(The revision is correcting the identification of the snake and adding the video.)
This spring we finally saw the culprit that was eating our goldfish. A very spooky water snake. I tried several times to sneak up on it but to no avail. In desperation I bought a snake trap, baited it with "Just Mice" paste and waited for 2 months. All I ever caught was a snake skin that was actually shed in the trap while we were in France.
Three days ago I decided to just put the trap in the water, on a shelf in the pond and see what happened. What happened was it started to catch tadpoles. A few the first day, several more the second and by last night there were more than a dozen bullfrog babies in the trap. And that was enough to entice the hungry snake into the trap. This morning I found I had traded tadpoles for a water snake. He/she turned out to be a Florida red belly water snake Nerodia erythrogaster erythrogaster. About medium size and very "bitey". I can't get a good photo in the trap, so I will take a video of the release later today as I give it a holiday in Lake Jackson. Miles from my pond! My hat is off to the trap people for making a good product, but the advice to use mouse paste was not quite on the mark. I am writing them to suggest they make a new product and call it "Just Tadpoles and Frogs". Yummmmm.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojPLCU6o7rQ
Image: http://students.ncwc.edu/bio401/2005/Christopher/red%20belly%20water%20snake.jpg
Snake Traps:http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/traps/snake_traps.html
Three days ago I decided to just put the trap in the water, on a shelf in the pond and see what happened. What happened was it started to catch tadpoles. A few the first day, several more the second and by last night there were more than a dozen bullfrog babies in the trap. And that was enough to entice the hungry snake into the trap. This morning I found I had traded tadpoles for a water snake. He/she turned out to be a Florida red belly water snake Nerodia erythrogaster erythrogaster. About medium size and very "bitey". I can't get a good photo in the trap, so I will take a video of the release later today as I give it a holiday in Lake Jackson. Miles from my pond! My hat is off to the trap people for making a good product, but the advice to use mouse paste was not quite on the mark. I am writing them to suggest they make a new product and call it "Just Tadpoles and Frogs". Yummmmm.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojPLCU6o7rQ
Image: http://students.ncwc.edu/bio401/2005/Christopher/red%20belly%20water%20snake.jpg
Snake Traps:http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/traps/snake_traps.html
Nice work!
ReplyDeleteJessa