Mammals are the number one food item. Pocket gophers, meadow mice, voles, shrews, ground squirrels, rabbits, squirrels, birds and birds eggs, frogs, and lizards are consumed. They kill larger prey by constriction and simply swallow smaller prey alive. They are powerful snakes and can kill rodents met in a burrow by pressing the rodent against the wall of the burrow with just a part of their body. I have heard of bullsnakes hanging around chicken coops eating the eggs and young chicks, but these snakes are really one of the most beneficial snakes found in Iowa. These snakes have appetites! They can easily save a farmer hundreds of dollars every year because of the amount of rodents they can eat. They can go into burrows, holes in the walls of barns, weave in between bails of hay, and go places dogs and cats cannot go. The smart farmers know this and are glad to see bullsnakes around their farm. The ignorant farmers waste their time killing these snakes, and waste their money buying trap after trap to eradicate a nuisance that the bullsnakes would have eradicated for free.
