Texans have it tough. It doesn’t matter if you think it’s easy living in the lovely Lone Star State, although we acknowledge we’re extremely blessed, it certainly takes a special breed to withstand some of the challenges. Snakes are one of those challenges. Landowners and homeowners alike tend to have powerful respect for these creatures, giving them the distance they need to go about their business, or calling in the proper authorities when their business is encroaching on our daily way of life. Such is the case with a resident in Albany, just northeast of Abilene, who thought there were a few rattlesnakes under their home. Turns out there was a big ‘ole mess of them. 45, to be exact.
USA Today reported that Big Country Snake Removal was called to the home in the Central Texas city to complete the relocation of a “few” snakes. The company recorded footage of a job that took hours to complete when it found that 45 rattlesnakes resided under the dwelling. The video was recorded earlier this month and was posted to the company’s Facebook page. Since then, it’s been viewed more than 1 million times.
Video: Big Country Snake Removal/Facebook
USA Today shared the footage on their official YouTube channel (now removed), which had garnered an additional 29K views at the time this article was written. Nathan Hawkins, owner of Big Country Snake Removal, explained in the company’s Facebook post that the homeowners would generally “…only see a few each year, their yard was very well kept and their house was nice and clean…. My point is, we run into this scenario often, and people don’t think it can happen to them. As I stated in the teaser video, rattlesnakes don’t care how nice your house is or what kind of car you drive- they care simply about survival.” In this instance, the homeowner came across the snakes by pure coincidence (…not sure if it was luck, but you get the drift…) when they were having difficulty with TV service. “Due to the high winds, their tv [and] cable was acting up, so a gentleman crawled under to see what was going on. He saw a ‘few’ snakes and quickly crawled out,” Hawkins noted. The point is, it can happen to anyone, anywhere in Texas. Rattlesnakes are just one species of serpents we need to learn how to cohabitate with, never mind the numerous other creatures who share our lovely state! Exercise caution in the wild, but close to home, exercise it even more so. And leave the relocation of these critters to the professionals.
