Homeowner trying to smoke out snake infestation burns down own house

[turbinetree]

Maryland home suffers over $1m in damage after cunning coal-based pest control plan backfires

A homeowner in Maryland tried to fight a snake infestation with coal, only to burn their own house down, causing more than $1m in damage. Nobody was injured.

Montgomery county fire and rescue officials notified the public about the blaze right after it happened on 23 November, describing a conflagration that left a “large two-three-story single family house with heavy fire throughout structure and roof collapse”.

About 75 firefighters responded. Conditions were “dark and cold” – around -4C (25F) – as they battled the flames.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/04/homeowner-snake-infestation-burns-down-own-house-maryland

[Hekate]

1. Some jobs are best left to professionals

Oh yes, they are

[malaise]

3. My Granny loved this one

Penny wise, pound foolish!

[taxi]

4. The professionals may tell him that snakes

don't move very fast when it's cold and to call back when it warms up.

[iemanja]

2. I think I'd abandon my house

if I had a snake infestation. That's my worst nightmare.

[Wingus Dingus]

5. But aside from that...did it work?

[yagotme]

12. Well, the snakes are probably gone, so, yes???

[Sneederbunk]

6. The snakes believe this was a little excessive.

[Arkansas Granny]

7. I wonder what kind of snakes were involved. I didn't see that mentioned.

[Mariana]

9. Be funny as hell if it was just a few little garter snakes.

I used to find garter snake skins on the cellar floor from time to time. I figured they were doing me a service, eating bugs and mice.

[Arkansas Granny]

11. Where I grew up in the country we had a healthy black snake population.

We found snake skins in the attic and occasionally a live snake in the house. We would catch them and release them in the barn where they kept rodents in check.

My dad believed that the black snakes kept poisonous snakes away. I don't know if that's true, but we never saw any poisonous snakes around our place.

[jmowreader]

8. You would think...

...that someone who could afford a million-dollar house could also afford an exterminator.

The WORST part of this is tomorrow morning's call to the insurance company: "You did WHAT? No, that's not a covered loss."

[SYFROYH]

10. No mongooses?