In 2005, Bob and I did not catch a single rat snake in our net traps made from bird netting. Well, the ?spell? has been broken and I caught one at around 7:30 pm on May 4, 2006. I was able to watch the entire process of ensnarement!
I was watching my martins when I kept seeing one of my bluebirds flying around the colony and emitting the ?terrestrial? predator alarm call. This is a ?clucking? chatter that bluebirds make when their deadly enemy the rat snake is nearby or trying to predate their nest. Bluebirds emit an entirely different alarm call at the approach of an avian predator like an Accipiter hawk. This call is more of a high pitch ?whistle? and the martins go into ?spasms? and flee. The terrestrial predator call does not produce the same effect on the martins.
I finally looked at the bottom of my new Deluxe rack with 18 Troyer horizontal gourds and I gasped! There he/she was, a beautiful black rat snake looking like a black rope that was climbing the bottom of the pole and heading directly for my net trap. I walked over and saw the snake?s narrow head weaving into the ? inch mesh and I knew he/she would be caught. With strong muscular movements, the snake pushed itself through the mesh. The snake was about 4 feet long and thick in girth. However, the ? mesh will catch enough of the snake?s body so that he/she can?t go forward or back out because the thin mesh will catch the scales. The snake only got about 8 inches into the mesh before being hopelessly entangled and unable to extricate itself. Gotcha!
The martins ignored the snake that far down on the pole and don?t really notice predators like snakes unless they are farther up the poles or on gourd crossbars, gourds or the houses.
I hollered at Bob and we removed the snake from the mesh. I grabbed the head and Bob pull the snake?s tail straight out. The snake immediately made a ?smelly deposit? of snake poop and also emitted a musky anti-predator odor. However, this defense does not work with hawks and owls which have a poor sense of smell. I cut the mesh from the snake?s body easily since he/she had just become entangled. The longer the snake remains in the mesh, the more he/she becomes ensnared and more difficult to cut out. Also, if the snake stays too long, he/she can die from exhaustion or from sun exposure.
I took the snake several miles down the road and released him unharmed. I don?t kill snakes caught in my traps.
I would encourage everyone to install some kind of snake guards on your housing poles, particularly folks living in the Deep South.
I included two photos. One shows the snake just beginning to weave through the netting. The second photo is a close up of the snake and trap. Notice the numerous mesh squares and how the snake is entangled. It is an almost perfect snake catching system.
Steve
