Two brown snakes were found in Toowoomba bed rooms on Wednesday — one crawling under bedsheets, and another in a young boy’s bed room.
The snake catcher who moved both reptiles on the exact same day said the high variety of possibly lethal hatchlings in the location was uncommon for this time of year, and he provided a leading suggestion for residents seeking to snake-proof their houses.
VIEW THE VIDEO ABOVE: Brown snake discovered in Toowoomba citizen’s bed.
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The 2 eastern brown snake hatchlings were drawn from houses 12km apart on Wednesday by Darling Downs Snake Catchers’ Gunter Glasser.
One of them was found by a young Withcott kid in his bed room.
“A little boy found it — he was probably about four or five, I think. He saw it first and then (his) mother went into action,” Glasser informed 7NEWS.com.au.
She got her child out of the room, shut the door, and obstructed the space beneath the door with a towel, seeing it carefully till Glasser showed up to guarantee the animal didn’t get away.
When the catcher showed up, he found the snake immediately — however capturing it was another story. Seeing the hatchlings — already packed with powerful venom and quickly scared — can be tough offered their size. This one was simply 20cm long.
“The little ones, they can hide in practically (anything),” Glasser said. “They can curl up to (the size of) a 50c piece.
“I found it behind some toys, and then the next time I looked it was gone. It went right around the room and past the towel … straight out the door and into the next bedroom.
“I didn’t realise it had moved so far, usually they just hide somewhere — it had plenty of clutter to hide under — and I moved everything, I even pulled the bed apart, just in case.
“I was lucky to find it straight away in the next bedroom, I could’ve had to search the whole house.”
He said the child was lucky to identify the snake when he did.
“Generally, (snakes) won’t really attack anybody, but (the child) could’ve accidentally stepped on it, and then they’ve got no choice but to bite,” glasser said.
Deadly discover in between the sheets
Just 16 minutes down the roadway, a Newtown citizen reported another eastern brown hatchling, which Glasser discovered twitching around in the bed. This one even attempted to bite him.
“They’re really lively… really jumpy and wriggly, the little ones,” he said. “They think I’m gonna eat it.”
Glasser said it was uncommon to discover snakes in beds, as they generally adhered to the flooring. However, he said there might be a factor behind its area.
“(The room) was a bit cluttered, too — that’s probably how it got into the bed,” Glasser said.
“I searched the whole room and the wardrobe — the bed’s the last thing, and it just happened to be in there.
Glasser makes the job look easy, but he’s been hospitalised three times in his life from life-threatening snake bites.
The first two were from black snakes, which required anti-venom and 24 hours in hospital. The most recent bite was from a brown snake, which Glasser said “was a lot more serious.”
He said the brown snake bite treatment needed “four days in hospital and a lot of tests. It was pretty nasty.”
‘There’s been a lot more hatchlings’
Glasser said he and another snake catcher in the Lockyer Valley had actually moved an abnormally high variety of hatchlings for this time of year— and he provided sage suggestions for those seeking to keep their houses snake-free.
“Check all your fly screens for holes — especially doors, but even windows.”
“If they find a hole, they’ll possibly go in.”
He said the “opportunistic sticky-beaks” are “always exploring,” he said, including that they came inside to get away both cold and heat, along with to scope out their next meal.
“And then there’s all the gaps under all the outside doors. Make sure there’s no gap — and if there is, you get those draft stoppers which close the gap,” Glasser said.
“A little hatchling just needs a 6mm gap to get through, maybe even less.”
Despite reaching completion of hatchling season, according to the Australian Museum, it appears Glasser’s suggestions is still worth following in the location.
“This year there’s been a lot more hatchlings for pretty much everyone. There seems to be more hatchlings than normal,” Glasser said.
He included that the volume he had actually moved “this late in the season seems strange.”
