Today when walking back toward our house in Montreat I spotted a very long black snake on the side of the road. As I got closer I realized it was tangled in some landscaping mesh. The mesh had been put down last year after Hurricane Helene had come through the area. There was a small mudslide in this spot and the owner had tried to reconstruct the shoulder of the road. The workers had used this mesh to hold the soil and the grass seeds in place but it had come loose and was bunched up on the ground. The snake was tangeled in it and couldn't get free.
I'm not really afraid of black snakes, and this was clearly a Black Rat Snake, elaphe obsoleta obsoleta, but I don't like to handle them and wasn't really sure what to do for this guy. When I first saw him his head was tangled up but the rest of him was free. I tried holding the mesh down with my walking stick thinking he could pull himself free. But, the snake just got his head free but his body was still caught in the mesh.
Some other walkers came by. The first pair were not helpful. But then a group came up that were willing to get involved. The two men were willing to hold on to the snake and one of them used his pocket knife to cut some of the mesh loose. They managed to get the snake free from the larger piece of mesh and as soon as that happened the snake left. I do hope the part of the mesh that's still attached will either work it's way down the body of the snake or get broken.
