09/21/2026
Sounds like the perfect time to burn the house down! 😳
A woman in northeast Santa Rosa, California, called a reptile rescue about a snake under her house. Al Wolf, director of Sonoma County Reptile Rescue, crawled under the foundation expecting one, maybe two. Within a minute he found the first rattlesnake. Then a second. Then a third. Then two babies. Three hours and 45 minutes later, he came out with 59 newborns and 22 adults in two buckets. He returned twice more over the following weeks and pulled out 11 more. Total: 92 northern Pacific rattlesnakes living beneath one house in the Mayacamas Mountains.
Wolf has been doing this for 32 years. He has been bitten 13 times. His previous record from a single residence was four or five. When he smelled the droppings under the Santa Rosa house, he knew. The smell of rattlesnake f***s is unmistakable, he said. It is like when you smell popcorn and you go, oh. Right away I knew I might have something special and I was hoping, and occasionally your hopes come true.
The foundation had been built directly over the rocky mountainside without removing the natural stone underneath. The crawl space was tight enough that Wolf moved on his hands, knees, and stomach, tipping over more than 200 small rocks with 24-inch snake tongs while surrounded by venomous animals in a space too cramped to stand.
He also found a dead cat and a dead possum under there. The rocks, the warmth of the foundation above, and the rodent population that a residential property attracts had turned the crawl space into a communal den and birthing site. The 59 babies confirmed it. Northern Pacific rattlesnakes are ovoviviparous, giving live birth rather than laying eggs, and the females had been delivering young directly under the house.
Rattlesnakes return to the same den year after year. A den site that works, meaning one that holds heat, drains well, and offers cover from predators, can be used by generations of snakes for decades.
The rocky crawl space under the Santa Rosa house met every requirement. It was warm from the heated structure above. The natural stone provided unlimited crevices. The surrounding mountain habitat delivered rodents and lizards. The homeowner had been living above a multigenerational rattlesnake maternity ward without knowing it until one of the residents surfaced in a place she could see.
Wolf described most of the 92 snakes as fairly mellow in nature. Some you go up and pet, he said. Some you cannot. He did not kill any of them. Every snake was released alive at one of the 35 established den sites he maintains across northern Sonoma County, away from people and private property. Some went to ranchers who specifically request rattlesnakes for rodent control on their land.
Image is for illustration purposes only
Source: San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate / Press Democrat / NBC News / NBC Bay Area / KIRO 7 / Associated Press / Al Wolf, Sonoma County Reptile Rescue.
