Snake sightings on the rise, weather partly to blame

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. - Folks may be seeing more snakes lately and that’s partially due to the weather.

"This time of year when the weather is warming up snakes begin to move more," said Jason Clark with Southeastern Reptile Rescue.

Lots of rain can send some snakes looking for drier ground inside garages and even inside homes.

"If we're having a lot of torrential downpours and water levels are rising, we do see an increase in snakes coming into houses. Those are typically smaller, nonvenomous snakes just looking for somewhere to be dry," said Clark.

Reagan Wilson spotted a copperhead slithering along the side of his driveway in Peachtree City.

"I'd say it was about 2 feet, but it seemed like it was 5 feet. Not knowing anything about snakes, thinking it's going to come after me, I start doing a little moonwalk thing," said Wilson.

Reagan and his wife Eileen found out a property can't be made snake proof, but there are ways one can deter snakes from taking up residence.

"They apparently love pine straw, so we may get that removed.  We also need to grip back some hedges and remove some hedges, and they also like to get under low lying patio furniture.  We're thinking about getting some with higher legs," said Eileen Wilson.

If none of that works and snakes snow up anyway, Jason Clark said, don't panic, snakes aren't aggressive.

"The first thing a snake wants to do is escape, if that's possible, then it will use its camouflage and hope you don't see it. The last thing the snake wants to do is actually bite," said Clark.