Today we’d like to introduce you to Bryan Hughes.
Bryan, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve been looking for snakes my entire life, and there’s no better place to do that than Arizona. After years spent in the desert finding and photographing rattlesnakes, I began working as a volunteer with the Arizona Herpetological Association, doing rattlesnake relocations, which I did for years before ever considering starting a business.
I was one of the unlucky ones after the 2008 market crash and ended up unemployed, and rather than try to find a new job in the awful market, I started a business as a graphic design and marketing freelancer. This was a sort of “all skills on deck” scenario, so I started to use my other ability that of finding and catching rattlesnakes, to help make ends meet. I started Rattlesnake Solutions in 2009, and it was immediately successful. I had intentions of making enough to pay the power bill, and paid rent that first month instead.
I went back to work as a user interface designer and web developer and built Rattlesnake Solutions on the side to a point where it could become a full-time job. I left my career as a designer in early 2017 to be a professional rattlesnake handler, and make my 10-year-old self very happy.
Has it been a smooth road?
People having rattlesnakes at their homes in Phoenix is not an issue … dealing with the personalities you meet along the way, at times, can be very difficult. I realize that these are not popular creatures, but the amount of misinformation and fear out there is absurd. It goes well beyond reasonable; I think it’s a part of our culture, to be scared of rattlesnakes, and so many people build that into their outward persona that it makes education very difficult.
This isn’t just a way for me to make money … I very much enjoy rattlesnakes and see them as what they are here: the underdog. Yes they can bite and that can be awful, but it’s very avoidable and not as common as people think. Add a few made-up stories from coworkers and grandpas, and you now have a monster that’s based on a real animal, without the reality to back it up.
So my work of capturing and saving these animals has daily instances of people sending me photographs of severed heads, animals they’ve crushed because they got nervous while I’m on the way, and stories of unimaginable cruelty that even people that consider themselves “animal lovers” proudly confess. Imagine running a dog rescue, and twice a day someone sends you a picture of a headless dog and asks “what kind of dog is this? It could have bitten someone”. That’s what this is like, and dealing with that has been more of a task than I expected.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Rattlesnake Solutions is a rattlesnake relocation and prevention group, and handles every aspect of that process. Simply, we know a lot about rattlesnakes and specialize in them, and nobody comes close to being able to handle this uniquely-Arizona problem like we can.
What we do is much more than just coming out to put a snake in a bucket and dump it over the fence. We look for the reasons why the snake is there, and give information about how to keep them from coming back. We also have developed a snake-proof fencing solution that works amazingly to stop rattlesnakes from coming into protected areas. We spend a tremendous amount of time in the field learning about rattlesnakes, why they do what they do, and fostering a very deep understanding of these animals. That’s the kind of knowledge and passion that we bring to our customers’ properties, and it makes us very good at it.
We’ve started to use our data on rattlesnake encounters throughout the valley to form conservation plans, including being published in a scientific journal last year, and upcoming research projects that are funded by rattlesnake relocations. That growing aspect of the business is most exciting to me, and where I know we can really make a difference as the city expands.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
There are few cities with the right location and demographic for a business specializing in rattlesnake prevention to exist. Phoenix is one, Tucson is another, and maybe some areas in Southern California and Texas … but Phoenix is perfect. As the city grows, the need for our service does as well. I do not see the continued growth of the valley as a good thing, but we will do what we can to minimize impact to native wildlife.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3620 E. Nisbet Rd.
Phoenix, AZ 85032 - Website: https://rattlesnakesolutions.com
- Phone: 480-237-9975
- Email: info@rattlesnakesolutions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rattlesnakesolutions/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/snakeremoval
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/rattlesnakeguy
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/rattlesnake-solutions-phoenix-2
- Other: https://cavecreeksnakes.com/
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