snakes in the grass

Yep that's about it Dee.

Lets face it - snakes don''t actualy have feet do they - so digging with your nose - well - it's not a very enticing past time is it.

Snakes are in general after somewhere to hide and be protected when they are resting, and this also tends to be the same place their food source is - but they also need to move - and lots of snakes are on the move this year due to the dry time in SA.
Searching for food and water.

My advice - snakes do exist, but dont be óverly worried about them.
Same thing applies with car accidents, heart attacks and lots of other dangers in life. Be aware, be prepared, but don't be obsessed about it.

My belief in life is we attract what we think about most.

So if you think good things will happen - they will happen.

Like enjoying the house and the things you and your family dream about when you''re living there.

Steve

Good response Steve

I agree that the thing we focus on the most usually comes to pass (creative visualization it used to be called). In other words I will focus my energy on NOT seeing a snake , although I reckon this is just as likely to attract them to the area.

But I do feel a bit better knowing that they are not particularly aggressive unless aggravated which I can promise I wont do (although DH would probably disagree ).

AND I might still invest in some underfence wire just in case .

Also agree that digging in the dirt with ones nose would not be attractive to most reptiles, but then you never know what turns a snake on

My colleague had a call at work the other day from one of our clients freaking out about a tiger snake on her window sill, which by the time she got off the phone had slithered into the laundry. This was downtown Williamstown but the property did back onto a vacant lot.

Luckily, my colleague knows Nigel Williamson who's been featured on the TV and in the papers recently, and he removed it and took it off to a better location. The poor lady said she first saw it outside about a week ago, eyeing off the cats inside through the window

If I'd seen a tiger snake in my own house you'd have to peel me off the ceiling.




Dana



Dana

Sort of....
Just make sure you focus on the one you know and love.... - Which should be pretty well practiced at finding places to hide before you move to relliville
Steve

Lol. dont remind me . I haven't lived with the parents for 20 years .

We seriously considered approaching the council re: an onsite caravan next to the build. Can you imagine it .... a rundown caravan at Mawson Lakes... rofl. What would the neighbours say!!

Same here ... although if I saw a snake ... the scream would be so loud the poor thing would be deafened in a trice.

Do snakes have ears . Only joking ... please don't ask me to google THAT .

LOL

Patience, enjoy it for what it is and think about what they are prepared to do for you in your time of growth.

It's not easy having your kids come home and run your life either you know

Juts make sure you get out and give them and you a bit of space every now and then too.

I assume you know about fish and relatives - or house guests for that matter ......

They both start to stink after 3 days

Steve

lol definitely. Problem is they are keen for us to move in ... they just love the idea ... we however are more realistic . My dad is gonna drive me nuts in about a week. He wakes at 4 am and wants everyone up to keep him company . And CHAT ... god can he talk.

This is almost a topic of its own:

safer living with your parents ... hints, tips and ways to save sanity

so many snake stories but that aside, you can buy snake and mouse mesh from the hardware. use that around the base of your property boundry.

ROFL!

I've always wondered if some type of sharp gravel paths would help persuade snakes that they really don't want to go into your backyard. The fine edge stuff, not the river stones.

Personally I really don't like brown snakes for the very reason that they can stay still in long grass or rubble with someone walking all around them for a couple of hours (pretty dangerous for kids). Tiger snakes are much more likely to quietly move away (or just continue their lazy baking in the sun and ignore you).

I know a reptile expert who loves telling people that for every snake you see, chances are there are another seven in the same area ... and even a professional wouldn't be able to find the other seven.

Whatever you do, don't get a cat flap.

Is that to not let the cat in and feed the snakes?

Noooo.... to stop the cats bringing their snake "kills" into the house... sometimes their "kills" are just a bit too alive...

Wouldn't mind if a few of our neighbourhood cats would feed the snakes, really don't like it when people don't make any attempt to keep their pets on their property, even at night (let your dog roam free and the ranger comes a knockin').

we have snakes here we have had about six so far this year including one at the back door there is not much you can do about then just remember to keep your block clear and donot leave door one.And must important stay clear of them and me careful going killing them as I in qld and under no cirstumances are we are allow to kill them there is one man fighting a $100,000 fine because he killed to browns on the bowling green.

I've grown up on acreage over 30 years and we've had every type of snake known to exist in the Brisbane region. Eastern Browns, Taipains, Red Bellies, Death Adders etc etc...

What attracts snakes the most is vermin... They need a food source to survive... And for us it came from our neighbouring properties being horse lovers, which means grain, which means rats, which means snakes...

We've got cattle, and one of the best things we do is to let the cattle move around the house yard occasionally. Their stomping keeps the snakes on the move, or at least moving back to their food source...

You'll be suprised at how you develop a sixth sense when it comes to snakes. Only on Xmas day was I moving through the paddock and looking to the horizon, when I sensed something, and looked down 2 foot in front of me to find a 5 footer sticking its head up out of the grass getting a sniff of what was approaching...

We've always relocated green trees, and carpets to a more suited environment. Many rural people love the carpets for their vermin control...

Personally, the only good snake is a dead one, and if you've been called to a neighbours chookhouse after their 2 year old and 4 year old "saw a snake" to be confronted by two 6ft browns, you'd soon feel the same...

If you pick up anything off the ground, make sure you lift away from yourself. My father was bitten after working long hours, and forgot this one... The first thing the sleeper saw was his big toe! The snake got booted to the heavens, while Dad visited the hospital!

We have shovels at each door, and a couple of 6 ft poles, with 3 ft of chain welded to the end around the paddock... Everyone knows where these implements live at anytime of day... (Red Belly's move at night)

I know that people in certain asian countries use bamboo stick and beat them against the ground to chase away snakes. apparently the sound and vibrations caused by the bamboo stick smacking the ground scares them. They also lay a trail of sulphur around their property to keep the snakes at bay.

I read somewhere that a flock of Guinea Fowl will kill snakes - but Guinea Fowl are VERY noisy - and therefore not permitted in many areas.

When the temperature first hits around the 30 degree point, I only let my dogs out on a lead. This is when dugites travel down the hill to the river - where they feed on frogs, mice, lizards etc. We see them every year at the beginning of summer - but, strangely, we do not see them heading up the hill away from the river.

I have watched snakes trying to get through a glass sliding door when they are trying to head to the river. They will follow along the barrier of a wall or fence until they find a gap. They can get through surprisingly small gaps - so draft-excluders, doors, or vermin mesh need to be very well installed.

Keep up your vermin control - for every rat or mouse you see, there will be another ten you don't see. Mice - and particularly rats - will eat almost anything (fruit, grains, pet food, food scraps, leather etc) - so be really meticulous about keeping the area clear of food and shelter.

If walking outside in snake season, it is always wise to wear sturdy boots and long, tough trousers. If I am walking through grass (even short grass) I carry a long stick or rake - which I whack on the ground ahead of me. Snakes feel vibrations, and most types will move away from the source of the vibration before you even see them. I always walk fairly slowly to give them time to move away.

Remember, most people are bitten when they are trying to kill a snake. A cornered or threatened snake will defend itself!

Do a first aid course to learn best how to deal with a snake bite - and if anyone is bitten, keep them calm (to slow down the spread of the venom in the bloodstream). Bandage the limb firmly from top to bottom - but do not cut off blood flow completely by using a tourniquet. Try to give a good description of the snake.

You could get a pet mongoose!

I grew up in the Perth hills and have been around a few snakes. Fortunately never been too close to one, but one slithered over my mum's gumboots one day when she was picking mulberries.

As long as your kids are well educated and you take reasonable precautions, there's nothing else you can do, and you probably won't see too many around the house.

One place I couldn't live is Garden Island, where the Perth naval base is. The snakes sun themselves on all the porches. Knew someone who lived there for a time and she said it was ridiculous how many she saw. Even found one in the washing machine once! I would be a nervous wreck!

Not keen on snakes. Those beady eyes... Spiders, I can do. Snakes, I struggle with!

I lived in the bush for 10 years and surprisingly, the only time I saw a snake in all those years was when I lived in a build up part of town, it slithered right past me in our back yard. Probably looking for food or water. We had all bushland behind us for the last few years there in our new house and I knew they were around, but we never actually saw any.

I've seen plenty of dead ones on the road in the last few weeks. It's definately snake season again!!

Rizzo...
Yep living on an 8 acre bush block with chooks, frogs and roddents here has been fun over the 20 years
We had only been here for a month and a dugite bit our dog. December that was expensive $600 for 2 shots of anti venom
and a dead dog, not much fun.
But much better than a bitten child.
...we got another dog, a long hair kelpy(as advised), apparently a bit like having trousers or trackies on.
We figured, though we love our dogs it was a bit of insurance, at least 1 level.

No I don't think lizards help, though when we have monitor lizards around we never see snakes
Dugites are scaredy cats and like us less than we like them

We do have elcheapo black bird netting laying around, this will trap but not kill.
Then they can be re-released at a distant point... across a main road
Also the wire trick as described before.

Though as I said, we are on an unfenced bush block so there is no cornering of snakes, they just move on.

When miss K was about 3 we had a lovely strawberry patch and miss K liked strawberries...
One day she was picking strawberries and said Dad what is that?
Somehow I calmly said just a tick and picked her up, and said that is a dugite dear don't play with them
Popped her in side and threw any thing I could lay my hands on at it to send it away.

The 4 guys and 5 dogs that we renting before we took possesion only had 1 track to the house everything
was overgrown to the max... not anymore.

MissK is in her own now house now near Australind and they have a resident dugite that keeps the mice down
Only appearing when quiet and disappearing when the dogs are about.
We don't have any creeks glad about that tiger snakes are angry buggers.

So no help there for you DeeElle, Soz.
But Don't leave doors open is my tip for you
Onc