We try to live in the open air for about 6 months out of the year, which leads to some fun encounters with these guys. They like to sun on our back steps in the afternoons, which of course is where we take our 3 dogs out to the bathroom several times a day. Those black racers can move, can't they?
The other night my wife had stopped by to talk to me about something in my office, it was starting to get dark and I notice the no-see-ums were starting to come in. I asked her to go close the back (sliding) door. I heard her close the door, say "hm," open it, slam it again, "hm," open it, slam it again. Then a light turns on and she starts screaming bloody murder. I run in to find a yellow rat snake stuck 1/2 way in and 1/2 way out the door going crazy
. I had to turn the air conditioning on after that
Here's a black racer that stopped by to see my dog on a regular basis. They would sit nose to nose at the window and just check each other out, which was funny.
It's the rat snakes that are the meanest. We used to have a 4' to 5' one that hopped between several of our yards. We used to usher him down the street occasionally. One neighbor grabbed the lid off his trashcan to use as a shield, and you could hear that thing hitting it all the way down the street. It sounded like a baseball bat hitting the lid. We keep the small ones around (particularly after my car was totaled by rats
), but start pushing them to move out when they get about 3' long. I have found that being diligent about picking up all the sea grape leaves and putting down mulch helps. The dead sea grape leaves made a perfect bed for them to travel under and hide beneath.