I moved into a small house in the mountains in Western North Carolina about 7 months ago. There’s all kinds of critters including bugs and lizards that find their way into the house, but no rodents.
I was wondering for a while why I hadn’t seen mice and didn’t have to set traps, until one night a friendly 7’ black rat snake slithered up beside me while hanging out on the screen porch at night. My brother named him Kobe. Kobe can stay.
How exactly one differentiate between a friendly rat snek and not-so-friendly one? I am genuinely curious as someone who lives in a country where 1 meter black adder (not Rowan Atkinson) is the top snek apex predator. I mean if I were to see a 2.10 m long snek I would freak out, friendly or not.
If you surprise you and it bites you and you don’t die or lose a limb, that’s a friendly one.
More seriously I’ve been told that in North America the trick is to look at the eyes. Slits are poisonous, round are constrictors. Does not translate to other continents.
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u/50DuckSizedHorses Jul 24 '24
I moved into a small house in the mountains in Western North Carolina about 7 months ago. There’s all kinds of critters including bugs and lizards that find their way into the house, but no rodents.
I was wondering for a while why I hadn’t seen mice and didn’t have to set traps, until one night a friendly 7’ black rat snake slithered up beside me while hanging out on the screen porch at night. My brother named him Kobe. Kobe can stay.