Increase in snake sightings has people taking to social media

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - With rising temperatures and rain saturating the ground, snake season is here in Texas. This has many people taking to social media to determine if the snake in their yard is venomous.

“I don’t like snakes, they scare me,” Wanda Woods said.

Woods lives in Bryan and found a snake in her garden.

The photo of a snake Wanda Woods found in her garden.(KBTX)

“I was wandering around my pond and there was a big black snake in my flower bed, and he was not moving,” Woods said. “So I got my phone and I took some pictures and put it on the Nextdoor app.”

But she’s not the only one. Kenzie Kelley also lives in Bryan. She was inside when her pets notified her that something was happening outside.

“My three dogs found it. We quickly brought the dogs in, and we were just like bewildered that like what’re we supposed to do. I didn’t want them going out, I didn’t want it to go after them,” Kelley said.

This is when she remembered all the help in comments on Nextdoor. Kelley was able to get information from neighbors on the app about what kind of snake it was and what she can do about it.

Rat snake found near Copperfield Drive in Bryan. It was found by Kenzie Kelley and her dogs.(KBTX)

“Seeing all the other Nextdoor posts about all these snakes coming up and some of them are venomous and I’m seeing a lot of rat snakes too which is what my encounter was,” she said.

James Brigoli, Herps Exotic Reptiles and Pet Shop store manager, works with snakes daily. He even put a post out to his neighbors on Nextdoor offering to relocate any snakes that are found.

“Most of the common snakes seen around neighborhoods and in the suburb areas are mostly like rat snakes and hognose snakes, common water snakes like the plain belly water snake,” Brigoli said. “A lot of people tend to think that these snakes just because of their coloration and stuff that they think they’re automatically venomous.”

Brigoli says venomous snakes and non-venomous snakes can both have patterns, arrow-shaped heads, and black tongues. The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension has a resource that compares similar snakes and explains how harmful each is.

This is a good resource to save and check if you see a snake on your property. Brigoli says even if you don’t think a snake is venomous, you need to leave it alone.

“If you see a snake on your property, then the best thing to do is just to walk away. Cause if you try to mess with it or you try to relocate it and you don’t know what it is, you can get envenomated by the snake,” said Brigoli. “King snakes can actually eat copperheads and rattlesnakes and stuff like that so they can actually protect your property and be beneficial.”

Brigoli says local Facebook pages and the next door app have people willing to relocate snakes for free.