View Full Version : Door snake
Steve Axford
10-12-2009, 10:16pm
A baby brown by our front door.
I prefer it if he lives elsewhere.
http://steveaxford.smugmug.com/Latest-Images/Latest/9110876/737089982_BWiZu-XL.jpg
That looks like a red bellied black snake to me! :O.. either way, YIKES.. too close to home.. literally!!
DAdeGroot
10-12-2009, 11:01pm
Yeah not a baby brown - they have a black splotch on the top of their head, not the entire head like this. Much more likely to be a juvenile Red-bellied Black or maybe a Small-eyed Snake.
accesser
10-12-2009, 11:07pm
Indeed looks like a Red-belly, Lovely snakes we get them all the time on our dams I love watching them.
Perhaps with the heat he has come in? or you may have something around he likes to eat
Analog6
11-12-2009, 5:23am
Beautiful, but yes, inappropriate for the front door. Good to call out when you have unwanted visitors though ;)
Steve Axford
11-12-2009, 6:28am
That's why I took the photo - to get a positive id. On close examination, it looks like a small-eyed snake. Which would be great news. On the other hand, my doorstep is a bit close when its so hard to tell.
edit-
Damn - poisonous too. Oh well, now we have 5 different snakes on our land, 3 of them poisonous.
Good pic but wouldnt like to have it that close to the house in case it decided to come in :eek:
Steve Axford
11-12-2009, 7:30am
Good pic but wouldnt like to have it that close to the house in case it decided to come in :eek:
I certainly don't want him inside, or any snake for that matter. I'm please that it wasn't a brown, though I know there are lots of browns around the house, so it doesn't really make any difference. I think that pets are the main worry for us. We will leave the snakes alone, but our cats? They poke around into things and a snake could get a bit defensive about this.
gcflora
11-12-2009, 9:29am
I'm up at Springbrook (in the Gold Coast hinterland) and I LOVE it when I discover a new snake or baby snakes on my property. I don't have children or pets though...
Really cool photo, btw
Steve Axford
11-12-2009, 9:39am
I'm up at Springbrook (in the Gold Coast hinterland) and I LOVE it when I discover a new snake or baby snakes on my property. I don't have children or pets though...
Really cool photo, btw
I love them too and I certainly wouldn't kill them. I have considered trapping the browns, but where would I put them? I like the green tree snakes the best and they live right next to the back door. The browns and small-eyed snakes live a few metres further away in the dry stone walls and the blacks live down by the creek. We will keep the area around the house cleared so that the snakes stay away, but it doesn't always work. Let's hope the cats don't get bitten.
Bear Dale
11-12-2009, 9:42am
Let's hope the cats don't get bitten
Unfortunately it will be only a matter of time if they're inquisitive.
Steve Axford
11-12-2009, 9:54am
Unfortunately it will be only a matter of time if they're inquisitive.
Lots of cats don't get bitten here, so it isn't certain by any means. A cat used to live here and he never got bitten, nor did the dogs, though the boxer next door did get bitten (he's ok, though it did cost a lot for antivenom) Anyway, these guys are basically indoor cats, so they will probably be ok. The old cat stays outside a lot, but he's very unlikely to go poking around a snake.
Bear Dale
11-12-2009, 10:00am
Older cats are fairly safe. It's young inquisitive cats that can't leave anything moving alone that unfortunately get bitten. We've lost a few cats over the years. Unlike dogs that you usually notice something is wrong and you have time to take them to the vets. Cat's tend to "go away" and we didn't find them until it was to late.
Steve Axford
11-12-2009, 10:13am
Older cats are fairly safe. It's young inquisitive cats that can't leave anything moving alone that unfortunately get bitten. We've lost a few cats over the years. Unlike dogs that you usually notice something is wrong and you have time to take them to the vets. Cat tend to "go away" and we didn't find them until it was to late.
We don't let them out very often and even then only when we are around. I must admit that the small-eyed snake has made me a bit wary about letting them out at all. They like it outside, but they've got plenty of room inside. We are looking at getting a (hopefully snake proof) cat run.
Bear Dale
11-12-2009, 10:35am
The cat run sounds like a good plan Steve, best to be safe than sorry.
Steve Axford
11-12-2009, 11:59am
The cat run sounds like a good plan Steve, best to be safe than sorry.
Yep, it's certainly a risk with young pets or children and the snakes are very common. Roads in big cities are the main danger, here it is the snakes.
AlexandraT
11-12-2009, 12:10pm
Yeah not a baby brown - they have a black splotch on the top of their head, not the entire head like this. Much more likely to be a juvenile Red-bellied Black or maybe a Small-eyed Snake.
Its bringing love, kill it!!!
Sorry I had to. It should be: Its bringing love! Break its legs!
But snakes dont have legs so that would be pointless.
Ick, I'd hate to have that sharing my place, he should live in the bush where he belongs, silly thing.
Steve Axford
11-12-2009, 12:30pm
Its bringing love, kill it!!!
Sorry I had to. It should be: Its bringing love! Break its legs!
But snakes dont have legs so that would be pointless.
Ick, I'd hate to have that sharing my place, he should live in the bush where he belongs, silly thing.
This is the bush. :confused013 so we'll just have to live together. :th3:
cinvala
11-12-2009, 1:20pm
I live in Tasmania, the only snakes I see are tigers, they get shot with a 12g
yup definitely a small eyed snake (Cryptophis nigrescens), and yes dangerous enough all right!
http://www.snakecatchers.com.au/Small-eyed_snake.html
Steve Axford
11-12-2009, 1:50pm
I live in Tasmania, the only snakes I see are tigers, they get shot with a 12g
That's not a very considered response, and also illegal so perhaps you should keep quiet about it. I see all sorts of snakes and many of them are more deadly than your tigers, but none of them get killed.
Steve Axford
11-12-2009, 1:52pm
yup definitely a small eyed snake (Cryptophis nigrescens), and yes dangerous enough all right!
http://www.snakecatchers.com.au/Small-eyed_snake.html
Thanks mate. I've seen him once before, but this was the first photo. I'm mainly worried about the cats, as he was quite shy and little danger to adult people.
If you are an experienced snake handler i'd be shoving it in a sack and relocating it just to be safe Steve... while I am against killing any snake there is no sense in letting dangerous snakes just hang around to possibly cause harm to the cats. :)
Steve Axford
11-12-2009, 2:06pm
If you are an experienced snake handler i'd be shoving it in a sack and relocating it just to be safe Steve... while I am against killing any snake there is no sense in letting dangerous snakes just hang around to possibly cause harm to the cats. :)
Trouble is we have lots of snakes - and there will be lots of baby browns soon. The cats will have to stay inside or in a run. Anyway, the paralysis ticks are as bad as the snakes. We keep it clear around the house to discourage them, but there is no way of completely eliminating either the snakes or the ticks.
Trouble is we have lots of snakes - and there will be lots of baby browns soon. The cats will have to stay inside or in a run. Anyway, the paralysis ticks are as bad as the snakes. We keep it clear around the house to discourage them, but there is no way of completely eliminating either the snakes or the ticks.sounds like you live in a very interesting spot. :)
we keep our cats indoors too... soon be building a cat run for them. we dont have many ticks here but snakes pop up from time to time apparently. We have just moved here so i havent seen any yet but my neighbour caught a bandy bandy the other week, wish it had been me finding it :D
Steve Axford
11-12-2009, 2:17pm
Yes, it's beautiful. We have a platypus in the creek, plus lots of huge local yabbies, plus azure kingfishers, plus mountain brushtails and ringtail possums, plus tawny frogmouths and the list goes on. A few snakes aren't going to put us off, particularly since they are little danger to us and the cats shouldn't go hunting anyway.
AlexandraT
11-12-2009, 3:41pm
This is the bush. :confused013 so we'll just have to live together. :th3:
:eek: Good luck with your new houseguest then!
cinvala
11-12-2009, 4:08pm
That's not a very considered response, and also illegal so perhaps you should keep quiet about it. I see all sorts of snakes and many of them are more deadly than your tigers, but none of them get killed.
Actually it's a very considered response. I don't go out of my way to shoot a snake, if I see one in a paddock, I'll ignore it, but if one tries to take up residence in my yard, where the kids play, the dogs run, the chooks scratch, and we're more often or not in the garden, I'm not going to take the risk and hope it'll disappear by itself.
Steve Axford
11-12-2009, 4:14pm
I used to work down at Roseberry, which isn't too far from you. I saw a few snakes there, but never too many around town. Fortunately the ozzie snakes are very shy, which is why so few people ever get bitten by them. I don't think you should kill them, but I can understand your nervousness with kids. I would have thought a 12g might be a bit dodgy in town.
cinvala
11-12-2009, 4:23pm
I used to work down at Roseberry, which isn't too far from you. I saw a few snakes there, but never too many around town. Fortunately the ozzie snakes are very shy, which is why so few people ever get bitten by them. I don't think you should kill them, but I can understand your nervousness with kids. I would have thought a 12g might be a bit dodgy in town.
I don't live in town. I own 15 acres and have a dairy farm in front of me, cattle/sheep farm behind me and no other house closer than a couple of hundred metres, out of sight.
Steve Axford
11-12-2009, 4:48pm
Sorry, I just read your location and it said "downtown Yolla". Sounds a bit like my place, just colder.
HerveyBayShutterBug
11-12-2009, 5:14pm
The head scale patterns are identical to Cryptophis nigrescens (small eyed snake) but without a full scale count of the whole body and absence of some silly bugger to sit and scratch it's tummy while that's done:-
http://www.snakecatchers.com.au/Small-eyed_snake.html should get you some fairly good of information.
Colour variations in snakes now due to habitat changes and urban spread is making it harder and harder to identify snakes quickly. One could easily mistake these fellows for the more docile red bellied black.
The small eyed snake isn't particularly common but can be an agro little fella and a bite can be fatal.
Martin
Steve Axford
11-12-2009, 6:42pm
The head scale patterns are identical to Cryptophis nigrescens (small eyed snake) but without a full scale count of the whole body and absence of some silly bugger to sit and scratch it's tummy while that's done:-
http://www.snakecatchers.com.au/Small-eyed_snake.html should get you some fairly good of information.
Colour variations in snakes now due to habitat changes and urban spread is making it harder and harder to identify snakes quickly. One could easily mistake these fellows for the more docile red bellied black.
The small eyed snake isn't particularly common but can be an agro little fella and a bite can be fatal.
Martin
I doubt that it's a black as it is a long way from the creek. Also, it seems a little too big for a baby from this season and maybe too small for last season. So my bet is a small eyed snake. Anyway, I moved it on to the rock wall. Hopefully it will stay there with its mates (I'm sure its got some).
Analog6
11-12-2009, 7:55pm
We have a similar situation here, rock wall and banana farm to the north, with lots of browns and pythons (love those). Our 5 cats have their cattery in the garden and I have just netted in the front upstairs verandah. They never go outside (unrestricted). Raymond, the youngest, has caught small snakes in the cattery though and brought them inside.
cinvala
12-12-2009, 12:24am
Sorry, I just read your location and it said "downtown Yolla". Sounds a bit like my place, just colder.
"downtown Yolla" is my idea of a joke. Yolla is about 3k's away, a dozen houses, a general store school and a football/cricket pitch.
Steve Axford
12-12-2009, 6:00am
"downtown Yolla" is my idea of a joke. Yolla is about 3k's away, a dozen houses, a general store school and a football/cricket pitch.
Bit like Booyong, which is my address. I'm sure there's a town there somewhere. I do remember Yolla when driving up the Murchison. Easy to miss.
AlexandraT
15-12-2009, 12:17pm
http://img2.moonbuggy.org/imgstore/smoking-makes-you-cool-like-snakes.jpg
Lmao xD
AlexandraT
15-12-2009, 2:22pm
http://www.cslacker.com/images/file/mediums/smoking.jpg
Lmao xD
Damnit! It was meant to be like this.
Steve Axford
15-12-2009, 5:05pm
Damnit! It was meant to be like this.
And I thought you had just gone mad :lol2:
Gregg Bell
16-12-2009, 4:03am
When I was young and lived in Malaysia, we use to live in Medium-rise condomiuns, and where we lived we had a forest backed onto us. Back then though Damansara Heights was mostly Jungle.
I use to catch the 6.30am bus to school,my mom would take me down to the bus stop, and several mornings we came across a Cobra on the way, we didn't bother the cobra, and the cobra didn't bother us. Probably because It had a mouse for breakfast...
Steve Axford
16-12-2009, 7:33am
When I was young and lived in Malaysia, we use to live in Medium-rise condomiuns, and where we lived we had a forest backed onto us. Back then though Damansara Heights was mostly Jungle.
I use to catch the 6.30am bus to school,my mom would take me down to the bus stop, and several mornings we came across a Cobra on the way, we didn't bother the cobra, and the cobra didn't bother us. Probably because It had a mouse for breakfast...
Leave em alone and they'll leave you alone - good advice. In Sri Lanka, which has about the same population as Australia, they get at least 1200 deaths each year. We get about 1.5. That's about 900 times as much, so our snakes really aren't all that dangerous. We just like to think they are.
cinvala
16-12-2009, 8:36am
Leave em alone and they'll leave you alone - good advice. In Sri Lanka, which has about the same population as Australia, they get at least 1200 deaths each year. We get about 1.5. That's about 900 times as much, so our snakes really aren't all that dangerous. We just like to think they are.
Australis has a land mass of 7,686,850 square kilometers. Sri Lanka has 65,610 square kilometers. If we had twenty million living in Tasmania, 67,800square kilometers, I'm sure we'd have a few more deaths.
Steve Axford
16-12-2009, 9:02am
Australis has a land mass of 7,686,850 square kilometers. Sri Lanka has 65,610 square kilometers. If we had twenty million living in Tasmania, 67,800square kilometers, I'm sure we'd have a few more deaths.
Why? Surely there'd be less snakes then. You would have killed a few.
p.s. There have been no recorded deaths from snakebite in Tasmania for several decades. Even if you added the whole population of Australia, there wouldn't be very many.
AlexandraT
16-12-2009, 3:39pm
And I thought you had just gone mad :lol2:
I can see how you would think that lol.
My closest encounter with a snake was when we lived on an acre just out of town about 5 years ago and a little pink blind snake was somehow in our living room.
We put him in a jar and he made himself into like a pretzel. Then we took him out side and he escaped down a big ant hole.
Steve Axford
16-12-2009, 3:53pm
Glad he escaped ok. The more I read about our snakes, the more convinced I get that they need protecting, not killing. What about those alien European Honey Bees? The kill about 6 times as many people as all of our snakes put together and nobody complains about them.
AlexandraT
16-12-2009, 5:59pm
Yeah poor snakes. And sharks, they get a bad rap too.
People only like the cute animals I tells ya. I mean come on, Pandas? Those cute bears are destined to fail lol.
HerveyBayShutterBug
16-12-2009, 10:44pm
Plus we have things called hospitals, antivenom, ambulances, first aid training and a healthy respect for snakes where people don't commonly play a flute to piss them off while they sit in the middle of a meal table - i'd like to see them try to calm an 8ft Taipan with a flute and say it's not dangerous :crzy:
:lol:
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