I was going through some older photos looking for some specific pictures and I came across these photos I thought I would share. I know it isn't the season but it may be helpful to some as to where we have found a few preferred snake egg incubation sites. Our black rat snakes and milk snakes are commonly found in landscape areas made of stone, log and railroad tie construction.

The customer ( husband ) was having several snake sightings made by the wife around the exterior of the house, on the deck, on the stone patio and in the shrubs around the area. She was terrified by them.

The following are some photos from the job site. A closer inspection revealed a classic harborage area in the slab stone retaining wall construction.

I had to jack up a stone slab to see further back into a void area. It wasn't an apparent large opening at first glance. I shored up the edges of the stone with some 4x4 scrap posts that the home owner had on site..

I explained that this slab stone area was most likely his problem area that is holding the snakes interest in selecting his home property as a preferred area..Good sunning and heat sources. He of course didn't believe me and didn't want to accept my suspicions at first. So I went to work to educate him a little.

I jacked up the slab high enough to shine a good light back into the void area. I could see what I thought was a cluster of white objects. I still couldn't make out what I was seeing very clearly. I continued to jack up the slab to get a better view since the white objects were somewhat below and behind the dirt level and in some scattered mulch a little, somewhat settled down in a shallow bowl type shape. Low and behold I found a good snake egg hatch site.



Photo 1 is the consumer landscape site as it appears on inspection.



Photo 2 is a close up of the void area before closer inspection.



Photos 3-4 are two pictures of a recent egg clutch. One closer then the other. The recently laid eggs are quite white in color.

The second photo shows clear evidence of prior egg hatches. The color and shriveled shells are indication of a few years of using this slab area for rat snakes and milk snakes annual incubation area.

Bob, definitely good snake habitat. Thanks for sharing photo's.

Bob Jameson, those snakes are your competition.