Ok...I've learned that snake calls are seldom anything vaguely similar to what the client tells you on the phone but we got this one today. Supposedly up to 50 snakes of various sizes located in an outdoor fire pit. Several different colors but some of them are black with orange bands with some yellow on the head. Range in size from 12" up! Guy says he killed 14 and just couldn't take it anymore and isn't going near the fire pit again. Even considering the typical exaggeration of a snake fearing home owner I can't even imagine what I might find. It is really out of my service area and not sure if I'm even going but curiosity might get the best of me. Any thoughts?

The “fire pit”, or something very near it, may be being used as a den. Snakes are moving to their winter dens now. Some of these dens contain a number of various snake species. Often hundreds or even thousands of snakes can be found in some dens. Rock lined hillsides, wells, home foundations, etc. are common den locations. If you do inspect the area, please post some pictures of it.

Lysergic Acid Diethylamide aka LSD

Serious though, I highly doubt the numbers but snakes are more active this time of year and more so as the days cool from our summer highs. They are being seen more by day as during the heat of summer they tend to go nocturnal on us.
Black with orange BANDS methinks eastern king. I'll all but dog cuss a client for killing one of those. If he has numbers of snakes then the eastern king would no doubt be there for the buffet. Another possible for our area would be the scarlet king snake or scarlet snake (two different species) but not likely as both are pretty uncommon. It will NOT be the coral as those are way south of us. Another outside possible is the ringneck but those are small, as in tiny, snakes but could be found in numbers in suitable habitat.
He also might have had a hatch of any of the above species accounting for the larger numbers. I once did a paint store in McDonough that found several neonate racers inside and I found a clutch of 24 hatched eggs adjacent to the building.
I would offer him a full inspection if for no other reason than it sounds like he has a habitat and possibly food source issue that needs remediation.

Eastern Kingsnake was my guess as well. I'm with you Warrior....I seriously hope the guy didn't kill 14 kingsnakes. I seriously would like to go on this call but there are several circumstances beyond my control that may not make it possible for me to go for several days at least.

Kings are my favorite of all time. Great snakes that are easy to handle. I've never had one offer to bite and other than a little musk tame down quickly once in hand. Turned one out in the garden just this week.

When I was about 15 I caught a large, probably 6 ft kingsnake and had it wrapped around my arm. Didn't think what I was doing and got it in the smoke from a BBQ grill. It bit me on the bicep and held on and twisted back and forth but never broke the skin. Still was a little freaky to look down and see it biting my arm!

I did a snake job today. The woman said she had lived in the house for 40 years and in that time had only ever seen one snake in the basement. I found several shed skins and one 4 foot long black snake curled up on top of the cement block foundation. Naturally it was in the last place I looked after having spent an hour looking through dozens of cardboard boxes. The bad news that she din't want to hear was that one of the shed skins was over 6 feet long. I'm thinking I may get a call back in the near future.

What LAtrapper said X2.

Be careful not to quote a price for any snake job until you know exactly what you would be dealing with. Snake removal for clients that are out of your service area are even more of a challenge. You might be surprised at how many trips it takes to remove a snake den with a couple of hundred snakes in it.

Treat a snake job as if it was a bat job "on a lower level", seal the house and allow exsisting residence to leave.

I would have to do the job just out of curiosity.

I love to do snake jobs where I actually find the snake. The problem I have is, by the time they call me and I get there, the snake they saw is long gone. And, honestly, I need to learn a LOT more about snakes and snake behavior before I can trap them successfully. I've had very little luck with this.

The last snake job I was on, I worked it for dang near three weeks, day after day of checking two different types of trap, glue boards and live bait traps. Found snake tracks right past the end of my trap a couple of times and had him on the glue board once just to have him drag it out of the box and wallow it off.

Finally, after a full week of no new sign what-so-ever I gave up and pulled my traps. I was so disgusted with myself that I didn't even charge the lady for the effort.