A Tiny Coachwhip Makes Its Escape

Posted on October 19, 2026October 7, 2026 by Bryan Hughes

The call was for a tiny snake on the move through a backyard. The homeowner did exactly what we recommend and followed it from a safe distance, eventually placing a dustpan over it and watching closely to make sure she would know if it escaped.

Somehow, it escaped anyway.

When Apryl arrived, there was no snake beneath the dustpan. After thoroughly searching the backyard, they decided to check the other side of the concrete wall. Sure enough, a tiny Coachwhip was hiding beneath a rodent bait station.

The little snake had apparently found a very small crack in the wall and used it to make its escape. Coachwhips are fast snakes even when they’re small, and this one had apparently already figured that out.

Apryl managed to catch the little escape artist and relocated it to natural desert habitat away from the neighborhood.

A Black Coachwhip, One Yard Over

Posted on October 17, 2026September 21, 2026 by Bryan Hughes

A Mesa homeowner saw a long, slender black snake cross his back patio in the morning. A few hours later, his wife still wasn’t interested in going outside until someone had checked the yard, so Marissa came out to take a look.

There wasn’t much cover in the backyard, and after searching the few likely hiding places, she was getting ready to leave when the next-door neighbor spotted her and asked if she was looking for a snake. As it turned out, the snake had apparently just moved one yard over.

The neighbor had seen a black snake in her backyard and was carrying a shovel with the intention of killing it. Someone else was already on the way to rescue the snake, so Marissa offered to find it in the meantime.

She located a beautiful black Coachwhip wedged into a narrow gap between the house and the fence. It had recently eaten, and the large meal in its stomach was preventing it from squeezing the rest of the way through.

Marissa carefully freed the Coachwhip and waited for Nick, who had already driven out to rescue it, then handed the snake over to him.

Not the snake Marissa expected to find, and technically not even in the yard she was called to, but a pretty good outcome for everyone involved, especially the Coachwhip.

Coachwhip Found in Phoenix

Posted on February 5, 2026November 19, 2025 by Bryan Hughes

Notes from Maggie on a recent snake relocation call:

This might be the cutest coachwhip ever. 😍

This call came in from North Phoenix with some panicked homeowners who saw a snake in their backyard. They immediately hid inside and called for help. They watched through the windows and thought it had gone under the fake rock that hid the pool pump. Unfortunately, when I flipped the fake rock the coachwhip quickly evaded me and slithered into a hole in the outdoor kitchen. After some searching and mini fridge relocating, I found the snake curled up under a board and was able to snag it. I relocated the coachwhip onto a rocky crevice in the nearby preserve.

Coachwhip Rescue

Posted on September 14, 2025August 18, 2025 by Bryan Hughes

When Marissa first arrived and spotted this, she thought the coachwhip was dead. But thankfully, it was very much alive. She cut it out of the wire and got it some water before moving it off the property.