{"id":426265,"date":"2026-10-13T04:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T04:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/426265\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T04:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T04:56:09","slug":"snake-sightings-in-south-florida-increase-dramatically-after-flooding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/426265\/","title":{"rendered":"Snake sightings in south Florida increase dramatically after flooding"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbf.com\/news-team\/b01334e5-5687-482b-93de-c7a4b1ede900\" aria-label=\"Ari Hait profile page\" class=\"css-15eikfp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791867369_736_b01334e5-5687-482b-93de-c7a4b1ede900_1657581227.png\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\" alt=\"Ari Hait\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/a>PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"0\">Heavy rains and flooding in South Florida have caused a dramatic increase in snake sightings, with calls to wildlife trappers tripling in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"1\">Trapper Jay of Treasure Coast Wildlife Trappers said he has collected nearly 50 snakes in the past month, including venomous species such as rattlesnakes, water moccasins and coral snakes.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"3\">\u201cA lot of times in neighborhoods, it&#8217;s people&#8217;s houses. Whether it&#8217;s in the garage, outside the house, in the house,\u201d Trapper Jay said.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"4\">Last week, Trapper Jay responded to a call about a rattlesnake that had made a home outside a veterinary clinic. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"5\">He said the reason for the increase in snake activity is the wet weather forcing the snakes to seek higher ground. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"6\">\u201cThe water levels are bringing them up; it&#8217;s bringing them out of their holes and all that. They want to stay dry, so they&#8217;ve been coming up to more elevated areas,\u201d Trapper Jay said.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"8\">Trapper Jay advises residents to avoid harming the snakes and to call a professional for help.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"9\">\u201cMake sure you don&#8217;t kill these because they&#8217;re not only beautiful but again, they provide such an important part of the ecosystem,\u201d Trapper Jay said.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"10\">Over the next month, as rainfall decreases and temperatures drop, snake activity is expected to decline. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"11\">However, Trapper Jay emphasized that if residents encounter a snake, the safest option is to contact a trapper.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"12\">Stay up-to-date: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbf.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The latest headlines and weather from WPBF 25<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"13\">Get the latest news updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbf.com\/article\/get-wpbf-25-news-on-the-go\/999316\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"14\">Follow us on social: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpbf25news\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPBF25News\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wpbf25news\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WPBF\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@wpbf25news\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TikTok<\/a> <\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. \u2014 Heavy rains and flooding in South Florida have caused a dramatic increase in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2389,147559,2927,28,30,29,5052,677,114787,2171,167636,167639,167637,167638,2393,124479,1166,189],"class_list":["post-426265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-call","tag-dramatic-increase","tag-flooding","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-house","tag-neighborhood","tag-rattlesnake","tag-resident","tag-snake","tag-snake-activity","tag-snake-sighting","tag-south-florida-increase","tag-time","tag-trapper-jay","tag-wet-weather","tag-wpbf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}