Yarrambat family warned to brace for baby brown snakes after mum caught

A snake catcher called to a Yarrambat family’s home to catch a brown snake — the second deadliest snake on the planet — has walked into one of his most “unusual cases”. Now he’s urging the family, who live near the local primary school, to be cautious.

Snake handler Mark Pelley is being inundated with calls for help. Picture: Ian Currie

At least 15 baby brown snakes could be crawling throughout a family home in Yarrambat after a professional serpent catcher caught the mother, but her hatchlings slithered away.

Mark Pelley, widely known as the Snake Hunter, caught a tiger snake swimming at the same property’s pool near Yarrambat Primary School on Friday and then returned to catch an adult brown snake the next day.

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But the homeowner noticed three other baby brown snakes, which Mr Pelley could not search for due to being bombarded with other requests for help.

Mr Pelley warned brown snakes typically laid about 15 eggs and urged the family to be cautious for the next few days.

Mark Pelley caught a tiger snake in a swimming pool at the same Yarrambat property where he returned a day later to catch a brown snake.

“It’s very scary that there could potentially be 15 baby brown snakes at this property, but I’ve warned them if they see any of them again to call me right away,” Mr Pelley said.

“It’s important that they don’t try to get rid of them without professional help; yes they’re baby snakes but they’re still the second deadliest snake on the planet.”

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Mr Pelley said it was “unusual” to discover so many snakes lurking on the same property at once.

“Normally they travel around searching for food, but because they’ve just hatched they’ll be hanging around for a little while.”

Mr Pelley said he had been inundated with service requests during spring and warned it was “only going to get worse”.

How to snake proof your home

1. Get rid of any rubbish: Rodents are attracted to rubbish and snakes love rodents. Mr Pelley recommended rubbish be put straight into the bin, and never left on the floor.

2. Maintain your garden: Mr Pelley said snakes loved messy and unkept gardens — it provided a perfect home for them. He advised homeowners to keep gardens tidy at all times, ensuring people could see as much ground as possible.

3. Don’t bother with snake-proof fencing: Mr Pelley advised homeowners against this because snakes slithered over the top of them anyway. He said baby snakes could still crawl through these fences. He also said rodents liked to dig beneath them.

4. Snake repellents are useless: They emit a pulsing vibration into the surrounding soil, which the snake is then meant to perceive as a source of danger and avoid. But Mr Pelley said they were ineffective. “If they did work I would sell them myself,” he said. “Snakes get around with their excellent sense of sight and smell — I wouldn’t call them deaf, but snakes notoriously have poor hearing so they normally can’t feel or hear these vibrations.”

5. Awareness: “This is the big one,” Mr Pelley warned. “Have a clean backyard, look before you move anything outside and just be aware that snakes can be anywhere at anytime.”

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