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In late June 2018, a number of media sources relayed a warning from the City of Buckeye (Arizona) Fire Department to the effect that residents should watch for rattlesnakes hiding in pool noodles (long, cylindrical pool toys, usually hollow, made of polyethylene foam). According to USA Today, the warning — which was issued on Facebook — was based on a report the fire department received from a local resident: The Facebook alert was posted on 23 June 2018, and was later edited to clarify a confusing statement suggesting that rattlesnake eggs had been found in a pool noodle (rattlesnakes don't lay eggs): It was unclear whether the entire post was written by someone at the fire department, however, or parts of it were simply copied from the message passed along to them. It was also unclear whether firefighters had personally investigated and verified the details of the incident. (We reached out to the City of Buckeye Fire Department for clarification on these points but did not hear back by publication time.) Rattlesnake experts interviewed by various news venues seemed to find it plausible that rattlesnakes would seek refuge from extremely hot weather inside pool noodles, though none cited specific instances of it having occurred before. There is evidence that other kinds of snakes have been found in or near pool noodles, including a photo posted on the fire department's Facebook page showing what appears to be a harmless water snake under one of the pool toys: We also found a YouTube video uploaded in May 2018, which shows a snake (though it does not appear to be a rattler) being shaken out of a pool noodle: Hughes's safety suggestions included storing pool toys well off the ground or in a box, and installing snake fencing to keep snakes away from the pool in general. We asked Hughes how worried people ought to be, realistically, about encountering rattlesnakes in their pool noodles. He told us:
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