# Snake ID



## rhanna (Jun 7, 2017)

Just wondering if anyone can ID this snake. I found it in our mulch bed hiding. I think we saw the same one about a week ago. It was caught in a glue trap, I'm guessing from our garage but maybe a neighbors


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## Powhatan (Dec 15, 2017)

Possibly a Gray Ratsnake


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## rhanna (Jun 7, 2017)

Powhatan said:


> Possibly a Gray Ratsnake


I guess you are right. There is a group on facebook called snake identification and I posted the 2 pics and within a few minutes someone said the same thing (Gray Ratsnake. Pantherophis spiloides. Harmless). That's a pretty awesome group, no guessing allowed and it seems like there are a lot of experts. They get a few hundred posts a day.


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## 440mag (Jan 29, 2018)

Glad you got your ? answered; and, in case it helps any:

ANY oily liquid or substance will aid in releasing unintended creatures from those glue traps. Usually reptile / amphibian.

As long as the glue board is angled so the oil sits up against the creatures body, the oil actually works it's way as a film between the reptile / amphibian scales and the glue and the creature is able to work itself free. How quickly it works often depends upon how much energy (and gydratuon) the trapped creature has remaining in their system :-/ The trap is trashed but easily replaced after that.

We go through a can of WD-40 (essentially glorified vegetable oil, after all) a season as my wife is CONSTANTLY using WD-40 to release the blue tail lizards that inadvertently get stuck on the glue traps we keep just inside out garage door entrances.

Heck, once at work I used a teaspoon or two of Italian salad dressing from the employee lunch / break room refrigerator to release a small lizard (the employee who owned the salad dressing went and got it). I was impressed the lady civilian employees we're aware how much good those little amphibians do, in keeping insect numbers down!


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## BobLovesGrass (Jun 13, 2020)

Thank you for sharing tips on how to save non-target critters.

Not something I face here in WI, no beneficial critters make a habit of getting into buildings.


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