First of the season

[sammons]

My brother just got his 7th. Wife spotted it this morning, he wasn't quick enough,  just his tail heading in the rocks of the new yard pond. He had to go to work, couldn't mess with snake. Got home, it was still in there. Put a couple gopher gas bombs in there, nothing but frogs came out in 30mins. He was talking to me on the phone when the rattler came out. He got him, little guy about a 2 footer.

[sixball]

I spent the day cleaning out a very rodent friendly part of the barn. No snakes but the pit bull had fun with the mice. She was busy. I removed some brush and weeds too. I'm hoping some clean up will help. Mostly I think the dry weather is moving everything into the springs. I know the water is why I'm here.

[chopper526]

My only problem, or so I thought, was mice. I put out traps and 2 or 3 kept getting picked clean but never tripped. I started to closely watching the traps.....ants! Ants were cleaning the traps. I took away the mouse traps and put down ant bait

[sixball]

There's always something. 

[sixball]

I ran across this old thread from last year. I wound up killing 7 rattle snakes in the less than 100 yards between the house and the chicken house/barn last June. I only heard one more but didn't get a shot. Here we are approaching mid July and I have seem only one snake. It was a 3' gopher snake stuck in the chicken wire inside the chicken house. I freed it and turned it loose on the barn. I did some rodent reduction work and and scattered some rodent repellant. It seems to have helped a lot.

I need to shoot some ground squirrels. I have about 1/2 dozen that greet me each morning when I toss some grain to the quail.

[62131]

My only problem, or so I thought, was mice. I put out traps and 2 or 3 kept getting picked clean but never tripped. I started to closely watching the traps.....ants! Ants were cleaning the traps. I took away the mouse traps and put down ant bait

Sticky pads, cruel but effective

[sixball]

Sticky pads for the rodents or snakes? 

[62131]

Rodents. We lived in an old farmhouse for a couple years. In the fall and winter months the mice would move in and stay until spring. It wasn't unusual to catch 3or4 mice a night sometimes, one spring I thought I had caught them all, until I found a 6.5ft black snake in the kitchen drawer. he was the best mouse trap until my wife made me get him out  :)I 

[sixball]

Snakes are great rodent control. The poison ones make me nervous.    When I was a kid in Texas there was a huge bull snake in our cellar. We had very few mice & no rats but my mom would not go down there to get the home canned food stored there. I caught a packrat in a trap in the house last week. My wife didn't like that. She was glad I caught it but not that it was in the house. Our cat is useless for rodent control and pretty much anything else.

[sixball]

The first one of this year was there to greet me this morning when I opened the door to the barn. 30" inches with 7 rattles. I had to go back to the house for the gun.  I kind of blew it up a bit with a quick shot because it was headed toward some new solar panels. I'll skin it but Leroy won't get any meat.  This is at least a month and a half later than last year's start. I think the barn cleaning & rodent repellant has helped. I think if I had found this guy in my garden I might have left it. Rodents are giving me fits there. 

[sammons]

My brother is only on 3 so far, one was waiting for him in the shop. He text me last month he was in the dog house with the wife. Said he killed one, gutted it out and wrapped it up in waxpaper and threw it in the shop freezer till he had time to skin and process the meat. He forgot about it.

Below is the first text he sent😁

[sixball]

My wife doesn't like them in the freezer either. Many years ago I killed one with no rattles, sort of a local legend around here, and kept it intact in the freezer for several years. I tried to contact a local expert several times to have him look at it but finally tossed it for some domestic peace. 

[chopper526]

I got earthworms in my yard

[sixball]