Encountering snakes

rockylizard · Guru

Encountering snakes

Magnarc · Guru

Hi John, whats your advice when encountering two legged ones? vbg

fwdoz · Guru

rockylizard wrote:
The safest options are to back away slowly

Sage advice John. I encountered a huge snake up on the Mitta Mitta river about 5' away staring at me with beady eyes & head raised poised to strike. I slowly backed away & went the opposite direction.

RosieW · Guru

We got damn lucky last year: our 3 dogs encountered an 8ft Eastern brown here on the station - it was flying along the side of the shed trying to get away. 3 dogs, 1 snake. Lucky doesn't cover it.

Since then, we've taken steps to reduce the snake's feed supply around the house and sheds. We've also laid in 'vermin shot'.

I prefer to leave them alone, but this is my family we are talking about - the shed is less than 6ft from the back door, and snakes don't understand boundaries...

Desert Dweller · Guru

While doing our wildlife photography we encounter snakes all the time.

Stay calm & let them go about their business is the best policy.

In very snakey habitat we wear army type gators over our bush walking boots.

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

A pretty Mulga Snake, in the Great Victoria Desert about 3 weeks ago.
Quite dangerous.

And this pretty creature seen on the coast west of Ceduna (pics taken by a friend Julian) is not a snake at all and is quite harmless.

It is a legless lizard.

Many of these look just like common snakes.

Some mistakenly want to kill snakes. Please don't, even the venomous ones. It would be a great pity to kill this beautiful and quite rarely seen critter in error.

P1090785A (3).jpg

P1090788A (1).jpg

Cheers,

Peter

Weevil · Guru

Desert Dweller wrote

In very snakey habitat we wear army type gators over our bush walking boots.

Good advice, I was walking through shin high grass and a red bellied black not visible at the time struck my gaitors so hard it sounded like someone hitting it hard with a stick. Glad I had them on. Luckily it slid off after it's attack.

Grandad5 · Senior Member

rockylizard wrote:
When encountering a snake, the instinct to run away may come into conflict with best practice.
Sudden movements may provoke the snake and any aggression could end up in a bite.

Reminds me of a story my eldest son told me many years ago when he was just a lad starting work.

He was working for a local farmer and was told to go into the paddock to get something. Instead of using the gate he vaulted over the fence and landed on an old stump. Just as he was about to step off he looked down and saw a large brown coiled up at his feet.

He said, "You know that advice we always hear to stand perfectly still if you come across a snake? I always thought that would be hard to remember. Turns out, it's easy. Every part of me just froze up. I couldn't have moved if I wanted to"

Cheers
Jim

aussie_paul · Guru

In the 50s my dad was starting a new small square bale haystrack. He was backing up in long grass with a hay bale and got bitten begind the knee. His Mate drove dad home and kept getting petrol blocks in the Morris A40!!! disbelief Finally Mum got him to hospital and they said the fact that he had two lots of strides on to protect his knees the bite did not inject much, if any, venom. I got off the school bus and there was smoke coming out of the oven of the Rayburn slow combustioln stove as Mum forgot she she had a cake cooking.

Probably had a bun in the oven at that time of our lives as well. biggrin

Aussie Paul. smile

Mike Harding · Guru

The Australian Venom Research Unit of Melbourne Uni. has a great deal of info. on snakes et al. They use to have a really good site on Australian snakes but, for reasons beyond me, deleted it a few years past!?

Anyway, the current site has lots of info:

https://biomedicalsciences.unimelb.edu.au/departments/pharmacology/engage/avru

Cupie · Guru

Whenever the discussion turns to snakes I recall a property 'Weona?' that we shot over, near Condamine.

The owner Andy, insisted that we wear our leather ankle boots when we went out to the long drop at night. It seems that it was quite common for the prolific local Death Adders to lie on or near the path to the loo and trap unsuspecting City Slickers or whatever wandered along the bare earth path.

That gave meaning to the pair of gum boots always at the back door of this usually dry, dusty & drought stricken briggalow block. Just a normal part of life for them but a bum clenching experience for us. You didn't go unless you really needed to. Caution, shake the spiders out of the gum boots before use!

One day we were helping him to gather in a few cattle in a back paddock when he drew our attention to a flock of birds near a treeline behaving strangely. So we quietly pushed our horses in their direction & he pointed out a large death adder balanced on its tail section & waving its upper body about attracting the inquisitive birds. Seems like another crafty way to get a feed & stay alive. My 35mm happy snap camera shot shows nothing much .. not like the common beaut cameras of today, buggar.

BTW he was not so much a conservationist. He would crack their heads off using his stock whip with stroke of the arm & a casual flick of the wrist. Protecting his stock I suppose.

These days in the rare event of encountering a snake, I follow the advice of previous posters & stand still & let them slither away, a far call from years gone by when the call 'quick, get me a shovel' was the norm or BOOM of a shotgun ended the encounter.

2-Smiths · Veteran Member

I'd be interested in the experiences and advice from people who have encountered the more territorial varieties of snake (Brown/King Browns etc.) I understand that in some cases, some of those snakes will actively come after what they perceive as a "threat" to their territory...Perhaps a good time to break out the running shoes?

Possum3 · Guru

Timely warning John, we've had a couple of aggressive browns come calling at the front door - It's not true that they are protected, the shotgun cuts ém clean in half.

Weevil · Guru

Some good free advice on this site also, see index towards the bottom;

http://members.iinet.net.au/~bush/index.html

fwdoz · Guru

2-Smiths wrote:
I'd be interested in the experiences and advice from people who have encountered the more territorial varieties of snake (Brown/King Browns etc.) I understand that in some cases, some of those snakes will actively come after what they perceive as a "threat" to their territory...Perhaps a good time to break out the running shoes?

When fishing a river back in South Australia, I encountered 2 Tiger Snakes who took great delight in pursuing me as I turned to head back away from them.

Any others I have seen, Brown, Red Bellied Black all just wanted to move away.

Blues Man · Guru

Possum3 wrote:
Timely warning John, we've had a couple of aggressive browns come calling at the front door - It's not true that they are protected, the shotgun cuts ém clean in half.

Good one Possum. biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin

Mike Harding · Guru

I've not come across a Tiger snake in the bush but I have reliable reports from two people who have that they will chase a human! Interestingly I haven't found a snake book or expert which confirms this?

Craig1 · Guru

Quite a few Black snakes along walking trail in West Albury (Kremur St ) for the past week, just laying in the sun at edge of cut grass, biggest getting close to 6 feet, in real money.

Dougwe · Chief one feather

Gee Craig, you are dragging out the old posts now. This one was way back in 2018 mate. The original poster, my great mate Rockylizard has since ridden on ahead and no longer with us. RIP Rocky mate.

As for the snakes. There's nothing worse than a snake in the grass.

Craig1 · Guru

G'day Doug,
Another forum I watch a fair bit has a pretty strict rule about using existing posts even when old. Sorry to hear about Rockylizard.
I thought of the Charlie Pride song " the snakes crawl at night", but then reread the lyrics, pretty much a Hank Williams theme "your cheatin heart"

blaze · Guru

Mike Harding wrote:
I've not come across a Tiger snake in the bush but I have reliable reports from two people who have that they will chase a human! Interestingly I haven't found a snake book or expert which confirms this?

Me and a mate were sitting on the bank of a dam, waiting on daylight to get a bag of wild duxks, about 5.30 iin the morning. Heard this funny noise behind us, turned around and a bloody great tiger snake, head about 4 foot in the air and coming quick. Emptied the bentley 5 shot mag before the snake stoped. It ended up being about 7 foot long, biggest one I have seen. Got no ducks either

cheers

blaze

spida · Guru

Is it just me or did others get a shock to see a post from Rockylizard???? Maybe someone has reposted an old one of his - or else he has a computer in heaven! RIP my friend.

Plain Truth · Guru

We finally bought a snake bandage to take away on our last trip,hope we never have to use it.

If bitten apply to the limb,pull the bandage tight till the rectangles on the bandage turn square,this gives the correct tension to slow the blood flow .Cost about $20

snake bandage.JPG

landy · Guru

Mike Harding wrote:

I've not come across a Tiger snake in the bush but I have reliable reports from two people who have that they will chase a human! Interestingly I haven't found a snake book or expert which confirms this?

Take it as confirmed Mike, I have had one chase me. Real hard to hit with a .303 but near misses blow them in the air well.
biggrin

Possum3 · Guru

Mike, Both Tiger and Brown snakes will aggressively "chase you" in the bush as they are very territorial. I have been told the Desert Taipan (Fierce Snake) is also aggressive, but as I have run over a couple whilst driving I haven't first hand knowledge of their aggressiveness, www.britannica.com/animal/taipan

I am a great fan of St Patrick and am very sorry his travels didn't extend to Australia. www.irishpost.com/life-style/who-was-saint-patrick-and-what-miracles-did-he-perform-204085

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Its the two legged snakes to be aware of . Especially around big house in Canberra !

Whenarewethere · Guru

landy wrote:
Mike Harding wrote:

I've not come across a Tiger snake in the bush but I have reliable reports from two people who have that they will chase a human! Interestingly I haven't found a snake book or expert which confirms this?

Take it as confirmed Mike, I have had one chase me. Real hard to hit with a .303 but near misses blow them in the air well.

We had a Tiger snake in Tasmania in 1992 chase us along a dirt road. They are fast, but it did give up after about 30 metres & headed off into the scrub.

dogbox · Guru

Plain Truth wrote:

We finally bought a snake bandage to take away on our last trip,hope we never have to use it.
If bitten apply to the limb,pull the bandage tight till the rectangles on the bandage turn square,this gives the correct tension to slow the blood flow .Cost about $20

work use to supply a snake bite kit for anyone working bush consisted of two Band-Aids an a bible ,someone thought they had a sense of humor