From: donb@igor.tamri.com (Don Baldwin)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.herp
Subject: Finding escaped herps
Date: 8 Jan 93 02:06:19 GMT
Organization: TOSHIBA America MRI, South San Francisco, CA

From: "Peter Bell" <pmb2@midway.uchicago.edu>

Look behind the fridge, in the nice warm coils.  Look soon, cuz the coils can
burn an animal that is hiding in them.  A remarkable number of snakes will do
this.  Also, water heaters, etc.
Peter

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From: seedman@iastate.edu (John D Turnipseed)

        My recommendation --- First, get a good flashlight.  Second, think
                              like a snake.  In my experience, snakes that
                              find themselves out of a small cage, find
                              themselves in a larger cage (the room) and
                              begin to look for a way out of it.  They do
                              this by finding a wall and following it.
                                 So, start at the cage, find the nearest
                              wall, and use the flashlight to work your
                              way around the room.  Be Careful!  Look
                              underthings before moving them.  The life
                              you save might be your snakes.
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From: Birny Baker bxb@calmasd.prime.com

About finding lost snakes, I used to go into the snake room,
close the door, hold my breath and listen. Listen in all the
sections you can get close enough to. This only will work of
course if a) you have great hearing like I do, and b) the
snake happens to be crawling at the moment. Otherwise I agree
wholeheartedly with the cautious movement of objects and the
use of a good flashlight.

It's kinda funny to think about hearing a snake crawling
across the carpet, but it worked a couple times for me.--

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From: hall@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov

Avoid having escaped amphibians in the first place.  Keep them
in an extremely secure enclosure, as when they escape their lives are
in immediate danger due to dehyrdation.  Often times, a suspected escapee
can be found hidden in the terrarium, burrowed beneath the soil or
otherwise concealed.  But if one does escape, look in moist, cool, dark,
enclosed places.  This usually means house plants, particularly in the
leaves, in the soil, in the drainage tray, and between inner/outer pots.
Also check the bathroom and kitchen and any place else where water is found,
including in or around their terrarium.  If you fail to find the escaped
amphibian on the first pass, place dishes of water all over the place,
in corners, around the terrarium, etc.  You may find your escapee
here or at least keep it alive until you can find it.  Remember that
most amphibians are nocturnal, so to find an escaped amphibian out in
the open or on the move you'll probably have to look at night, with a
flashlight.  As a side benefit of this approach, frogs become dazed by
flashlights shined in their eyes, making it easy to capture them.
Newsgroups: rec.pets.herp