More than 90 snakes found under Northern California home

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 17 (US): Al Wolfe used to remove a python or python from under homes, but was recently called by a woman who said she saw a rattlesnake scurrying under her Northern California home and was surprised to find more than 90 snakes. Rattlesnakes are preparing for hibernation.

Wolf, Sonoma County Reptile Rescue Director, said he crawled under a mountainside house in Santa Rosa and immediately found one viper, and then another viper. He got down from under the house, grabbed his buckets, put on long safety gloves, and went back inside. He crawled on his hands, knees and stomach, overturning more than 200 small boulders, the Associated Press reported.

“I’ve been finding snakes for about four hours,” Wolf said Friday. I thought ‘Oh, good, it was a worthwhile call’ but I was glad to come out because it’s not nice, it hit cobwebs and dirt and it smells bad and musty while you’re on your stomach and you’re on your sloppy re. I mean, it was a job.”

But the work paid off. He used a 24 inch (60 cm) diameter rattlesnake pole to remove 22 adult rattlesnakes and 59 babies when he first visited the house in the Mayakamas Mountains on October 2. He has returned two more times since then and collected 11 more snakes. He also found a dead cat and a dead awsome.

He said that all the snakes were from the North Pacific rattlesnake, the only venomous snake found in Northern California.

Wolf, who has been rescuing snakes for 32 years and has been bitten 13 times, said he answers calls about snakes under homes in 17 counties and has seen dozens of them in one place in the wild but never under a home.

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He said he releases rattlesnakes into the wild, away from people and sometimes into private lands when farmers ask them to control pests.

Wolf said there are plans to go home again before the end of the month to see if other snakes have arrived.

“We know it’s a lair site already because of the kids and the amount of females that I found,” he said.

Rattlesnakes usually hibernate from October to April and look for rocks to hide under warm places and will return to the same place year after year. Wolf said the homeowners didn’t remove any rocks when they built the house, which makes it an attractive place for reptiles.

“Snakes find the house a great place for them because the rocks give them protection but the house also protects them from getting wet during the winter, so it’s double insulation for them,” he said.

RAE

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