It’s that time of year again when residents start seeing unwelcomed guests in their backyards.

Shoop’s Texas Termite Owner, David Shoop said, “Because they’re so bad this year, we’re telling them to do both of them at the same time.” 

He said snake repellent products have been flying off his shelves.

“This year in specific areas,” he added, “There probably about three to five times as bad as they were last year. Especially rattlesnakes, rattlesnakes have just exploded,” and he said in some cases the reptiles are getting far too close for comfort.

“We’ve seen more in homes this year than we have in the past ten years, and I can’t say why that is,” Shoop continued to say.

One thing he does know is that everyone should be on the lookout, even if you are not a fan of the creatures.

Pest control technician, Allen Boyer told us, “I’m not the biggest snake fan, most people know that, but I’d rather deal with it than a woman or a child.”

He said in his experience going from home to home, snakes can come out of nowhere. “Usually the ones we’ve been getting here lately are pretty big. I had about a six-foot snake about two weeks ago, the lady didn’t even know she had it, it was in her basement.” 

Shoop also said snakes can find their way through any small hole and will hide in anything.

“We have these around people’s homes and these are rodent baits stations,” he showed us,  “More than any year, we’ve come up when we check them, we pick them to look to see if the baits in there and we found rattlesnakes inside these things.” 

Although residents can’t prevent snake season from arriving, they can follow this advice.

“Keep everything trimmed up,” Boyer said, “Grass cut short. If you’ve got any holes around your house, garage doors, anything like that, keep everything closed up because they will find their way inside your house.” 

While snake repellent is important, residents should also look into rodent repellents, since these sneaky creatures are on the hunt for their next meal.

Shoop finished by saying if you ever see a snake around you, the one thing you would want to do is slowly back up and get away until experts arrive.