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East County gardener finds 5 snakes in 5 days

Posted at 7:44 AM, Mar 03, 2016
and last updated 2016-03-03 11:02:41-05
SAN DIEGO -- Wayne Martin claims he found five snakes in a five-day period this week at a home in the east San Diego County neighborhood of Flinn Springs where he works as a gardener.
 
The latest find was a venomous adult red diamond rattlesnake in the kennel of the family dog, Handsome.
 
“It didn’t coil up, didn’t rattle or nothing,” Martin said.
 
Handsome jumped out of the kennel and Martin jumped in with a shovel.
 
“I scooped him up, put him in that bucket,” Martin said.
 
On Monday, he was pulling tall grass, when one handful of grass didn’t want to come out.
 
“I see his tail in my hand, and I see his head turning around in the grass like he was gonna get me,” Martin said.
 
It was a non-venomous garter snake, Martin said.
 
“He’s about four-foot long,” Martin said.
 
The rattlesnake in the kennel was the only venomous snake he found this week. Martin called Tom Minga of Snake Solutions Removal & Relocation to take the rattlesnake away without harming it.
Minga said rattlesnake season is here early.
 
“It began a couple weeks early because of the weather,” Minga said.
 
Minga said he finds more snakes on people’s property than he does in the hills. He said rattlesnakes like to hide in junk piles, wood piles, under plywood and anywhere you might expect to find rodents. Minga never harms the rattlesnakes.
 
“I release them a mile or less from where I got them,” Minga said.
 
If you come across a rattlesnake, call Minga at 619-322-4569. He will come out and remove it.