help identifying snake

[myusername]

With the thin tail and the blue-ish colouration it could be a juvenile Common Tree Snake.

 

[Bluetongue1]

An elapid is any snake in the Family Elapidae – which are front fanged poisonous snakes. Includes things like Whip Snakes up to Browns and Blacks and Tigers , Death Adders and Taipans. There are lots of small, relatively harmless varieties around too, but because they don’t cause a sensation if someone is bitten, you never get to hear about them.

My best guess is that the snake is a young Keelback also called the Freshwater Snake.
- Scales appear to be keeled, white markings on lips, belly scales edged in black laterally, brownish head and greyish body colour. This particular snake is entirely harmless. There is one that looks very similar and that even reptile enthusiasts get confused, which is extremely dangerous. So DON'T take any liberties and I would advise your neighbour to do likewise in future.

If you get a small snake in the house, throw a tea towel over if then careful sweep the towel into a dust pan and quickly dump in a bucket or deep plastic storage container. You can carefully remove the tea towel with a pair of BBQ tongs or a piece of wire with as hook. Take pictures for identification. Note the colour of the belly if you can.

What it is not! Brown Snakes have cream to orange bellies marked with orange or brown blotches, Green Trees have yellow bellies, Rough Scaled have cream to grey bellies with dark blotches, Whip Snakes are thinner and longer with grey bellies that get yellow towards the tail.

Blue

 

[fugawi]

Elapids have fangs at the front of their mouths and all are venomous (some more than others), Brown snakes, Taipans, Rough scaled snakes are some. Colubrids have fangs at the back of their mouth and are mildly venomous at best (most are harmless), Keelbacks, Brown Tree snakes and Green tree snakes are some. Pythons dont have fangs or venom but squeeze their prey, are the other main type.

 

[waruikazi]

Elapids have fangs at the front of their mouths and all are venomous (some more than others), Brown snakes, Taipans, Rough scaled snakes are some. Colubrids have fangs at the back of their mouth and are mildly venomous at best (most are harmless), Keelbacks, Brown Tree snakes and Green tree snakes are some. Pythons dont have fangs or venom but squeeze their prey, are the other main type.

That description of colubrids is not really correct. It describes some colubrids but not others. The colubrids are the family of snakes that don't have a complex venom system. Some are venomous and some are not, some have grooved 'fangs' and some have solid teeth.