pigysus
Not so new Member
Hi All
I live on a 50 ace bush block west of the Clarence river a few Kilometres outside Drake in northern New South Wales. My problem isn't keeping snakes or lizards it's keeping them out of the house. The area still has it's fair share of snakes. During the warm weather, as we are having at the moment I could find Carpet snakes, red belly blacks and if I'm really looking for trouble, browns. A fairly young carpet has taken up residence under the water tower, if he's still there next year I'll have to move him on. While they work on the mice and small wild life it's Ok but when they start to fancy the chooks, it's time to move them a couple of k away. The blacks and browns stay away from the house but I did pass a good size black while swimming in our dam a week ago. I think he was watching me as closely as i watched him but he kept going and so did I. Browns are around and you need to be aware but as long as you make a bit of noise as you move around they get out of your way. People who tip toe around are more likely to be unpleasantly surprised. I've seen a number of smaller snakes but haven't been able to identify them. The carpet pythons do reach a considerable size around here but road traffic takes it toll of them as well as many other animals.
There has been an ongoing battle between a bunch of choughs and a metre long goanna for the last couple of weeks but I noticed today that the goee had finally made it to their nest. nest wrecked and dead fledgling on the ground under the tree. We've had much bigger goannas pass through.
Various small unidentified lizards in garden as well as Nobby dragons and small water dragons. Nobbies are nice little critturs, seem to be very curious and will come within inches when i'm working in the garden. Haven't seen any water dragons bigger than 6 inches though. We have gecko's in the house, Can be noisy buggers in the middle of the night. I'm not sure if they are fighting each other or chasing prey. Small ornaments get knocked over and pictures end up crooked.
We have a couple of what i believe to be old beardies on the block, they seem to like to sun themselves on the side of stumps. One would have been the best part of a metre long nose to tail. i don't know if that is large or not. I was surprised to find that they are bred in various colours. Ours are all just khaki and spiky .
i look forward to learning quite a bit more about snakes etc, if i can get some decent photos of the ones that share my home i'll post them. The 'Avatar' I use is one of the Nobbies in my garden.
cheers and a Happy new year to all
Ted
I live on a 50 ace bush block west of the Clarence river a few Kilometres outside Drake in northern New South Wales. My problem isn't keeping snakes or lizards it's keeping them out of the house. The area still has it's fair share of snakes. During the warm weather, as we are having at the moment I could find Carpet snakes, red belly blacks and if I'm really looking for trouble, browns. A fairly young carpet has taken up residence under the water tower, if he's still there next year I'll have to move him on. While they work on the mice and small wild life it's Ok but when they start to fancy the chooks, it's time to move them a couple of k away. The blacks and browns stay away from the house but I did pass a good size black while swimming in our dam a week ago. I think he was watching me as closely as i watched him but he kept going and so did I. Browns are around and you need to be aware but as long as you make a bit of noise as you move around they get out of your way. People who tip toe around are more likely to be unpleasantly surprised. I've seen a number of smaller snakes but haven't been able to identify them. The carpet pythons do reach a considerable size around here but road traffic takes it toll of them as well as many other animals.
There has been an ongoing battle between a bunch of choughs and a metre long goanna for the last couple of weeks but I noticed today that the goee had finally made it to their nest. nest wrecked and dead fledgling on the ground under the tree. We've had much bigger goannas pass through.
Various small unidentified lizards in garden as well as Nobby dragons and small water dragons. Nobbies are nice little critturs, seem to be very curious and will come within inches when i'm working in the garden. Haven't seen any water dragons bigger than 6 inches though. We have gecko's in the house, Can be noisy buggers in the middle of the night. I'm not sure if they are fighting each other or chasing prey. Small ornaments get knocked over and pictures end up crooked.
We have a couple of what i believe to be old beardies on the block, they seem to like to sun themselves on the side of stumps. One would have been the best part of a metre long nose to tail. i don't know if that is large or not. I was surprised to find that they are bred in various colours. Ours are all just khaki and spiky .
i look forward to learning quite a bit more about snakes etc, if i can get some decent photos of the ones that share my home i'll post them. The 'Avatar' I use is one of the Nobbies in my garden.
cheers and a Happy new year to all
Ted
...browns around the place and blacks are after the rodents or finding a nice place to rest or get out of the heat of the day ,,,,water will bring them to the house , if easily to get at and less open then say a dam , they will feel safer to get a drink from a bowl of water underneath a step then an open dam where they are vunrable to the flying preditors above... so either remove water containers , or be aware...as far as making noise this is more the vibrations that the snake can feel not hear as they are not able to pick up on voices alone , so if you come across a brown snake and its very close to you and you notice it is showing signs of knowing your there , hence S stance and moving around ..STAND STILL do not move an inch scream on top note if that helps you get over the shock BUT DONT MOVE ...either the snake will back down or move on its way ...if it backs down but doesnt move and your by yourself , wait it out all the while watching the snake, take one tiny step back and watch for any signs , if you get a reaction STAND STILL AGAIN if not continue TINY step backwards ,do this untill your about 4 foot away then you may take bigger steps back ,all the while watching the snake NEVER TURN YOUR BACK ON A SNAKE ....if you find a venomous snake in your backyard and are able to get your garden hose , spray the snake in the face as they do not have any eyelids and will find this not nice and move away , you can do this safely and know even though the snake doesnt like it ,you are not hurting it nor putting yourself at risk..if you get snakes in your house , you really should know who your local snake catchers are and have their number on hand ..they will let you know what to do if you have one in the house ...I always tell people that ring to watch at a safe distance ,so I know where it is when I get there ,or if it can be contained in 1 room then to shut the door place a towel tightly under neath the door as to wedge any gaps , make sure children and pets are away ,chain or contain pets up and wait , do not go and see what its up to , if you are to watch the snake dont take your eyes off it as they can and do get away quickly and could be anywhere...and finally TED always have a first aid kit on hand ..snake bites are more dangerous to your health when you DONT APPLY THE RIGHT 1ST AID... bandaging correctly is the key and remaining calm and as still as possible ring 000 dont try and drive yourself to hospital, dont wash or rub it,dont matter if your dirty and covered in crap just wrap and ring and then settle down till ambos get there... all the best hope you never need to ring 000 
