As we slither out of a warmer-than-normal winter and into spring, Parramatta locals are urged to be on the lookout for any unwanted visitors as snake season officially begins.
It’s been a busy start to the season for Australian Snake Catchers owner Sean Cade, with the warmer weather seeing snakes like the eastern brown come out earlier than usual.
And with even more snake sightings expected in the coming weeks as the reptiles search for mates, Cade is reminding residents to remain vigilant and take precautions.
“During winter people would have had firewood stacked by their house, that’s good shelter and a hiding spot for snakes, so you want to clean up debris and rubbish and long grass, tidy up the garden and stuff like that,” he said.
“Just don’t make it a nice inviting habitat for the snakes to investigate because snakes are generally only going to be in people’s backyards for food or shelter, so if you eliminate both of those things you reduce your chance of having an encounter.”
Cade said that areas with lots of new developments tend to be a hotspot for snake activity.
“Anytime there’s a new development they vibrate the earth quite violently and then the snakes all go in different directions, and then when the development is finished they tend to go back to where they started,” he added.
“They’re pushing them from an area that was undisturbed previously and it’s going into surrounding suburbs that are kind of established now. When stuff like that happens it’s always a good idea to be vigilant.”
Cade said he is often called out to the Parramatta and Cumberland areas “half a dozen times a month,” with the red belly black, eastern brown and golden-crowned snake the most common ones locals will come across.
While residents in areas like Baulkham Hills and North Rocks are more likely to encounter the harmless common tree snake.
Recently, Cade was called out to home on North Rocks Road, after a golden-crowned snake slithered into the garage, much to the concern of the family living there.
“When it’s in your house, people freak out, they just don’t want it there,” he said.
If locals do find themselves face to face with a snake, Cade suggests three things: don’t approach it, keep pets and kids away from it, and call a professional snake catcher.
“They’re shy, they’re purely defensive creatures by nature, so 90 per cent of people bitten are people trying to catch or trying to kill a snake,” he continued.
In the event that someone does get bitten by snake, Cade recommends residents have a compression bandage on hand to wrap around the bite site, and to call triple zero.
Find out more about Australian Snake Catchers at http://www.facebook.com/australiansnakecatchers.
Ellie Busby is a news reporter for Western Sydney Publishing Group. A graduate of the University of Hertfordshire and Western Sydney University, she is a journalism Major. Ellie has worked with Universal Media, The Cova Project and for a range of other organisations. In 2024, Ellie was named Young Writer of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards.