How to Pick Up a Snake

Sometimes a snake may come into your house, garage or yard. Knowing how to pick up the snake to remove it can help keep you safe. Several snakes in North America are poisonous and must be avoided. Many others can be handled safely and humanely.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Identify the Snake

1. Look at the snake's head. In North America, all poisonous snakes, except the coral snake, are pit vipers and have markedly triangular heads.
2. Evaluate the snake's body. Pit vipers have thick bodies relative to their length.
3. Check the snake's color. If the head shape and body girth indicate that the snake is non-poisonous, check for red, yellow and black bands on the snake. If the snake has red, yellow and black bands and the red and yellow bands are adjacent, you are looking at a coral snake. Do not try to pick up the snake. It is poisonous.

Pick Up the Snake

4. Find a tool such as a shoe, broom handle or golf club to immobilize the snake's head.
5. Approach the snake slowly. There is no use talking to the snake because snakes have no ears and cannot hear you.
6. Try to get the snake to uncoil so you can place your tool gently on the snake's neck to hold its head down and immobilize it. Get the tool as close to the head as you can so the snake cannot bite you as you reach for its neck.
7. Grasp the snake gently behind the head once you have it immobilized. Expect the snake to wriggle and perhaps wrap its body around your hand or arm. Also expect the snake to bite you if it gets a chance. In the wild, the only time a snake is picked up is when something is trying to eat it so all its survival and defensive instincts will be active.
8. Lay your tool aside. Most snakes can easily be held in one hand if you have a firm, gentle grasp just behind the snake's head. Remove the snake to a release area. When you get there, use your other hand to unwrap the snake from your hand, wrist or arm and stretch the snake out on the ground so that its direction of travel is away from you.
9. Release the snake and step back away from it.

Tips & Warnings

• Snakes will bite. They are capable of raising nearly half their body length up in the air and can strike effectively at about one third of their length.
• The longer the snake is, the longer your tool needs to be if you are afraid of being bitten. If you are bitten, do not try to jerk away from the snake. A snake's teeth point backwards, and you will increase the severity of the bite if you jerk away.