Snakes Alive

Yes they are nocturnal, we are in a rural area in Qld and often see them. Only see them through the day when they are disturbed by shifting wood, tin or slashing the paddock. Have also had red belly blacks wandering through camps at night and see heaps of tracks in dirt and sand each morning.

yeah i grew up in north east vic and we were always carefull, even at night as you would often come across snakes on the farm, mainly eastern browns and red bellies, usually only active at night in summer due to the warmth. minus 1or2 in winter usually keeps em sleepy :-)

down here near melb i had a heap of tigers near my place but didnt see them active at night, which is a blessing as they are aggressive little buggers.

snakes are pretty amazing whith what they can get up to, have you ever seen a red bellie swim? damn impressive.

We had a 2 metre Taipan posing as a bit of fire wood in our camp on the Mitchell Plateau. One of our wives tried to pick it ou to put on the firewood heap and it moved just in time to warn her not to. It was close.

I think snakes are beautiful reptiles and we have a big carpetsnake living in our walls for years now. Because we live close to a lot of bushland in Qld's southeast we get rats and mice come for a visit, but they don't hang around and I'm sure most of them get eaten. Most snakes are harmless and stay out of our way, if we do the same there is no probelms living with snakes.

cheers
Reiner

there was a country & westen song "the snakes crawl at night"(my old man used to listen to) so it must be true. here in se qld they do seem to be active of a night, big browns used to like laying on my back door step of a night waiting for frogs that would be eating insects that were atracted to the light. Theres no way I`d walk out in my yard of a night with out a torch.

Evict him when big enough.........it's about 9ft now :-) I have photos somewhere when it nearly ate next doors cat. If I had come out 5min later I reckon the cat would have been in the dark. My woman chased the cat away and when I said she shouldnt interfer with nature I got the look.
I think she knows I don't like cats :-)

cheers
Reiner

G'day WDR,

I am an Ecologist and I can tell you most Australian snakes are nocturnal or crepuscular with only some diurnal activity. There are hundreds of species out there and in your area it could have been the endangered Broad Headed Snake, Hoplocephalus bungaroides which is a lovely little animal but unfortunately becoming very rare partly because people are scared of them although in reality it is very unlikely to harm someone.

By killing snakes people are only making the common ones which are more dangerous more common. In reality people don’t know what species of snake they see they just group them as either (in SE Australia) Black or Red Belly black (which are the same species), brown or tiger. It is important to be careful of snakes but it is not wise to kill them in the bush only if you have one hanging around the house maybe but even then if it is a good place for a snake and you kill it your only going to get another snake and the chances are it will be a more dangerous species. So the best way to keep them away is to keep it clear and tidy around the house and don’t leave food scraps & seed around that attract mice that will attract snakes.

Cheers
Pat

We used to live out of town a bit at Alans Flat (10 minutes from Wodonga) on 7 acres with a few sheds. Every year without fail we would get at least 4 or 5 snakes around the house. Mostly red belly blacks but on occasion would get a brown.
Fairly common to see them at night because their prey is also active (we usually had plagues of mice in the sheds every year as well).

If you want to make your place less attractive to snakes, eliminate their food source (mice and rats etc) and leave no water around the house (includes dog water).

Thanks everyone - live and learn - I had not seen one at night before and I pretty old in the tooth - Just goes to say Huh - We have had a couple of very large red belly blacks in the backyard - everyone, including "expert snake remover" my wife contacted when one particularly large one was snooping in back yard, seems to think that a red belly black is far preferable to a brown anytime and if you have one you don't normally have the other.

Give me a snake I can see and avoid in preference any type of spider anytime.

P>S> Noted in the press today some guy was bitten by "pet" death adder - Reminds me of a friend who had funnel webs in a fish tank to make sure his kids knew what they looked like (and of course a great topic over a beer) until someone asked what happens if the tank gets knocked over with 3-4 funnel webs in it? Next time I saw him, no spiders.

Aveagoodone