CODY — When a woman found multiple snakes in her garage, she could have overacted like Samuel L. Jackson in the cheesy cult action film “Snakes on a Plane.” Fortunately, she had a better option and the perfect person to banish the snakes from her premises.
Beatrice Cornelius “PC” Oberholzer with Kodiak Pest Control recently evicted two bull snakes from the walls of Deb Simpson's garage near Cody. No shots were fired, and Oberholzer released the snakes as a sign of respect from one pest control agent to another.
“A lot of people will see a snake and kill it instantly, and I don't like to kill any animals,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “Bull snakes aren’t dangerous at all, and I was happy to get them out of the garage and away from a place where they wouldn’t bother people.”
Trust The Bird Dog
Simpson thought something was amiss when her Springer spaniel, Rosie, wouldn’t stop barking at the backyard trampoline Monday morning.
“I went outside, saw something move, and I knew it was a snake,” she said. “So, I called my 25-year-old son Mac to bring a shotgun because I thought it was a rattlesnake.”
Once Mac arrived, they determined it wasn’t a rattlesnake but a bull snake, a large non-venomous snake that can grow up to 8 feet long. The bull snake was safely picked up and moved to a nearby field. No shots fired.
On Tuesday, two snakes were spotted in the backyard. They weren't worming their way out of eviction this time.
“I called Jacob Haslem at Kodiak Pest Control,” Simpson said. “He said, ‘We don't do snakes, but I've got this guy who works for me, and he really likes snakes.' I asked if he could pass along his number and see if he wanted to come get these, and about half an hour later, PC showed up.”
Oberholzer grew up surrounded by snakes in South Africa, so he decided to do an off-the-clock visit to Simpson’s house to banish with the bull snakes. But by the time he got there, the snakes had slithered away.
They weren’t in the backyard or under the trampoline. But they couldn’t elude Rosie.
“Rosie kept on barking at something on the other side of the detached garage we have,” Simpson said, and all of a sudden it dawned on me: the bird dog is trying to tell us there's something over here.”
Enough was enough. They’d had it with these monkey-fighting snakes in this Monday through Friday garage. It was time to open some freakin' doors.
The outside wall of a Cody family’s garage had to be pulled off to get to a pair of breeding bull snakes that had made a nest there. At first fearing they were rattlesnakes, the family instead had a pest control expert get them when they learned they weren’t dangerous. (Courtesy Deb Simpson) 
The outside wall of a Cody family’s garage had to be pulled off to get to a pair of breeding bull snakes that had made a nest there. At first fearing they were rattlesnakes, the family instead had a pest control expert get them when they learned they weren’t dangerous. (Courtesy Deb Simpson) 
The outside wall of a Cody family’s garage had to be pulled off to get to a pair of breeding bull snakes that had made a nest there. At first fearing they were rattlesnakes, the family instead had a pest control expert get them when they learned they weren’t dangerous. (Courtesy Deb Simpson)
Snakes In Crack
Rosie was barking at a walled-up door on the side of the detached garage. When Oberholzer removed the wood walling up the door, they discovered they had put up a barrier between them and the snakes.
Two large bull snakes had snugly slithered into the insulation. One was pregnant, and the other had just eaten, so both were fat.
“They were a mating pair,” Simpson said. “The female was pregnant, and the male had just eaten a bird. You could see a bird's beak sticking out of the snake's belly.”
Oberholzer removed the brooding bull snakes without much difficulty and with no fear of danger. Unlike rattlesnakes, bull snakes don’t have venomous bites.
“They’re just constrictors,” he said. “They do not have any poison and constrict their prey. They’ll even kill and eat rattlesnakes.”
The bull snakes were relocated and released in a nearby field, where they were sure to find a new maternity ward. Better anywhere than in the walls of a detached garage.
A Den Of Snakes
Jacob Haslem, the owner of Kodiak Pest Control, said he typically doesn’t deal with snakes when out on calls in the Bighorn Basin and southern Montana. Snakes can be troublesome, but they’re best left alone.
“We don't get a lot of calls for snakes, and don't encounter them a whole lot in our work,” he said. “Finding them in a wall is uncommon, but we don’t typically search wall gaps for snakes. “When people call about a bull snake, I encourage them not to kill it.”
Mice, rats, rabbits, birds, insects, lizards, and other snakes are on the menu for bull snakes. They have been known to eat rattlesnakes, although biologists believe it’s a rare addition to their diet.
Finding snakes in a well-insulated wall isn’t uncommon, but Simpson was right to want them gone. If she (and Rosie) allowed a breeding pair of bull snakes to live rent-free in her garage, she’d quickly gain several slithering squatters.
“Their big concern is that they didn't want a snake den,” Haslem said. “If left alone, the snakes will keep denning in the same spot year after year.”
Oberholzer said a breeding pair of bull snakes will spend a lot of time together. The female lays one egg at a time, and each egg has to be individually fertilized by the male.
“Every time the female lays an egg, it gets fertilized by the male,” he said. “She produces another egg, and that egg gets fertilized. That’s why they stay together for such a long time.”
Had those eggs been laid and hatched, the walls of Simpson’s garage would be crawling with bull snakes. That merits removal, but Haslem encourages Wyomingites to let sleeping snakes lie.
“Bull snakes are great at mouse and rat control, and they keep rattlers away,” he said. “If they're just crawling around or slithering across the yard, I wouldn’t worry about it. They’ll move on. Bull snakes are great.”
But bull snakes don’t belong in walls. Do as I say, and you live.
Time Is Tissue
Simpson was happy to have a snake-free garage and that the slithering squatters were humanely evicted into their natural habitat. However, she and Rosie couldn’t save the previous tenants.
“There had been a family of starlings that nested in the same spot where we found the snakes,” she said. “They’ve had numerous batches of babies inside that defunct garage door. We’d hear about Bob coming home with food for the kids.”
When the bull snakes were removed, the starlings were nowhere to be found. According to Simpson, that led to “a rather twisted conversation” about what happened to “Bob and Betty.”
“I’m not sure if it’s Bob or Betty in the bull snake’s mouth, but that’s a gruesome way for them to meet their demise,” she said.
Contact Andrew Rossi at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
