Texas Rat Snake (15 May 2007)

Fort Worth, Texas

(Elaphe obsoleta lindheimeri) Extremely Beneficial as a predator of mice and rats, not so beneficial for its predation on birds, but the former occupies most of its time and the latter is a minor distraction in the over-all scheme of things. This snake is a non-venomous colubrid, but tends to be very aggressive and may bite if cornered and not allowed to escape, or if it is handled. The productive bite of a mature adult specimen will produce a painful wound that bleeds freely from numerous puncture marks made by its small, sharp teeth; otherwise the bite is generally of no medical consequence.

JOANNE P. WROTE: Hi, Jerry. While surfing the net to identify the snake that got into my bird house today, I came across your website and the special section on Snake Encounters. I thought I'd send this to you, in hopes you can identify the snake for me. Fort Worth has had its share of rain in the past few weeks, but I'm not sure that is why this snake is "living" in the bird house. My home is about 2 miles west of the Navy Joint Reserve base, near a levy. Birds have occupied this birdhouse for about 4 years.  In the winter a particular clan of birds seems to hang something in front of the hole.  The circular metal piece surrounding the hole is due to squirrels attempting to take over their house.  We had to put such rings around all the bird houses in our yard, and we watch to make sure the squirrels don't take them over again. But now a snake has come along and messed everything up.  It's quite a long snake, too.  He came out of the house, around the tree limb, and went back in head first. Thanks for any light you can shed on this situation.  Joanne P.

The muscular body of the Texas rat snake, combined with its "D" shaped cross-section (a flat belly--the straight, left-hand side of the "D"--that brings the belly scales into optimal contact with the tree trunk) allows it to climb trees and most other vertical surfaces with ease.  It's not unusual to see these snakes in trees, gliding along branches and raising a ruckus among the nesting avian population.  Like owls, hawks, and others of the animal world that dine primarily on rodents, rat snakes are omnivorous hunters that enjoy a bird and its eggs as much as a mouse or rat. Fortunately for the birds, they, their eggs and their young, are more difficult to reach than are the ground-based nests of rats and mice, so aerial excursions are the exception, not the rule, for rat snake predations.  In these photos, taken by Joanne in Fort Worth, a rat snake has taken over a bird house in her yard.  No doubt the songbirds that once lived there have either been evicted or--gasp--they've been converted into a gastronomical delight, ophidian style.

One of the more common questions I am asked is "How can I get the rat snakes to stop eating the songbirds and their eggs in my trees and yard?" 

My favorite answer today is one I once considered wholly inadequate but now see much wisdom in: As a practical issue, you can't get rat snakes to stop eating birds entirely. Snakes and songbirds are like cats, owls, hawks, and songbirds. Sometimes they get together and the result, from the songbird lover's perspective, is not pretty. But most of the time our snakes, cats, owls, and hawks patrol their territories solely for mice and rats and that result, though witnessed more by the absence of hordes of rodents (something that would be commonplace if the snakes, cats, owls, and hawks were not around), is entirely lovely. We should, methinks, excuse a rare transgression, on the part of our otherwise beneficial mousers and ratters, from time to time.

That answer is not entirely satisfactory, I know, but it does set the stage for a good attitude about the natural course of life. For more practical suggestions on keeping snakes out of your yard, home, trees, and bird houses, click on the SNAKE EXCLUSION link here, or in the menu below: 

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