I do nuisance work in the central Pa area and get a handful of snake jobs each year. I got a call for black snakes in the attic of a bed and breakfast. When I arrived the hired help made it sound like the owner is over reacting and me being there is a waste of time.I was lead to the attic and they left me go about my business. I was not ready for anything like this,To say they have a snake problem is a huge understatment.I could see 50 to 60 snake skins from standing at the top of the steps. everywhere, especially in front of the windows where they sun. I saw 7 snakes from where I stood all in the 6 to 7 ft mark. Whats the most efficient way to go about a problem of this magnitude. I caught 2 but feel like it will take me forever to make a dent. My guess is they wintered there and the attic will eventually get to hot for them. There's plenty of entry holes in the foundation to get in the basement, once there they can go anywhere. Your thoughts and advice please

Large glue traps. All along the walls and sunning areas. Use Hercules putty to make them stay.

What he said. Glue boards or a mongoose.

Awesome... Advice? Take pics

Thanks guys, will the glue boards hold snakes this big? Bax, my wife said a mongoose too lol

I will get pics, I can't imagine how long this has gone on.

Once they hit the glue board they pretty much tie them selves to it

Thanks guys, I've used the glue boards but never on snakes this big, I just wasn't sure if they'd hold

What was the food source that they survived on? They are there for a reason. It appears that they would have to have an abundance of rodents. Looks like you will have some exclusion work to do as well.

I'm with Metro. The snakes are a symptom, not the problem. IMO I'd say the real problem is rodents. I've never caught a rat snake in a house with out a lot of mice present. It sounds like that snake has been there getting fat and happy for a long long time.

RWdogline

I don't know your area but down here in Florida it is very likely to find snake skins in attics and never even catch a snake in the attic. Snakes need a safe place to molt and an attic is a pretty safe place from the raptors and other vermin while molting defenseless .

Snake skins in attics can really get under customers nerves and the idea of several of them being found by the homeowner probabaly struck some fear in that household. The house may or may not have a real snake problem at the moment but it surely has some things you can do like sealing up the residence and secondly trapping to prove the snakes are gone and peace of mind.

Don't let your customers to think they have a attic full of live snakes just that they have had many snakes in there attic in the past. . Mike Kerr was right they may have a rodent problem but if they do you should be able to find rodent sign in addition to snake skin molts.

My attic set is a six inch PVC pipe with a cap at rear about 18-24 inches long. with a reptile stone at the inside end with live bait in a small cage and double side the glue boards at the back and affix them to the top & side and not the bottom. You want the snake to enter get in as far as he can then get caught turning around in the pipe and getting stuck to the glue boards.

The Victor Live Mouse Trap is what I use for a small live cage. The Victor Trap is tiny and snakes will still sense they are in there in back of the pipe.

Just remember you can only trap snakes that are present and the homeowners biggest concern should be a home sealed properly to stop this from ever happening again.

Check those skins carefully. It could be an accumulation of shed skins from years past or they could be from several snakes recently. There are no hard and fast rules for aging sheds but a recent shed should retain some small level elasticity (the best area to check is the corner of the mouth) while an older shed will have dehydrated completely to the ultimate point of crumbling when disturbed. Since humidity levels and ambient temps are ever changing the aging of skins is purely a judgement call.

The reason I bring this up is that I, like most us have or will, have gotten calls for animal sign in attics where the animal is long gone. If you can determine to the best of your ability the age of sign you have found the better to explain things to the client and the better chance you have of not setting and checking traps for "ghosts".

All good advice guys thanks alot, I just ordered a dozen glue boards and I'll be sure to follow up with some pics. I just have never seen something like this, like I said I caught 2 but could see atleast 7 from just standing at the top of the attic steps. I'll keep ya posted thanks again!

One other thing. If the shed skin has an intact head the species can be identified by the count and conformation of the plates. Your better field guides will have diagrams.

Ummm...glue boards for what is almost certainly a non-venomous, beneficial species (I assume that by "black snake" you mean Black Rat Snake)?
Unless checked at least twice a day, glueboards are considered to be lethal traps. They are utterly inappropriate for non-venomous snakes. Better to use funnel traps, exclusion and EDUCATION. If I saw ten Black Rat Snakes in one place, I'd be ecstatic.

Hate to disagree Dave but the snakes I've caught on a glueboard seemed to slither away quite contentedly and I
didn't check them twice a day either.

I had one that shed what looked like his entire skin on the glueboard. ( He even scratched "Thanks" in the glue.)

I never had a problem either with the glue boards killing them, Sprayed them with alittle pam wiped them down and sent them packin.

Same here.

Dave you must be using some different glue boards then what I do lol

I have never had a problem getting snakes off of glue boards un-harmed and very much alive. I do agree no trap should be set for a snake that won't be checked on regular daily intervals just like any LIVE species we trap.

I'VE caught thousands of snakes on glue boards in my career, hundreds a year and I've only lost a couple to raccoons and a couple to clients that did me a "favor" chopping their heads off. Maybe SNAKE 101 is in order.