Methods
 

Without wanting to get into the entire story (laden with stupidity on my part) I was wondering if there were any other methods to find an escapee besides:

-Staking out the area where it may be and listen for it in the dark (rumpled up newspaper to help make sound)
-Flour/Baking soda around doorways or anywhere where it may be slithering
-A box with a small hole (just big enough for it to squeeze into in order to eat the thawed out prey, but small enough that it can't get out once it's belly is full...the little glutton). Problem is: It doesn't eat f/t and I'm not going to put live into a box and leave it over night...Mmm missing snake and a new rodent problem

How do balls do with stairs? Will they go down them (hey, cows won't!)? How about those nice little register vents older houses have...do they like sneaking down there?

I know to look for the darkest most secure place...but she's been gone since yesterday afternoon and I don't want to tear apart my room mate's room. I have an old house and there are tons of places for a tiny snake to hide. I really don't know where to begin. Will she stay relatively close or should I look in rooms that are on the opposite side of the house?

Should I be placing water bowls everywhere I can think of? She'll get dehydrated before she starves. No worry about being too cold, but she may overheat if she's stuck somewhere without ventilation. AHH!

Not knowing how big the snake is, or the layout of your home, it is tough to tell you where it might be, lol...but the BEST way to find a BP is to look for it. Start in the room you keep it in. Pick a corner, and go around the perimeter of the room - checking everything. Anything it can get in, under, or on...regardless of how likely you think it is. After going around the perimeter, do the inner portion - again, checking everything. Finish one room, move to the next. It IS possible for a decent sized snake to evade the even the best searchers...then you just have to wait for them to give themselves away.

If there are ways for it to get out of the "general living space", it could be a long wait or a frustrating search.

My Lickity hide twice behind the fridge and once around the wooden baseboard on the floor and has even sneaked into the bathroom and scared Mommy. They like A. Warm
B. Wood C. Anything they can wrap around, even the simplest things. D. Water Is there any place humid in your house? My Utility room gets humid because of the dryer. Just keep looking and you will find her. Good luck! :)

So she's been on the lamb for a good 24 hours.

I finally got done with the nightly animal chores (rabbit, hedgehog, geckos-which my rabbit graciously "helped" me mist).

I decided I'd give my room one last go through, I searched a closet (which has been searched at least three times) and nothing there. I decided to just put out baking soda and some water bowls and hope for the best. When going to my other closet (somehow I managed to get two walk in closets...) I noticed my nightstand drawer was ajar. I figured what the hell, so I removed each drawer and searched it. By the time I got to the bottom drawer I had nothing. I started to shake my head when I saw something under my bed. What was it? It was the gosh darn snake just chilling where I -KNOW- I searched a million and one times (I lost it on my bed, it just seemed logical that it would stay there...). I went to pick it up, but she got a little fiesty with me. I had a rather bloody encounter with an adult ball earlier today (nice bite marks on my nose if anyone wants to see pictures) so I had no desire to handle a nippy young one (I would guess weight to be 600g or so). I wrapped a t-shirt around my hand to cushion the blow, but I couldn't really grasp her. So once she started high tailing it I ditched the t-shirt and showed her (as nicely as possible) who was boss.

She's back where she should be now. My snakes have managed to escape 3 or 4 times, mostly my stupidity (not pushing the bins in all the way, or "forgetting" I'm holding them and setting them down and walking away, much like people do with remotes, pens, keys, etc.) and EVERY time I tear apart everything and look in the most outrageous places. When I finally come to terms that I may never see my snake again I look up and it's sitting out in the open.

Mark my words: I will NEVER own a tiny tiny snake, or a snake that can do real damage.

Thanks for the help, and it seems that when trying to find runaways patience is the key as well as some creativity.

What was worse in my case is I wasn't sure if I lost her. I had somebody snake-sit while I was in Ecuador, and I got them back on Thursday. I was in a hurry to get to work, so I didn't have time to ID all of them and put them in their respective spots in the rack. When I returned home from work I went to do the littler ones and I realized she wasn't in her tub, but the lid was firmly latched. I honestly couldn't remember if I had gotten her back or if she had escaped sometime between one place and another. All I can come up with is when I started to sort them out I must have taken her out and then gotten preoccupied, set her down on my bed, and walked away. Why I would have closed the lid though still baffles me. What's worse is I have no memory of taking her out or holding her. All I remember is opening the lids and seeing if I could ID any without pictures.

I should be banned from getting any more snakes until I develop a short-term memory.

Thanks for all your advice though. If I learned anything besides the obvious here it's to clean my dang room so I don't have piles of stuff to sort through.

Great you found her! One of our little guys (yeah, the tiny one *L*) has escaped twice. Both times he has been close to home.

The first time was when we were in our apt, and I was afraid he had crawled under the door and into the hallway (He really is that small - not a bp - and the seal at the bottom of the door wasn't intact). But I found him curled up under something less than a foot away from home.

The second time he got out was at our new house while we had them all in the basement. There were SOOO many places he could have gone! I checked the radiator thoroughly, taking it apart even, with no luck. Later, my husband was doing another little check before bed, and there he was, curled up on the radiator, where I had looked just hours before.

Those naughty little guys!!