Boa constrictor found on porch of Florida home

CLERMONT, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - What a welcome to Florida. A family visiting from Arizona says they encountered a giant snake Wednesday as they walked up to a relative’s home in Lake County. 

“We walked around the corner and boom there’s the snake,” explained Taylor Hale. 

It was sitting right in front of the door. Even slithering onto the welcome mat. 

“It was big – 8 feet long. It seemed like it was well fed,” Hale said. 

The family says they gave the snake some space and it didn’t seem to go anywhere. They decided to call 911.  Dispatchers connected them with the Lake County Fire Department. 

“We have a team called Venom 2. It’s an anti-venom bank for pretty much all of central and north Florida,” said Chief Dan Miller. 

The members of the team are snake experts. He says they asked someone at the home to send them a photo of the snake, and determined it was a boa constrictor, a species that is not native to Florida. 

“We don’t want those out in the wild,” Miller said. 

So they came to the home near Clermont and captured the snake. The Venom 2 team says they’ve contacted FWC about the boa, which was likely a pet at some point.  

“He’s safe and sound in a cage,” Miller said about the snake.