The Truth About Rattlesnakes and Heat

Añadido: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]It's starting to be really hot. That means it's your busy season, right? That means the rattlesnakes are out because they love the hot. Well, that's actually not true at all. It's the exact opposite. Actually, >> it has been really, really slow.

[00:00:18]>> Hey everyone, headed to a Scottsdale.

[00:00:20]Got ourselves two rattlesnakes uh by some pool equipment. I guess the pool person spotted them. So, headed there now to go grab it. It has been really, really slow. So, I'm very thankful for this call. It's just been hot and when it gets hot, uh, activity slows down. A lot of people think that, you know, it's hot. Snakes are out and about, but it's too hot for you, it's too hot for them.

[00:00:44]Plus, it hasn't rained in forever. So, they can't afford to be moving around when they don't have moisture. So May, June, July here in Arizona are probably the slowest uh months for us because they're the driest and hottest months.

[00:01:00]So of course you still can run into snakes. They're just not moving as much because they can't afford to lose moisture. So it's been a little slow. So I'm really thankful for true snakes right now. So let's go grab them.

[00:01:12]>> Hello.

[00:01:13]>> How you doing?

[00:01:13]>> You got two buckets.

[00:01:15]>> I got two snakes for sure.

[00:01:16]>> Oh, you saw both of them?

[00:01:18]>> Oh, I got Yeah, I got pictures of both of So, one's by the door.

[00:01:21]>> Oh, >> he saw the one by the pool equipment and he went to knock on the door to tell us.

[00:01:26]And there's one right over there. What that is?

[00:01:28]>> It's right My wife and kid are watching.

[00:01:31]It's in that second bush right there on the left.

[00:01:34]>> Okay. This one, right? Yeah.

[00:01:36]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:01:40]>> It's in it.

[00:01:45]>> Oh, I see you.

[00:01:46]>> Yeah. Isn't that crazy? hiding.

[00:01:49]>> You How did you even spot that? Or was he not?

[00:01:51]>> Well, because my uh pool guy told me, so I started looking as good as I could.

[00:01:57]>> Yeah, >> but you would have never seen it.

[00:01:59]>> No, absolutely not.

[00:02:00]>> They're amazing.

[00:02:01]>> You could barely see it.

[00:02:03]>> This isn't really like the greatest bush for you to hide in, buddy.

[00:02:06]>> It's not very shady.

[00:02:28]Wow.

[00:02:31]>> Nice work.

[00:02:32]>> All right. Now >> you are pro.

[00:02:35]>> I've seen you on YouTube before.

[00:02:37]>> Have you?

[00:02:38]>> Thank you. I appreciate that. So this is a male right here. So maybe this is a female.

[00:02:43]>> Okay. Maybe he's searching for her.

[00:02:45]>> Maybe.

[00:02:46]>> He just hadn't found her yet.

[00:02:47]>> Maybe. Well, and I respect it.

[00:02:49]>> I'm I'm glad that your dogs didn't find it.

[00:02:54]>> All right, little buddy. Let's see.

[00:02:58]Anybody back here?

[00:03:14]>> Oh, I see you.

[00:03:16]>> Oh, you found him.

[00:03:17]>> Yeah. Sticking his little head out from this.

[00:03:20]>> Are you going to put them in the same bucket?

[00:03:21]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:03:22]>> Really? They don't fight each other or anything?

[00:03:24]>> No. No, they're cool with each other.

[00:03:25]>> Oh, that's cool.

[00:03:26]>> Yeah. It's not really in a position for me to grab. Let's see here.

[00:03:35]I can go get my hook. It's just a little It's too long for this. Okay.

[00:03:39]My hook here.

[00:03:46]It's still sticking it out.

[00:03:56]touch my tail. That's the sound.

[00:03:59]Whenever you hear that sound, you know, >> the bucket's not open.

[00:04:12]>> Oh, it's okay.

[00:04:15]Little buddy.

[00:04:22]Wow.

[00:04:24]There's a little snoring. Calm down, little bud.

[00:04:27]>> Look at that.

[00:04:30]>> You are so brave.

[00:04:32]>> There we go.

[00:04:33]>> There's already the other one's already in there, you know.

[00:04:36]>> Yeah, I was like >> now they're friends.

[00:04:40]>> Yeah, they do they do very well with each other. They're very uh like communal animals.

[00:04:45]>> Yeah. Yeah, they're not. Let me make sure no one else is hanging out back here.

[00:04:51]>> Hello, snakes.

[00:04:53]How you doing? You guys are like the same exact color. Twins, eh? All right.

[00:04:59]Who wants to go first?

[00:05:01]No one speaking up. You want to talk then? How about you?

[00:05:08]Oh, you guys are cute.

[00:05:14]Oh, wait. Where are you?

[00:05:16]How about you go right there? Not very big. Thanks.

[00:05:25]All right, your turn, little one.

[00:05:32]Excuse me.

[00:05:35]I was not ready for you to do that.

[00:05:39]There you go. Don't don't no don't don't go that way. Okay, you can go that way, but you got to go on the ground. All right, see you, bud.

[00:05:49]Got a nice twofer. Um, so you guys probably heard, but the pool person was back by the pool equipment, saw the one rattlesnake, went to the front door to notify the homeowners, and there was another one by the front door. So, he uh let them know that they had two rattlesnakes in their yard uh thankfully cuz they got dogs and kids, and I was able to grab both of them. Um, but they back up to this beautiful preserve here.

[00:06:11]So, I just hiked them back in, and now they can go their separate ways or do what they want to do.

[00:06:20]Hey everybody, I am headed out to Queen Creek right now for a rattlesnake that's in a backyard. I guess when they first found it, it was out on the front porch and it made its way into the backyard.

[00:06:30]Now it's hunkered down. It doesn't look like it wants to leave. So, they're watching it and uh let's go see what's going on. If it's Queen Creek, um we get a lot of Mojave rattlesnakes out there, so that'd be kind of cool to get to get that. It's kind of interesting.

[00:06:55]How's it going?

[00:06:57]>> Good.

[00:06:58]>> I think he either went around that way or this way like under the gate or something.

[00:07:03]>> Okay.

[00:07:03]>> So, we'll kind of go around this way.

[00:07:05]It's going to be right. See him there?

[00:07:09]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:07:10]back.

[00:07:15]It's kind of a big one.

[00:07:20]Come here, buddy.

[00:07:27]>> Is that an adult?

[00:07:28]>> Uh, yeah. I would say it's pretty pretty an average size.

[00:07:32]>> Okay. Here we go. Looks like a little male.

[00:07:37]Yeah, that's it's fairly decent sized out here for for out here.

[00:07:41]>> Yeah.

[00:07:42]>> Well, like this this new development though, I mean, a lot of times we've seen like out here in like East Mesa, Santan, Queen Creek, like they'll have like these big piles of concrete and like construction debris and like in a certain lot, they'll just dump it there and then the displaced rattlesnakes, they'll come and use that and then it like it's a good place to hibernate and hang out. So yeah, I've seen like pretty decent sized rattlesnake dens in just concrete debris from construction before. So it just gets left out there.

[00:08:11]So all right. So the thing about this is not like the most, you know, exciting part of it for viewers, but uh it's definitely one of the more important things that we do is got to find a good place for the snake. And the problem with Queen Creek and Santan and like the southeast valley like this is like everything everything is a it's slated for development. So, uh it's always tricky. It's it's really hard to know what to do in order to do this right.

[00:08:42]So, look at this out in the desert at night yet again. Okay, so this is my first call, nighttime call in for of the year actually. Uh we've actually had kind of a lull in the line. It's been a minute since I've ran a call or you know even Marissa that runs a lot of calls is just pretty slow and you know it's May.

[00:09:08]It's it's uh nearing June. The temperatures are pretty hot. And that speaks to a myth that we're constantly hearing right now is we're hitting 100° weather uh regularly and everything is people go, "Okay, well it's starting to be really hot. That means it's your busy season, right? That means the rattlesnakes are out everywhere, right?

[00:09:27]Because they love the hot." Well, that's actually not true at all. Even uh not even a little bit true. It's the exact opposite, actually. Rattlesnakes, like any other animal, you know, if they get too hot, they're going to cook. They're going to fry. And rattlesnakes being coldblooded, that isn't what people uh think it means. Blood isn't actually cold. It just means that they have to use the outside external temperatures to regulate their own body temperature. If they get too hot, they're going to die and they don't sweat or anything. So, they got to avoid it. And they avoid it so much that when these temperatures, when it's super dry before the monsoon season and it's really hot, they'll actually go into something similar to hibernation. When the rattlesnakes are avoiding the cold, it's called estavation. So they'll actually go down deep underground. They'll find deep caves, you know, so that they can avoid that extreme heat. And they'll actually sit, lower that metabolism, and not do anything until the rains, the monsoon comes. And if they are active, it's usually super early in the morning when it's still cooler or at night. So, uh, no, the hottest part of the year is not the best time of the year. Here we go.

[00:10:41]Looks like you've seen some things, dude. You're kind of scrappy.

[00:10:46]You've been through all the development and all the things, haven't you?

[00:10:54]All right. Packrat nest. Thick line of vegetation along a wash. You're going to be good.

[00:11:05]All right, so we just had a call come in from a homeowner saying they discovered a rattlesnake in their backyard. They have kids and dogs that play back there, so they're very concerned and need the snake removed immediately. So, I am headed out there now to go grab the snake.

[00:11:19]>> Hey, how's it going? I'm Josh. Nice to meet you.

[00:11:24]>> Yeah, he was right over here, but now he's back here. Oh, >> there we go.

[00:11:29]All right.

[00:11:31]Yep. Oh, western diamond back. All right, little guy.

[00:11:36]You cannot stay.

[00:11:40]>> Okay.

[00:11:42]Yeah.

[00:11:44]up your weekend.

[00:11:47]>> Yeah. Any size. You don't want any of them around.

[00:11:51]>> Yeah. We find a good release spot.

[00:11:53]Usually, we pick like a nice wash that's got rodent activity, but far enough away where it won't be an issue for anybody else.

[00:11:58]>> Yeah.

[00:11:59]>> All right. So, we got our little friend in the bucket here. Time to go find some suitable habitat. Um, I just looked on Google Maps and found a really good wash that's not far from here that looks like it would be a good spot to release the snake. So, let's go check it out and see what we can find. All right, so we found a really nice wash that looked like it was going to be promising on Google Maps. So, now we're just going to try and find a good spot to release this guy. Well, what do you know?

[00:12:29]Out here looking for a good release spot.

[00:12:32]And we found a diamond back sitting in ambush.

[00:12:38]Awesome. That's pretty cool. Been searching for just a little bit. So, honestly, I kind of figured we'd come across one eventually. So, all right.

[00:12:48]Wow, it is buggy. Holy cow.

[00:12:56]I got to send you down to the rod hole here, buddy.

[00:13:03]There we go.

[00:13:07]Right next to our friend that we found.

[00:13:10]Works for me. I'll call that a wrap.