Al Wolf, director of Sonoma County Reptile Rescue, found his hands full of scales during a recent call.
On October 2, Wolf responded to a call from someone who said "they had snakes under their house," Sonoma County Reptile Rescue — a nonprofit offering rattlesnake rescue and relocation free of charge — shared on Facebook.
After arriving at the home in Santa Rosa, California, Wolf climbed underneath the house to look at the issue. "Three hours and 45 minutes later," he had pulled 81 Northern Pacific rattlesnakes, 59 babies and 22 adults, out from under the Bay Area home.
"I've been doing this 32 years. I get calls with snakes under the house pretty often. The most I've done under a house is four or five," Wolf told SF Gate, adding that, before this incident, he had only seen dens this large in the wild.
In the days after the initial discovery, Wolf made two follow-up visits to the home and found 11 more snakes, bringing the total discovered under the house to 92.
Northern Pacific rattlesnakes are the only venomous snake species native to Northern California. The species is not aggressive unless provoked, Wolf told SF Gate.
All of the snakes Wolf retrieves, including the 91 he found recently, are released into the wild. Most are taken to unpopulated areas, but some snakes are released onto ranches as a form of pest control at the landowner's request.
The Santa Rosa home's location on top of a rocky area that has access to the outdoors is an environment snakes like and serves as an ideal den spot for rattlesnakes.
"She told me, 'Now I know why I haven't had any rodents all these years,' " Wolf said of the homeowner.
The Sonoma County Reptile Rescue director plans to visit the home several more times over the next couple of months to help keep the snake population there under control.
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