and he pushes the wire up - and we go to the next... So the last one we got to do, I'm tapping on the floor so he can find me and he calls on the radio. "Stop! - Quiet! There's a snake down here right next to the hole..."

I'm up top asking all kinds of questions on the radion, "what kind of snake, whats he doing, whats he look like?"

Finally the guy down there says - I think its sleeping, so I tell him just get the wire in there and get out of there. (Oh - this set of wires is the HR and the feed out to all the rest...) So he tries and he yells - it's a rattler! and I can hear and feel him bumping his way at high speed back to the crawl hole.... And he's out of there in a flash!

So we called animal control - who shows up with a flashlight and bino's and says "yep - you got a momma rattle snake." SO I ask - can you get it out? - "Nope, I ain't going down there - I'll set some traps - when or if it gets in one - call me and I'll pick it up." So I ask how long that will take - he says "Spring". Which was 4 months off - and it took that long...

When my wife was selling ACs she was at the customer's watching a start up (and getting the check) when her installer said there was a snake next to the condenser as he was running to the truck. He said everything was OK and he was done.
She went back to see and came back to him with the snake.
She tried one of those good news bad news jokes.
"Good news, the snake was dead, bad news, he had a freon leak." and dropped the snake in his truck.

Well it was all bad news. The snake was just stunned from the freon and he woke up.

She couldn't understand why the guy was so upset. His name was "Snake" and he had a big tattoo of a snake on his arm but he was scared of snakes.

I had a helper one time that loved all reptiles. He caught every snake he could and put it in a bag. Then he would take them home (venomous or not) take a few pictures and release them in his yard. He went to Florida on vacation and came back with several really cool lizards he caught. He now has a population of them on his property. Great to have him around.

How soon can he make it to Virginia? I have a large deck and a shed that should be full of specimens that he can have for free!

He can go up to Boca Grande and fill his trunk with iguanas or get some nice 5 ft nile monitors over in Cape Coral.
They will thank you.

You might use a firey torch like Indiana Jones did when faced with the same scenario