Carpet Python in Gum Tree - discuss

[Ralph1Malph]

Hi All,
Wifey woke me up this morning to alert me to the screaching of a million cockatoos that normally live in our gum tree.
The culprit....a largish carpet python.:(
I rang a local snake charmer who advised me to simply leave it alone and it'll move on this evening.
Now, he was a nice enough fellow and the advice seemed sound but he was not able answer the most important question...where will it move on too? At the moment I am prepared to leave it alone (I have no choice, it's way up there) but I am concerned if it decides to move into my roof or SIII!:mad:
It also comes to mind that it may already live amongst us rent free!:eek:

So, I am advice shopping, what can I do to discourage the blighter from taking residence in my turf?

C'mon, admit it, there is a little bit of Ophidiophobia in all of us:cool:

Update***
Whilst ringing around the neighborhood for a shotgun, (liscenced of course) our neighbor accross the road told me that it mainly lives in and around their patio eating the little birds and critters that frequent their patch.
Hopefully it'll move on back!
They also said that they measured it some months ago at roughly 3.5 m!:eek:

Ralph

[p38arover]

Carpet Python in Gum Tree - discuss




http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachments/general-chat/42181d1325546600-carpet-python-gum-tree-discuss-dscf0005.jpg

I think you need to adjust the camera exposure to allow for the backlighting of the snake! :p

[weeds]

i'm sure you will come up with some sort of crafty :cool: idea to keep him out of your place

[tonic]

What a ripper, if you do not have a food source around your home it will generally not hang around. It is like any other creature, food, water shelter. So unless you have possums, rates, birds etc living in your house, shed, S111, it will move on. It won’t hurt you so give up on the shotgun idea. Might like your cat or lap dog if you have one. If you want it to move, make noise or tap in the opposite direction to where you want it to go. If you tap the tree under it, it will go higher and of course the opposite. If you play with it, it will get upset and the bite will bleed like you would not believe as they have an anticoagulant in their saliva, their small teeth are designed for food not to come back out, so getting them to let go is a trick. Unless hurt, very very placid and great to have around.

[Benz]

yeah i urge you not to kill the poor thing...

it will move on as posted above.

only reason it would move into your roof/shed/house would be if you had rats or mice in there.

but if you do find it in your shed or wherever just leave it alone and call the snake guy again.
he should come get it.
haha my bet is he didn't want to climb a tree after a snake.

[Blknight.aus]

yep, dont panic about that one, usually non fatal to humans and only likey to go your pet cat/rat/minature dog.

leave him be.

[It'sNotWorthComplaining!]

put your neighbors shotgun away, snakes are fully protected fauna. There was a post the other day about a brown snake sun baking minding it's own buiness and some one killed it.

[101RRS]

Earlier in the year I found a diamond python caught in my neighbours bird nettling - it was quite placid and I was able to release it without drama even though it had obviously caught a bird near the netting. As my front yard was heavy with vegetation I just released it there and I assume it is happily still there hunting rats, mice and birds.

Beautiful creatures - let it find its own way - though keep your little kids, dogs and cats away. There was an article last week in Qld where a big python did get hold of a 4yo kid and had him all coiled up - snake was a bit miffed of being deprived of its human dinner and bit the rescuers as few times but all ended well for snake and 4yo.

Garry

[Ralph1Malph]

put your neighbors shotgun away, snakes are fully protected fauna.

I wasn't really gunna shoot it, more poetic liscence to keep my kids and wife alert to the fact that I am descended from hunters not gatherers!:wasntme:

I'll leave it well alone except for the fact that as earlier posted, we have possums, rakes, birds and all sorts of critters as we live on the fringe.;)

Apparently it has been around the street for ages so it is kind of a local resident.

I thought the pics were ok for a guy who sets every camera setting to 'auto'.:p:p

Ralph

[austastar]

Hi,
I pulled one out of a tree to photograph it once, (sort of Harry Butler like) and got bitten on the hand for my troubles.
Yep! I did bleed lots for one quick strike.

Dressing the wound later on, I found teeth marks of at least three bites, upper teeth marks in 3 separate bites on the back of my hand, with 2 bite marks on the palm.

I also extracted about 3 small sharp teeth embedded in the back of my hand.

The photos weren't all that good either, the mottled sunlight was just too contrasty for the film I was using at the time.

Nest time I won't hassle the reptile at all, but he was magnificent to hold, absolutely beautiful.

cheers

[s7000]

I had a similar dilemma a few years back when I was living at my mums. We had a 2+m diamond python make it's way into our yard for a few days. WIRES wanted nothing to do with it as it wasn't injured, and the council didn't say much except from it'll move on.

We ended up calling Taronga Zoo who swung by and picked it up the next morning.

Good luck!

[p38arover]

I thought the pics were ok for a guy who sets every camera setting to 'auto'.:p:p

I thought we only had to discuss the pix! :D

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Leave it there, it may catch a few of the cockatoo and therefore leave the tree and your house in one piece. And not cause a racket all day.

We have red-belly blacks at our farm, and leave them alone because they eat the field mice, plus baby tiger and brown snakes.

My neice's kids are well trained to watch out for and identify the snakes, then keep clear.

Much rather have a python, but m. nature has not seen it that way!

[LandyAndy]

Taste like chicken dont they;););););)
You will need a big pan to roast it it:cool::cool::cool::cool:
As a few have said,its harmless,and even worth having around,wouldnt mind one here to harvest a few cats;);););)
Andrew

[ATH]

We were camped at Silent Grove off the GRR last year when a 3 metre Olive Python slid through one of our sites and the lady trod on it.
She then runs screaming to me about a snake in the camp so as the snake busters are a long way from there I went for a look and declared it harmless just as the normal "shovel wielding bash it to death brigade" arrived.
Then the ranger appeared and told the throthing throng that there was a 20K fine for killing a snake in the park and that quietened them down a bit.:D
After some had had a hold of it or a stroke he took it away but said later it had a habit of coming into camps at night and it was lucky it hadn't met death by shovel before.
I like snakes and will avoid running them over if I can go round without swerving and possibly losing control.
Alan.

[Ralph1Malph]

I like snakes and will avoid running them over if I can go round without swerving and possibly losing control.
Alan.

Thats the very point!
I have nothing against most critters but a little bit of NIMBYitis seems to overpower the facts.
At least for this critter it is safe as most of the neighbors have had visits before, this is our first:D:D so as long as it moves on like a short term guest, all will be good.:p

Ralph

[woody]

There was an article last week in Qld where a big python did get hold of a 4yo kid and had him all coiled up - snake was a bit miffed of being deprived of its human dinner and bit the rescuers as few times but all ended well for snake and 4yo.

Garry

more than likely the snake was disturbed and attacked as a defensive reaction, biting him on the leg and coiling around the little boy.

This is quite common when handling pythons (especially extricating them from difficult spots). If you are bitten by a python, try not to flinch and pull away as that is when your flesh is torn by their teeth, simply relax :o and blow into their face until they let go.

If on the other hand it's a venomous snake try putting your head between you legs and kissing your posterior goodbye unless versed in first aid and the P.I.T ;)

[blitz]

I get such a thrill when I see a snake (or any timid australian wild life) particularly now that I am in SE QLD as most of the hunters have been killed off by cane toads, we have a golden tree snake that lives in teh meter box and I make sure that the person coming to read it doesn't kill it.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

I had a similar dilemma a few years back when I was living at my mums. We had a 2+m diamond python make it's way into our yard for a few days. ...Whiteman's the stock feed and grain store in Camden a few years ago had a diamond python in the warehouse to keep the mice and rats down, much better than a cat. Occasionally it would visit the retail shopfront via the shute used to deliver bags to the front.

It met it's demise at the hands of the mindless shovel brigade too.

[101RRS]

When I was a trainee Observer at the RAAF's School of Air Navigation the young pilots had a pet python that they kept in a tank in the crew room. It was called Trouser Snake.

Once they took it out to one of the HS748 trainers and the snake managed to get itself up into the aircraft dashboard and took ages to get the thing back out - people were not happy.

The snake was fed mice purchased from the local petshop until an article about Trouser appeared in either Post or People Magazine which was being published at the time. The owner of the petshop read the article and banned the pilots from his shop - over time the distance required to travel to get food increased and increased as petshop owners started to wise up to what was happening to their mice.

Not sure what happened to Trouser but I believe the the pilots ended up having to get frozen mice shipped in from Melbourne to fed it.

Garry

[Don 130]

Here's our 'Monty' drinking from the dogs dish. Your's won't do you any harm, please leave it be.

[hodgo]

Should he happen to die Ralph inthe near future, keep his skin I should be able get a ladies handbag, purse and a wallet or two out of that skin.

hodgo

[It'sNotWorthComplaining!]

Hi,
I pulled one out of a tree to photograph it once, (sort of Harry Butler like) and got bitten on the hand for my troubles.
Yep! I did bleed lots for one quick strike.

Dressing the wound later on, I found teeth marks of at least three bites, upper teeth marks in 3 separate bites on the back of my hand, with 2 bite marks on the palm.

I also extracted about 3 small sharp teeth embedded in the back of my hand.

The photos weren't all that good either, the mottled sunlight was just too contrasty for the film I was using at the time.

Nest time I won't hassle the reptile at all, but he was magnificent to hold, absolutely beautiful.

cheers
Snakes don't floss or clean their teeth so even a bite from any reptile could cause an infection

[ramblingboy42]

the ones around the Yarra Ranges might'nt, but they all floss and brush up here......dont want to have bad breath when they bite.

[wrinklearthur]

Tasmania has only three types of snakes, Tiger, copperhead and white lipped whip snake.

All of which, have the most potent type of venom found in snakes anywhere, the only thing that makes them less deadly than say a taipan is the fact that the venom runs down a gutter on the back of the fangs and not injected like a needle.

The reason that people get bit in the first place, is that they either surprise the snake by treading on it ( I was bit on the trouser leg and will tell all you about it, another day. ) or torment it by poking at it.

There are some big shiny Black Tiger snakes to be found here in Tassie, particularly in the black soil, river marsh flats

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=42219&stc=1&d=1325594392

I came across one that had its tail in the grass on the side of the road and its head was over the other side of the white centre line, I didn't stop as I was travelling fast, it was on a corner and I didn't see it until I was right on to it. I guess it's thickness to be something about the size of a well built man's forearm.

Yes I did run over it and felt the bump as both set of wheels struck it. the spooky thing was when looking back in the mirror, the snake then threw itself over and doubled back, disappearing back into the grass, I was not going to mess with that one by following it.
.

[p38arover]

Ruddy heck! :eek:

[Discomark]

Olive Pythons are said to grow to 6.5 Metres in the Kimberly region. A few years ago a bushwalker came across this one in a gorge trying to drag a Wallaby up the side of the gorge. If you look closely to the right you can see that not all the snake is in frame, pretty impressive shot and bloody big snake!