Snakes at home

Ah, summer in Houston: the heat, the humidity, the mosquitoes. And as if that wasn't enough to make you happy, there's something else this year: snakes. We can tell you're getting excited already.

It was mid May when Ellie Damiano went downstairs after hearing the dog bark.

"I heard a hissing sound and knew something was in the house," she said.

Luckily, her children were not in the play pen, because a 16-inch snake was.

"I saw a snake in the Pack-N-Play and it was lunging at my dog," said Damiano.

Damiano thinks the serpent got in through the front door, which was open for about an hour that day after a fresh coat of varnish. It was later identified as a non-venomous eastern hognose.

So Damiano's dog was in the kids' playpen? If we were her, that would be Problem No. 2 on our list of things to solve. At any rate, it seems there are more snakes in local houses, probably because recent rains have increased their food sources and a mild early July has made them more active. "Fifty percent of the time, when I search a home, I find a snake," Clint Pustejovsky with Texas Snakes and More told KTRK.

The two most common snakes found in local homes and yards are the Texas brownsnake and the rough earthsnake. Both are harmless to humans, though a rough earthsnake will poop on you if you try to catch it. Now that's a defense tactic! (For the record, experts say you shouldn't try to catch a snake on your own, because some of them are harmful. That's advice we won't have any trouble following.)