Image via Missouri Dept. of Conservation/Facebook
A Missouri woman and her son got the surprise of their lives when a snake popped out from under the car hood as they were driving. Even though the slithery little critter couldn’t get inside the vehicle, we know a lot of people would freak out and probably crash.
Raccoons mistake a Cybertruck for a dumpster.
Thankfully, the woman who was driving her son to baseball practice didn’t wreck out. Once they arrived at the practice, the mother and son tried tricking the snake into fleeing the vehicle, but it instead retreated under the hood, not daring it come out again.
This sort of thing is more common than most would imagine. Snakes are oftentimes attracted to the warmth of an engine block, plus the hood and fenders provide perceived sanctuary from predators. We’ve seen more cases of snakes crawling out from under hood while people are driving than we can probably remember at this point.
And we’ve seen a number of cases of people opening their hood, only to find a snake curled up on the engine.
In this case, the woman drove to the school where she teaches and recruited the help of her colleagues to get the reptile out. That apparently was a long process.
As the Missouri Dept. of Conservation points out in a Facebook post about the incident, anyone encountering a snake in the state can contact a local conservation agent or an MDC wildlife damage biologist for help with removal.
We know there are also snake removal services available all over the place. Thankfully, this snake was a coachwhip and not venomous, but it’s best to let a professional determine that as well as capture and later release the reptile.
Image via Missouri Dept. of Conservation/Facebook
