ALBANY, Texas — A Texas homeowner who reported seeing ‘‘a few’’ snakes under his home actually had dozens of rattlesnakes living beneath his house.
Big Country Snake Removal, which was called in to help, said the homeowner crawled underneath his home after strong winds disrupted his cable television service. He saw a few snakes, quickly crawled out, and contacted the snake removal company.
Workers later pulled 45 rattlesnakes from underneath the home near Albany, about 150 miles west of Dallas.
Snakes will begin slithering out from underneath Texas homes as the weather warms up, increasing the risk of snakebites, said Nathan Hawkins, the owner of Big Country Snake Removal.
‘‘A lot of people are getting snakes in their yard, and it’s because basically the habitat has been destroyed around the housing developments,’’ Hawkins said.
State wildlife officials say that about 7,000 people are bitten by venomous snakes each year in the United States but very few bites are fatal.
associated press