NEWS-JOURNAL (Daytona Beach, Florida) 15 June 05 6-foot rattlesnake menaces Palm Coast resident (Michael Reed)
Palm Coast: Lurking beneath the bushes just a few feet from Sue O'Hagan's screen door lay a slithery serpent.
Six feet long with a spade-shaped head, sure enough, it was an eastern diamondback rattlesnake. O'Hagan's first thought: "What's he doing there?"
"I was frantic," the Palm Coast woman said.
For four days, O'Hagan, 57, refused to walk out of her screened-in porch, knowing the snake was back there -- somewhere. Armed with a water hose and a shovel, her husband Terry took a stab at chasing the reptile away for good.
"I kept looking out there," Sue O'Hagan said. "I couldn't see it, but I was too scared to go out there."
Finally on Friday, she spotted the snake and asked an animal control service officer to remove it.
As frightening as it was, O'Hagan's experience is not unheard of in Florida, especially as temperatures rise and snakes become more active. About 45 species of snakes live in the state -- six of which are venomous.
Curt Hollis is owner of Jacksonville-based Advanced Animal Control and has seen his fair share of snakes. Even he was impressed.
"When you get up to 6 feet," Hollis said in a calm, confident tone, "you're talking some serious stuff."
Hollis expects more reptilian encounters as development encroaches on wildlife. With Palm Coast booming with new homes, Hollis believes the rattlesnake likely lived happily for years on one of the nearby vacant lots. But then that lot was cleared to make way for another new home.
The snake also could have been displaced by rising water tables from heavy rain and perhaps was searching for dry land, he said.
"He was just looking for some new territory," Hollis said.
After his capture, the snake was released back into the wild, somewhere far from O'Hagan's home.
Eddie White, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said it's too difficult for a layman to determine if a snake is venomous without getting too close. Snake spotters, White said, are best advised to just avoid them altogether.
"Unless they're a direct threat to your family or pets, I'd leave them alone," White said.
If they are a threat, people should call a professional removal service, he said. Most snakebites occur when people try to handle them.
One way to prevent snakes from moving in is by removing brush piles and other places that rats and mice can gather, White said. But Florida and its subtropical environment will always be a prime place for snakes to live.
"Snakes are going to be a part of your life," White said.
The venomous snakes in Flagler and Volusia counties include the eastern diamondback rattlesnake, pygmy rattlesnake, cottonmouth and the secretive eastern coral snake, which lives under logs and leaves.
With the help of her home computer, O'Hagan did a little research prior to the snake's departure. She said she used binoculars to study the snake's diamond-patterned scales, and then compared what she saw to pictures on the Internet. She said she's never had a great fear of snakes, and two nonvenomous snakes that live near her home do not bother her.
But that rattlesnake was big, and it was 5 feet from her screen door.
"It's entirely different when it's within arm's length of your house," O'Hagan said.
Her worries, however, did not leave with the snake. Now she's concerned the snake has a mate who will soon come looking. But Hollis said that's unlikely.
6-foot rattlesnake menaces Palm Coast resident