15 replies to this topic

[bigjohnnofish]

well it must be well and truly snake season.... digging out a stump today alongside driveway... to make driveway a little wider as some of my mates driving skills are a little to be desired...

the bush adjaecent to the drive had been burnt off... i heard this thing coming today from about 50m away... it was making a B-line for me in a hurry.... i waited till it was about 10m away hoping it would deviate or turn around... no chance... im not too quick on my feet but the long handle shovel held it down just far enough away from me.... i was stuck if i lifted the shovel to strike the snake it would of got me.... so there i am holding this snake with 2 hands on the shovel and no-one around.... musta been an hour till nextdoor neighbour drove past... i yelled out for some help and he heard me and drove in jumped out in a hurry... i got him to grab my steel rake and re-pin tiger down... then he was history... about 2m long and thick as your arm... certainly gets the addrenalin pumping and gives ya ticker a good workout.... tiger snakes are pretty aggressive and can quite often attack and chase you... i suppose these are protected too.... not on my property....

heres a pic of a smaller one i got in the house in a rat trap last year.... incidently we took this one to the snake guy in mt helena and he ended up killing it - broken back or something!!







oh and p.s. the dugite couple days ago had half his mouth split and smashed from the whipper snipper!

[scottyhooton]

Sounds like you need some snake repellent jhonno or perhaps a pet mongoose

[Anka]

Pet mongoose LMAO

[bigjohnnofish]

Sounds like you need some snake repellent jhonno or perhaps a pet mongoose

the long handle shovel has worked wonders over the years... one of my dogs is a good snake dog... he got 2 tigers last year as well...

people are keeping more horses and stock around us lately which attracts the snakes to their water troughs... not to mention an increase in rat numbers.....

my grandad got bitten by a tiger 25 odd years ago and i remember him telling me it was pretty painfull... and grans driving to the hospital didnt help either lol...
musta hurt for someone of my grandads calibre to say it... WWII veteran fighting behind german lines.... captured tortured escaped etc etc...

[ice]

Johnno if you're concerned about more tigers Id wack on some thick welding gloves and grab your shovel and go and check out where that snake came from. Pretty good chance it was a big female and she was probably on a clutch of eggs or had a little brood of hatchlings to protect. Generally they don't attack un-provoked unless that is the case.

Would love to see some pictures of the big one!!?

Also, good way to kill them is using a big long tube of sturdy PVC pipe (probably about 40mm), its nice and flexable so it flattens out on impact but puts enough force through to do some real damage. Learned that trick from an old farmer mate after asking why the hell he had bits of PVC pipe all over the place on the farm haha.

-Dave

[choombies]

What kind of noise did it make from 50m away??

[Niz]

Ssssssss!

[Conda]

good for you,maybe u need to lend my dog mojo she has taken out 2 snakes in the last year!

[JimmyTheFish]

OK, I'm not a big snake advocate or anything and like anyone else feeling threatened by person or animal isn't fun, but I think there are a lot of misconceptions floating around these posts about snakes that have been posted lately. All snake species in Western Australia as far as I know are protected and killing them can cost a hefty fine. Again not a snake advocate, but from what I've heard via reliable resources both in healthcare and DEC, most snake bites result from people attempting to catch, restrain or kill snakes.

From my experiences with tiger snakes, being an ex-reptile keeper, are not overly aggressive, they just have a tendancy to not move when approached. They specialise in feeding on frogs so the most common places to find them is near freshwater on the swan coastal plain, not the hills and not the bush. You do not want to be bitten by a Tiger snake. They are live bearing and don't lay eggs. I have a mate who has been bitten twice, the first time was quite bad, the second just about killed him. A third bite he has been told will be the end!

The snake in Johnno pic looks like a dugite or gwardar from the brown snake family. These are extremely fast moving snakes when they are warm. They specialise in hunting mice and rats so if you have vermin around your property due to livestock feed or anything else this will attract the snakes (mouse trap in pic!!!). They will strike if cornered or threatened, but for the most part they will just take off and hide. We are much bigger than they so they will feel threatened just by our presence. These are egg layers, but the females have no parental care so they won't hang around and protect a nest.

I would caution everyone about mucking around with these animals, leave it to the expert removalists (snake busters 24 hour revomals - 0412 777 211) and some info on how to treat snake bite http://members.iinet...ush/firsta.html

Also, my other mates dog has been bitten by a Tiger snake twice before and this ended up being a very stressful and costly outcome for he and his family (over $2000 in vet bills for anti-venom the last time). So I would advise keeping pets away from snakes as well because eventually a "snake dog's" luck will run out.

Cheers

Edited by JimmyTheFish, 12 January 2012 - 05:56 PM.

[MONSTAF1SH]

Good story...
But even better post Jimmy.

[bigjohnnofish]

hi jimmy funny you should post that link up... brian lives 5mins round the corner from us... i grew up with his daughter kylie at school....

brian id the snake as a young tiger.. dugites tend to be all one shade of colour up here in the hills.... and tiger snakes up here have become very aggressive and will approach you... dugites will make a dash for the nearest cover and try to disappear... as yet we havent come across any other species... excluding trouser snakes!!!

[ryan overfield]

excluding trouser snakes!!! lmaoooo

[mattt]

Find quite a few of those each week do ya?

[brado]

awesome read johno! bet you've never been happier to see the neighbour..

[bigjohnnofish]

awesome read johno! bet you've never been happier to see the neighbour..

you could say that again.... musta looked funny extended leaning over a long handle shovel now that i think about it.... lol....
musta been too hot for snakes today...

Find quite a few of those each week do ya?

yeah the missus tends to find it all the time... lol...

[Mausberg]

aww its just a baby. you should see some of the idiots here at work..sitting outside the wet mess the other day when a baby king brown slithered up to a table of electricians "oh wow its so cute" they said and tried to pick it up.......... bad idea.