I was thinking about taking my spare 20 gallon tank and putting a live mouse in it and just leaving out in the open with the heat pad turned on and two hides in it?
I am not exactly living in the house yet so there aren't to many places to hide.
That sounds like a good plan. I've had snakes escape three times. Each time I failed to find them until they came out into the open on their own, even though I had them contained in the snake room. In all cases the snakes were fine.