Venomous snake in the house - what now?

[Ds J]

Please share some thoughts: what to do with a snake in the house?

I grew up on a small holding, lived in a city and we are now in a small village yet we have never had a snake in the house. Furthermore, I don't believe in killing snakes.

In our area, puff adders, rinkhals, boomslang and cobras are quite common. The chance of finding one of them is there.

How does one get rid of them?

We do not have snake catchers nearby.

I heard/read that one can drop a cardboard box with some cloth inside next to them. They are supposed to hide in there,then one disposes of the whole box.

What else?

[Tripodmvr]

I have been watching "Snakes in the city" and other videos of snake catchers. If you have located the snake the use of a pipe blocked at the rear, seems to work well. Direct the snake's head towards the end of the pipe and it slithers into the dark hole which it perceives as a hiding place. Pipe is then closed off and the reptile is safely inside. Release it far from the house.

[Againstthegrains]

Fat lazy things like puffies and night adders are slow and easy to relocate. I lift them up with a garden rake and dump them in a deep bucket, and put the lid on. I then release them on the other side of the river in the park where the druggies hang out

No idea what I would do with anything faster.

A friend of mine made on of those sticks with the V and loop at the end that works effectively. I would use a very long stick for that

[223]

Your options are:

1. Catch and release.  (If you can.)
2. Sjambok.
3. .22.
4. .410.
5. 12 Bore.

Choose wisely.

[Ds J]

Scenario: wife at home with kids; me not. What does one load in a 410 shotgun to kill a snake in the house?

[DaavG]

Maybe a snake handling course through ASI would be the best idea? Which cobras local in your area?

[Ds J]

Rinkhals
Geelslang

[oafpatroll]

I'm just about up to clearing the occasional brown house snake that I come across here in the Disneyland northern slurbs of JHB. This talk of venomous snakes in the house is making me sweat.

[Ds J]

Other snakes in our area include mole snakes, boomslange, draadslange, pythons, sypikslange etc.

Those mostly reported around houses are puffies, cobras, and sometimes a boomslang or a mamba. Please note: these are reported, I do think other non dangerous types are more often found but not necessarily reported.

Snakes in houses do not occur every day but often enough that I want to give it a thought and be prepared if necessary.

Some of the houses next to open fields and especially rocky outcrops have reported up to one snake  killed every week, but that is not the average.

[oafpatroll]

Mates of mine who lived in an abandoned SAFICOL forestry village on the Prince Alfred's pass used to have at least a 5m grass verge around their houses because boomslange would come ito the houses through trees or shrubs that were up against them.

Stayed there often many years ago and made a very thorough job of checking my bed, pants, shoes etc before I 'engaged' with them. 

[Ds J]

Snakes is one if the big reasons why the rural villages have empty areas around the housing.

Snakes do not like moving over open terrain.

[Treeman]

Make a snake pole and do your checks. They easier to deal with than stalking a buck.

[223]

Scenario: wife at home with kids; me not. What does one load in a 410 shotgun to kill a snake in the house?

The smallest shot size available.  However, discharging any FA and especially a shotgun inside a building is very likely to cause damage and ricochets.  A hundred+ small lead balls bouncing around the kitchen, bathroom or whatever room is never a good idea.  Shooting should be the very last resort.

[Ds J]

Scenario: wife at home with kids; me not. What does one load in a 410 shotgun to kill a snake in the house?

The smallest shot size available.  However, discharging any FA and especially a shotgun inside a building is very likely to cause damage and ricochets.  A hundred+ small lead balls bouncing around the kitchen, bathroom or whatever room is never a good idea.  Shooting should be the very last resort.

Agree, most definitely not any regular shot. I hope someone might know of a disintegrating shot type. Maybe corn, or maize, or something similar?

[Tripodmvr]

Rice or sago?