When Robert Ortiz got into his car last week, three snakes were waiting for him.
He has no idea how they got there.
He spotted the first two before he left his Orland driveway. One was peeking out of the driver’s side dashboard air vent and one was curled up sleeping in the center console next to the cup holders. A third snake waited until Ortiz was actually driving before emerging from the passenger side dashboard air vent.
“It was a surprise,” Ortiz said on Wednesday. “I’ve had a mouse build a nest in my car, but never seen snakes in there.”
Though snakes are common in Maine, it’s unusual to find them in a car. Ortiz speculated they were drawn to his car because it was parked in knee-high grass and it may have looked like a safe place to den up.
That makes sense, said Drew Desjardins, who runs Mr. Drew and His Animals Too reptile rescue and organizes the annual Maine Reptile Expo. It’s not unheard of for snakes to get into a car, but he said it’s more common when the vehicle has been parked for a long time.
“Because you get rodents nesting in cars, snakes go in and hunt them,” Desjardins said. “Once the snakes are in there, they can navigate around in there pretty well.”
In Ortiz’s case, the snakes in question were garter snakes. Desjardins described garter snake bites as feeling like “angry velcro” scraping against your skin and said they are rarely powerful enough to pierce your flesh.
“We have nine species of snakes in Maine,” Desjardins said. “None of them are dangerous.”
Ortiz said he did not see the snakes when he went out to start his car to give the air conditioner time to cool the interior. Ten minutes later, when he went back out the snakes had appeared.
“I came back out, opened the [car] door and there was this snake looking at me from the vent,” Ortiz said. “Then I saw the second one that was asleep.”
Before leaving, he carefully lifted the first two out and set them down towards the woods near his house. Then he and his wife left to drive to Brewer.
On the way, Ortiz said his wife urgently told him to pull over.
“I pulled off and right off she opened the door and got out,” he said. “I looked over and I could see the snake head and a few inches of its body coming out of the vent.”
Ortiz quickly grabbed it and tossed it far from the car.
That was the exact right thing to do, Desjardins said.
“You want to stay calm and safely pull over,” Desjardins said. “It’s not going to hurt you, and I get some people are going to be scared and want the snake out of their vehicle fast — but safety first.”
It’s been a week, and Ortiz said he’s not seen any more snakes in the car. He no longer parks it in the tall grassy area.
“That’s about the only thing you can do to keep them out of your car,” Desjardins said. “Don’t park in their habitat.”
Other than the jump scare spotting a snake in your car could cause, Desjrdins said a snake in the car is really nothing to worry about — structurally at least.
“They are not going to do any physical damage,” he said. “Unlike mice, they won’t tear out wiring or rip apart your car’s insulation.”