I used to be a lingerie model but now wrangle snakes after I decided to change career when I almost ran one over

DARING wrangler Danielle Wall has given up the city rat race for a desert snake chase.

The heavily-tattooed beauty, 29, swapped the Bay Area and life as a lingerie model to become known as the Snake Lady of Joshua Tree.

She volunteers rescuing deadly rattlesnakes from people’s properties and releasing them back into the wild in the California desert.

Last year Danielle successfully moved 257 of the critters by herself - and she’s proud she’s never been bitten once since starting five years ago despite being self-taught.

Danielle stands out for the sexy outfits she wears while doing her dangerous work, describing herself as a “cowboy boots, booty shorts, crop top kinda gal”.

She says that if she had a dollar for every lewd joke men tell her while she’s saving snakes she’d have more than enough money to retire.

And she is constantly asked to start an OnlyFans page by randy followers.

Danielle grew up just north of San Francisco in Rohnert Park, and combined modelling with tutoring school kids and other jobs in her late teens and early twenties. 

But she had family roots in the Joshua Tree area and after deciding city life wasn’t for her, she relocated to live in the small town of Landers in the Mojave Desert. 

She told The U.S. Sun that she got into wrangling randomly after she almost ran a rattlesnake over in 2018.

Danielle said, “I didn’t want it to die in the road so I pulled over.

“It went between the tires and it didn’t move because that’s what they do.

“I got out, grabbed a stick, poked it and it took off and I thought ‘Well, that was f***ing easy. What’s the big deal?’

“So I looked up the rattlesnake protocol in the community and I found out that animal control just goes down and chops their heads off.

“It’s the most inhumane way to put down a rattlesnake because they can feel pain for hours after being decapitated.

“I think snakes are nice and just misunderstood, and it sucks to be misunderstood.”

After finding out that there were no wranglers, paid or otherwise, in the area Danielle decided to give it a try.

“I figured no one is going to pay anyone to move a snake but I thought ‘F**k it, I’m bored’,” she said.

“When I was modelling it was mainly lingerie, bikinis and corsets.

“I was one inch away from the world record for a cinched waist without removing a rib.

“But it was never really my passion and after I got into this, the modeling dwindled because everything became about snakes.”

Looking for her opportunity to start wrangling, Danielle’s first job came after she saw someone post on Facebook about a rattlesnake at their property.

She wrote back: “Hey, I’ve got a stick and a bucket, give me a chance.”

After that, she bought proper tools for the job and started teaching herself how to stay safe while dealing with venomous snakes.

She says that despite having no help or guidance and despite the risks she learned by “trial and error” using a 4ft pole.

Danielle made people aware of her services by posting about her adventures online and in the first year received about 50 calls.

The following year it went up to 180 and then skyrocketed to around 400 in 2020 when people were stuck at home during Covid and encountering more snakes. 

Since she doesn’t charge and only receives tips for the snake work, Danielle holds fundraisers, works on film sets as a snake expert and also does cleaning jobs to get by.

If I had a dollar for every penis joke I hear as a female snake wrangler I’d be a millionaire by now.

Danielle Wall

She puts her wrangling success down to people seeing that she was “moving them right, catching them right and following the laws”.

“I had to prove myself and the fact that I lose thousands of dollars a year shows I’m not in it for the money,” Danielle said.

“Half the people don’t even throw me $5 for gas for helping them.

“When you deal with an animal people don’t like, most people aren’t going to put any effort into saving it.

“It’s the rich assholes who don’t tip me and the people in trailers try to give me a 50.”

Breaking into the male-dominated world of snakes as a petite young woman wasn’t easy either.

Danielle claims snake professionals would tell her “Sit down little girl, let us handle it, you’re going to get bit” and she received nothing but pushback and threats during the first two years. 

“People said stuff like ‘You’re a child murderer because that snake you moved will bite a child and you’ll go to hell’,” she explained.

“And if I had a dollar for every penis joke I hear as a female snake wrangler I’d be a millionaire by now.

“I don’t even look at the DMs anymore.

“People constantly ask me when I’m going to have an OnlyFans. The joke is that it would be Only Fangs - just me, boobs and snakes. But that’s never going to happen.

“My rule is if I’m too ashamed to show my grandfather, I’m not doing it.”

Danielle said that the hardest part of the job is the lack of routine as she gets calls at all times of the day and night. 

“I’ll get calls from people doing mushrooms at midnight, partying, and then… I get the 3.30am Olympic runner who got up really early and found one,” she explained.

“I've left my birthday party five years in a row.”

She also struggles on the dating scene because of her chosen profession, saying: “A lot of people don’t like snakes and a lot of men are intimidated by me.”

Despite showing no fear doing the job, Danielle admits she'll need to get to the hospital quick if she's ever bitten. 

Carrying antidote is not medically possible as its IV-administered following a blood panel and costs $5,000 a vial.

But Danielle insists that the only protective gear she needs for wrangling are her boots.

She joked, “I’m a cowboy boots, booty shorts, top crop kinda gal. 

“The snakes don’t mind it and I’ve even done it naked. 

“People ask me why I don’t wear more protective gear but if you know what you’re doing and you have the right tools it doesn’t matter what you’re wearing.”