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I encountered a rattlesnake in downtown LA once. They're very common in the hills where we'd hike but it was surreal seeing one on the pavement near Union Station. I think the more we encroach on the critters' territory, the more we'll experience odd juxtapositions of this nature.
Katy
http://fengshuibyfishgirl.com

yeah... i don't think it has much to do with climate change. i think it's three main factors:
1. we (as humans) are imposing ourselves so much on to the territory of the animals.
2. they are adapatable creatures that will find homes in whatever we build.
3. and (sad but true) people can be very cruel and irresponsible and just abandon their pets.

My husband likes animal like frogs and chipmunks and snakes, he speaks fondly of his boyscout days when he learned that blacksnakes are fun and harmless and make great pets. So the day I found a very large snake in the laundry room, I naturally called on him to remove it. He came downstairs and went into the laundry room, very manly. He came back out saying, "it rattled!" He was clearly rattled too. He went into the workshop to find something to pick it up with and came back with a shoe. "A shoe!" I said, "what the heck are you going to do with a shoe?!"

"oh, ok, maybe a towel would be better." He covered it and carried it outside. Later he checked the reptile book and identified it as, not a blacksnake, a timber rattler, which are indigenous to western PA.

That's my snake story and I'm sticking to it!

It's because people are obtaining these snakes as pets and when they become too costly too take care of, especially in today's economy, they are abandoned. If people lose their jobs and can barely feed themselves, they are not going to put their pet snake as the number one priority.

It seems like they would just turn them over to the SPCA or something along those lines but, a lot of them don't have licenses to have these types of exotic pets and worry about getting fined. It's sad but I think we'll see many more stories like this. Next will probably be all those tigers in Texas.

I have the most ridiculous snake-in-the-toilet phobia. I know it's absurd, but I have to check every time. If I ever saw one in there, I would surely die on the spot.

Yesterday in Fairfax,Va a house fire broke out. When the firefighters got to the second floor of the house, found a room with pythons, scorpions and other exotic snakes in cages. What was unbelievable was the reaction of the neighbors interviewed, most were blase and knew that the young kid had the snake zoo in the house. I don't think most realize what can happen if one of these "pets" get out and encounter a kid in the backyard etc.
Nice to have but dangerous for persons and children unaware or untrained.

I have a snake-in-the-toilet phobia too.. Ever since i saw that a snake somehow made its way to a lady's toilet and died later that week because it got stuck in the pipes behind the wall.. Saw it on the news, i have been totally freaked out since then..

@ rockerdelight

Many exotic snakes aren't harmful and some types of scorpions are no more venomous than a bee or a wasp. The only type of snake that you identified in your post, pythons, are constrictors and probably only a threat if you happen to be a rat.. or maybe a cat or small dog. Many snakes and scorpions don't require any type of training for owners to keep them.

I think that our culture is so knee-jerk about a lot of things like this and cause a lot of confusion over what the real dangers might be. That is, of course, spiders.. big hairy creepy spiders.

Um, what? You're comparing nonnative exotic snakes like boas and pythons that have escaped or been released, which, as d4kk1tt3 mentions, are not likely to be a threat to humans, and NATIVE snakes that have been living in the region for longer than humans have been here. NATIVE. Their presence is natural and expected. Yes, copperheads are venomous (not poisonous; things that you eat that hurt you are poisonous, things that bite you or sting you that hurt you are venomous); so? They only deadly in very rare situations. Many venomous snakes are attracted to areas with humans because of the rats and vermin humans and their trash also attract, so it shouldn't be too surprising to see them around us.

Pythons and boas are some of the most common 'pet' snakes but a considerable number of people seems to enjoy the company of more 'exciting' reptiles: my husband checks animal imported in the country where I live and he has already 'met' a copious number of cobras and a few mambas.... brrrr

ops 'animals' (3 am... should go to bed)

I don't think the presence of snakes in the northern US can be an indicator of climate change, as there are many many species of snakes that are native to Canada (including rattlesnakes) I think the reasons sited by other ppl (feral pets and habitat encroachment) are more likely an explanation

This is posted on Apartment Therapy because...?

I found a dessicated baby snake (at least I think it was a baby) inside my piano in my apartment in northern Virginia and I didn't sleep much that night, because I kept worrying about how it got in there. Then I convinced myself that it "belonged" to the guy I bought the piano from. He had stored the piano in his detached garage and it had been there for years. That reasoning held for a few months until I saw another snake just outside my front door! I laughed at myself, because I had always thought that I wasn't afraid of snakes, but I realize now that that's because I always thought of them as cool critters only encountered in the wild.

Eh.. snakes. The things are often way too scared of you to be of any concern. In Australia you got to check the toilet, but it's spiders you're looking for. An introduction of species is usually mans fault, not climate. Our city is example of that, we've been through a heap of introduced species to erradicate the previous and we're currently over-run with Water Dragon lizards, they're everywhere.