OMG! There is a snake in my bathroom

[just4today]

Last night around 11pm I went in to use my bathroom before going to bed. As I was sitting there doing my business, I looked over toward the sink and saw what looked like a long, thick, black rope hanging down from the bottom of the baseboard cabinet. Then it moved and slithered back up inside the cabinet.

It was all I could do to flush and get the heck out of there. I stuffed a bunch of old clothes into the crack under the door and went to bed without brushing my teeth (yuck). It took me forever to fall asleep because I was so icked out, and I haven't been back in there this morning (I have a second bathroom I can use).

I am a single female who, while I can handle disposing of insects, spiders, rodents, etc., draws the line at snake wrangling. I know it's only a small black snake, and not deadly, but still....

I am unsure how to deal with this. If I was to call someone, who would I call? If I was to try to take care of this myself, how would I do that? I'm not even sure the thing is still in there. I suppose it could have gone back out the way it came in, but it was cold last night so I'm betting that didn't happen. I don't even dare open the bathroom door to look.

I definitely want to try to figure out how it got in so that I can prevent it happening again.

 

[Mermaid02]

You are WAY braver than me. I would have gone to a hotel. Not sure who you call- you're making the upcoming Maine winter look good though.........

 

[just4today]

You are WAY braver than me. I would have gone to a hotel. Not sure who you call- you're making the upcoming Maine winter look good though.........

Haha I never even thought about that. My kids were already sleeping and it's a school night, so I wouldn't have gotten them back up at that time of night.

What also creeps me out is not knowing how the thing got in there to begin with. Is it possible it came in somewhere other than the bathroom and found its way in there? It could have been slithering around all over my house as far as I know.

 

[kellyg403]

We had a black snake in our house a few weeks back too...trust me I understand your torment!

Call a pest control place in your area and they will direct you to the right place. They can also help you figure out if there is a way they are getting in and how to solve that issue.

I remember once when I was a kid we had a baby rattlesnake on our front porch and my mom ran inside locked the doors and windows and called the police. This was in the 70's in Ga...they came out, killed the snake and told my mom she could come back outside again!

Snakes are ok as long as they are outside..period. Inside the house not so much a good thing! We finally figured out that probably one of the dogs might have carried it in because the snake was UPSTAIRS on the top step...could that be the case with your guest?

Kelly

 

[Mermaid02]

Haha I never even thought about that. My kids were already sleeping and it's a school night, so I wouldn't have gotten them back up at that time of night.

What also creeps me out is not knowing how the thing got in there to begin with. Is it possible it came in somewhere other than the bathroom and found its way in there? It could have been slithering around all over my house as far as I know.

I would have woken up Jesus himself and checked into the Holiday Inn.
Who knows how it got in- snakes are tricky (they don't have legs and they climb trees for g-d's sake!)

Are you packing yet?

 

[just4today]

We had a black snake in our house a few weeks back too...trust me I understand your torment!

Call a pest control place in your area and they will direct you to the right place. They can also help you figure out if there is a way they are getting in and how to solve that issue.

I remember once when I was a kid we had a baby rattlesnake on our front porch and my mom ran inside locked the doors and windows and called the police. This was in the 70's in Ga...they came out, killed the snake and told my mom she could come back outside again!

Snakes are ok as long as they are outside..period. Inside the house not so much a good thing! We finally figured out that probably one of the dogs might have carried it in because the snake was UPSTAIRS on the top step...could that be the case with your guest?

Kelly

No, I don't have a dog so that isn't possible. I'll call a pest removal place later this morning.

I would have woken up Jesus himself and checked into the Holiday Inn.
Who knows how it got in- snakes are tricky (they don't have legs and they climb trees for g-d's sake!)

Are you packing yet?

Can't go anywhere. I need to get the kids to school and then I have to deal with this today. I definitely won't be going to work.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

We used to have a garter snake that wintered in our walls and summered in and under the big flat boulder that served as our front doorstep (and had for 200+ years). I didn't mind. I DID mind when the hussy went and had her babies in our leaf/compost pile out back as I was constantly picking up baby garter snakes and moving them to the back meadow. But the snakes? Not as much as I minded the mice who came in from the meadow every fall.

DH and the mouser cat used to have competitions (they'd show each other their mice!) over who caught the most mousies. That icked me out a little - and we've had a pet mouse before!

I think OP is doing fine. Poor snake! He/she is probably terrified too!

 

[mickeyplanner08]

We found one in our basement earlier this summer. My daughter totally freaked out, my DS never batted an eye and kept on playing the Wii. DH was brave enough to take a plastic tub and dump it over top of the snake, then he slid a thin sheet of cardboard underneath the snake and carried the whole lot outside to the back of the yard. If you've got some bravery in you somewhere, that's one way to get rid of it without touching it. Good luck....maybe he'll just and disappear!

 

[Mickey Fliers]

Oh yeah, I'd be moving.

 

[just4today]

We found one in our basement earlier this summer. My daughter totally freaked out, my DS never batted an eye and kept on playing the Wii. DH was brave enough to take a plastic tub and dump it over top of the snake, then he slid a thin sheet of cardboard underneath the snake and carried the whole lot outside to the back of the yard. If you've got some bravery in you somewhere, that's one way to get rid of it without touching it. Good luck....maybe he'll just and disappear!

I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to do that. And it's just me here today so I wouldn't have anybody around to help.

I still haven't been back in the bathroom so I don't know if it's still there or not. I was reading on google and some people said it will leave on it's own, but I don't dare to look and see if it has! It also said that mothballs will deter them so I'll definitely be picking up some of those.

 

[MiniGirl]

Yep.... happened to us as well. The first time (yes, there has been more than one incident.) was right after we had moved in. He was a baby snake (probably not more than 6 inches long). Found him in my kitchen near all the boxes. I figured we he had gotten into a box at the old house or came inside while our door had been opened bringing things in. Second time was a baby corn snake. He was in the bathtub. He was a little bigger -- maybe a foot but not more round than my pinkie. He was in the cabana bath, so we figure he came in the bathroom door.

I do not mind snakes as long as I can identify what kind they are. However, I do not like to share a home with them. They are welcome to stay in the yard since they do not bother us. I just hate when we startle each other. LOL!!!

 

[just4today]

Yep.... happened to us as well. The first time (yes, there has been more than one incident.) was right after we had moved in. He was a baby snake (probably not more than 6 inches long). Found him in my kitchen near all the boxes. I figured we he had gotten into a box at the old house or came inside while our door had been opened bringing things in. Second time was a baby corn snake. He was in the bathtub. He was a little bigger -- maybe a foot but not more round than my pinkie. He was in the cabana bath, so we figure he came in the bathroom door.

I do not mind snakes as long as I can identify what kind they are. However, I do not like to share a home with them. They are welcome to stay in the yard since they do not bother us. I just hate when we startle each other. LOL!!!

How did you get rid of it?

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

You are WAY braver than me. I would have gone to a hotel. Not sure who you call- you're making the upcoming Maine winter look good though.........

I would have woken up Jesus himself and checked into the Holiday Inn.
Who knows how it got in- snakes are tricky (they don't have legs and they climb trees for g-d's sake!)

Are you packing yet?

I'm with you. Maybe living in the Northeast where we don't have a plethora of snakes has made us this way. And its a good thing I wasn't drinking coffee or I would have spit it out after reading your second response.

I'm with Mermaid. Move, burn the house, whatever you need to do - just get out!!! My thought is that if there's one, there may be another.

 

[MushyMushy]

OP, where are you from? I'm with those who would have been in a hotel and I might have even forgotten to take the kids with me!

Who was the poster who had snakes hanging from the rafters like a horror movie? OMG, I've never gotten over reading about that.

 

[MiniGirl]

How did you get rid of it?

Let's see.... Dh was out of town for the first one, and IIRC I just used my broom and gently swept him out. The second time dh was home and he just picked him up right behind the head and took him outside.

Sorry, nothing too high tech or anything, and it doesn't sound as if you'd be comfortable trying either of those. If you see him again though, I would definitely try to contain him by placing a bin on top of him like a PP mentioned. That way, when you're ready to get rid of him, you'd know exactly where he is an won't have to hunt for him.

Good luck. Keep us posted.

 

[momof1princess]

mmmm...yeah, i'd be moving. i'll deal with spiders or ants, but a snake in my house is an absolute deal-breaker. i'm ophidiophobic.

 

[Boo'sMom]

holy crap....


okay, wait a minute...that was totally unintended....

 

[DMickey28]

I am with the hotel crowd! I can't even handle the little lizards that would get in when we lived in Florida. This summer though, back in New England, I have had my cats bring in their fair shair of mice and once a live chipmunk ... yeah I left that day with DS until someone else came home.

I couldn't sweep the snake out ... I have visions that it would suddenly be able to climb fast enough to get up the broom handle and on my arm.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I feel badly for you. No-one likes a surprise right before bed-time. But, unless it was poisonous I wouldn't panic. We have a pet snake in this house, his name is SNAKEY. It's what you get when you tell a 1st grade boy he can have anything he wants for a great report card But I don't touch it, I don't mind it exactly but am not a huge fan of how strong & disconnected the thing is either, that's DH's job. Anyhow, they are not generally aggressive creatures and only seem interested in what they can eat. If I had one wander in I'd be wondering what it followed in here to eat so I'd call an exterminator to #2, get rid of it and #2, check to see if I had a rodent problem. Wild rodents are way dirtier than snakes IMO. Snakes are not slimy at all and feel more like a the kitchen sink sprayer hose than anything else. They only go to the bathroom after they eat, which isn't very often, and ALL of their waste is dry. Not messy at all.

Please share what happens... your kids are going to be the buzz in school today

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

We had a neighbor's albino ferret get into our house once. I locked myself into my grandmother's bedroom (with her). Now in my defense I had no idea what it was. Let's be honest, it was a weasley looking thing and it was all white!! As the neighbor lived across the road on a huge horse farm I had no idea they had these things. It had escaped and they didn't know where it went.

I did the most logical thing I could think of...I called my daddy at work and told his secretary that there was something scary in the house. (okay, dad was in a meeting so that's why I told her). After she got done laughing she said she'd let him know. She actually got him out of a meeting as none of us ever called unless it was important. And yes, I was about 20 at the time.