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What would you do if you found a rattlesnake coiled up in your backseat flicking its tongue in your direction? That isn’t a question many people have ever needed to ponder but one woman in Arizona found herself in that exact situation and her story has been helping Arizonans learn what to do should they ever find themselves in similar circumstances.
Milan Watt was driving in the car with her boyfriend in Phoenix, Arizona when he spotted the rattlesnake in the back seat. They have no clue exactly how long the snake was in the car for but they believe it might have been in there for up to two weeks. She told Phoenix’s 12 News she’ll never get into a car again without checking underneath the seats!
Telling her tale to 12 News, Milan Watt has been able to share her story with others in Arizona and in doing so, local news have been able to share tips on what to do should someone ever find themselves driving with a potentially lethal rattlesnake in the backseat.
Step 1: Calmly pull over and get out of the car. Do not freak out.
It’s really that simple. Follow step 1 and from there everything else is an afterthought. The news tory lists out local Arizona snake wranglers to call in order to have a rattlesnake humanely removed and relocated but we have an international audience here at BroBible and it’s as simple as opening your phone and typing ‘Snake Wrangler Near Me’ into your browser’s search bar or on Google Map.
Ultimately, you want to calmly remove yourself from the situation and put a safe amount of space between you and the rattlesnake, or any snake for that matter. Here in Southwest Florida, I live just above the cusp where Burmese pythons have become a real threat to the local ecology however, as a Boy Scout in this area I did grow up encountering plenty of Eastern diamondback rattlesnakes on camping trips. I’ve only ever seen 1 dusky pygmy rattlesnake in person and it was so small I’m not sure I would have noticed it if it wasn’t pointed out to me.
Step 2 was, of course, call a snake wrangler and let them handle the situation. It’s really as simple as ‘calmly remove yourself and call an expert’ which is pretty good advice for most of life’s sticky situations.
If there was a 3rd step it would be to inform yourself of what to look out for. Learn the difference between a venomou and non-venomous snake but this is done preemptively:
Just hope you don’t find 20 rattlesnakes living in your garage like this guy did last September in Arizona.