Diamond python slithers into Castle Hill roof after storm
IMAGINE spotting a snake disappear into your roof as you come home after work — one Castle Hill family had to grapple with just that yesterday.
Hills Shire
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THE AUSTRALIAN Snake Catchers came to the rescue after a Castle Hill homeowner Lyndal Chappell discovered a snake tail disappear into her roof.
Husband and wife duo Sean and Freya Cade rushed to the Trish Place home just after 7.30pm to find the diamond python had slithered into the roof above the front door.
“It took about two and a half hours to get to the snake,” Mrs Cade said.
Mr Cade climbed onto the roof, only hours after a storm had swept through the area.
“The roof-space was unable to be accessed through the main manhole,” Mr Cade said. “There was limited space on the roof due to sectional overhang. The roof tiles were also nailed onto battens. This made the snake extraction extremely tricky and time consuming so no tiles were broken.”
Mrs Cade said the most nerve-racking part of the snake extraction was making sure her husband did not slip off the roof.
“That was the most heart-stopping moment,” she said. “The roof and tiles were slippery after the storm and I could see his feet slip a couple of times.”
Proving it’s a small world after all, Mrs Cade said she had seen Ms Chappell at a school reunion two weeks earlier.
“I said to her, I’d see her at the next reunion in five years or if she had a snake,” she said. “She called me up and I thought she was joking. But when I heard that tone in her voice, I knew she was not.”
Ms Chappell said she had lived at the Trish Place house for just over a year and had not seen any snakes in that time.
“We’d seen photos a neighbour had taken of a red-bellied black snake in the street so they are around,” she said.
“I’d seen Freya two weeks before and knew she had a snake catching business so I called her immediately.
“I didn’t want it in my roof — I didn’t want to sleep knowing there was a snake above me.”
Ms Chappell said she had a small dog but he was inside at the time and out of harms way.
The diamond python, measuring more than 1m long, was unharmed and is in the process of being relocated into the wild.
Diamond pythons are not venomous and their diet consists mostly of lizards, birds and mammals, including possums and rats.
Large pythons can pose a risk to pets and have been known to take rabbits, guinea pigs, cats or small dogs.
Mrs Cade said the Australian Snakes Catchers had been called out to handle 10 snakes in the Hills alone over the past week.
To keep snakes at bay, move rubbish, woodpiles and water bowls away from the home and to keep yards clean and tidy.
To remove any snakes in your home or backyard, call the Australian Snake Catchers on 0410 761 575 or 0452 492 836.
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