Snakes in the Backyard

[Lance Free]

I get a few snakes in my backyard. I live in Western Brisbane on the outskirts - close to a rural area. There is a bit of bush and a creek running through down the road.

We get pythons fairly regularly plus a few other nasties from time to time. Here's some photos of yesterday's one. Looks like it just had lunch with probably a possum or maybe a small cat in its belly. I have to take them over to the creek because I've got cats and a dog - currently all alive and kicking.

The other pictures were a few weeks back when I opened my garage door.

 

[AngrySeahorse]

I dont know why but when I used to go bush with the army snakes never worried me, even brown snakes and red bellies. However, if I went out the back of my house now and saw one of those things I'd freak out. I suppose you get used to them after a while? What are the other nasties?

 

[Aussie D]

Glad its your house and not mine (especially if you get some venomous ones)!

A mate of mine at Tafe said his neighbour had a red-belly go into her garage, he was able to tell her before she went in there. Also, there was a story in the paper during the Queensland floods of a bloke who had killed (with a shotgun from memory) over a dozen snakes which included a few taipans and king browns in his house.

 

[Lance Free]

There are Eastern Browns and Red Bellied Black snakes around here. When I take the dog for a walk in the park (where the creek and bush is) I see the occasional one. The cats have brought snakes inside as well but fortunately only of the tree variety...

Actually, a python came through the cat door last year (cat flap in the flyscreen) and wound itself around the toilet bowl. Gave one of my boys a bit of a fright! I guess they can smell the animals?

 

[Nusadan]

When I had a farm in rural NSW, my then wife wanted to move to the nearby town prior to the birth of our second child, and the family I organised to move into the farmhouse promptly moved right back out on the moving day as the mother saw a brown snake on the porch ....

 

[Scarfman]

I live in the Blue Mountains. We have a lot of Copperheads, but a few Browns as well. Thought I had a monster Brown in the backyard and I called WIRES to come and get him (for his sake and mine). Over the phone they asked me to describe it. So I say, you know ... it's brown, about 5 feet long, about 6 inches wide ... er, and it's got legs. Just a really long lizard as it turns out.

 

[canowindra]

We live on a farm in the central west of NSW, where brown snakes are prolific. Many years ago when my youngest was a toddler, I heard our dogs going ballistic at the front of our house. Playing in the garden was the baby, and not 2 meters away were our 3 dogs surrounding a rearing brown snake, which was on the path between us. Standing at the gate, I shouted out to him to go the other away and he started walking toward me, in the direction of the snake. My heart literally stopped. The dogs shadowed that little boy, keeping themselves between him and the snake as it reared and spat at them.
I'm not looking forward to the next snake season, we are having a mouse and frog plague at the moment, and the predictions are for a lot of snakes next spring, and they terrify me!

 

[ChargerWA]

I had a 6ft Dugite (western brown) in the bathroom on Boxing day. My Burmese cat gave it a whipping, it couldn't get any purchase on the slippery floor. It ended up getting out the way it came in, next to the waste pipe in the back of the vanity. I was sorely tempted to just pepper the wall with the shottie, but managed to contained myself.

I was shitting myself for days and we were all living on egg shells. I ended up spending months researching them and then went and had a hold of the snale catchers pythons to help overcome the irrational fear. It was a good thing. I still don't like snakes, but recognise they have their place, and If I wan't to live in the middle of a jarrah/marri forrest, then i'm probably living in it.

 

[bryce]

I grew up on the coast not far from Newcastle. The bush around home is thick with red bellies, and the occasional brown. We've had red bellies come in to the garden or garage a few times. But I used to see plenty in the bush. It 's about a 10 minute walk to the beach through some bushland, and I'd walk through it just about everyday, barefoot or in thongs, on my way to have a surf. Always had to keep a look out. Although I don't think red bellies are too bad, they seem pretty shy. Brown snakes I've found to be a different matter if you happen to stumble upon one.
The most unusual experience I had was in the Blue Mountains a few years back. My cousin and I wanted to do a trek through the Grose Valley, but weren't sure if part of the route was accessible. So the weekend before the 3 day hike we went in and did what would be the last day or so of the walk to make sure we could get through. On that walk, lying in our path was a big, fat death adder. It raised its head, but didn't seem too active (it was late April), and we stopped and took a few pictures of it, then went around it. A week later, on the last day of the 3 day hike, it was back there, lying there sunning itself in the exact same spot.

 

[Scarfman]

Mate, we're tough in the mountains. The kids caught this monster and just laughed.

(OK it was my boy's birthday party)

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

When I was 13 I woke one morning to the barking of our dog. When I looked outside he was focussed on one spot in the rock garden right up against the kitchen window. I (not thinking) went out and checked, placing my hand on the largest rock, not seeing anything (didn't look probably), muttered 'silly boy' to our dog and went back to bed. An hour or so later I was shaken awake by my brother who had done the same thing as I did earlier but this time had a proper look and spotted the focus of our dogs attention. A red belly. I had put my hand right next to the bloody things head. Could have bit me if it wanted too. My old man confirmed it's species after telling us it couldn't have been only to come back in and call the snake catcher. Turns out 6+ft snake was quite badly injured with dog bites ( good old blue cattle) and in the state it was in I was very lucky not to get bit.

 

[ChargerWA]

I get a few snakes in my backyard. I live in Western Brisbane on the outskirts - close to a rural area. There is a bit of bush and a creek running through down the road.

We get pythons fairly regularly plus a few other nasties from time to time. Here's some photos of yesterday's one. Looks like it just had lunch with probably a possum or maybe a small cat in its belly. I have to take them over to the creek because I've got cats and a dog - currently all alive and kicking.

The other pictures were a few weeks back when I opened my garage door.

It's quite amazing that you see so many in the day. I'm guessing they are both Coastal Carpet Pythons?

Over here in WA, our South West Carpets (Morelia spilota imbricata) are nocturnal and very rarely encountered. There are reports of dedicated herpetologists never seeing one in the wild.