Snakes love to play hide and seek with their owners. They are a master of becoming invisible to your eyes. But the good part is they don’t go very far. So, how to catch a pet snake in your house if one escapes? In order to find your lost snake in your house, there are a number of ways you can outwit your snake and bring it out in the open using tricks and traps very easy to do. Snakes will hide usually where there are no light or cold places around the house, but eventually, they will suffer from the cold as all snakes need to be in the heat to survive. We just need to know where to look in order to catch a pet snake in the house.
Where Would An Escaped Snake Hide?
There are several places that snakes could hide or coil up with when set loose. These are some common places to look for to find your snake lost in the house:
- Behind or beneath furniture or even holes in upholstered furniture
- Bookshelves and other kinds of shelves or behind them
- Behind curtains or blinds
- Inside or under cabinets
- Under or behind fixtures and pipes
- Any holes in the walls or ceilings
- Look in things that have hollow openings like tissue boxes, containers, bags, shoes, garbage cans, or any electrical devices
If you lost your snake you need to keep an eye on all your potential hiding places in the house. Surely, it will leave a sign or two behind.
How Do You Lure A Snake Out Of Hiding?
Often when a snake is missing, they don’t go very far unless it is for days. Therefore, you can easily set a few tricks to make it come back on its own. One common way to do that is to get a thawed mouse or maybe one of its favorite foods and keep it lying on the floor where you can watch secretly. Often this does not work as the frozen food soon thaws and loses its smell. So, a better way is to keep a few mice in a cage and leave them outside the snake enclosure or even inside it. Then after a few hours or more, you might find it sniffing its way back. Also, it is a good idea to keep the right light and humidity to make it feel at home again.
How To Catch A Pet Snake In Your House?
Here are some tips you can use to find or catch a lost snake in your house:
- Lower the temperature of your home and keep heating elements around and maybe some hiding boxes
- Use crinkled the foil and place it in different spaces where your snake would usually move
- You can place dominoes with considerable spacing and leave them standing around the floor
- Clear tape can be used with coins set on them standing so that they fall when the snake passes through
- You can sprinkle some flour on the floor and potential hiding places for your snake although it might leave a little mess
- Last but not least, check your vents especially if they are on the floor level after lowering the temperature of your home of course
Can You Let Your Snake In Your House?
Snakes enjoy roaming around and hiding in secluded places where they are hard to find. Therefore, it would be wise not to allow your snake to set loose in your home. There are many dangers leading to this for your snake as well as your family.
These are the main things that could cause a problem:
- It can get lost as they love to hide in nooks and crevices in your home
- It can get stuck in hiding places that they are not aware of like, bottles, in between narrow furniture gaps, wires coiled up or so on
- The snake might get too cold as it needs heat to survive when it gets trapped in a hidden place
- If your snake is not too friendly it might end up attacking other pets in your home or even your family member
- There is a good chance of your snake to escape from your home to the outdoors, which can cause a threat to the neighborhood
Can A Snake Squeeze Under A Door?
Snakes are very good at slithering and sliding through narrow gaps and sideways and even under doors depending on their size. Not many snakes can fit under doors but they can flatten their bodies and manage to pass through. If they can smell rodents in your home, it will definitely attract the snakes more. Squeezing through or under doors may not be common for snakes but if they have a flattened body and a door happens to be nearby, they usually choose to slither under the space to get in. Snakes can even enter through openings through garage doors or any cracks or holes that may be present in homes.
Can A Snake Climb A Wall?
Snakes are pretty good climbers and will not give up when it wants to climb up a higher ground. Some species of snakes are good climbers and can climb walls especially when the walls are made of bricks or have crevices. Not all walls allow them to climb as they do not have the ability to stick to walls like insects or lizards. They need something to hold on to as well to climb. The Rat snake, Corn Snake, and Black Racer are some snakes that are good at climbing walls. Besides that, if the walls are rough then it easier for them to crawl up the surface. Otherwise, snakes find it difficult to climb up.
Do Outdoor Fountains Attract Snakes?
There are three things that attract snakes mainly, food, water, and shelter. When living in an area where snakes are common it is likely to attract their attention. The factors that attract snakes to your home or yard are location, landscape, any water source, and how often you take care of your lawn or surrounding area. In order to avoid attracting snakes, it is better to keep your landscape free from too many water features like fountains, which will definitely attract snakes to make their swimming ground.
Conclusion
If you want to catch a pet snake then it would be wise to keep it free of escaping gaps or crevices for your snake. Also, it would be better if your home had no items that could endanger your snakes such as electrical wires or devices, or traps that can get your snake stuck in unknown nooks in your house. It is not very tough to catch an escaped pet snake when accidentally set loose in your home if you find out as soon as it is missing. Snakes don’t travel too far from the home area and so they could be lying around anywhere in your house. They are good at hiding though therefore you need to be patient with them.