Afternoon Enhancer

[A.D. Miller]

50s house on a creek lot today - 5' rattlesnake crawled over my foot while I was crawling over an upset beam in the attic. Sorry for the poor photo quality, but under the circumstances . . .



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[Dan Harris]

Holy crap A. D. Now I going to have daymares when I go into this afternoons attic. . Then night mares when I go to bed tonight.

[Gunnar Alquist]

Remember AD, they are more afraid of you than you are of them.

[David Bell]

Geez what's the odds of having 2 snakes in one attic at the same time! Just kidding, it was too easy.

[Rick Hurst]

So A-man did you have to get that extra pair of jeans from the truck to change into?

rick

[Ted Menelly]

Geez what's the odds of having 2 snakes in one attic at the same time! Just kidding, it was too easy.

Now that was funny! I don't care who you are.

Almost as funny as the snake over the foot. I would have needed a new pair of jeans. Snakes and spiders are my down fall in this business.

I did see a snake in an attic some years ago but not a rattle snake.....or AD

There has to be food up there and I would say mice or rats are the attraction.

Huh huh. Now that was even funnier. Rats and snakes in the attic.....AD. That was funny. I don't care who you are

[Jerry Peck]

With Aaron, the snake probably looked up, said 'Oh crap!' and crawled and got into the skillet all by itself so Aaron could have some rattlesnake meat for lunch.

[A.D. Miller]

I was straddling this upset beam to get a picture of a cut rafter near a metal chimney. The rafters were only about 4" overhead and it was rather cramped. while I leaned over at a 45° angle to get the shot I was standing on one foot on a top plate. It was about then I heard a strange noise. I thought perhaps it was someone in the bathroom below turning on the exhaust fan. Then I remembered there was no exhaust fan. So, I looked down in the direction of the noise and saw it was the rattler's tail alternately vibrating and alternately striking the paper on the old insulation batt and the adjacent ceiling joist.

The first word that came to mind was SHIIIT! Thankfully, my mind did not take that as a literal command (RH).

GA is right about them being more afraid of us than we are of them. Nevertheless, I am still one who has a great respect for creatures that have two hypodermic needles loaded with debilitating toxins for teeth.

Thanks to DB, JP and others for the comparative compliment.

The best part of the whole encounter was the effect it had on someone else. After I first arrived at the house another guy showed up carrying a ZipLevel with him. My first reaction was that the client had double booked inspectors. Upon meeting him I found he was the "foundation guy", who immediately asked me if I had found any signs of movement. I then knew he was no engineer. Engineers, in my experience, never ask anyone anything. Why should they? They already know it all. But, I asked him anyway and he responded that no, he was not an engineer, but a "certified foundation repair specialist". Hmmmmm.

He spent nearly 2 hours taking measurements of nearly everything, diddling with his ZipLevel and setting up his laptop almost on top of my stuff in the kitchen. He was working awfully hard at looking important in front of the clients. Why not help him with that?

So, after my reptilian rendezvous in the attic, I entered the kitchen and announced the event to the clients and the leveler. Foundation boy said I must be joshing. When I showed him the photo, Mr. specialist's face turned as white as a sheet. "Did you see anything like that in the crawl space?", he asked.

To lie or not to lie, was the question of the moment. Though I had not actually seen any snakes or snake skins in the crawl space, could I not reasonably extrapolate their presence in light of the attic encounter? Why the hell not? So I told him that the snake was merely hunting for the rats and mice that the exterminator's untripped traps had failed to catch - which was true. And, that there were more untripped traps in the crawl space than in the attic - another certainty. So then it followed that there must also be a snake, maybe even two, in the crawl space.

[Gene South]

Holy Crap A.D. I once stepped on a live Copperhead and also had a rattler strike at me. Scared the crap out of me both times. Also found a snake inside a main electrical panel in Rowlett and one lying beside a water heater in McKinney last year. Neither of them were rattler's but when you see them in the dim light, it scares the hell out of you.

[A.D. Miller]

Holy Crap A.D. I once stepped on a live Copperhead and also had a rattler strike at me. Scared the crap out of me both times. Also found a snake inside a main electrical panel in Rowlett and one lying beside a water heater in McKinney last year. Neither of them were rattler's but when you see them in the dim light, it scares the hell out of you.

GS: Though I am not afraid of snakes, they do have a much more developed defense system and are much more maneuverable in close quarters. My most exciting (frightening) experience was with a cottonmouth. I went to my lake house one weekend during the summer when the lake water level had dropped about 4 feet. I had left my motor down on my barge and it was stuck in the mud. I went in the water to dislodge it and was just about finished wrestling it out when I noticed a big hose wrapped around the bottom of it. When I grabbed it I realized that hose was a cottonmouth about as big around as an orange.

Needless to say, I did not stick around to see how long it was.

[Rick Hurst]

Thats what she said.

[Rick Cantrell]

" They sent my photo of the snake to a specialist who identified it not as a rattlesnake, but a Texas rat snake."

Better luck next time.

[Caoimhín P. Connell]

. . . but, that blows my big snake story all to hell.

Uhhh... no it doesn't. Dark confined crawlspace with a Texas rat snake, versus dark confined crawlspace with a boring old rattlesnake. Hmmm... not much of a difference in my book - and I LIKE snakes!

Cheers!
CaoimhÃ*n

[Gene South]

I killed a Rat snake last year during an inspection in North Collin County. I can tell you that I thought for sure it was a rattler, very similar markings. I can tell you that thing was large, agressive also and struck at me.

[Tom Roon]

Do you TX guys just learn to suck it up or are there ways to avoid them. Thought about shooting them, but kinda hard to tell the buyer the house needed more ventilation through the wall.

[Gene South]

I did not realize how many I had run into until I got to thinking about it. I can tell you that I have not run into one yet that did not scare the hell out of me, mostly because of the surprise factor. Focused on a house and seeing a snake....not fun. But I bet it is a lot better here than inspectors on the gulf coast, South Texas to Louisiana to Bama to Florida. Man that is real snake country...Would not want to be an inspector there.

[john_opwin]

It may cause a serious implication, Be alert and get it well as soon as possible.

[Aburnell]

WOW, I would NOT have been able to take a picture of that. I cant belive you kept your composure long enough to take a picture.

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