Post #409856 by Howland on Wed, Sep 24, 2008 7:22 PM

On 2008-09-24 16:29, spy-tiki wrote:
While on the one hand the snake pictures bother me, I think there must be a really interesting story there.....

The story: My house is elevated 9' off the ground. It's a code requirement because we're in a coastal flood plain. So I've enclosed the underside of the house and divided it into half workshop and half tiki room. In the tiki room side, their are 2 large insulated ducts coming into the room at the ceiling from the A/C unit against the back of the house. It's wasn't completely sealed until I found the mouse/snake. I had a problem with birds tearing out the duct insulation in the past and nesting there. You couldn't really see the nest hole because it was on top of the duct work, almost against the ceiling. I ran the birds out and patched that up a couple of years ago.

A few weeks ago, I was sweeping in the tiki room and noticed some pieces of insulation on the floor. I swept them up, turned back around a few minutes later and more had fallen out. I figured the birds were back. I got on a step stool for closer investigation and started hearing a shrieking, squealing sound. I ran for a flashlight and shined it up on top of the duct work and saw the snake constricting the mouse. By the time I fetched my camera, the snake was coming out of the duct work and hanging down with with a mouthful of mouse, as seen in the pics.

I got the snake down (he dropped the now dead mouse) and promptly gave them both a new address. The duct work is now re-patched and the small openings around the ducts where they enter the house are now sealed and hopefully, mouse, bird AND snakeproof.