Snake trap / catcher

[Tim93]

my callout standard fee is $50.00 ...$25.00 old age pen ...$80.00 for commercial or after 8.30pm at night (I have had calls at 1am ..for a carpet on a verandah and a bts in a bird cage ..)...I personally dont think I charge too much.

Yep, dad got a call out for a tiny carpet at 12:30 the other night, had to drive alittle way to get it to, when it's like this you kind of see why people do charge to go out, $25-80 is quite resonable if you think about it!!
Dad had to get a good size black snake off a guy's verandah at a very late hour of the night once, the guy was threatning to kill it if someone wasn't going to come out.....

TIM.

 

[wretched26]

Moosenoose,

how much do you charge for a callout?

 

[xycom]

Some of the guys in Melbourne are charging $190 for a call out. I was asked to join up with one of them and so far refused. In their defence though this is what they do for a living and they will have bills to pay, it's a diffent story when you have a normal 9 to 5 job to pay the bills.
The higher the fees go, the more often the shovel comes out.


Per

 

[Tradie1969]

Redbellybite: those are very reasonable prices you have! Although there are certain circumstances that snake catchers are not feasable, as Firepac may understand,, Conway country NQ, i was building homes in the bush, & would encounter at least 2 elapids a day, usually taipans, eastern browns, redbellies or whip snakes were also common.. once the trusses & lining were up, it would also not be unusual to have a carpet, maccie or tree snake in the rafters.. it would not be feasible to call out Firepac "for instance" as over a 6 month period this would slowly send me broke, & would look pretty rediculous having snake catching fees on a quote as incidentals so i learn't to do it myself.. i could not give a stuff about whether it is illegal or not to move animals, it is better than the shovel option.. & found that once an animal was moved, generally only a few hundred mtrs, it would not usually come back unless ample food sources were around.

This is my suggestion to you ron173, do a handling course or 2, it may take awhile to feel comfortable but after a few practical scenarios & real life experiences, you will realise it is not brain surgery.. or even close to comparable of a tradesmans work, as i have read in the last week or so on another forum a Brisbane snake catcher was trying to justify his prices by claiming he is as good as a tradie! quite laughable HAha

I commend you Firepac on your prices! you are doing a good job for your community! although with the amount of southerners moving into the Prossi region, you could jack your prices up abit, as they all tend to see 3mtr taipans that are going to kill them which end up being tree snakes i personally have never charged anyone for a removal & would prefer to talk them into letting the snake stay, but this is not the way i make my dollars & cents.

Beatloydy: Ever wonder that the tradie you rang had, had a long day, wanted to go home & had way too much work anyway to be bothered about your piddly job? maybe he picked a number out of his head to try to give you a sign he wasn't interested? more fool for you for going ahead with it

 

[Firepac]

Thanks for your comments Tradie1969, I think $30 dollars is reasonable to cover fuel etc and buy the odd beer or two. Then of course there are those callouts that you cant charge for like the Eastern Brown I caught in the main street of Airlie (50km round trip) last sunday scaring the ***** out of the backpackers LOL. I could try to send an invoice to the council but I don't like my chances of getting paid.

 

[redbellybite]

Thanks for your comments Tradie1969, I think $30 dollars is reasonable to cover fuel etc and buy the odd beer or two. Then of course there are those callouts that you cant charge for like the Eastern Brown I caught in the main street of Airlie (50km round trip) last sunday scaring the ***** out of the backpackers LOL. I could try to send an invoice to the council but I don't like my chances of getting paid.

Firepac if your the local snake catcher for that area ..and it is in a council or gov building you can bill them you will just have to give them a invoice ..I have charged our local council ...and been paid ..they know they have to pay ..does the council have your number and details ...mine has my permit details ,so they know I am a registered snake catcher ..so they pay me ...

 

[redbellybite]

Yesterday ...I had to go to a callout ,not in my area ,as they couldnt get a hold of a catcher that did there area..anyway that trip was 183km round trip for me ...I charged them 100.00 and they were more then happy to pay it ...grappling two eastern browns was definantly not in his criteria,so he said it was worth the money ...not everyone has that attitude "I aint gonna pay" ...

 

[da_donkey]

Thanks for your comments Tradie1969, I think $30 dollars is reasonable to cover fuel etc and buy the odd beer or two. Then of course there are those callouts that you cant charge for like the Eastern Brown I caught in the main street of Airlie (50km round trip) last sunday scaring the ***** out of the backpackers LOL. I could try to send an invoice to the council but I don't like my chances of getting paid.

after driving from prossie to Airlie your lucky the snake was still even there personally i have never charged for removal but most of my time was in NSW so i dont even think its leagle to charge down there.

I had to get a Tai last week and a brown the day before that, i still do it for the fun (and the snake) but i agree with some sort of fee structure.

donks

 

[redbellybite]

This is what can happen to us catchers ...get the call , a frantic person on the end ,screaming in the phone that they have a ten foot king brown(cause its always a king brown) ,trying to kill their kids ,dogs etc...
You ask them how long ago did they see the snake ..some can honestly tell you about an hour ago,or more ...down the backyard or dam ,ask them to see if they can see it now ...they say NO ...explain to them more then likely being in an outdoor yard property its moved on and the chances of me actually finding it are slim ...they still want you to come (even though you know it wont be there)so there is a person who wants you to come ,so you drive ,in my case , at least 110km round trip , for a tiny percent chance of actually catching a snake ..and you lot say we shouldnt charge ?
and the refference of tradie ..can be made in this situation ...sure some may think they can move snakes on ..and maybe they have done it ...BUT not all snakes are willing and calm and quiet ..and if you have not got the skills to actually know how to handle a pissed off snake ,you increase your chances of coming off second best by so much ...I can saw timber and nail wood ..I can drive a car ...but that dont mean I am a builder or a race car driver .

 

[Jonno from ERD]

I had to get a Tai last week and a brown the day before that, i still do it for the fun (and the snake) but i agree with some sort of fee structure.

Hey mate, did you get any pics of the Tai?

 

[dave8208]

i saw a documentary on foxtel .....but it was american
a reptile / pest control mob went to a house on a property looking to rid the place of snakes......they spread moth balls around under the house.....liberally.........
apparently the smell from the stuff in moth balls irritates the hell out of snakes ( the flicking of the tongue to sense air particals and returning it into the mouth along the Jakebsons organ irritates them so much that they will keep away )
i cant say that this is true or not , but it would be worth a try....if only for the next couple of months when breeding season is causing them to wander around so much.
...........and as far as people charging to relocate snakes...............i do it for free..............and yes i am fully trained................i represent the Native Animal Trust Fund in Newcastle .........we all do it for free.........donations to the fund from those who call us are always welcome.

 

[redbellybite]

So Dave ,how many callouts a week would you do ? and what are the distances that you travel?
I know in NSW you are all part of wildlife groups ,in saying so are you responsible for an area on your own or are there many of you that relocate in that area?so you have the option of giving the job to someone else if your not able to get there?
In my case ,my area is huge ,living in a remote place ,driving long distances is very common ,Gympie is the centre point ,we have 3 catchers ,myself being one ,that co -share Gympie ...but the areas on my side of Gympie are only done by me ...this is a vast area...and I can get several calls in one day 3-4-5 ...so one eg: started with a call at 1pm...then got another 4 calls,as I was at that job ,had to work out what was more a priority like vens being top then down to a keelback etc ...I didnt get home till 8 pm that night ...it cost me over $60.00 in fuel just to do the callouts ,not even including the wear and tear on my car ,as most of the places are on propertys and dirt roads and goat tracks are all part of the norm .

 

[da_donkey]

Hey mate, did you get any pics of the Tai?

na but one of the guys got some footage of it before i got there, it was in quite a public place. Was very dark almost greyish body.


donk

 

[Snakes1]

Yeah it's only $200 smackers to be forking out every single time a person wants to get one moved :? No wonder the vast majority of people want to grab a shovel when there is the potential to be dishing out $600+ a week. Also, when are the councils etc going to get serious about protecting these creatures and residents and start some sort of financial assistance to help people trying to do the right thing, like ron173 is, and cover some/all of these costs.

Brown snakes are probably the worst species for you to try and move to be honest. Perhaps someone on here can give some advice to help. I don't wish to be responsible for giving the wrong advice that may lead to a potentially fatal accident. Perhaps the best advice I can give is contact someone running a handling course and do one, or find a competent local keeper to give you some tips. One way or another you’ll need to get yourself familiar with what you might be in for. On a hot day you’ll have your hands full with one of these critters! Good luck.

My god ive been doing it all wrong, I only charge between 30-60 bucks!!

 

[apprenticegnome]

Although there are regulations on release and recording of information people need to realise if you make a simple task complex and bury it in paperwork and restrictions you end up pushing people to go back to the shovel method which I think we all would like to avoid. I'm for trapping and relocating if a snake presents a high risk and I don't see any harm in exploring options out there just as long as people accept full responsibillity if they choose to use them. I wouldn't mind seeing the trap that was on the inventors, any form of humane capture interests me. Try calling your local native wildlife rescue service as I know at least some of them are volunteer run and don't demand money but ask if you don't mind making a donation. Good luck.

 

[Wrightpython]

In NSW we were told we werent allowed to charge and i never have but i can understand why some people do, where not all rich and do it for fun however what do you do if the person doesnt want to pay, if you leave snake and it bites someone are you responsible. Also being that you charge do you have to have insurance to cover 3rd party incase someone gets bitten while your doing capture, if so 30 bucks doesnt cover anything really. $100 at least would be good starting point over 80km extra $25 etc

 

[Matt74]

Probably get flamed for this but the safety officer on the large construction site I worked on up in north Queensland a few years ago had a good trap he used on site to catch browns and coastal taipans in. It was a hessian bag solidly duct taped onto one end of a two meter length of 100mm PVC stormwater pipe. Hope you know what I mean by that, if not I'll explain in greater detail.

He set a few of these in areas that the construction workers on site had reported seeing snakes, and beleive me there were a few of them, the land the construction site was on was referred to as 'taipan alley' by the locals!. Anyway he would walk around site with a 100mm 'push on' stormwater pipe cap and before checking the hessian bag for a snake he'd push the cap on the end of the pipe, (the other end of the pipe from the end the hessian bag was attached). Once the only entrance to the bag was firmly shut he'd pick up the pipe and thus the bag attached to it and from this point it was pretty obvious if there was a snake caught in the bag. I saw him remove a few snakes from site using this method, once caught he threw the pipe and twisted hessian bag into the back of his ute, drove out of town and released the snake into the bush.

Dont know whether this type of trap would work for you as a construction side is a very different environment compared to your yard and Im not encouraging you to try it either. Ultimately, you'll decide what course of action you should take and before anyone flames me or says the hessian bag/ PVC pipe idea sounds stupid, well thats your opinion, I saw it work first hand and at least on a construction site where shovels are a 'dime a dozen' the hessian bag was the chosen option for snake control....

 

[Boidae]

This is an '09 thread, I'm sure he would have sorted it out by now...