AN OXLEY Vale woman has been too frightened to sleep at home after a couple of close encounters of the scaly kind.
Sandra Schneider spotted the first snake invader in her backyard two Sundays ago.
The encounter left the backyard off limits for Mrs Schneider for a number of days, but the worst was yet to come.
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She finally mustered up the courage to leave the fortress and hang-out some washing last Thursday.
When she ventured back inside, a brazen ‘snake-and-enter’ in progress, as a two-foot long snake slithered up her tiled hallway.
She put in a call to her real estate, who sent a snake catcher to the house, but the intruder remained at large.
Mrs Schneider hasn’t been game to sleep in her home since she spotted the serpent and has opted to stay with friends instead.
“In other words, I’m held at ransom with my own home because of the snake,” Mrs Schneider said.
I’m held at ransom with my own home because of the snake.
- Sandra Schneider
She has lived in Tamworth for 50 years, but Mrs Schneider hasn’t seen a snake season this bad and wanted her recent reptile encounter to be a cautionary tale.
“We have to make Tamworth people aware that snakes are about,” she said.
“A gentleman who lives nearby who has three young children.
“And you have to be mindful that these blighters are about.”
Tamworth WIRES reptile handler Jacob McGoldrick told The Leader it has been a busy year in terms of snake sightings.
Mr McGoldrick’s summer has seen everything from eastern browns, red-bellied blacks, yellow-faced whips, and a mysterious call-out to Gunnedah to retrieve an escaped python.
He said the hot summer had brought the serpents out en masse.
“They’re out trying to escape the heat and find some water,” Mr McGoldrick said.
He said Mrs Schneider’s case wasn’t entirely unusual.
“A lot of the time they will move-on fairly quickly,” he said. “They tend to feel pretty threatened and scared.”
While snakes can act defensively when they feel threatened, Mr McGoldrick said it was unlikely an unprovoked attack would occur.
“They’re not going to see a guy sleeping and think ‘I’ll go have a taste of him’, they don’t like confrontation as much as humans” he said.
If people do spot snakes in their homes, he said a good course of action would be to block off the room and call WIRES or a reptile handler as soon as possible.
Jacob McArthur
Jacob McArthur is opinions editor for The Canberra Times and Australian Community Media. As part of the Canberra Times' production team, he helps the people of Canberra and beyond get the stories they need, when they need them across a range of platforms, while helping maintain a high editorial standard. Before moving to Canberra in 2020, he started with Australian Community Media in 2015 as a journalist for The Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he kept a close eye on Tamworth Regional Council. Jacob was also the co-host of ACM's Water Pressure podcast where he and Jamieson Murphy took a deep dive on issues and key decisions arising during one of the region's worst droughts on record.
Jacob McArthur is opinions editor for The Canberra Times and Australian Community Media. As part of the Canberra Times' production team, he helps the people of Canberra and beyond get the stories they need, when they need them across a range of platforms, while helping maintain a high editorial standard. Before moving to Canberra in 2020, he started with Australian Community Media in 2015 as a journalist for The Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he kept a close eye on Tamworth Regional Council. Jacob was also the co-host of ACM's Water Pressure podcast where he and Jamieson Murphy took a deep dive on issues and key decisions arising during one of the region's worst droughts on record.
