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Click here
to learn more about the Black Rat Snake on the WildWNC site.
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I walked into our master bath and encountered this specimen both going and coming from the kick space under the sink.
IDing it immediately as a very common snake in our parts and knowing it to be harmless, at least to me, it surprised me but didn't scare me,
It sorta ignored me and continued it's investigation of the bathroom, finally slithering under the shower door and into the shower.
Cornered in the shower, I fetched a storage container and coaxed it inside.
Of note, the snake exuded a very strong odor, almost as strong as a dead snake.
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FastEddy isn't a sissy regarding snake handling, what with gloves, just respecting the warning given
at the annual NC State Museum of Natural Sciences' Reptile Day that reptiles are salmonella carriers.
While in the storage container (not shown), the snake buzzed its tail as if possessing a rattle,
reverberating against the plastic sides while coiling threateningly.
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To provide a relative measurement, snake with a 48" ruler.
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When I loosed it from my grasp, the snake insisted on crawling toward the open garage door as if to go inside.
I fussed with it until it moved toward the rear of our house.
I followed it as it crawled along the edge of the foundation,
behind a hose reel, over a faucet, until it came to the kitchen island top range vent outlet, in the shadow at the right.
What did it do? Crawled into the vent, seemingly determined to get back into our house, and that's the last I saw of it.
Several years ago, I installed a vented blower in our shower.
While working in the attic, a black rat snake slithered past me on the joists and insulation.
Approximately the same size as this specimen, I have no way of knowing if it was the same one and has been living with us all along.
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2006 May 31, while Alan and I recharged the rotary composter, we found these eggs in the pile of leaf mulch.
Alvin Braswell, Lab Director & Curator for Herpetology, NC State Museum of Natural Sciences, tentatively IDed as BRS eggs.
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