Three snakes in three days

[Skani]

9 hours ago, Dorsetbrit said:

 Gets you thinking we should know what to do if all went bad. We siding even know the Emergancy number! The brown was in Brisbane but we’re going to Sydney.

The emergency number all over Australia is triple zero - 000.   Here is first aid advice from St. John Ambulance:

  https://stjohn.org.au/assets/uploads/fact sheets/english/Fact sheets_snake bite.pdf

[Jon the Hat]

Being scared of spiders in Australia is just sensible!  In the UK you don't need to be.  Just don't stick your hands in places you can't see.

[unzippy]

On 22/09/2020 at 00:18, Metoo said:

So, Brian has been absent for a few months now, but, I stepped outside to raid the beer fridge and there he was, chillin on the patio.

 

 

 

 

Good to see he's ok

(at your house, not mine!)

[Guest The Pom Queen]

On 07/10/2020 at 22:21, Dorsetbrit said:

Just out of interest my wife and me are moving out in November I’m quite scared of snakes and the wife’s terrified of spiders, are there places where you can learn what to do if you encounter them or get bit? We have a 3 year old so I want to know what to do. When we visited when our boy was 6months old we were walking on a path in some bush ground that was in between beach and houses and we came across a eastern brown fully stretched sun bathing. I told my wife to stop as I froze but then it just went. Gets you thinking we should know what to do if all went bad. We siding even know the Emergancy number! The brown was in Brisbane but we’re going to Sydney.

We have large acreage and we know there are plenty of Eastern Browns around. I have personally only seen one on our property and that’s because my silly dogs decided to take it on. The snake had come up looking for water.  I have seen plenty of snake skins up by the house and sheds.
‘I’ve seen Pythons whilst we lived in Cairns, totally harmless unless you are a chicken, we had to give up with the chickens in the end because the Pythons kept thinking we run the local KFC for snakes. 
 

The majority of first aid courses do a section on snake bites and it is something I would highly recommend. Not because I think you are at risk of snake bites but if you are out exploring Australia you may not always have phone access. 

[Metoo]

On 13/10/2020 at 23:14, The Pom Queen said:

We have large acreage and we know there are plenty of Eastern Browns around. I have personally only seen one on our property and that’s because my silly dogs decided to take it on. The snake had come up looking for water.  I have seen plenty of snake skins up by the house and sheds.
‘I’ve seen Pythons whilst we lived in Cairns, totally harmless unless you are a chicken, we had to give up with the chickens in the end because the Pythons kept thinking we run the local KFC for snakes. 
 

The majority of first aid courses do a section on snake bites and it is something I would highly recommend. Not because I think you are at risk of snake bites but if you are out exploring Australia you may not always have phone access. 

I agree PQ, we also live on acreage and rarely see snakes (except for Brian of course). In 3 years we’ve been in this house we have seen 3 pythons, a baby brown and a harmless keel back.  Our electrician retrieved a couple of diamond python skins from our roof space, but, there is no knowing how long they had been there.

I would think there are many more snakes around than what we see

Before we lived here I had never seen a wild snake, its funny how quickly you adapt to your surroundings. I keep my eyes open but I don’t live in fear.  Spiders don’t worry me anymore, as long as they don’t want to share my sun lounge lol

 

[FatCat]

On 16/03/2019 at 12:22, Toots said:

It's 70 years since someone died from snake bite in Tassie.

Your post is a bit old now. But I was just reading the most horrific article, about a Tassie farmer who died after being bitten by a 1.4 metre tiger snake in January 2020. It sounded terrifying, as the snake was actually found wrapped around his body. I have heard of boa constrictors doing this, but have never heard of a tiger snake doing it . His brother said that the "drought situation in the area had made snakes more visible lately and more likely to come into contact with people as they searched for water". 

[Guest The Pom Queen]

24 minutes ago, FatCat said:

Your post is a bit old now. But I was just reading the most horrific article, about a Tassie farmer who died after being bitten by a 1.4 metre tiger snake in January 2020. It sounded terrifying, as the snake was actually found wrapped around his body. I have heard of boa constrictors doing this, but have never heard of a tiger snake doing it . His brother said that the "drought situation in the area had made snakes more visible lately and more likely to come into contact with people as they searched for water". 

Pythons I don’t mind but the tiger, brown and red belly black then no thank you 

[FatCat]

On 07/10/2020 at 23:21, Dorsetbrit said:

 Gets you thinking we should know what to do if all went bad. We siding even know the Emergancy number! The brown was in Brisbane but we’re going to Sydney.

Yes. You should definitely know what to do. Knowing the emergency number is not enough. There was a guy a few years ago who got bitten by a snake when bushwalking, he rang the emergency services for help, but by the time they found him, he had died. I read an article just last week where a child had been bitten by a snake, and the child's life was saved because the grandmother knew exactly what to do to stop the spread of venom. Just do a St Johns Ambulance first aid course when you get here, and they will show you what to do. However, unless you do a lot of bush walking around the outskirts of Sydney, you are unlikely to encounter a snake. Never heard of any snakes in the Sydney CBD, although there was a kangaroo on the harbour bridge a few years ago. For 15 years, I lived in a rural area where my garden backed onto bushland, and it was 10 years before I actually saw one in the garden (a harmless beautiful python), so pretty rare to see one anyway. In regards to your wife and her spider phobia, I see huntsman spiders at home in Sydney and there is one living on my bedroom ceiling at the moment, but they are harmless and helpful around the home, so I just leave them be. I have only ever seen a funnel web spider in a zoo and a few redbacks on an old shed on a rural property, you are unlikely to see any in the CBD and inner suburbs. Just avoid the outer suburbs near bushland, and you will be just fine.

[Toots]

43 minutes ago, FatCat said:

Your post is a bit old now. But I was just reading the most horrific article, about a Tassie farmer who died after being bitten by a 1.4 metre tiger snake in January 2020. It sounded terrifying, as the snake was actually found wrapped around his body. I have heard of boa constrictors doing this, but have never heard of a tiger snake doing it . His brother said that the "drought situation in the area had made snakes more visible lately and more likely to come into contact with people as they searched for water". 

I remember when that happened.  The snake was wrapped around his arm.  Horrible.

Someone we know in Tassie was bitten by a tiger snake at the beginning of December.  He thought he'd been bitten by an ant until he saw the snake disappearing.  When he went back into his house he collapsed  ...............  they live in a small regional town .............. and luckily he was taken quickly to hospital.  I spoke to him just after Christmas and he still wasn't feeling the best.  This happened in the south west of Tasmania.  Lots of bush around where he lives.  

[FatCat]

9 minutes ago, The Pom Queen said:

Pythons I don’t mind but the tiger, brown and red belly black then no thank you 

Agreed. The Red belly blacks don't worry me too much, as they are pretty shy and docile. But I am scared of tigers and browns. I like the childrens (carpet) pythons, they are pretty placid and they can make nice pets. But those scrub pythons in Far North Queensland are scary - they are humongous and can be pretty aggressive towards small children and pets. I was reading a funny story where two were mating in an attic in FNQ and crashed through the ceiling into the lounge room. Well not funny for the homeowner I am sure, but sounded pretty comical to read about.

[Cerberus1]

We had a few snake encounters in Cairns - Pythons kept taking the Chickens. Where we are now (an hour outside Brisbane) we've had 1 dog killed and another 3 bitten with Brown snakes and I've had closeup experiences with (what I hope) were only tree snakes - One literally dropped out of a tree onto my shoulder and shot off. The other, I was fetching some washing in and it was under a sheet, that gave me a bit of a fright 

[FatCat]

8 minutes ago, Cerberus1 said:

 One literally dropped out of a tree onto my shoulder and shot off.

Actually you have just reminded me of an incident that happened many years ago now. I was hanging out the washing in the garden and felt the urge to look up. There was a falcon flying low overhead that was clutching a large madly thrashing snake in its claws. I was just marveling at what amazing country Australia was for me to be witnessing such a magnificent natural sight from the comfort of my own home....when the bird dropped the snake and it nearly landed on my head. But you know for anyone reading this and freaking out, this would a one in a billion occurrence and unlikely ever to happen. Again this was on the far retching outskirts of Sydney, up on The Hawkesbury River with a fenceless garden backing onto dense wild bushland, where we had lots of wildlife visiting the garden every day anyway (kangaroos, wallabies, possums, monitor lizards, echidnas, birds of prey, pythons), and it would not happen in the inner city and surrounding suburbs.

[Cerberus1]

8 minutes ago, FatCat said:

 But you know for anyone reading this and freaking out, this would a one in a billion occurrence and unlikely ever to happen. Again this was on the far retching outskirts of Sydney, up on The Hawkesbury River with a fenceless garden backing onto dense wild bushland, where we had lots of wildlife visiting the garden every day anyway (kangaroos, wallabies, possums, monitor lizards, echidnas, birds of prey, pythons), and it would not happen in the inner city and surrounding suburbs.

That's a fair point, we're rural here, on 40 acres. Never saw any snakes when we lived in the SE suburbs on Melbourne or suburbs of Townsville.

[Guest The Pom Queen]

14 minutes ago, FatCat said:

Actually you have just reminded me of an incident that happened many years ago now. I was hanging out the washing in the garden and felt the urge to look up. There was a falcon flying low overhead that was clutching a large madly thrashing snake in its claws. I was just marveling at what amazing country Australia was for me to be witnessing such a magnificent natural sight from the comfort of my own home....when the bird dropped the snake and it nearly landed on my head. But you know for anyone reading this and freaking out, this would a one in a billion occurrence and unlikely ever to happen. Again this was on the far retching outskirts of Sydney, up on The Hawkesbury River with a fenceless garden backing onto dense wild bushland, where we had lots of wildlife visiting the garden every day anyway (kangaroos, wallabies, possums, monitor lizards, echidnas, birds of prey, pythons), and it would not happen in the inner city and surrounding suburbs.

You were very unlucky, something to laugh about now

[FatCat]

38 minutes ago, The Pom Queen said:

You were very unlucky, something to laugh about now

Agreed

Although to be honest, I consider it very lucky to experience such an amazing event.

But yes funnier now; than it was then. 

Worst animal encounter scare I have ever had in my life (literally thought I was going to die), was being chased across a field by some angry horses in Wales. And worse when I tried to seek assistance, none of the Welsh people in the village would speak to me in English - as a result I have disliked horses and Welsh people ever since.

Snakes dropping out of the sky, are a doddle in comparison

[Bulya]

Three browns in a couple of hours at old horse agistment, one crawled behind my daughter and she didn’t see it!  Where we are now close to  Bungendore it’s tiger snake country.  Nothing that can be done to protect the horse unfortunately.. 

[FatCat]

On 01/01/2021 at 15:10, FatCat said:

I have only ever seen a funnel web spider in a zoo

Well this post jinxed it

Been living in Sydney for over 20 years, and never in all that time seen a Sydney funnel web spider (except in the zoo)

Storming the other evening, went outside to find the cat, and saw a funnel web scurrying along the path and into a burrow.

Been extremely paranoid walking up and down that path ever since!

Which is actually a really silly way of thinking, as obviously there are spiders and snakes around, but you just never or very rarely see them. Hence taking me 20 years to see my first garden funnel web spider. 

Does however again firm my resolution to never install a cat-flap. 

Yes my cat goes outside for two hours each day. No I don't want to start a discussion or an argument about it !!!!

 

[scousers]

On 14/03/2019 at 15:26, Metoo said:

So, we are nearing 4 yrs now in OZ. In that time we have seen lots of wonderful wildlife.

However, we haven’t see too many snakes.

Until this week!!!!

Monday we saw one slithering across the road outside our house, that was a thin brown one.

Wednesday, this fella was hit by a car outside our neighbours house. He managed to get to the grassy verge but was unable to survive unfortunately.

 

Last night, I went outside to get some washing in, it was dark but we have good lights installed.

just as my flip flopped foot met the door step I noticed something moving in the corner of the door jam, it was him

 

I will admit to some nifty tap dancing and a giant leap into the laundry accompanied by a strangled squeal.

He wasn’t aggressive at all and once I calmed down he was rather handsome lol. 

Fortunately both cats were inside so we locked the cat flap for the night and Mr Snake was nowhere to be seen this morning.

 

Omg... have lived in Melb and have only two in 32 years! I would go home in a flash if i saw one near my house

[Marisawright]

In my first year in Australia, I saw three snakes.  Two browns crossing dirt roads (at different times), and one brown curled up in the passenger seat of a car in the carpark where I worked (the Agricultural College outside Horsham).   But that was out in the country.   Since then, in 35 years,  I've only seen one snake, when we were walking back from a restaurant in Noosa late one night and saw a red-bellied black slithering out of someone's garden onto the pavement (though we only saw its eyes at first). 

[Toots]

12 hours ago, Marisawright said:

In my first year in Australia, I saw three snakes.  Two browns crossing dirt roads (at different times), and one brown curled up in the passenger seat of a car in the carpark where I worked (the Agricultural College outside Horsham).   But that was out in the country.   Since then, in 35 years,  I've only seen one snake, when we were walking back from a restaurant in Noosa late one night and saw a red-bellied black slithering out of someone's garden onto the pavement (though we only saw its eyes at first). 

Friends were hiking at Cradle Mountain recently and saw a lot of snakes there -  all of them sunning themselves.  Quite a few large tiger snakes and some of them were jet black.  I thought they were brown and stripy - not that I've actually seen one.  There are three type of snakes in Tasmania  - tiger, copperhead and white lipped.  All of them are shy and slither off when disturbed.

[ramot]

I was at a friends house in the country on Friday, and we watched a hawk on the fence watching a red-bellied black snake, trying to catch it, as it slithered  in and out of the long grass.  It was fascinating to watch, but the hawk gave up in the end. I really tried to take a photo but it was too far away.

We have had 4 snakes in 18 years that we have seen, and my husband assured me they were tree snakes, he doesn’t actually know one snake from another!!!

[Skani]

5 hours ago, Toots said:

  Quite a few large tiger snakes and some of them were jet black.  I thought they were brown and stripy - not that I've actually seen one. 

They can vary surprisingly in colour - even to an olivey green  - but black most common.  Sometimes the stripes are only evident on the underside - not that you'd want to be turning them over to have a look.     The North West Snake Catchers have scored some thumpers up your way this season:   their FB page is full of them.  It must be a particularly good year for their food source - frogs, mice etc.  

[Toots]

17 hours ago, Skani said:

They can vary surprisingly in colour - even to an olivey green  - but black most common.  Sometimes the stripes are only evident on the underside - not that you'd want to be turning them over to have a look.     The North West Snake Catchers have scored some thumpers up your way this season:   their FB page is full of them.  It must be a particularly good year for their food source - frogs, mice etc.  

Here is a very recent pic of one of our local snake catchers with a tiger snake found in a back yard.  *shudder*

 

 

[Metoo]

That snake has a very wide neck and a big head, oh my gosh.

pythons I’m quite at home with now but that tiger would take some getting used to 

This is our latest visitor, she’s been named Rose.  She isn’t as friendly as Brian as she will rear up if you go near her, she’s gone now but I expect she will be back at some point.

[Metoo]