Drained Swamp Causing Infestation 1

[chicopee]

Portion of rear lot is swampy, however, new development in the back lot has caused the swamp to drain out and as a result the house is becoming home to Water Moccassins and very likely home to field mice. Woman of the house is becoming histerical. Is there anything that can be done with the town conservation commission of this problem or should legal counsel be sought out?

 

[jdonville]

chicopee,

Wow. Sounds like the current occupant would rather be someplace else. I suggest that if the current uninvited guests are not moving on (which doesn't seem likely), they can either move or become a long-term exterminator/animal control contractor client. Caveat emptor, after all.

Unless the town or another authority has a mandate to prevent development that could reduce habitat for these critters, I can't imagine what legal redress the owner has in this instance. On the other hand, a sufficiently creative legal counsel might surprise me.

Good luck.

Jeff

 

[boo1]

What state are you located?

 

[Barry1961]

If you could get your lot to be declared wet lands you may be able to stop development. But then you would be screwed also.

I think your best course of action would be to kill the pests that come in your house.

Barry1961

 

[rmw]

I live in a region where snakes of all types are endemic.

Our women learn early how to scream loudly, but even while screaming, most are adept at using a shovel, hoe, or rake if us menfolk aren't around. (On the snakes that is, not the mice.) They also know the difference between poisonous snakes and beneficial snakes (the ones that eat the mice they hate, et al.)

Both genders know to be vigilant at all times, both inside and outside the home. A water moccasin came up into a neighbors bathtub through the drain recently. Rare enough though to make the newspapers. I noted to the wife only a week ago that I had seen a dead baby Copperhead on the patio. Coperheads typically travel in pairs, but I don't know if this is true of them as babies.

Snakes have a pungent odor, a rotten or dead meat odor, and once learned it can be a benefit with respect to maintaining diligence.

Since the armadillos have migrated up this way from Mexico, their rooting around in the underbrush seems to have helped keep the snakes at bay, although they are still seen frequently. The noise they make at night also scares the women folk. One armadillo can sound like 3 burgulars walking through the dry leaves.

I have often wondered what is going to happen when the armadillos migrating eastward across the south encounter the walking catfish migrating westward from Florida. But I digress.

I had to go out and beat the dog away from a snake the other day to keep him from just doing what was natural and attacking the snake. I couldn't believe I was defending a snake. It was a poisonous snake, and I didn't want the dog to be bitten for his sake, nor did I want the vet bill.

Long story short, no government regulation is going to protect you from snakes and mice now. Maybe your lawyers would want to sue them (the snakes-reptile snakes, I mean) given their propensity to sue any and every thing.

rmw

 

[francesca]

In Tennessee, the law is written that you can neither increase nor decrease the amount (flow rate, volume or velocity) of water on a neighbor's property. As it's been described above, development activity has negatively impacted neighboring property. While there may not be a criminal suit, a civil suit becons. One could probably argue that the property is uninhabitable, if water moccasins are unusual in properties in the area. (In rmw's description above, perhaps "uninhabitable" would be difficult to argue, however.) The developer could possibly settle out of court, perhaps by buying the property that now houses water moccasins.

On the other hand, wetlands in Tennessee are waters of the state, whether they are catalogued on a wetland map or not. A wetland is defined in terms of three things: wetland vegetation; wetland soils; and hydrologic connectivity. You need a permit to alter a wetland. Destroying a wetland is illegal (criminal) and there are penulties associated with it, but usually remediation of the wetland is the first recourse.

In short, I would contact your state department of the environment and I would contact a lawyer (in that order).

 

[bltseattle]

So, just out of curiousity, what drives a snake whose aquatic habitat is destroyed to move into a house? Are they looking for water or what? Won't they die off over time if there is not surface water in the vicinity (in which case, an exterminator must be less expensive than a lawyer!)?

 

[chicopee]

Boo1,the State is Connecticut

 

[pittsig]

rmw - thanks for the laughs that were much needed after a long day. Good thing no one was around to hear me howling about the potential armadillo/walking catfish skirmish. The snake's rights lawyers may go after your dog.

My grandfather used to say the copperheads smell like rotten cabbage, and his father used to ride in from his farm fields with a black snake coiled around his neck. He would turn the black snakes loose in the barn to keep the mice away and claimed they kept the copperheads away also. So much for the old farmers tales.

chicopee -
Back to topic - Google turned up the following website which states there are no water mocassins in Connecticut, just non-poisonous Northern Water Snakes; they give birth to lots of young'ns between August and early September; they appear in New England between April and October; and not much is known about where they spend the winter.

http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/wtrsnake.html

So depending on the weather it looks like the visiting snakes soon will be heading off to hibernate for winter which could hinder prompt action by the town conservation commission if they had authority and inclination to do so. If the snakes' habitat is gone, they (the snakes) will move on to somewhere more appealing before long as well.

Some people claim moth balls keep snakes away, herpetologists claim they don't because snakes don't have a well developed sense of smell. I'd throw some out around the perimeter of the house and keep a long handled rake and/or shovel handy. Good luck!

 

[mshimko]

Two comments about water moccasins:

1. They are not generally found in moderate to cool climates, with North Carolina being on the "cool side" for them.

2. From when I used to live in souther Mississippi, the best way to control water moccasins was to keep 'gators around.

Seriously though, it was common that if one had a problem with a gator or two and had them removed, they often saw a problem with water moccasins the next year.

 

[roncity]

the snakes are following the mice.
The mice are there because of food.
Check that all garbage is secured , and DON"T LEAVE PET FOOD out in the open overnight.
( and tell your neighbors .... all it takes is one person to leave pet food outside and every house close by becomes a rat habitat.)