duminică, 17 februarie 2008

How to Deal With a Snake in the House

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

In warmer climates we live with snakes. That's a fact of life. If one comes into the house, use the following tips to avoid injury.

Steps

  1. If you happen to come across a snake in your house, the first thing to do is to resist the urge to attack it with a broom or stick.
  2. Sometimes the snake will be on a floor surface. If so, the best thing to do is to place an object over it like a heavy blanket. The snake should immediately calm down and will feel secure if it can not see what is going on outside the blanket. Placing heavy objects like encyclopedias around the edge will prevent the snake from slipping out from underneath it and going elsewhere. This will buy you some time to get help.
  3. The next thing to do is call Animal Control and get them to send an expert to collect the snake. Usually they will catch and release it far from human habitat.
  4. If the snake is found in a drawer or somewhere difficult to access, leave it alone; move all family members away from the immediate area and, most of all, do not attempt to interact with it at all. Call the PDSA or RSPCA, and get them to collect it. If they do not have a snake catcher they will contact a trusted professional.
  5. If you come accross a venomous snake in the garden: get everyone away from it. If human life is in danger, you may need to kill it, use a long-handled, broad-edged hoe to chop the snake in half. Other tactics include spraying it from a distance with a high-pressure hose or opening sprinklers. This will persuade the snake to leave the area.
  6. Next, find out why the snake came to your area. Do you keep rodents or birds? Are there birds nesting in your garden, do you have a rodent problem in the house or garden? In the USA, this can be problematic because animals like chipmunks and squirrels are common. Snakes, however, like mice and rats. Again in the USA, where buildings are made mainly out of timber, rodents often find shelter in the space between the exterior and interior walls. If you hear scratching noises or find evidence of mouse trails in your kitchen, get an expert to solve the problem. Remember, no mice, no snakes!
  7. A mouse can easily get through a hole the size of a pencil. Make sure there are no holes in your walls. Fill them immediately. High-pitched sound devices are now becoming a popular way to discourage vermin from entering homes; evidence shows some positive results. Having such a device installed might be a good idea. Remember, snakes always follow their food source.
Snake species are easily distinguishable by their rattles. Coral snakes are brightly colored with red, yellow, and black. Harmless Milksnakes also have red, yellow, and black stripes, but in a different pattern. Remember this rhyme to tell the difference. "If red touches black, you're ok jack. If red touches yellow, you're one dead fellow." If you're in the U.S and the snake doesn't fit this these descriptions, the snake is likely safe to handle, but remember bites can still hurt even if they aren't poisonous.

Warnings

  • Snakes can kill. Do not attempt to handle them if you are not an expert.
  • Do not confront the snake.

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