There are a bunch of snakes at Bogalusa City Hall.

No. Really.

Since last Thursday, nearly a dozen of the slithering creatures have been found lurking in various offices and other spaces in the annex end of the old public building.

Courtesy photo Rat snakes, such as this one found at a Bogalusa family’s home recently, are common in Louisiana. Advertisement

Apparently, a healthy clutch of rat snakes has hatched in the bushes just outside a back door, and the little guys are exploring their neighborhood. The ladies in the Finance and Public Works departments are not exactly amused.

“They’re probably just 8 or 9 inches long,” said Ellen Bailey. “But when you’re running from one, it looks like an anaconda.”

Judy Gray, now known as the “Snake Lady,” has had more interaction than most.

“About two weeks ago I was standing by the back door smoking and I saw two snakes in the bushes,” she said. “I couldn’t find (Public Works Director) James Hall, but Ellen came up and saw one.

“Then last Thursday a plumber killed the first one in the hallway by the bathroom between Finance and Public Works. Later that day, a worker found one at the back door, across the threshold. He put his foot on it and cut off its head with a pocket knife. It was about a foot long, and black and gray. But it was so small it was hard to tell, and we certainly weren’t examining it. It was like, ‘Snake!’”

That was just the beginning, and the snakes have kept on coming.

A fireman killed a third snake about a week ago, said Gray. “It was in Shirley Killingsworth’s office, stretched out under the door like a draft dodger. She was in there at her desk on the phone and she said. ‘There’s a snake under my door.’”

Killingsworth reportedly remained remarkably calm as a couple of firemen arrived and carted off the beast. However, a later headache was attributed to a sudden increase in blood pressure.

By early last week, the folks who work in the eastern end of City Hall were walking the halls like soldiers wary of booby traps. Gray unlocked the door and crept into her office, scanning the space before she entered. Then she got down to the business of filing.

“I have a lateral file cabinet,” said Gray. “I’d been filing all morning. Then I went to put a file back in. I pulled open the top drawer, and a snake was in the back. I told Sandy (Bloom), ‘If you ever want to see an old lady move, put a snake in her file drawer.’ I hollered, ‘Snake’ and it slithered down. I guess he thought if he couldn’t see me I couldn’t see him. But his tail was still up on top.”

The “Snake Lady” claims she handled herself reasonably well, under the circumstances.

“I’m OK as long as I can see something coming,” she said. “But when you open your drawer and there it is sticking its tongue out…”

The fire department was again called to the rescue, and this snake lived to slither another day. It was captured and released…at some distance from City Hall.

Gray said County Agent Henry Harrison identified the babies as rat or chicken snakes. They are non-venomous. But, for a lot of people, a snake is a snake.

“And someone said there could be 30 of them,” she said with a mixture of incredulousness and weariness. “I’m getting tired of this.”

A passing City Hall worker said, “Instead of ‘Snakes on the Plane,’ it’s Snakes in City Hall.”

Gray said the invasion seems to be ongoing.

“We’ve had nine so far, and somebody spotted number 10,” she said. “There was one behind the kitchen door, one in the corner by the back door… James (Hall) was never around. I called his cell phone. He caught a couple with his hands. One was biting all over him, but it was so small it didn’t break the skin.”

The snakes seem to emerge from the bushes between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., said Gray. The greenery has been checked out, and there are plans to trim it back. So far, there has been no sighting of a hatching spot, although a nest of wasps has been located, she said.

“We put mothballs and lime out, but it didn’t help,” said Gray. “They just keep crawling over it to get inside.”

Of course, it is a public building. But the workers will be happy when the reptiles are grown and gone, and they could do without witnessing the grown part.

“It’s a little spooky,” said Bailey.

“It’s been interesting,” said Gray.