Hi, Matt.  You get your Tech-Snakes discussions right here - - -

 JH> Florida has six species of venemous snakes.  Four of the species
 JH> can be found in Wayne's county (Pinellas) - cottonmouth (water)
 JH> moccasin, eastern diamondback rattlesnake, pygmy rattlesnake, and
 JH> coral snake. The two others, the timber (canebrake) rattlesnake and
 JH> the copperhead (highland) moccasin live farther north, and in the FL
 JH> panhandle area, respectively.

 MM> Right here in New Orleans we've only got the cottonmouth and the
 MM> canebrake. The "Honey Island Swamp" on the
Louisiana/Mississippi border
 MM> where we used to do a lot of camping, fishing and water skiing, has the
 MM> copperhead.

I'm surprised you have no diamondback or pygmy rattlers at all, to go
with the canebrake type rattlers, which I had until now associated with
higher ground.

 MM> Had a run-in with a non toxic 'Texas Rat snake' about 10 years ago when
 MM> the wife called me in a panic.  "Matt, there's a BIG snake coiled on
 MM> top of the mouse cage".  (This was back when my youngest was in High
 MM> School and decided he wanted mice, problem was we didn't know male from
 MM> female, and by the time we learned, the three mice became 97 mice in
 MM> four cages!)

Hee. Yep, constrictor type snakes love to eat them mousies.  But not 97
at a time. Talking with the petshop folks, most of those mouses are
actually bought by folks who have snakes for a pet. Cost maybe a buck a
mouse, and in the story below, we ended up giving caught lizards to that
corn snake, and he ate them with a right good will, just like he did
those little petshop mouses.  Aquarium pet snake poop is right nasty
looking, with all them undigested bones in there, and right smelly also.

 MM> Anyway, by the time I got in there, we couldn't find the snake.
 MM> After about 30 minutes in a small room, I finally found it,
 MM> standing on the tip of it's tail in a corner, looking nearly
 MM> identical to a black  handled broom that was parked there.  Best
 MM> job of 'hiding in plain view' I've ever seen!

Hee. If I didn't know you to be "straight arrow", I'd be thinking you
are pulling my leg with this tall tale.   OK, it was standing on top of
a small coil of itself down on the floor, and desperatly _trying_ to
look for a way out of there?

 MM> I caught it and
 MM> put it in one of the cages with a particularly agressive mouse
 MM> that I didn't like, and solved that problem _very_ quickly!

I've seen that, from a corn snake pet which muy son had back in his
school years.  Kinda amazing those petshop mouses which have never seen
a snake in their lives will instinctively "freeze" when the snake
picks them up on his scan.  The snake moves around just right, then
strikes and latches onto the mouse quickly, then wraps around, and
the mouse is suffocated in a very few seconds. Then, leisurely, the
snake unwraps from around the suffocated mouse, unhinges his jaws, and
slowly ingests the whole critter.  Head first, tail last.

 MM> The following week, we took it water skiing  with us and I
 MM> turned it loose in the woods.

Hee. So what did you do to finally get rid of the rest of those
remaining pesky 96 mouses?

As to humane disposition, it was the same with my son's corn snake (it
had beautiful colors) - when it was time for it to leave us, we took it
out a mile or so away into a wooded area away from "people", and turned
it loose.

 - - -  JimH.

... Inquiring minds want to know. - Bubba
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