[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by sparky@home

I was always under the impression that snakes will not end up in the engine bay, as its hot place.

Probably the reason why it ended up there. With the monsoons and the generally cold weather, it might have went up when the engine was still warm (but not fully hot).

[--gKrish--]

Scary to say the least.

A few months back, one morning I got the shock of my life when a small cat jumped out of the engine bay when I opened the hood of our 800 for routine checks. And the cat looked back at me as if I'm an ill mannered person. From that day on, I knock on the hood before opening it. Manners count everywhere.

[iamahunter]

What's with snakes these days..

Few days ago in a similar incident, a snake was found hiding in a Honda Activa.



Are the snakes going petrohead as well.

[Thad E Ginathom]

For the snake's sake, if not for theirs, they might have done better to call in a pro!

[sparky@home]

Can't blame the snake, as these poor creatures have no place to stay. any dark place is home. Their general habitat has all been taken over, and quite a few have been killed in the bargain. Two days back i had snake crawling near my back door, it was a pit viper, pretty poisonous fellow. I chased it away into the fields behind, dead set against killing them. Of course very rarely are they seen. I remember back in the days when I used to reside in Mumbai, I have seen a cobra mating behind our house in the Airport colony.

[supremeBaleno]

Spotted this rat snake coiled up on a mango tree in our yard - at a height of around 12 feet or so. Probably went up to catch a baby squirrel or a bird's nest.

Since it could fall onto our terrace, brought it down using a pole. Slithered away.

[PAS]

I have now almost lost count, but for sure I have had at least 30/35 of those scary moments outside wilderness.

During last 10/12 years, I had encounters with Cobras, green vine snake, Rat snake, common krait, once viper (Ghonas in Marathi), sand boa, king cobra and few more which I couldn’t identify. Surprisingly, most of these encounters were in populated places outside snake’s natural habitat.
In my society, there were 4/5 instances where baby serpents had trespassed the compound wall, and surprisingly every time it was me who had noticed it despite of many people present nearby.

I have even spotted the "King Cobra" within a distance of few meters. No, I was not searching/tracking them in Agumbe. I was on an evening walk in a village near Sagara.


In a yet another encounter while returning from office late night, I was just few centimeter away from stampeding a tiny snake. It looked exactly like a baby coral snake (may be 9 or 10 inches long), however cannot find much info about coral snakes in Western Ghats region. Question to in-house snake experts, is Western Ghats region home to corals?

[PAS]

Originally Posted by BenjiRoss

Imagine getting ...

Any thoughts on how to prevent snakes from getting into a car? Also thoughts on how to get rid of a possible large scale snake situation in our campus? Thers about 200 homes in 3 large 9-storeyed buildings.

We had similar situation in our complex few years back, every few months snakes were being spotted and almost every time under some parked car or bike. Believe me the young one are so slim and can get into tiniest of the holes. Even a few weeks old cobra can display its hood if provoked. Obviously, that’s scary thing to see. So, what can be done?

1: Keep the premise clean and free from clutter and junk (Spare tires, wooden logs, tin sheets, PVC/Cement pipe etc.)

2: Ensure adequate lighting throughout the basement and common spaces.

3: Keep drainage/rainwater harvesting chambers closed. Basically ensure there are no cubby holes where these little animals can make their home.

4: Ensure lizards/frogs/rats population is under control (Cats are best at this, however chances are cat will make engine bay its winter palace and bonnet its, summer palace). If at all there are any owls / mongooses nearby building try not to disturb them.

5: Keep control on bushes and wild growing plants even if it’s outside apartment compounds. Involve neighboring societies if need be.

6: Few people suggest things like spraying cow urine, but I doubt it having seen a snake free ranging in cow shade.

7: Always switch car AC to recirculation mode a minute or two before switching of AC, ensuring AC vents are closed for any external access by rodents etc.

8: Cover all possible entry points to cars cabin area. Not much can be done for the engine bay area (it’s rather impossible to have a airtight engine room)

9: As Samurai and others have suggested; always, tap foot while entering car.

10: Never kill these animals not just that they deserve to live, but can cause some long term psychological disturbance. After all we (almost everyone) have sometime or other watched movies like Nagin, Nagina, Nigahen, etc.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by PAS

4: Ensure lizards/frogs/rats population is under control (Cats are best at this, however chances are cat will make engine bay its winter palace and bonnet its, summer palace). If at all there are any owls / mongooses nearby building try not to disturb them. ...

The snakes themselves are our friends, I suppose, in helping to reduce the rat population and thus making our cars less prone to rat damage.

By the way, I once disturbed a mongoose taking a nap under my car bonnet!

They move fast: I was only just able to see first its face and then its tail, know that it was not a rat, and work out what it was. Previous mongoose visitors to our garden were chased away by the crows.

[PAS]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

The snakes themselves are our friends, I suppose, in helping to reduce the rat population and thus making our cars less prone to rat damage.

Exactly, idea was if snakes won’t find any easy and stable food supply they might well vacate their cubby holes and relocates somewhere else.

Feel bad, we are invading their areas and making them run out of their own lands by starvation.


Probably having snakes would be the most adventurous way of shooing away rats menace

[sparky@home]

Spotted two snakes in my garden in the last one month. One was lying curled up in the back yard next to the door, i suspected it was a rat snake, on closer looked like a krait, anyway the poor thing crawled away and climbed the wall into the field next to my plot. The other snake was a cobra, when it raised its head it had the speckled band, that too slithered away. I don't believe in harming them, as they are the homeless ones, who have been uprooted.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Some people just live with them. I can't remember who it was, but I recall that their attitude was no big deal, and that they mentioned that they would regularly get quite close to cobras in their garden.

This attitude is admirable, but I think it takes some experience. Like I know fairly well how not to get into trouble with dogs on the street, but have no experience of snakes. Thus, although we no longer panic over a rat snake in the garden (first time we called a snake catcher!), I don't think it would be worth the risk to us or our cats if we found a venomous biggie moving in.

[DirtyDan]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Some people just live with them.

This attitude is admirable, but I think it takes some experience.

Snakes have mood swings. No joke. They may be non-aggressive, even let you hold them, then maybe they are about to shed their skin. When that happens the scale covering their eyes gets cloudy-milky colored before it, too, comes off. Snakes at this point cannot see well and they tend to get aggressive and defensive, striking out at what to them is a dangerous moving shadow poorly seen.

[kozhissery]

I've a cute little visitor in my back yard. Not yet decided what to do with it. I'm against killing it. I've called a local snake catcher (who does not kill). Keeping my fingers crossed, as he said that he will come by 9:30pm. I hope it does not run off (currently hiding under some coconut husk).
Lucky that it had its lunch recently so cannot move fast enough and I could go quite close to it. I tried to trap it but ran and hid under the coconut husk.

[kozhissery]

I'm happy to inform that the snake catcher came and took away the snake. It took only few minutes to catch it.
As per him the age is about 1 year and he says there could be other siblings roaming around. My neighbour saw one yesterday and we thought that this is the same one. I'll have to be careful, usually I don't take lights when taking the car/bike in the evening (sometimes its pitch dark). Need to warn my kid too.