Sparky‘s horror discovery of 15 snake skins in roof

SNAKES. Why did it have to be snakes? This local electrician's worst nightmare came true when a family of fresh snakeskins were uncovered on the job.

Elliot Mangan and his apprentice Braydon found a horrifying 15 snake skins in the roof of an unsuspecting Blackbutt home. Facebook/Elliot Mangan

ELECTRICIAN Elliot Mangan is used to finding all kinds of creepy creatures hiding in the nooks and crannies of South Burnett homes, but this was something entirely new.

Hired to set up some downlights at a Blackbutt property, the sparky duo uncovered a treasure trove of eerily fresh snake skins, amounting to a horrifying 15 in total.

"My apprentice Braydon was up in the roof and he's yelling, 'there's bloody snake skins everywhere' and he actually pulled a few out. I was really edgy about getting up in the roof, because I'm petrified of snakes - I've got a bit of a snake phobia," Mr Mangan said.

A little later on Mr Mangan found his nerve and squeezed into some of the tight spots in the roof to get the job done.

"I ended up getting up there a bit later on. I had to crawl down into some tight spots, because Braydon's a bit larger than me," he said.

"We found a heap more in all the eaves. Luckily we didn't find a live one, thankfully, but they were fresh skins, so we definitely knew they were up there."

"I climbed right down in the eave and I was on high alert because I was looking for a live snake. I was getting my hand down the side of the wall, and then I looked to my right there's a bloody snake skin with its mouth open right at my head."

While it is tempting to convince yourself the skins came from a single snake, who'd decided to take up residence at this Blackbutt home a while back, unfortunately, this is not the case.

According to Mr Mangan, the growing pile of snake skins were not only fresh, but were different sizes too - including small baby snake sized sheddings.

The men had stumbled across a snake breeding ground in the roof of this house.

"Before we even got up there the owners were saying 'we've actually never seen a snake out here', so they couldn't believe all the snake skins we were pulling out the roof."

"In the last 20 years they've never seen a snake here. Apparently, because they're all in the roof."

In 11 years, this is the first time Mr Mangan has seen anything like this, but is still thankful he hasn't yet come across a live one.

"I've had plenty of my sparky mates, who actually have come into live carpet snakes in the roof. But I've always said if I ever saw one I'd jump straight through the gyprock - through the roof."

"We obviously get a lot of spiders in our job, there's spiders and spider webs everywhere, so if you have a phobia of spiders, being an electrician obviously wouldn't be for you. But snakes, you usually don't see too many."

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