To Kill or Not...

[JeffK]

You can pick up that rat snake by the tail and relocate it. Just shake it when it tries to lift up its head.

Or if you want to rile up some on here.. start a new thread with a headless snake pic.

[DTala]

tell her to man up and get over it!!!!

[JES]

All snakes that come on the patio leave dead, happy wife happy life. I'm more concerned with her happiness than a serpent. So far I have killed rat snakes, copperheads, brown snakes and a coral snake on the patios or in the garage. I believe the coral snake was on the patio to eat the brown snakes as I killed them all at the same time.

However, we now have a cat and that killing machine has killed anything a snake would want to eat so I don't think we will have a problem in the future.

[Stuck]

Get a few layin hens. Then when you kill a chicken snake you won’t have to feel bad or explain yourself.

[denimdeerslayer]

Depends on if you are raising any kind of birds as they love them and eggs.

[Mexico]

Dang that's a big one!!! Good snake!

[jerp]

After watching the guy next door hack up a beautiful speckled king snake a few years ago, I became the "snake relocation guy" for my part of the neighborhood. I made a simple snake catcher out of a hoe handle with a pull-loop on the end. I put them in a box and take them to a heavily wooded area a couple miles away. My wife is pretty snake-phobic so I have to get rid of them, I'd just rather not kill them. the large majority have been rat snakes - I have yet to see a venomous one.

[WBT]

The snake is there for a reason. I'd rather have the rat snake around. They're not harmful.
Chase it off and a rattlesnake may take its place.

[Sika]

The snake is there for a reason. I'd rather have the rat snake around. They're not harmful.
Chase it off and a rattlesnake may take its place.

This is my thinking as well.

[systemnt]

Rat snakes dont chase off rattlesnakes.
If you want to keep it alive to kill your rat infestation... fine..but dont think its going to be a rattlebug deterrent.
If you got the right environment for a rat snake.. you got rattlesnakes.
Just sayin'.

[BBReezen]

If I were to stumble upon him myself, just let him be. But since the wife knows, no shame in killing it to a avoid the paranoia and headaches involved with a wife who is scared of snakes.

[rjtkdplus]

Rat snakes dont chase off rattlesnakes.
If you want to keep it alive to kill your rat infestation... fine..but dont think its going to be a rattlebug deterrent.
If you got the right environment for a rat snake.. you got rattlesnakes.
Just sayin'.

I took that to mean, the rat snake would eat rats and mice so there would be fewer of those and therefore less food for a rattlesnake to be attracted to.

My wife kills rat snakes herself, so I don't tell her when I see one.

[TexasWicked1]

Not!

[cva34]

Rats /roaches/mice

[PapaBear]

all snakes around my wife meet the judge with swift punishment by .410. but if I stumble upon them alone and it is not venomous it lives to eat more things.