When an Arizona homeowner called a rattlesnake removal company, he didn't know the extent of the problem. He thought there were a few rattlesnakes in his garage, but it turns out, there were 20.
"This is our record for the most rattlesnakes caught in one call," said Bryan Hughes, owner of Rattlesnake Solutions. "I'm so glad to set a record for you," the homeowner responded, clearly not that happy about the number of snakes found in his home.
The snakes found in the garage were Western diamondback rattlesnakes. Western diamondback rattlesnake bites are more common in the American Southwest than any other type of rattlesnake bite, according to the National Park Service. The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum reports that these snakes are typically 3 to 5 feet long but they can be up to 7 feet long. They usually spend their days coiled up in shaded areas and under objects like rocks, according to the museum.
Five of the snakes found in the man's garage were adults while 15 were babies. One of the adult snakes was pregnant. The rattlesnake removal company also found that some of the snakes had shed their skin in the garage, possibly meaning that some of the snakes that had been there had already left. It could also mean that some were getting ready to leave.
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“There’s a lot of snakes in here," said snake wrangler Marissa Maki as she helped remove the snakes from the garage. Some of them were coiled up by the water heater. It's possible that they got into the garage via a gap near the door.
"I'm not going to lie. This is crazy," Maki said, using tongs to pick up the snakes. She then put them in plastic buckets. The snakes were then moved to a natural habitat.
Maki described the experience as "a very fun call." The homeowner reportedly waited a bit before decided to call the snake removal company, hoping that the issue would be resolved on its own.
According to USA Today, the gap in the door allowed the snakes to travel back and forth as they pleased. The owner of the rattlesnake removal company said it was possible that as many as 40 snakes were in the garage at one point in time.
The snakes were obviously pretty comfortable there. “They just found a nice spot to have their babies," Maki said. According to USA Today, this type of rattlesnake is not quite as dangerous as others because their venom is less powerful, but they still need to be dealt with cautiously.
“We’ll never know how many rattlesnakes have come and gone over time," the owner of the company said. It's unclear exactly how the snakes got to the man's yard.
"I tried waiting them out," the homeowner said. "I only saw them from peeking around the corner. I thought there was an adult."
