Snake in my bathtub, no really !

[DesertRat]

Oh the joys of living in a rural area. My son just went into the bathroom (my 15 year old thank God, not the 5 year old) and found a snake in the bathtub. I'm just curious. Any of you Floridians or other rural types or maybe a Jr snake G man out ther ever hear of a "DOCUMENTED" incident of this happening to someone else. It is a little wierd because the plug was closed in the tub with water in it and the faucets were off??? I know my daughter left water in it after cleaning it before we all left to her year end show at school. I suppose it's possible this was a pull one over on the town cop prank but doesn't seem likely. I'm open to suggestions on this one folks. Plan to call the college tomorrow but thought might here something interesting here too.

[Mitzi]

Sounds like it was in the house somewhere, DR and was looking for water maybe? Check behind the dryer vents on your clothes dryer. There may be some shed snake skin there, proving it was in your house all along.
I, personally, would feel a weird bout finding snakes in my house cause I'm really scared of them!

[RaychelR]

No, but my aunt lived in Florida and she used to see alligators on her porch.

[WCall]

We have snakes outside all the time, but never inside. Mitzi's suggestion is probably the most likely scenario. They like the dryer area because it is warm. I don't know about your wife, but mine would make us sleep with the lights on if she found out there was a snake that had been in the house long term. Where there's one, there's ..... Happy hunting

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Contrary to popular belief, knowledge is not power. Without wisdom, knowledge is useless.

[runningwolf]

as a long time desert dweller, i have found snakes in my bed, my bathroom, my living room, my kitchen, my boots...
i have also had them drop from the ceiling onto my bed when i lived in a hoga'an on dine'tah...you can be that woke me up fast...
ditto scorpions, and spiders...
50 years ago, we had to shake our boots out before putting them on...
this area was not so built up, then...
now, we just have the roadrunners and quail, and assorted birds, snakes and scorpions in our yard...
living in a 40 foot 5th wheel is quite different...they have too far to climb i guess...
part of living in a rural area, i think, is knowing you share a critter's old habitat...
i never understood the fear of snakes...
must be a throwback to the eve creation story, eh?
as a non-christian, we believe all things made by the holy creator is good and has a purpose...

[Duke]

At least it wasn't in the toilet!

[Nikon]

DR, Don and Mitzi both came up with possible scenarios. The snake might have been in the house for awhile, and needed water. You would be surprised how well they climb. I had a three foot corn snake that used to be able to go straight about half his length. Not against anything, in the middle of his tank. If snakes have something to climb againt, or on, they will surprise most people.

If he wasn't in your house already, he may have came in through the sewer system into your toilet.

When I was very young we lived in Fla. and I remember my father saying that after every heavy rain he would find quite a few snakes in the garage.

By the way, what did he look like, any idea what type of snake he was, or hopefully IS.

[DesertRat]

I was assuming the in the house looking for water too thing. Thanks Running Wolf. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't the only one. As for the family, the oldest boy and I are the only ones that know. Everyone else was asleep and I swore him to secrecy. No need to scare anyone that might be scared by it. Actually the 5 year old is the only one that might find it creepy I think. All my girls are pretty wordly in regard to this desert living and its possibilities. As a matter of fact. If the 11 year old finds out she will be made I didn't keep it. This is the one that thinks rats and other assorted vermin make wondeful house pets. As Running Wolf said, we've already had spiders and scorpians, what's a snake. I think it was a gopher snake but I'm not up on all that stuff. I'm going to take it into the college today and just find out. It's still a baby, about 2-3 feet long, tan, with dark bands around it. It doesn't have a viper head on it,(I do know that much) just more of a rounded off snout. Of course, I'm going to feel like an idiot if they tell me they get the shovel head later in life and it's a baby mojave rattler. This little one almost got me on the first grab attempt. Next time, the 15 year old is grabbing the snake. He can be Jim and I'll be Marlin Perkins. (How many of you are old enough to remember that one?)

And Wcall: yes we already thought of that too. Last night was spent moving furniture, opening cabinets etc. hoping to get anymore out that may be in, especially since this one is so young. Once he got over the heeby geebies, we had a good time with the whole thing.

And Duke: At least had it been in the toilet, I could have just flushed it instead of had to grab it. Either that or just walked my son outside until it let go

[This message has been edited by DesertRat (edited 06-01-2001).]

[This message has been edited by DesertRat (edited 06-01-2001).]

[This message has been edited by DesertRat (edited 06-01-2001).]

[Mitzi]

I have a scary alligator story. I was getting groceries out of the car (this was several years ago). All of a sudden, my neighbor yells to me and screams there is a alligator near me. Well, I HATE alligators and,of course, we have to live in Florida.
I dropped all my groceries and scrambled on the the hood of the car not knowing where this thing is.
Then,I hear hissing and I know he is near me. DANG! I hate those things. Well, there he was, at the gate to our pool. We were in a draught plus it was mating season but I only saw one alligator. I decide I could crawl over the top of the car then hot foot it to the front door. Then, I hear another hiss. There was another much smaller one at the other end of the car.
This was like a nightmare to me. My neighbor called 911 an they called a rescue business to come and get the gators. Police came and just stood by their cars in case these alligators got any ideas! lol!
They were caught and harvested.
Dang, I hate those critters!

[Valor55]

Funny snake story:

When I was in Boy Scouts we'd spend a week or two at summer camp. All the latrines were, were a big hole in the ground with a wood shack on top. There were benches with holes in them for doing your business. Towards the end of summer the hole starts to fill up. Anyway one of the guys was in there, had his pants around his ankles and was about to sit down on the hole when he looked between his legs and saw a big Black Rat snake looking back at him from the seat/hole. Black Rats are non-poisonous but large and black which is scary looking. Anyway I never saw someone run so fast with their pants around their ankles but he did, streaking across the campground to his tent.

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It may be a summons to you, but it's therapy for me.

[This message has been edited by valor55 (edited 06-01-2001).]

[GDenman]

I was off one day playing basketball with the guys when my wife called & wanted me home NOW! Seems she had found a snake in the bathroom wrapped around the towel rack. At the time, I had two teenage Boy Scout trained sons at home so by the time I get home snake is in the front yard in several pieces with everybody in the neighborhood standing around looking at it. My wife was practically hysterical & wanted to move right then & there. We never did find out how the darn thing got in there but looking around we found several places where they could. Some of that expanding foam stuff took care of that (we hope). Knock on wood we haven't had another in the house but those things can go just about anywhere. Get some foam stuff & good luck keeping it a secret.

[interloper]

I live in the middle of Miami and have found a black snake (little guy--about 8 inches long) in my tub before. He didn't seem to mind sharing the shower with me but I didn't like it a bit!

[RaychelR]

Mitzi - when you say they were caught and harvested, how do you mean exactly? What is harvesting?

[Bikecop]

All I can say DR is that where I live there is nothing like that happening. But then again I am in the middle of no where. The question is what did you do about it. Since I hate snakes there would be a few extra holes in the tub.

Have you had pranks like this before?

[This message has been edited by Bikecop (edited 06-02-2001).]

[Don]

Hey DR,

I don't think this is such an unusual thing. I'll be willing to bet that you are on either a cesspool or septic system. If you are, your "lil' buddy" came right up through the sewer line, and then through your tub overflow into the bathtub.

I