We just found a snake. Inside my house.
A white lipped ‘whiptail’ snake.
Not the best photo, I was shaking too hard to get a good one.
It was curled up underneath the fridge. Only that Nathan had decided to mop the kitchen and moved the fridge did we find it. It was about 12-14 inches long and asleep, under my fucking fridge.
Anyway, with much swearing it was relocated and hopefully we’re snake free now. A timely reminder that we need to be wearing shoes outside ALL the time and that the kids MUST have boots on, all the time.
I might still be a little panicked. Enough that I’m considering blundstones for inside the house and having a minor panic attack with every footstep. Yeah, I have anxiety issues. Small ones.No one said I was being reasonable.
A snake! Inside my fucking house.
Excuse me while I go and hyperventilate. And possibly complete the panic attack I put on hold because everyone is awake.
And I might even change my animals category to ‘goddamned motherfucking animals’, just to make my displeasure clear.
(At first glance I thought it was a baby copperhead, but the photos showed me differently. Still very freaked out.)
Faaaaaaaaaaaark! I’d be shaking in terror also.
Yes. An hour later I still am freaking out.
Gosh its no wonder you went into panic mode. I’m glad no one was bitten. And the blundstones sound like a GREAT idea!
I am so so grateful we found it and that no one was bitten. Worst fear.
Can I just say, “OH MY FARKING HECK!” I know Australia is like the ‘motherland’ for all that is poisonous and venemous and deadly, but I love my blundstones too – with such a passion that even though we have only 2 majorly deadly snakes around our area, I still wear mine most of the time anyway 🙂
I wear mine outside most of the time, and I NEVER wear open shoes around the house.
I’d have moved house by now! *shudder*
I’d like to. Maybe to a house on stilts that snakes can’t enter.
Go the Blunnies, good habit to have indoors and out.
We don’t do shoes inside because of the ducks (duckshit on the carpet = no fun) but I’m seriously rethinking that rule. Blunnies are generally what I wear outside here. Love the blunnies.
How was the snake relocated?
Carefully. Very very carefully.
oh my fucking god. I would have died right there. I think the day I find a snake in my house is the day I move back to new zealand.
Or Scotland, scotland is snake free too, right?
Nope, that’s Ireland. Scotland has the fairly wimpy, yet undeniably snake-y, adder.
Ah ha. Ireland here I come/
I would be freaked out too. It’s getting to be snake season out here too. Scary.
Really scary. It’s a bit early for them here, makes me wonder what this season is likely to be like!
Please remind me why I’m voluntarily moving to a country where every motherfucking thing wants to fucking kill me?
I have literally daily anxiety spasms (like Diet Anxiety, for when full-fat anxiety is doing your heart in) about the SHADOWS which MIGHT be spiders. How am I going to survive, V? Do they spike the drinking water with valium? HOW DO YOU ALL COPE? My mom is all like ‘Oh well there’s only mainly gecko, other things don’t really come in!’ until I asked about the ground floor (where we’ll be living) and she had to admit that yes, there is slightly more ‘animal activity’. THANKS MOM. I’m totally going to get them to swapsies.
Our largest spiders are non-venomous. There, something to hold on to.
We all cope because we’re aussies. You’ll cope too. Eventually. Which state are you moving to?
It’s not actually the lethalness of the spiders that gets to me. It’s the legs. I cannot stand the legs, and the way their bodies are made up. Back home (in South Africa) I was never afraid of them. I didn’t go near them and they left me alone. I even remember sitting quite calmly in the backyard, passing an afternoon watching a spider the size of an adult hand spin a web. I must have been about 9? But now? I can’t stand them. I see them out of the corners of my eyes EVERYWHERE and I would rather have a snake crawl over my FACE than have a spider sitting across the room from me just existing.
We’re moving to northern QLD, the coast. To be fair, I’ve not actually seen much bothersome wildlife in Oz (unless you count possums) but I’m fairly convinced that they’re all just lulling me into a false sense of security and the first night after we move I’ll wake up with a fucking bird spider or something right above my face.
(yes, I know you don’t have bird spiders. TELL IT TO MY HEAD. Also, don’t google ‘bird spider’.)
You’re weird. The legs are the safest bloody part! Hehehe.
You have to take loads of photos for me, apparently nth QLD is gorgeous. I haven’t been, so yeah.
Oh God (dess). Shivers all over. Big hugs for you!!
I think I told you that we lost our dog Charlie to a bloodyhell TIGER SNAKE in my backyard last year – right in the herb garden the thing was, in the rosemary, where the kids play outdoor kitchens. I am still extraordinarily nervy about them playing outside off the paths / trampoline. Garden beds are off limits totally unless I check them painstakingly first.
If the bugger had come INSIDE, I … just don’t know. Argggh.
I would be panicky too after that. This is the first one we’ve seen here, so we’ll have to be super vigilant this year.
Oh the joys of country life eh! A bit much to find one inside the house though Veronica. You must be jumping at every flicker of movement on the periphery of your vision. I know I would be. A couple of months after we moved here a one metre dugite slithered across the pavers and down the banking outside my craft room! It was several weeks before I went past the house perimeter again. At the moment hubby is noisily clearing the spring overgrowth from the place and I am permanently on edge that he will disturb snakes in the long grass, especially as the blocks either side of us remain vacant and very overgrown. Probably totally unfounded fears as we haven’t seen another one since the first sighting but still – venomous snakes!!!! Be glad when it’s all cleared for fire season again.
Oh and FYI there is one venomous snake in the UK, the adder. Not so many about nowadays due to the lack of suitable habitat but they are still around. We used to see them fairly regularly when we were kids.
Jumping at every flicker of movement is a little bit of an understatement. I am watching every single step I take!
OMG! You’d have to scrape me off the ceiling where I’d be whimpering in terror! Great reason to move to the UK though, I’ve never seen a snake here, ever! Those Blunnies look amazing and like they’d be top for stopping ankle rollovers too?
Hope you’re feeling calmer now, let us know if you need emergency supplies of valium posting 😉 BG Xx
Blunnies are excellent. They do help my ankles loads and a good worn in pair of blunnies are so comfy.
OMG!!!!
I KNOW!
A separate set of “inside” blundstones? For everyone?
Seriously, I can totally understand why you’re freaking out!!!
I am really, really considering it!
I. Would. Have. Died.
I think you were very brave.
And um, I’d have killed it. Which may make me a terrible person. I’m ok with that.
Don’t worry, killing it was my first instinct too. But they’re protected.
And it’s extremely dangerous to try to kill them. 75% of people bitten by snakes are bitten while trying to kill them. (And lots of dogs & cats, such as my poor dog 🙁
Wow, I didn’t know it was 75%!
Oh the poor little thing was probably terrified of you. Humans are deadly to snakes you know 🙂
Yes, the POOR LITTLE THING, it was just trying to HIBERNATE under my fridge. INSIDE MY HOUSE.
I should have sent it to your house.
No thanks darling you can keep the dear little thing, I don’t want to have to wear my blunnies inside 😉
And *that* is why I prefer living in Scotland, despite the weather being crappy a lot of the time, there are no killer animals native to here… thank fuck. Come move next door! There’s a 3 bedroom house up for sale who’s garden backs onto mine!! x
There she goes, hawking that house again! 🙂
She can’t help it, can she! Hehehe.
Oh bloody hell. Glad you’re all ok. Hugs!
I am so glad Nat found it, not Amy.
I’m jealous.
I hear so much about Queensland snakes, and have been expecting to find one in my house, but none as yet. did you see what it had been attracted to? Shall I coax one in with a snack thrown under the fridge?
So far we have had a huge motherf**king wolf spider, (bigger than a huntsman) a gecko and a beautiful big green tree frog.
Oh and I was going to ask why snakes would be around, but duh, it is spring.
No idea what it was attracted too, the warmth of the fridge motor probably.
And I’m jealous of your tree frog! Why aren’t you photographing these things to share?!
I’d of freaked too. Only venomous snake that is in my area is the rattler and they get fucking huge, my dad has found skins that have been at least 6 feet long and they were in our attic, which makes me fear more for my cat then anything else. The last one I actually saw was when I was 9 and it was a six footer in our back yard, I was no where near it my dad was killing it. Glad everyone’s ok.
All snakes in Tassie are venomous. It makes me doubly wary of them.
OMG! one day there are such cute duckling pictures I cant stop looking at and then the next day this! that snake is freaking me inspite of being thousands of miles away! I hope Amy and Issac were far away when you found this bad guy..take care all of you!
Sharing the love with you. Hehehehe. I’ll have to post some more duckling photos, just to make up for it.
That picture gave me a fright at first! Hopefully the ducklings were miles away.
The ducklings were outside and the snake was inside. To tell the truth, I’d prefer it had been the other way around!
Oh ugh! What a fright. My cat once brought a live snake into the house and deposited it on the living room floor. A gift. For me. Thanks cat.
You know Veronica, you’re supposed to be making me *want* to move to Australia. This is not helpful. Ducklings and wallabies, those are helpful.
Our cat did that too, when I was a kid. A tiger snake. Heh. Not a fun gift.
Ducklings! Wallabies! small cuddly rabbits. Helping?
Ahh, much better. I’m feeling the lull….
Ducklings…. tweety little birds… dingoes…. wait, I probably shouldn’t mention the dingoes. (we don’t have them in Tas)
HOLY MOTHERFUCKER SHIT!
OK, you beat my huntsman HANDS DOWN.
Snakes will always trump huntsman. Always.
It’s like the rock, paper, scissors of the creepy crawly animal world.
I was just thinking that. I wonder what trumps the snake and yet gets beaten by the spider? A bird maybe?
Snakes eat mice. How’s the mouse population? Have you retired the mouse schwacker? Because there’s no mice? Because the snake has been eating them?
I think Blunnies for inside and outside are the way to go from now on. Thigh high Blunnies.
I haven’t seen a snake in years. Not since I walked pretty closely, half a metre, past what I thought was a large pile of dog poo, until it moved. The pile was two brown snakes curled up cosily together.
No, we’ve still got just as many mice. Sigh. Although it’s very likely that it’s been living on mice too.
I can’t look…
My panic attack after we’d removed it lasted hours. I don’t blame you.
I would move! IMMEDIATELY!
I have a fear of snakes. I once walked into a black mamba – I think my heart stopped for a few seconds!
They freak me out intensely!!
I am so tempted, but $$$ means I get to live with snakes. Sigh.
My heart would stop with a black mamba for sure! At least I know with Tassie snakes, if they bite you you will die, but only if you can’t get to hospital and don’t do any first aid.
I don’t know why but this post only just got to my reader arghhh. So behind as ever.
Looks like you need a feral cat. If these snakes aren’t endangered or anything it seems they like to eat them! Thankfully no one got bitten but at least their bite is not deadly although I don’t much like the waiver in your link that says some may be sensitive to them. Poor you. I have seen adders when my mother-in-law lived in a cottage beside open woodland which had vast sandy areas where ferns grew. They did freak me out somewhat but always have to hide my inner terror having a young daughter at the time who freaked at everything moving that she had no control of around her. She still does so hiding my fear was a fruitless thing it seems. I may as well have opened my lungs and screamed as I wanted to.
I had never thought that you may have to wear shoes inside all the time also. I would really not like that at all. Those boots look like horse riding footwear to me but there must be a difference I can’t see.
Really feel for you Veronica.
Still in shock that Nathan moves the fridge when he mops the floor!!!! Could I borrow him please.
Ariennette – I had no idea you were emigrating. But my blog reader is playing up it needs an overhaul so I have probably missed much of late.
Veronica – I think you were very very brave – very brave.
I’ve noticed my reader playing up with a few blogs too, rather annoying. Hopefully they’ll fix it soon.
We were so lucky, this little guy is the very best snake it could have been. He’ll make you sick, but *probably* won’t kill you. The other 2 types are deadly.
Blunnies are actually some of the best shoes for horse riding. Genuine all around boots. I love mine, I bought them as required footwear when working and still wear them nowadays.
He generally moves the fridge about 1 time in 5, he’s really good about housework and doing the bits that I pretend I can’t see.
I am hearing you..I love my blundstones…don’t forget I am living in a shed….oh the pain….I want my house…
Sweetie, I’ve done that before! I grew up living in a perpetual work-in-progress. How long til you have your house at livable?
This is exactly the kind of stuff that thrills me about reading blogs from oz! Best we’ve had is a shrew in house that ran up and down the curtains! Bloody he’ll- a snake!!!!
I just googled shrews, they’re cute little things. I think I’d prefer one of those to a poison filled snake!
Holy shit, that’s a snake! Under your fridge! You know what? I am so impressed that you managed to even get a shot of it because I would have run screaming from the house so fast I would have just been a BLUR of motion! Snakes freak me the hell out. I think it’s because they don’t have any legs and they have those freaky little forked tongues. Hopefully it won’t return! (I second the cat idea!)
Under my freaking fridge! I was shaking so hard the photo was blurry. I really really dislike snakes. All that bitey poisonousness.
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