My encounter with Eastern King Snakes!

Today was my first encounter with a eastern king snake, I felt a range of emotions. Kill the snake, free the snake, I hope the snake doesn’t die. So I was out in the garden taking care of the tomatoes and I was oblivious to what was on the other side of the bird mesh, snakes dont talk no more. I got some thin poles to support my tomato plants then watered them. I walked around the house and when I came back I saw them… snakes!!

We don’t deal with those

I called animal control with my adrenaline going and went through the call ques to see if someone could come out to remove the snakes, after all there were two of them. I texted my wife and showed her the pictures of them and she was like “you can hack them till they’re dead then remove with a shovel and throw them away outside in the trash”, lol. When I got through to someone it was a lady and I asked her if someone could come out and remove the two snakes. I described them as black with yellow and she was like ‘yeah we don’t deal with snakes”, in the end she told me I could Google how to get rid of them. I was on my own, back at square one, what do I do?

My wife texted me another link on (Georgia Snakes) and she sounded more like she did some research and wasn’t like “kill them all…” though I couldn’t blame her for wanting them eliminated. Through the link I quickly learned the official name of the snake that was caught up in the mesh, The Eastern Kingsnake.

A possible reason for dem snakes being in the area

I caught a rat outside earlier in my backyard and I think that may have been the reason for the snakes stopping by. Yep I called animal control first for the rat and they said they ddn’t deal with them also. The rat was released in some near by woods.

Time to make a move

Having a better understanding of what kind of snakes I was dealing with I decided I don’t think I want to let them die, my reason for thinking that is they eat other snakes “Eastern kingsnakes are highly beneficial snakes because they feed on pit vipers such as copperheads and rattlesnakes. – sciencing.com  When I read that I did a benefit analysis and said yeah I’d rather free them so if there are any copperheads or rattlensnakes around they’d be able to take care of business. At that point I went to work to figure out how to free the snakes.

At first they looked like they died but I think they were conserving energy since it was hot and they were really entangled in the mesh. I got the scissors and began to cut away, at first I didn’t want to mess with them at all but I became brave. I was also getting frustrated because it wouldn’t keep still all the while I’m saying/feeling “I don’t like snakes.”

With more effort I was able get the snake somewhat free, only it was trying to go into the mesh more. I finally cut it to free and tried to toss it free but it went into the left side of the garden and headed to some more mesh…. noooo!!! At that point I took a quick moment then went over to continue to try to free it.

I recall some of the discovery channel and YouTube videos where people dealt with snakes and thought I’m going to need to handle this snake to get it free. I mean hands to snake upper torso/head because it was not doing what I wanted it to. I grabbed its tail and began to hold it while I yet again worked to free it. I wasn’t comfortable holding the snake, argh. As I continued to cut it was getting easier for the snake to move and finally those last couple of snipes and I was able to toss it away from the mesh

Dude what are you doing?

When I tossed the snake from the mesh some chipmunks in the bushes near my neighbors house jumped up and ran away, lol. I bet they was like dude… The snaked squirmed away and I thought that was good enough to give it a fighting chance though it still had some mesh around it, I hope it’s able to get free. I then went to the other snake and was able to cut around and start to free it, I thought it was done at first until it started moving some.

The final mile

Dealing with the first snake gave me bravado to deal with the second snake even more thoroughly, I mean I actually had my hand around its neck (with a glove on) all the while cutting the mesh away from its head. I was able to get a lot of the mesh off enough so that I brought it to the partial wooded area and let it go. When I did I saw more mesh had to be cut so I grabbed it by the tail and tried to cut some more. I did the best I could in removing the mesh and the rest is in the Lords hands.

Final thoughts

In general I don’t like snakes. (Genesis 3) Maybe these snakes will recover and hunt the venomous snakes out there and continue with life. I’m still uneasy about the experience as I went out to the garden and looked around to see if there was anything more out of the ordinary, glad they’re gone. Yeah I think like most people I don’t like snakes, stay safe out there. If I see a diamond back or rattle snake… it’s shovel time.

Here is some footage of my experience…