Snakes in the grass – and under the piano, in the pool and in prison

SUNSHINE COAST, Australia – The phone rings.

It’s the local prison.

There is a snake in a cell.

Within hours, snakes were also spotted in a school, under a piano kept in a private garage and near a lagoon-shaped swimming pool in a nursing home.

Customers want them gone.

Business has never been better for Stuart McKenzie, who runs a snake-catching service on the Sunshine Coast, a verdant enclave along miles of pristine beaches in Australia’s vast state of Queensland.

On busier days, you may receive more than 35 calls about problem snakes.

Queensland It is home to the largest number of snake species in Australia: around 120.

Of them, two thirds They are poisonous and a handful are deadly.

Across Australia, snakebite deaths remain extremely rare (around two per year) and in Queensland the reptiles are simply part of life.

In the colder months of the year (historically April through September), snakes become sluggish and cannot eat, drink, defecate, or even move for weeks at a time.

But as the world warms and the climate in southern Queensland changes from subtropical to tropical, this brumation period is reducing, which means more clashes between humans and animals.

“Not only do snakes become more active earlier in the year and stay active longer, but it also means they will stay active longer at night,” said Bryan Fry, a professor of biology at the University of Queensland. .

On nights with temperatures above 28 or 29 degrees Celsius, or 82 degrees Fahrenheit, he added, the snakes will remain active all night.

McKenzie, 35, of Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7, says his winter holidays are getting shorter.

During a recent job, a 4-foot-long brown snake (the second most venomous snake species in the world, despite the sober name) was trapped between a screen and a window and needed to be removed.

Easier was a withdrawal request to Non-venomous carpet pythonwhose body is intricately patterned with spirals and vortices, wrapped in the depths of a shed.

(Snake removal fees start at AU$154, or approximately 100 dollars).

Snake hunters travel light.

On a typical job, they might take just over a minute metal hookused to gently remove a snake from under furniture or push it into place, and a large cotton bag into which snakes are placed again.

In any job, the goal is to harm or disturb the snake as little as possible and then take it somewhere where it is less likely to get into trouble.

With the Sunshine Coast’s population expected to increase by more than 50% to around half a million people over the next 25 years to 2041, deforestation is happening at a rapid pace.

More and more homes are being built, and many snakes that once lived in native forests are finding refuge (and a reliable source of food and water) in homes intended for humans.

Most clashes pass without incident.

But fear and misinformation are still rampant, McKenzie said, as is the persistent perception among older generations of Australians that “the only good snake is a dead snake”.

McKenzie can catch reptiles highly poisonous with his own hands and a balletic fluidity.

But it also needs to be equally agile to deal with humans.

Clients may have an intense fear of snakes, and if passersby see a healthy specimen released into the wild after being removed from a home, they may respond with fear, anger, or tears.

Like kangaroos, koalas and other Australian wildlife, snakes are protected by law and play a vital role in the ecosystem by keeping pests at bay.

Researchers at Macquarie University have discovered this eat mice and ratsIn fact, the benefits of snakes to farmers far outweigh the potential costs of having a venomous creature on site.

As a small, harmless tree snake was carried out of her bedroom, Doris Hyde, 96, explained how she panicked and instinctively hit the animal with a jet of fly spray.

“I thought it might make him sick,” she said.

“You shouldn’t do that,” McKenzie said, because it could harm the animal.

“Call us next time,” he added, as he rinsed the creature under the kitchen tap.

For every snake that can be safely placed in a bag and carried away, there are many more that disappear before a snake catcher arrives.

On one of those unsuccessful jobs, McKenzie walked through some bushes near a retirement home, pushing aside foliage and peering deeply into a poolside latrine.

The sun was beating down and he raised an arm to wipe his forehead.

“Just long, sweaty days,” he said, “chasing extremely dangerous snakes.”

Sick snakes are cared for at the nearby Australia Zoo, founded by conservationist Steve Irwin.

On a recent Thursday, McKenzie brought three injured pythons to the clinic.

Two accepted the inspection with relative grace, but the third hit the ground, moving its head as if to bite McKenzie’s left knee while McKenzie held its tail firmly in his hand.

“He’s in a bad mood,” said Katie Whittle, the veterinarian.

McKenzie’s business has been featured on local television and has a significant following on social media, including TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, with videos and photos of snakes eating impossibly sized possums, loitering in places they shouldn’t be and , in general, playing ophidian pranks.

McKenzie, who employs a social media manager to maintain a rigorous posting schedule, tries to find a balance between “easy, nice captures of carpet pythons,” he said, “and scary defensive captures of brown snakes” for discourage people of attempting to handle snakes alone, without adequate training.

In his current job for the past seven years, McKenzie previously worked as a reptile keeper at the Australia Zoo.

He has had blue-tongued lizards as pets since childhood, but was initially wary of snakes and had little interest in handling them.

Only after working with them every day at the zoo, he said, did he think, “Wow, these things are really cool.”

In recent years his business has expanded to include seven snake catchers and dozens of subcontractors across Queensland.

However, the schedules can be unforgiving.

“It’s one of those jobs that can be expensive,” he said.

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