There might be a snake somewhere in my car...

[RJD25]

Hello everyone: First post here, I apologize if this is in the wrong section but I've got a problem and kind of at a loss as to how to deal with it.

2021 MX owner here...a few days ago I opened my garage and went out to my MX in the driveway in the late afternoon. I saw a rather large (about 3ft) CA kingsnake under the front part of my car. Not unusual to see around here because I live next to an open area so we get lots of critters including rabbits, the occasional deer, but also snakes unfortunately. Anyway I tried to chase it away with a stick since I didn't want to run over it. It started to crawl through the front driver's side wheel spokes, but quickly reversed direction and slithered through the wheel back towards the car. I did look closely at the tail and there was no rattle plus it had a small rounded head so I'm pretty confident it was a kingsnake. I didn't see it on the ground, and realized with horror that it might have crawled into my wheel assembly and into the undercarriage of the car.

First of all, I'm wondering if there is any easy access to the cabin from the undercarriage...I have kids and my mom is terrified of snakes so I'm concerned it might find its way inside and give someone in my family a heart attack. I'm also worried it could screw something up in there, or maybe get zapped/cooked by the battery.

Secondly, any suggestions on what to do? I went to my local Tesla service center, but they told me to call animal control. Animal control said there was nothing they could do unless I somehow trapped the animal or it was on the loose.

It's been a few days and every time I drive it (by myself lately) I check under the seats just in case. I have no way of knowing if its still there.

I'm thinking to see if I can find a mechanic to remove the front skidplate and maybe the underbody cover? Has anyone jacked up the MX themselves to remove the covers? The guy at the Tesla service center said it would be a tough job to do by myself.

thanks for reading and any feedback or comments welcome.

 

[roblab]

Leave the poor thing alone. After a day, or maybe less, the snake will get hungry and head out to the weeds to hunt. Unfortunately, humans' main reaction to a snake of any stripe is to kill it. Certainly, a three-foot snake is no harm to anyone, and they are a decided benefit to the ecosystem. Would you kill a Lizard? Probably not, simply because it has legs. You've already decided this snake is a harmless variety.

I highly doubt the reptile can get inside the car from a wheel well.

By the way, I am a science teacher, and taught Physics, Math, Algebra, Chemistry, and Biology. We had snakes in the classroom, and I had students hold our kingsnake every day, to learn to deal with unreasoning fear. They were also able to identify the poisonous snakes that live in our area, just like they learned to identify Toxicodendron diversilobum.