How to find an escaped house snake :(

So it happened. Your house snake has escaped :(  Yes it sucks and you probably feel bad right now. It happens to a lot of us though K? Nothing you can do about the past. What matters right now is that they get found safe right?

Step 1: Take a deep breath. Do NOT panic. Its called panic blindness. In highly emotional states we human beings are not as effective at seeing even obvious things. Scarey as it is, your snake has better odds if you remain calm. Blaming yourself, getting frustrated or angry will only hurt your chances at a successful recovery so step #1- deep breaths. keep calm. 

Step 2: Secure the area from hazards and exits. Look for, and remove, anything dangerous in the room and gate off the room that it escaped from. They usually don't travel far. Of course keep any cats or other pets out of there for now. 

Please do not use glue traps!! People will say it works to glue trap them. In larger snakes like ball pythons this has worked, so people will say that about all snakes. It is true it will keep them in place, and yes that may be less lethal than if they get caught by a cat etc., but these guys are way smaller than a ball python that could potentially wiggle part of their face free to keep breathing. If a house snake gets their face stuck down to the trap and it covers or closes their nose and mouth they will suffocate and die. It's not hard to do at this size. Even if they don't the glue will scrape the skin off their scales which can create body wide infections, then sepsis, then death. It's a painful way to die too. Imagine the majority of your skin being ripped off. So please no glue traps. In fact, look for anything sticky in the room like duct tape or anything like that and remove that.  It's just not a solution here. 

Look out for and mesh off heater vents in the floor (window screen wrapped around the registers works), turn off fly zappers, anything you see that could hurt them neutralize the threat. Do this first. They aren't going to be moving much in daylight so its not going to set you back to do this first. Yes we want to find them, but its more important to find them alive, so do this part first. 

Once you've secured the area, it's time to get searching.

A lot of times you will find them very nearby their enclosure in a dark tight space. Most people will tear apart a room from a standing position. Im going to tell you to "think snake". Get all the way down on the floor, with the back of your head touching the floor, near the enclosure and look up. You'll see places you might have missed that way. You may even see them. Systematically go about the room looking from the perspective of on the floor looking up. This is their point of view, so you can see the routes you might not have noticed from a top down position. Dont assume something is too high for them to climb to or too little etc. Just look anyway. 

Once you've gone through that and still haven't found them, sprinkle some powder on the floor in a grid like pattern. This way if they travel they will disturb the powder and you'll be able to see which grid(s) they've been in and what direction they are travelling. This will help you focus the search. They'll come out at night, so turn off the lights and let them think its night time.
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Try baiting with a minnow trap. It has worked before! You want one that has the cones that narrow down to a point inside and have a fine mesh, appropriately sized to the snake youre attempting to catch and as stable at the base as possible. You dont want it to roll away while they are trying to get in it of course. So stabilize it with a brick on each side if you must. These work because snakes have an odd tendency to search parameters for exits instead of the center. In a dark place they may be content to just hang out there until you find them in it the next day.

Commercial minnow traps can be acquired for less than $20 at retailers and online sources.

A homemade minnow trap works in a pinch!

There are commercial ones you can buy at like bass pro shops or you can even make your own. Place a towel or something over it so that its dark and place near the enclosure, Some like to place them ontop of a regulated heating pad, I dont find that works better per se in a warm enough room, but its a good idea if the room is cold. you dont want it too warm though, 80 degrees or so is plenty. 

​*Water* is a better bait than food. They can survive weeks without food but water- not so much. But a live harmless small prey like a pinky can help entice them to enter too. if you need to choose, water is better.​

Once you've done what you can to do the first search, its time to fix the source of the escape. Maybe the lid gap tolerance was just too loose. Gaps between two sliding glass openings are notorious culprits. maybe there are cord ports that need to be secured a bit. Maybe someone just goofed and left it open for whatever reason. Find it and address it.  It doesn't do you much good to find an escapee to have them escape again. If you are using a commercial produced enclosure odds are very good someone else has had an animal escape it before and has solved it already. Google it and youll likely find out. 

Eventually you will have done what you can, and continuing to look is only exhausting or frustrating you further (remember rule #1!). Its ok to turn off the lights and try again tomorrow. This may just move them into a better position for you to find them.

Lastly, don't give up! Many snakes are found within the first few days. Some are found weeks or even months later! Snakes are resourceful and since you have provided them a safe environment to be captured in, they have good chances to survive! So keep trying.

I hope that helps :)