Warm weather pushes snakes into Kansas homes
TOPEKA (KSNT) – Finding a snake in your home can be a frightening experience as they begin to come out of their winter hibernation in Kansas.
Kansas State University’s Research and Extension Office is sharing some handy tips on the dos and don’ts of encountering snakes in your house. Many snakes are starting to wake up from hibernation and explore their surroundings.
“Snakes are coming out of hibernation, and when they do that, they get pretty active because they’re hungry and they need to eat,” said Drew Ricketts, a wildlife specialist with K-State Research and Extension.
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Finding a snake in your home might be scary for some, but odds are it isn’t dangerous. Just over 40 species of snakes call Kansas home with only few with venom dangerous to humans.
“They are poking around and exploring and when that happens, they end up inside buildings or homes,” Ricketts said. “That’s when I get a lot of excited phone calls and emails from folks about seeing snakes in places where they don’t want to see them.”
Snakes in your home are most likely searching for food. Rats, mice and insects in your home could attract snakes hungry for a meal.
Ricketts says while many people have a fear of snakes, learning to identify which are truly dangerous is key when dealing with them inside a building or in the wild. Keeping your distance is also something to keep in mind.
“The best thing to do is to give all snakes a lot of space,” Ricketts said. “One of the really surprising statistics that I’ve seen is that one-half of the people who are bitten by a venomous snake are actually handling that snake. So it’s a lot less common to have a negative encounter with the snake if you just turn around and walk the other way.”
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If you find a snake in your home, Ricketts says you can try getting glue traps to catch them or pin them down with a rod and remove them from your house by hand. Pinning a snake down and grabbing them behind the head is recommended before putting them outside.
“You know, snakes can get in through pretty small spaces, and that’s one of the big challenges about avoiding snakes; even a fairly large snake can flatten their body out, so they could get through a space that is one-half inch tall by 1-2 inches wide,” Ricketts said. “And oftentimes, once they get into the house, they start following structure, so they follow walls as they move through the house.”
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