Corn snake on the way to the grocery store

Heck, the wife and I just decided to take a short drive to the grocery store tonight to pick up a couple of things. Actually, we were out of popcorn, so I guess it was kind of an emergency situation. Anyway, only a short way out of the driveway, I slammed on the brakes of the Jeep because there was a good size corn snake laying in the middle of the dirt road. I got out and took a closer look at it. About 4 foot long, good shape, fair looking, but not one of mine. I just gave him a scolding for laying out in the road like that and then scooted him off the road so we could continue on our way. It was about 10 of 9 PM, warm and muggy out after having scattered showers off and on earlier today.

Darn shame I didn't have the camera, but who takes a camera to the grocery store?

Rich you should ALWAYS

keep a camera in the truck lol ... i learned my lesson a few weeks ago as i was traveling one afternoon down a back road here going to pick up supplies .When out of nowhere this 'snake" made a Bline across the hot ashpalt it was a small rattler as i got out and went to looking and wished i had my camera & tongs w me .. they go anywhere i go ... cause ya neeeever know when ya need them

What do you mean, "Not one of mine?" LOL!! Do you have some escapees??

No. No escapees. But quite a few will be shown the door when they refuse to eat, have non fatal kinks, or a few other reasons. Non feeders will positively die if kept caged up. At least they have some slim chance out on their own of finding what ever it is that they want to eat.

A couple of weeks ago, we found a small Opal corn one evening prowling around the mouse building. We fed him a pinky mouse, so apparently feeding on pinkies wasn't his problem.

Haven't seen it since then, so no telling if it is still prowling around or became owl bait.

LOL!! I was totally teasing you but thanks for explaining anyway.

That's interesting that you release your non-feeders though...I like that they "don't go to waste." But, do you ever see them again, months or years later and plump??

No. Never have.

I have released adults before and found that they hang around here for a long time. Released a big blotched king once and she hung around here for about a year or so. When a friend stopped over here to check on the place while we were away at a show, he was a little bit apprehensive about this big snake that seemed to watch and follow him around as he checked out the house. Ricky wasn't too keen about snakes, it seems, and this one made him nervous. I told him later that she was just hoping he had a mouse in his pocket for her. I'm just glad she never tried to climb up his pants leg or we would have found him dead from a heart attack when we got back home.

One corn snake we released took to following us around whevever she would see us. Whenever we would go outside and she was hanging around, she would lift her head off the ground about 6 inches or so and watch us and then crawl closer. We tended to feed her most times we saw her, so I guess she liked that arrangement. One day she brought a boy friend home with her to "met the parents" and we fed him too, but we never saw him again. We finally had to recapture her, because she had a bad habit of laying out in the driveway, and we were afraid the UPS truck was going to run her over some day.

But babies seem to vanish into the ecosystem pretty rapidly and we rarely see them again.

LOL!! That's too funny!! They just sit there and wait for you to come back out with food, huh?? I love it!

Shame about the babies though. What do you have around that would make a feast of the non-feeders?

Shame about the babies though. What do you have around that would make a feast of the non-feeders?

Click to expand...

Black racers, coachwhips, coral snakes, hawks, owls, swallow tailed kites, raccoons, fox, possum, etc., etc., etc....

Plus even some of the BIG wolf spiders around here probably wouldn't think twice about jumping a baby corn snake....

Oh wow!! The wolf spiders around here are just brown and fuzzy...they don't have those dark bands on the legs. That's a beautiful spider!

Everyone of us would love to live where you are Rich. In the middle of the woods...away from everyone...catching the ocassional corn snake in the drive way. It is awsome there.

That is defenitly very cool.
Great way to make your job herping outdoors easier LOL.
Good luck finding the babies. Are you sure none of the babies have grown up, and you just caught an adult, which was one of your released babies without realizing it?
Either way, that is just cool stuff.