A slithering, hissing, venomous snake isn’t what a family with small children or pets wants to see in their backyard, or anyone scared of snakes for that matter. But, it can become a reality for anyone living in Florida.
And with heavy rains falling in drought stricken Florida “snakes are on the move,” Chris Wirt the owner of A All Animal Control said.
Wirt said he is catching all sorts of snakes from cotton mouths, copperheads, pigmy rattlesnakes, coral snakes, you name it.
“The rain gets the rats moving and the birds and the other things and the frogs, that snakes eat,” Wirt said.
On Wednesday, Wirt captured a 4-foot ball python. Hours later he was in a Land O' Lakes backyard capturing a 2-foot cotton mouth. The owners had the snake pinned down and called Wirt to capture it. They were too scared to try and put it in a bucket or bag on their own. Something Wirt said is a smart call.
“Stay away from it. Most venomous snakes, their striking distance, is a third of their body sometimes up to a half,” Wirt said.
Also on the move in the heavy rains are armadillos.
“They like to eat the grubs in your yard,” Wirt said.
Some of the nine-banded armadillos, indigenous to Florida, can carry leprosy.
“Avoid them too,” Wirt said.
There are 47 snake species indigenous to Florida with only 4 species that are venomous.
