Homeowners encouraged to clean their yards before snake season starts

A Western Downs snake catcher has reflected on his previous snake season, which kicked off in a surprising manner. Find out more and his top tips for staying safe here.

In the depths of winter a Western Downs snake catcher has used the quieter time of year to reflect on the past snake season while offer some advice on how to stay safe once the mercury starts to rise and the reptiles become more active.

Typically running from September to April, snake season sees the cold blooded reptiles emerge from their bromate period as the weather warms up and spring arrives.

Snake catcher Jackson Burgess said they had a fairly busy season catching up to 50 snakes.

“It wasn't as busy as the previous season but it was still fairly busy,” he said.

“Generally most of the snakes hanging around you don't see, so it could be as simple as people were spending less time in the yards.

“It can be a lot to do with conditions as well, when it doesn't get super hot they seek out less shelter so are less likely to end up inside.

“The most common snakes we see are eastern brown snakes and red belly black snakes and I’d estimate we caught around the 40 to 50 number.”

Western Downs snake catcher Jackson Burgess found a high number of eastern brown and red belly black snakes

Jackson Burgess has urged Western Downs residents to prepare now for snake season.

Mr Burgess said his season had got off to a surprise start.

“The very first snake I caught last season interrupted my Father’s Day breakfast and it turned out to be someone else’s escaped pet that was hiding under their fridge,” he said.

“It was a jungle python which was native to Northern Queensland and that kicked off snake season for me so that was pretty cool.

“I get a lot of calls for them in gardens but the ones I most commonly catch are the ones that get inside people's houses, you’ll find them under ovens and fridges, underneath couches and cupboards, places like that.

“First thing I will do is find out where the snake was last seen and I’ll start checking the most common hiding spots for them and if you find them in the first five minutes it’s all good but once it starts dragging out it gets less and less likely you’ll find it.

“They are really good at hiding and when they hear something coming for them they get on the move quickly.

“It's about establishing the last place it was seen, working out the most likely route it would've taken, then starting to check all the hiding spots around.

“I have a catch bag and I just have a little hook to get them out of their heading places so I can grab them by the tail and pop them in the bag.”

Western Downs Snake Catcher Jackson Burgess took this photo of one of the snakes he relocated earlier this year.

Mr Burgess encouraged people to spend the winter cleaning up their yards before snake season started.

“Now we are in winter it is a good idea to start cleaning up all of the scrap around your yard, anything the snake could use as a shelter source, start getting rid of that now so they don’t have somewhere to hide,” he said.

“They are cold blooded animals and rely on heat to digest and have energy so when the colder month set in they go in brumation and spend majority of the day hiding.

“I caught a snake last Saturday in Miles but that was the only one since winter kicked in.”

Originally published as Homeowners encouraged to clean their yards before snake season starts