Spring has well and truly sprung and, as the mercury climbs, so too is the number of snakes being spotted around the place.
It always pays to be vigilant, especially when engaging in ‘high-risk’ activities such as collecting firewood or bushwalking. And grey nomads should certainly take into account their immediate surroundings when deciding where to set up camp. Parking the van in long grass, for example, could well be asking for trouble.
The unusually warm weather in many parts of the country and a couple of nasty incidents has just underlined once again the need for travellers to be ‘snake aware’.
In the last couple of days in Victoria, a 15-year-old girl was bitten by a snake near Mildura and a 40-year-old man was bitten while trying to kill a snake in his Sunbury home. Both were taken to hospital and are in a stable condition.
Snake catcher Raymond Hoser told the Melbourne Age that he had been called out to collect eight snakes across Melbourne on Monday and three on Sunday.
The most dramatic call-out involved an adult brown snake in the loungeroom of a home in Donvale, in Melbourne’s east.
“What usually happens on a warmish day is a snake will simply slither through an open door,” Mr Hoser told the Age. “The family was actually pretty calm considering the circumstances.”
Mr Hoser said it was unusual to be so busy in September.
“We don’t usually get busy until October or November,” he said. “But we’ve had a few warmish days and I think that’s flushing them out early.”
