This is a very inexpensive, simple way to catch your snake if they happen to get away from you. My bp once escaped her tank while in the care of a friend while I was on vacation. I explained to my friend over the phone how to make this trap, and he had the snake back that same day.
First, make sure you close all doors and windows of the room your snake escaped in. Try to keep the cracks under the doors sealed as much as possible. Try to find all small holes in furniture/walls and seal them shut with old towels (after making absolutely sure that the snake isn't in there first).
Here are the materials you'll need. A clean, empty 2-litre soda bottle, a roll of tape, a stiff piece of paper, a "thawed feeder rodent" (I didn't want to defrost one for this, so I used a beanie-baby as a substitute) and a towel.
Cut away the pouring part of the soda bottle. Make the hole about twice as big as the circumference of your snake.
Roll your piece of paper into a rough funnel shape. Try to make the tip as narrow as possible and the other end as wide as possible. You will cut it to fit later.
Tape the edge of the paper funnel so that it stays that shape, then place it into the open part of the soda bottle, with the tip of the funnel hanging INSIDE the bottle. Trim the open end of the funnel so that it just fits inside. You can use a pencil to trace the place where the bottle and paper meet if you want. The result should look like this.
Using your scissors, cut the tip part of the funnel multiple times going from the tip toward the end, fraying it. Make these cuts long enough so that your snake can fit through. This works sort of like a bee trap, so that it's easy to go down and through the funnel, but hard to get back up the other way. This works especially well with ball pythons because they hate to have their face touched.
Rub your thawed feeder rodent all over the inside of the bottle and the funnel. Place the rodent into the bottle, then put the funnel in over the hole. Tape it there, making sure to try to seal all the gaps and press the tape down hard so that it doesn't peel off on your snake. (note: I don't recommend using a feeder this big. It should be small and up against the back of the container, so that the snake has to go all the way inside to get to it.)
Place your trap in a corner of the room that your snake escaped in. Put a towel on top, so that it's dark in there and a nice place for your snake to want to stay. If you want, make more than one trap and put them in more than one corner or room. You might try dragging another feeder rodent in a straight line along the ground leading to the opening of the trap, to create a 'scent trail' for the snake to follow.
Once you've done that, get some of those noisy plastic bags that the supermarket gives you and tape them down along the edges of the room, so that if the snake moves over them, you can hear it. Put bags in rooms/areas that you don't think the snake is in, so that you can figure out where he is and rule out other areas of the house. Check your traps every day, and replace your feeder rodent frequently.
I hope this helps will help some of you, good luck catching!
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nice information ... it might be usefull someday (I hope I wont lose any snake at home)
Originally Posted by Kaorte
