Unwelcome visitor.

Just had to come on and tell you of our funny night last night with an unwelcome visitor. No, it wasn't a neighbour or relative, although some of those can be unwelcome at times.
I was soundly sleeping when Hubby came in and woke me.
He said he needed my help as there was a snake in the laundry. Picture me( as I don't wear anything to bed and I had been asleep) getting up to take on a snake. ( I did stop to put on a brunchcoat)
Hubby sits up late on his radio talking to other hams around the world , then usually has a wander around outside before he comes to bed. As he stepped onto the step of the laundry to turn on the outside light, the snake hissed and tried to strike. He was extremely lucky it did not get his leg. The hiss warned hubby and he was able to jump back.
Our laundry is part of the house and has 1 step up, also the toilet is right there too. The back door is just past them. The snake was a tiger snake and about 4' long. Quite a large one for this area. He was nice and fat too. Probably lots of mice from the neighbours hay shed. He must have got lost and really could have been in there for days. There is the washing machine and freezer to hide under.
Hubby could not go to sleep knowing it was there and he was afraid it may come in the house where it could go anywhere and maybe bite me.. He had to catch it .
He had his snake pole and a shovel , so carefully standing on our little stepladder, he managed to get the things off the top of the freezer so he could move it.( It is only a small freezer) Moving the freezer around , we also managed to get the washing machine out giving him room to move.
I was standing guard with the torch in case the snake came out the door. What was I going to do if he did come out ? Throw the torch at him?
Eventually after about an hour of hubby making a lot of noise ( while still up on the stepladder ), the snake came out very fast and hubby hit him with the shovel. Poor thing (the snake I mean ) He had to die, as he was heading for the inside and we can't afford to have any of the little darlings wandering around inside the house.
We do see snakes here from time to time but usually outside and mostly copperheads which are a lot more docile.
This one was a beauty with all the tiger stripes. I always feel sorry when one has to killed but there are times when it is necessary.
Hubby threw him outside and by this morning the evidence had been taken away by some creature who needed a meal.
That was the excitement for the night .
Looking back this morning , one can have a laugh at the antics in the middle of the night.
It is misty again this morning so will be another fine day.
Have a great day everyone.
I found a pic from Vic museum so our overseas friends can see what the tiger snake looks like, although they are not all the same color and vary from area to area. This was what our one was like.
Have a great day all. Jean.

Jean,
what an experience. We get the occasional tiger snake around here, but none has so far ventured into the house. Fay got a picture of this one on our patio. A moment before, it was reaching up to try and get onto our bird table, which is just above the top of the picture.
Kennedy

THAT would have been a little too much excitment for me!!! LOL... Sorry you had to kill it but I'm glad you and husband are both ok. ~ Pat

Fay also had a close encounter with a snake in the garden just yesterday.

She was about to drive into Morwell, and walked along the back path and opened the side door of the garage. We have a Virginia Creeper, growing in the corner between the garage wall and the house, and as she was turning to pick up her shopping bags after opening the garage door, she came face to face with a Copperhead, at eye-level in the Virginia Creeper!

She called me out and the snake stayed there, a large and very beautiful copperhead. For any American readers, this Australian Copperhead is very different from yours. It is Austrelaps superbus and I attach a picture of one photographed previously. It is poisonous, although not usually at all aggressive. I hoped for a picture, but it was too dark and too confused among the stems of the creeper.

Fay then went and called the local snake-catcher, while I kept an eye on the snake. My presence kept the snake in the same place and the Snake-catcher arrived remarkably quickly, only 5 minutes I reckon from when Fay called him.

It was interesting and a bit alarming to watch him at work. As soon as he reached for the snake in the creeper it dropped to the ground. He try to grab its tail, but it shot off at high speed along the bed beside the house, but stopped when it got into the cover of our Daphne bush. I thought he would be hard-pressed to find it there, but almost immediately he reached in and pulled the snake out by the tail.

It was large for a copperhead, about 4 feet long and very lively. He had a girl with him, possibly his daughter and she held a long back on the end of a pole for him, while he tried to manoeuvre the snake into the bag. The snake kept rearing up at him and he repeatedly had to shake it down, while holding it out at arm's length and holding it high to keep it well off the ground and high enough to get it into the bag.

The girl held the bag rather high and all his first efforts failed, but eventually the bag was lowered enough and the snake was dropped in the bag and secured.

He said that he will take it to a large bush property, well away from the town and release it there, so no harm should come to the snake.

Here is a picture of a copperhead, taken in Tasmania in February 1973, our second month in Australia

and here is one more picture of the same Copperhead, that I worked in marquetry some years ago. The snake has 1600 scales in the picture, each of which is a different piece of wood!

Kennedy, your art is BEAUTIFUL!!!! Thank you for sharing a picture of it.

Really nice kennedy! I saw a snake yesterday also. I think it was a python, so I let it be and worked elsewhere in the garden. It must be snake season eh? I don't know how big it was, but its head was about 3" long and it was about 50mm in diametre around the widest part of its body. It slithered accross the concrete and then curled up amongst the Cannas where it could keep an eye on me!
This is its body

weed-woman, that is indeed a python, the Diamond Python Morelia spilota. What a lovely snake. I have long wanted to see a python in the wild, but although they do just reach Victoria, they are nowhere near here.
Yesterday was definitely the day for snakes!

Kennedy

hello everyone. what beautiful work kennedy. Please show us more if you have it.
I like your python Sue. i was lucky enough to hold one many years ago when my late first husband worked at the Melb. Zoo.
We have been having a good laugh about our little adventure last night. You can laugh after the event but it was dangerous at the time. Me half naked holding a torch and hubby up on the stepladder waving a snake stick and shovel. No wonder the poor snake wanted out. Shame we had to kill him but this is necessary sometimes.
We are privileged to be able to see these creatures but need to be aware of safety.It apparently is a good year for the Tiger snake here and I hope we don't have any more close encounters of the dangerous kind.
We usually only see the quiet copperhead if we see a snake at all. I always wear solid shoes and make noise when I'm about the garden. Today has been quiet so far and I would like it to stay that way.
Must have a cuppa and show hubby the pic of kennedys snake. Have a great day all. Jean.

oh how scary. all these snake stories make me shiver.

we have only seen one snake in the nearly two years that we have been here... i so hope that is the only one i get to see. as nice as they are - a picture is enough for me or to see them in the cages at the zoo!!

shelly