I have declared war on black snakes. Every one of the dang things will be killed on sight by any means necessary. I have 2 call Duck hens and every nest they have made has had the eggs eaten before or during them sitting. Last weekend one hen hatched at least 4 ducklings. The next morning they were all gone. I thought I had built a snake proof enclosure around her. I guess it wasn't good enough.

Snakes like to eat too...lol

I'm on the other side of this war. I hope you're not in sumner county killing my snakes!

I have multiple adult black rat snakes that hang around my deer blind (an 8x8 2 story post frame style structure). I have solar power and a lot of wiring in it, so mice are a huge problem. I keep a dozen or so mouse traps set through the winter. But this spring I set off all the traps before the snakes came out for the summer.

The snakes consider my deer blind their summer home. I see the 5 foot female in the blind about half the time i go in it. There's at least 4 shed skins in the blind so far this year, including 2 full length single piece sheds. One day I wasn't able to work in the blind because they were mating in there. I could have worked in the blind anyway, but I let them have the blind undisturbed for the day.

Through the winter, I kill multiple mice per week, and try to keep them from chewing my wiring too much. Through the summer, there are no mice in there, at least not long enough for me to see them!

Anyone worried about the mice eating the electric wiring in there deer stand has my sympathy

I used to leave the snakes alone but after 5 destroyed nests and a bunch of babies eaten peaceful coexistence is no longer an option. The mice eating the wiring in my deer blinds is not a problem.

I appreciate your sympathy. If you have any more sympathy to spare: year ago a lightning strike fried the buried cat6 networking cable runing from the blind to POE cameras. So there's that too.

Rat (aka Chicken) Snakes get a pass UNLESS they are in the chicken house eating eggs

I used to kill any and every snake I encountered by whatever means available.

Now I kill copperheads and water moccasins and the rest mostly get a pass.
The exception is any snake with an attitude, water snakes seem to be aggressive and usually pay for their aggression with their lives

Well I had another nest raided yesterday while I was at work. I'm gonna put up a cell camera today. This is getting ridiculous!

Maybe the blacksnakes dont deserve all the blame.

I had trail camera pics of the nest getting raided Wednesday.

Im curious what kind of " work" you're doing in the deer blind.

My dad would beat ya like a red headed stepchild if he found out you killed a black rat.
He carried a pillowcase in his truck to catch them and bring them home to turn loose in the barns.
That hung with me to this day. I’ve got several around the house. They love my firewood shed.
They get a chicken egg occasionally, but I’ll share if they keep the mice down.
Cats aren’t allowed here, ever. So I’ll keep my black snakes.

Use to sell black rat snakes for $10/foot if the were over 5 feet
Dont know what the guy did with them. This was late seventies early eighties.
That was a lot of money. Me and my brother would wrestle each other and the snake trying to "claim" it for ourselves.
Dad would usually make us split the $$