Family flush with terror over surprising snake find
Jason McFadden was at work one morning in late January when he got a text message from his wife, Cassie. ‘‘What the crap do I do?’’ it read.
The text was followed by a photo – of a rattlesnake inside a toilet at their Texas home.
‘‘Like everybody McFadden said, dropped.’’
McFadden said he recognised that the snake was a threat, and told his wife to kill it. She grabbed a broom, in an attempt to block it in the toilet. The snake, which had first been spotted by the couple’s else,’’ ‘‘my Jason jaw young son, pushed its way out anyway and slithered on to the floor.
It was no match for what came next. A garden hoe, a shovel and branch cutters were involved.
McFadden went home to make sure everything was OK. When he returned to his job, he contacted a local snake removal company to swing by the home.
This was how the family discovered that there were more snakes around. A lot more snakes.
A total of 24 western diamondback rattlesnakes were located at the family’s property, including the one in the toilet, according to a Facebook post by Big Country Snake Removal.
Thirteen adult snakes were removed from a storm cellar. Another 10 were removed from under the house. Five of the snakes at the property were babies.
The snake in the toilet was initially discovered by the couple’s young son, Isaac McFadden, 4. He saw only the head at first, and tried to flush it, his father said. ‘‘And it kept coming up.’’
So Isaac told his mother, was a little skeptical.
‘‘Because we have stuffed animal snakes and toy snakes,’’ McFadden said. ‘‘You know, kids, they do stuff.’’
When another son yelled out about it, this time with more alarm in his voice, McFadden said his wife knew something was wrong. who
‘‘It was very surprising. Kind of gut-wrenching, a little bit, just to know that many snakes were living right under our feet and we didn’t even know it.’’
The snakes were corralled by Nathan Hawkins, of Big Country Snake Removal. With the exception of the one found in toilet, which was killed, they were released in an undisclosed location.
Hawkins is a fan of snakes and thinks they get a bad rap. With a little bit of understanding and knowledge, he says, they might not seem so scary.
‘‘The fear that is associated with snakes is . . . irrational.’’
In the United States, about 7000 people are bitten by venomous snakes each year, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
However, only about 0.2 per cent of venomous snake bites end in death.
This was the first time Hawkins had been part of a snake-in-thetoilet situation, but it really is something that can happen.
If a homeowner has a snake problem, it’s generally because the reptiles are looking for rodents or shelter, Hawkins says.
Western diamondback rattlesnakes are ‘‘fairly communal’’, he says, so if you can find one, you’ll probably find others.