CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- While "snake season" tends to begin as spring does,Virginia Wildlife Management and Control said they've already been dealing with record amounts of calls for snakes over the winter that they predict will continue in the warmer months.
"It does get worse and worse every year," said Virginia Wildlife Management and Control Owner Richard Perry. "For snakes, we know it's going to be a bad one."
But many might be wondering why it seems there are more snakes in Central Virginia year after year.
"I think it's a combination of a lot of things, weather obviously, the most notable factor, but also the building going on," said Perry. "I mean, as you know, we're just doing a lot of crazy development and everything, so it's kind of drawing things out."
In Central Virginia, Perry said Woodlake, Brandermill and Salisbury are the worst neighborhoods when it comes to calls for snakes.
"We are on high alert all the time, and we teach our kids to recognize when there's a snake and to be able to identify it too," explained Brandermill mom Monica Kincaid.
She and her family love the neighborhood's picturesque waterfront views and tree-lined streets, but the Kincaids say they share their yard with Copperheads.
“We saw one in the dead of winter," Kincaid noted. "It was freezing outside. We are very careful when we go and get our firewood because we do keep that in the tree line. We just make sure that we go we have flashlights or we bring them over in the daylight first, or I make my husband go get it."
For those who have trouble telling the difference between venomous and non-venomous snakes, Virginia Wildlife Management and Control worked to create Virginia’s first 24/7 snake identification hotline a few years ago.
"We immediately identify the snake as either being venomous and non-venomous," Perry explained. "And then if they need us to come out there and remove it, then yes, then we would dispatch a unit out to remove the snake."
It should be noted it’s illegal to kill a snake in Virginia unless it's threatening you or your animals or makes its way inside your home.
While there is no product that can truly keep snakes from making home in your yard, Perry said there are some specific things you might be unknowingly doing to attract them.
"They love piles of leaves, they love brush piles, they love log piles, they love brick work, stonework, any of that kind of stuff," Perry noted. "They just love to gravitate towards those areas. What happens now in the springtime, a lot of people are doing their spring cleanup. They're cutting their hedges, trimming bushes and trees and whatnot, and they have a tendency to leave those brush piles there because they will get to them a little bit later on. The longer you leave them there, it is literally a welcome mat to snakes."
If you need help identifying a snake, you can text a picture of it to (804) 617-7086, and Virginia Wildlife Management and Control will let you know whether you should be concerned.
