When Does Snake Season Begin?

[wolfgirl]

At the hairdressers on Saturday morning a lady said she'd already had a tiger in her backyard through the week. There was an article in one of the papers and since middle of July a snake catcher said he'd already had calls and caught 29 so far

I love the warmer weather but because of all the building going on in our suburb they are taking away most of the open areas so the snakes have no choice but to merge with us, it's not their fault but I am always worried about free running the dogs in warm weather, at least in the cooler months we have a better chance.

[Linda K]

as others have said, with the warm break, it has started. Re snakes and pools, in Melb, there are a lot of places around Eltham, Lower Plenty etc that have houses that back onto the Yarra River/. My OH< who is a tradey, had to do a job at one of these once, replacing the doors, and was talking to one new owner while he was working. He commented on how the pool decking was brand new, and was told, yes, these people bought the place, and wanted to replace the decking around the pool, and how when they lifted off the old decking, there was a whole lot of tiger snakes beneath it, not sure if the pool or the river had attracted them, but certainly makes me not want to live either near a river or have a pool!!!!

[Adnil444]

Yep, like the others - we've already had some on our property. Many years ago I witnessed a Tiger snake making its way through the snow. Our horses never were bitten (or the cattle for that matter) and I spoke to our vet about this. The snakes hear the stock before you can see them and have usually long gone. Horses and cattle don't chase snakes unlike some dogs will. You seem to be doing all that can be done. Good luck.

[HollyMilo]

What are peoples experiences with pools and snakes? should I be worried? I guess a positive will be that I can check the pool area first and a snake will be easier to spot.

My sister had a 5 foot brown slither into her house last Wednesday, when she left the screen door open for only a minute, she turned around and went to walk back inside and saw the rear end of it slithering inside the door. Thank God my niece wasn't toddling around on the floor. The snake catcher told her she should always check the pool before letting the kids get in because snakes sometimes go for a dip.

Make sure you check inside the skimmer box as well, as a friend found a small snake floating in the skimmer years ago.

[Nic.B]

Yes, I have seen lots of snakes in the national parks while riding. The horses tend to spot them before I do and shy away from them if anything. As long as we keep the paddocks short they should be able to see them fingers crossed.

Fancy a nest of snakes under the decking, that is really giving me the creeps!

Holly Milo your poor sister!

We have had a 2 metre red belly inside as well, that was a few years ago now after 3 or 4 weeks of heavy rain.

I dont get it? They can go in the sheds, the laundry, the dam (surely there are more frogs there) Why do they come up to the house? The two we had last year were close to the house, one was right at the back door.

Thanks for the advivce everyone, lets hope our animals are all safe.

[corvus]

We have a pool and live across the road from a gully reserve. Never seen a snake in the yard.

[dotdashdot]

Big brown snake reared up at me in Victoria last week. We had a big bluey in the yard in QLD two days ago.

Does anyone know, are reptiles like these paler in colour than usual after coming out of hibernation? Because the brown snake was almost cream coloured and the bluey was very pale.

Snakes don't always stick the rules of their names. Brown snakes can be black, brown, and have stripes, and the same goes for variouss other venomous snakes like tigers and blacks. Never assume you have seen or been bitten by a brown etc, let the venom detection kit at the hospital do the talking!

Worked with a man by the name of Steve McEwan who is a local reptile expert. Learnt some amazing things!

[GeckoTree]

Never ends around here. But lots are just starting to come out of the wood work now. i saw a massive brown squashed on the road today.

[OSoSwift]

Saw my last one "of the season" on June 18th. After two warmer days saw my first one of the season 20th August and have seen many since - not by the house thankfully.

We have 5 acres fully mowed, no flower beds, no wood piles no junk of any sort. All stock troughs are at the opposite ends of the paddocks to the house.

We had around 20 near the house and 4 of those actively trying to get in the dog runs. A couple of times while the dogs were in there and a couple of time when they were not.

My dog runs are meshed, shadeclothed and all is mowed or sprayed near them and yet they still like them. They do have water in them as the dogs are in there when I am out so I cannot leave them with no water especially in summer.

Our snakes do not truely hibernate so a couple of warm days and they are out and about. Keep your eyes peeled. I have built a yard attached to my dog runs and have finshed putting the seals around the doors yesterday. I hope it keeps them out I am over them and sick of having them near my kids and dogs.

Oh and I often seem them swimming in my troughs and the creeks so I would NEVER have a pool as tigers love to swim and we have lots of Tigers

Edited August 29, 2011 by OSoSwift

[Guest Willow]

My Staffy dragged a huge brown snake out from under a bush in the middle of winter!

The Bluetongues have been out and about the last few weeks here, and if they're out, the snakes are out too.

[sandgrubber]

Snakes are cold blooded and their activity is temperature dependent. At 18 C, you're not likely to see many snakes and those you see will be moving real slow. (I was told 20 C, but based on personal experience, I'd put the number a little lower). When I lived in WA, I did walkies around sunrise to get minimum temperature and lowest snake activity. Snakes don't enter true hibernation, and a warm spell in winter will wake them up.

[Nic.B]

Saw my last one "of the season" on June 18th. After two warmer days saw my first one of the season 20th August and have seen many since - not by the house thankfully.

We have 5 acres fully mowed, no flower beds, no wood piles no junk of any sort. All stock troughs are at the opposite ends of the paddocks to the house.

We had around 20 near the house and 4 of those actively trying to get in the dog runs. A couple of times while the dogs were in there and a couple of time when they were not.

My dog runs are meshed, shadeclothed and all is mowed or sprayed near them and yet they still like them. They do have water in them as the dogs are in there when I am out so I cannot leave them with no water especially in summer.

Our snakes do not truely hibernate so a couple of warm days and they are out and about. Keep your eyes peeled. I have built a yard attached to my dog runs and have finshed putting the seals around the doors yesterday. I hope it keeps them out I am over them and sick of having them near my kids and dogs.

Oh and I often seem them swimming in my troughs and the creeks so I would NEVER have a pool as tigers love to swim and we have lots of Tigers

Sadly we do have pretty extensive gardens around the house, I have trimmed all the lower branches. We do have wood stacked upon raised timber as well. We might have to move that into the paddock. I didnt even think of the horse troughs, I could empty the two that are in the paddock with the dam. One of our Arabs swims around in the dam like a duck when it is hot, that worries me with snakes.

Excuse my ignorance, do we get tiger snakes in NSW?

Sadly my best defence last year, aside from keeping things very clean, short and tidy was to sight the yard first and fully supervise the dogs. Other than that they were inside, esspecially between 10am and 4pm which is when I spotted most of the snakes last year. They were eveywhere! Everyone in the area had a terrible time, my vet treated so many dogs.

Last year was our worst year ever so far, the snakes seemed so active and angry for some reason.

I hope this year is better.

Would a snake be able to climb over glass fencing to get into a pool?

[Nic.B]

Snakes are cold blooded and their activity is temperature dependent. At 18 C, you're not likely to see many snakes and those you see will be moving real slow. (I was told 20 C, but based on personal experience, I'd put the number a little lower). When I lived in WA, I did walkies around sunrise to get minimum temperature and lowest snake activity. Snakes don't enter true hibernation, and a warm spell in winter will wake them up.

Thank You It gets pretty cold here in winter and very hot in summer, probably why we get a lot of activity in the warmer months.

[corvus]

I've only ever seen two snakes in the water and one was a python that curled up under a log underwater to get away from us and the other was in Yellow Waters at Kakadu and it got snapped up by a Jabiru. The channels there are many with vegetation overhanging the water. The snakes are only in the water because there's not much land!

They get them in the irrigation channels inland, but they get trapped in the gates like every other animal that can swim. Water isn't as easy to come by out there. I've walked around in small and extensive wetlands and never laid eyes on a snake. I did a 10 day field trip setting up fykes in rivers and wetlands and didn't see a single snake. We caught everything else that ever went in the water in those traps. Someone else saw one on the edge of the river. That was November when they are very active. I asked the people that have done a lot of those trips if they ever caught snakes and they said they did once. I have done loads of frog surveys at night and never seen a snake in or around the water during a frog survey. Sorry, I'm just not feeling like the water thing is a fact with snakes. IME they readily take to the water, but that doesn't equate to loving to swim and actively seeking out water sources like dog water bowls and pools. Like I said, we no doubt have snakes around, but we have a pool and we've never had a snake in it and never seen a snake in our yard. We've had 4 species of lizard, a rat, and frogs in the pool, but never a snake. I imagine if we stayed here long enough we'd get a snake in the pool. Pretty much everything falls in sooner or later.

Don't forget that snakes need to seek shelter from heat as well. They overheat if they are in the open when it's over 32.

[Kirislin]

this is a good reminder for me to clean up some stuff I have around the house. I know I have at least 3 types of snakes on this property, over the years I've seen a tiger, a copperhead and a red belly black. They're all here.

[oakway]

Big brown snake reared up at me in Victoria last week. We had a big bluey in the yard in QLD two days ago.

Does anyone know, are reptiles like these paler in colour than usual after coming out of hibernation? Because the brown snake was almost cream coloured and the bluey was very pale.

Yes almost golden /honey coloured. Just a brown the vet said????? I took the offending body with me to the vets to be identified, so we could use the right anti venom, alas we did not save the bitch, but one of the dogs had retribution in it's death.

I saw another exactly the same colour while mowing near the kennels in the middle of summer and the one that caused the death was in the middle of summer to, so I would say it's just their colour.

I get lots of browns/tigers and red bellied blacks.

Snake season does not seem to end where I live in Queensland just a slowing down in the cooler months.

[Steve]

Yep they are out here.

Kids are now walking around with snake bite kits on their belts and the yard is cleaned up with nothing down where they can ping out at me.

Bit scarier this year as the mice have been hell though Im hoping they will have plenty of water and food which will prevent them coming here for lunch. In drought our property is the only place for a couple of kilometres they can get a drink - in the dogs water bowls. Im hoping this year the full dams and the puddles make our place less attractive but if I go too far from the house I also wear a snake bite kit on my belt and there is one in each car.

[Nic.B]

I've only ever seen two snakes in the water and one was a python that curled up under a log underwater to get away from us and the other was in Yellow Waters at Kakadu and it got snapped up by a Jabiru. The channels there are many with vegetation overhanging the water. The snakes are only in the water because there's not much land!

They get them in the irrigation channels inland, but they get trapped in the gates like every other animal that can swim. Water isn't as easy to come by out there. I've walked around in small and extensive wetlands and never laid eyes on a snake. I did a 10 day field trip setting up fykes in rivers and wetlands and didn't see a single snake. We caught everything else that ever went in the water in those traps. Someone else saw one on the edge of the river. That was November when they are very active. I asked the people that have done a lot of those trips if they ever caught snakes and they said they did once. I have done loads of frog surveys at night and never seen a snake in or around the water during a frog survey. Sorry, I'm just not feeling like the water thing is a fact with snakes. IME they readily take to the water, but that doesn't equate to loving to swim and actively seeking out water sources like dog water bowls and pools. Like I said, we no doubt have snakes around, but we have a pool and we've never had a snake in it and never seen a snake in our yard. We've had 4 species of lizard, a rat, and frogs in the pool, but never a snake. I imagine if we stayed here long enough we'd get a snake in the pool. Pretty much everything falls in sooner or later.

Don't forget that snakes need to seek shelter from heat as well. They overheat if they are in the open when it's over 32.

Interesting. I guess it depends and where you live/ temps and what your circumstances are.

I know that we had very few snakes in the house yard before I started leaving water sources all around the house yard for the dogs and lizards. Then we put in a small pond in the native garden close to the back of the house. The gardens are also now well established offering shade and protection.

We have had so many snakes after that, and lizards of all kinds. Even a huge (dinosaur/monitor lizard) parading around the back yard. Luckily the dogs were inside as he was huge!

All water sources have all been removed now aside from inside and on our deck. I removed the pond last summer as well.

I love wildlife though I absolutely draw the line at snakes in my yard. Sadly the rest of the critters will now have to go elsewhere to have a drink and cool down. It is just not worth the risk in terms of my children and animals.

A snake kit sounds great to have at home or while out and about Steve, what is in them and where do you get them? Can you use them for kids and animals?

[Steve]

Im about to put them up in the Pacers fundraising section

They do dogs and humans and the pouch clips on so you can take it on walks etc

the instructions cover both dogs and us.

[Nic.B]

Big brown snake reared up at me in Victoria last week. We had a big bluey in the yard in QLD two days ago.

Does anyone know, are reptiles like these paler in colour than usual after coming out of hibernation? Because the brown snake was almost cream coloured and the bluey was very pale.

Yes almost golden /honey coloured. Just a brown the vet said????? I took the offending body with me to the vets to be identified, so we could use the right anti venom, alas we did not save the bitch, but one of the dogs had retribution in it's death.

I saw another exactly the same colour while mowing near the kennels in the middle of summer and the one that caused the death was in the middle of summer to, so I would say it's just their colour.

I get lots of browns/tigers and red bellied blacks.

Snake season does not seem to end where I live in Queensland just a slowing down in the cooler months.

So sorry to hear your little girl did not make it Oakway Snakes and dogs are one of my greatest fears/nightmares.