First topic message reminder :

Whilst working on the electrics for our water pump and sitting in a shallow manhole in the garden, Annette arrived and walked around the immediate area and found our dog Badger clawing at a snake skin laying nearby. This in itself was no problem, but unknown to any of us until I had finished work on the electrics, in a wide crack of one of our troughs lay the real thing!!

So there it was languishing in this crack of the trough no more than 10 feet from where I was sitting. Having inspected the creature, but no too close up you understand, it is in the region of one or two metres long and has a beige coloured skin with diamond type design on it. I am not going to disturb it, as far I am concerned it can stay as long as it likes as long as it doesn't move of course!! Has anyone any idea of the species and whether it is dangerous to us mere humans?

bgbazz wrote:

I pulled one out of a hole in my house wall a couple of years ago..MIL saw it going in, alerted me, so I grabbed it by the tail and slowly drew it out..ended up being almost six feet long! So much for grass snakes not biting..this one got me three times (once on the hand and twice on my face) before I got it over the wall and into the creek!!! Growing up in Australia, I developed a healthy respect for snakes, but not a fear of them.

If one gets into the manhole while we are doing the pump on Monday and although I am older than you, I know which one of us will be out first!!

Scunnered wrote:

We had one in the house this morning, just behind the back door! I was alerted by one of the dogs barking, and I nearly had a fit when I saw it.
I managed to get the dog out then shut the door. Husband was out for the day, so I phoned a friend who said he would come round. Meanwhile, I grabbed an empty plant trough and luckily I was able to trap it underneath. Friend duly arrived and we were able to get it into a sack and release it elsewhere. The dogs were going crazy! Not an experience I'd like to repeat, but it was only a grass snake, albeit over a metre in length.
Just hope it hasn't got any relatives still in the house! :shock:

Goodness Scunnered, if Annette had been put in the same position as you I don't know what she would have done. Probably fainted to begin with, until she woke up and found it draped around her prostrate body and then she would have fainted again!!

Unfortunately I had no choice, Itchy. I was on my own and didn't want the dogs to attack it, or for it to disappear somewhere else in the house! When I trapped it, it was heading for underneath the freezer.
I'm not scared of snakes, but would not be keen to pick one up! My daughter in law has several as pets and I have handled them on occasion. Not my idea as a cuddly pet, but each to their own!

Scunnered wrote:

Unfortunately I had no choice, Itchy. I was on my own and didn't want the dogs to attack it, or for it to disappear somewhere else in the house! When I trapped it, it was heading for underneath the freezer.
I'm not scared of snakes, but would not be keen to pick one up! My daughter in law has several as pets and I have handled them on occasion. Not my idea as a cuddly pet, but each to their own!

Our two Terriers found one in a pile of wood yesterday, it was a darkish colour with some markings and about 18 inches long. We put the dogs indoors for a while and expected the snake to go somewhere else, hopefully not in the house like yours. Haven't seen it since, so all is well down on the farm.

Now this is something that freaks me out! We do get snakes out here (pythons and cobras), but I have not had to encounter one yet. We have 'snake ladies' who you call when you see one and they come and collect them. I think they make soup with them - snake soup is popular in winter as it is believed to fortify your blood.

My friend who lives in a rural area here uses BBQ tongs and shoves the snake in a pillow case if she catches one in her house.

We have these in the trees, never seen them anywhere else, There were nests of baby birds last year that kept getting eaten by these snakes, A few times ive been pruning the vines and put my hand up and found one right by my hand, there well over a meter long I would say they may be 2m long, theres loads of them!

They dont seem to bite....yet! , this one was a bit angry as I was pokeing it with a long stick to make it move away

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