Well it's a typically middle of summer hot Aussie day here, temperature is 39deg C in the shade and the flowers on the roses are pot porri...oh and it's snake season.

My adrenalin and blood pressure are still up a bit as once we had our essential jobs done for the morning I had headed inside while Rich was still trying to get water on the plants he hoped would survive, when he went around the back of the house and there is Ripper with her nose jammed up behind some angle iron stored (just where it should be of course...) under the eves of the house. There has been a lot of bunnies around lately so he assumed it was another one...went to assist her and when he shoved the iron across out shot a 4 foot brown snake She made a grab for it!! That was when I was alerted with the call to arms and had to rush around getting (wet) dogs into safer places, one in the car, one in the ute, one inside...her highness sat in the car with a look of...I've done my bit..but I was wondering for a while if the snake had done his bit first!! He was dispatched to greener pastures and now a couple of hours later Ripper is calmly lying on the door mat (after wondering why she had to get out of the car...) reliving it all in her dreams, no signs of after affects, except for us who jump at every russtle in the grass and take deep breaths each time a little skink dashes out from our path....when is Autumn coming????? Soon I hope

Oh by the way...it's going to be 43c tomorrow

Click to view attachment

Have you recovered yet. Can just see Ripper being pleased with herself.
I wonder if her son would be so brave.
Don't envy you having 43c. tomorrow, we are much cooler down this part of the world.

Gee...Ripper...the wonder dog has saved the day..

Well you guy's better stay inside..these snakes love hunting during the day..

Photo of an angered Western Brown Snake or Gwardar taken at Millewa Bore, Victoria

Hi Currawong....no my nerves are still jangling a bit, no thanks to localhost and his graphic photo, which just reminds you of his little cousin so well. This guy was smaller, but just as deadly. This is about the only reason a medium coat is benificial for us in our climate, a bit more padding if he does get a strike in. Years ago Ripper and her mother Yogi had a good go at a tiger snake (he lost that one without our help) but minutes after finding them she exhibited signs of being bitten, off to the vet we went but she didn't have any where near the reaction her mother had (short coat) and we all agreed there was a fair chance the longer coat meant not as much venim was injected. (Vet bill was less than half also.) Still prefer short coates for grass seeds and burs though.

Thanks for the advice localhost, I would be pleased to spend all the hot days inside under the aircon, but the animals might not like missing out on their feed, beside while they may hunt through the day, the tigers are happy to still keep hunting at night!! Can tell you stories about them also...funny enough that Ripper is involved as well.

Ah the joy of summer, the great Australian dream to own your own peice of dirt, they don't tell you it comes already occupied.
I find that if I keep the perimiter stretch of grass land out the front and across the road cut short or better kill it off, I don't seem to get so many, and the old cat is too old to bring them home, Yah
But this year next door has put in Tomatoes, on the other side he baled hay and out the front he ripped up the paddock, the poor blighters had no where else to go.
I counted five browns in one week, oh that was fun.
None were dispatched, yet all moved on, I hope, that was before we had the grass sprayed, now there's no where for them to hide, I suppose, you should have an icon that prays.
I too enjoy the cooler weather more.

My only advise is move sooner, I hope that it is all going well and we catch up with you soon.
Great to see you back on the forum.
We get mostly browns but I've seen my fair share of Tigers, only these type thank god.

Hi Skeeter

We get both browns and tigers, browns tend to want to get going and will move on but tigers are very confident and will sit tight,so you can walk right past them and not know they are there, I think this is why they have been the ones to bite. Browns once they decide to go are incredibly fast and even koolies have trouble catching up with them fortunately. The local dept of agriculture vet spent quite a while trying to convince me you don't get browns and tigers in the one place....but then he is a kiwi. I told him to come visit, bring a folding chair and watch.

I have been told (not sure how accurate it is) that if you have red bellied blacks, they keep the other snakes away and they are not as agressive.

If they are around the house, they go to greener pastures, if we see them down the paddock we leave them alone and hope they point west...and keep going!!

Well the heat wave has broken....so has the heart of some of my plants!! It will be interesting to see what recovers. Gentle rain arrived at about 5.00pm yesterday, the forcast was for dust storms and wind, so it was a relief. All was well with the world when I set off to feed up for the evening, in my rain coat!! As I set forth, the boss says....."It's still warm enough for tigers to be out you know!!!" There goes all my pleasure and I am back to studying every stick on the ground trying to anticipate where 4 very happy cooled of koolies are going to run next!! Before that I went to open the gate to let one out and she was looking on the ground and woofing, my blood ran cold and I dashed over ready to yell SNAAAAAKE! to see her grab something and throw it in the air.....a piece of sponge rubber left from the bed the last lot of pups disected Autum where are you?

Red-bellied black snake (P. porphyriacus)




Red-bellied black snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus) (Photo P.Mirtschin, Venom Supplies)

Also called the common black snake. Distributed down the east coast of Australia, not including Tasmania, and slightly into South Australia. The red-bellied black snake prefers swampy, moist areas around creeks, rivers and lakes. They prey on rats, mice, frogs, lizards and birds, as well as fish and eels, as they are good swimmers. They also eat other snakes, including those of their own species. Red-bellied black snakes are mostly active during the day, and are not particularly aggressive.. When threatened, they will flatten their bodies and hiss loudly, but will usually attempt to escape if possible.

I wish they would all run away.

Um...thanks Localhost, another photo...thanks.

My brother-inlaw lives on a 30 acre bush block ontop of a hill near Goulburn, no dams no creeks, dry rocky scrubby country. Throughout the last few years of drought, the only water source has been their lovingly (inocently) built inground birdbath. As the weather dried up they sat at their desks (computer programmer) looking out over it and watched a procession of red bellied blacks and goannas come to water. The wrens and other little birds took their lives in their hands each time they needed a drink. Now that there has been some rain and a return to normal conditions the traffic has slowed considerably. Good considering standing inside watching with them were 3 excitable wolfhounds!!

woof woof
Got a question to ask and I mean nothing by the asking.
But why did we decide to have this conversation here.
Do we require a lounge for just chating, oooh there's an idea. all of us in our little space, doesn't that sound nice.
There are lots of times when I don't have anything to post that is relevent to the topics displayed, but might like to ramble on about last weeks wind storm which put two dog kennels in my dam, you try pulling all that corrigated tin out of a meg dam
Or I might like to ask how come some photos show up in a post but mine always need to pop up in another window, that sucks, no pretty photos in my post.
I am going away now, because I blew my computer up, so miss me terribly, don't talk about me while I'm gone, I'm very thin skinned.
And have a quiet time.

Eeeech, hope you are over the fright and the "brave and the fearles" protectors become a bit less brave and fearless and a bit more guarded and warning for their own good. On a brighter note, our cat was bitten by what the vet believed to be a brown about 9 years ago..she became paralysed in the back legs as the poison entered her system, he used "rehydration" therapy which flushes the toxins out and re hydrates the drying musclature (from memory)and she's been fine since apart from a tic in her left rear leg which he thinks is indcative of where she was bitten.

I, for one am grateful for LocalHosts graphic yet concise piccies as I was able to reiterate to the littles about "joe blake" and his mates, although we are in a semi rual area..they are about even in suburbia. I wish St Patrick would reenter this realm and just drive them all away as he did in Eire

ok ignore me I'm used to it.
But I agree with Lawson, come on St Pat

Tjukurpa, we are having this conversation here because the heading includes Well snake chasin is an experience!!! And one then has to observe symptoms....just in case he got in the last shot!!

OK? I don't mind if we chat along in this thread, there are some more hot days coming up and I might need to unload jangling nerves again. Besides we never ignore you....we just consider our responses...over...a period of time.

Hi Lawson Legend, never over a snake encounter...until Autumn rain and chill. We have had two encounters with dogs being bitten (it only seems to make the dogs more inclined to chase them not put them off) and the vets explained that rehydration is probably the most important thing. Mind you I nearly went balistic as she stood there waving the vial of antivenene around while she gave me an overly looooong lecture of the benifits of a saline drip. The drip was already in, but my mindset was still on getting the dog there for that magic shot and there she was waving the holy grail around in front of my nose... She is not my favourite vet at the practice. Some people say you can treat snake bite with vitamin C, but our vets don't give that a lot of credit. I'm still all for ringing them so they are there waiting for you when you arrive, then doing the slightly feral road trip (normal time 30 minutes in 15) and paying for the antivenene. And crossing fingers...

*touch wood*

We've only been 5 years in this house (semi-rural) but had seen no signs of snakes here - but lots of bobtails. I'm ok with them, so long as I can see legs! One of them lives in the duck shed and obviously does pretty well on duck eggs... He gives me a start every time I see him, but he never touches the ducklings, so we leave him be. Our dogs generally don't bother the goannas.

However, just last week we found a 5 foot long dugite skin... Summer has been *very* late starting in Perth this year. I'm hoping he shed his old coat and then wriggled off elsewhere. I hate snakes.

Wonderful place for this sort of chat, I see it all now, after observing and calculating the reactions and symptoms and I believe we can safely conclude WE ALL HATE SNAKES.
By all means Silhouette unburden your jangled nerves, we're here for ya buddy.

If you like I can do a snake section...with pictures..this would be good..so that kids would know what to look for..

I see snakes nearly everday..in fact I do not mind them..you just have to becareful..when they are around

Go for it. Mate, knock yourself out.

What to look for (in my mind at least...):

Legs = good
No legs = bad

I'm with you Meg they all elicit an EEEK then the quick perusal for legs determines the blood preasure of the moment...snakes just really have a glossy gleam to them.... (handbags??)

Localhost, if you could wake Dozer out of his slumber he could give you some good snake tales..... I think one difference with how you see them (I assume at work) (laptop in one hand, shovel in the other..) whereas when we see them there is at least one dog not far away and they don't think twice....Men are enough of a worry when snakes are around without having to worry about dogs as well.

Okay I get the message

One must always remember that the further south you go....the cooler the snake, so probably a little slower. At 35c today, they will be hot to trot! Taking Localhosts' advice (for once he might say) and staying indoors, dozer you testin beer today???

OK I still need this thread going!!! It got to 40 somthing today, made it through the day OK, but finally had to give in and go and buy some groceries. So decided to do that before final jobs feeding up, which ended up after dark.....still 26c Sooo I'm feeding horses and the boss is calling dogs for feed and she does it again!!! Ripper sniffs out a snake!! Under a bush we all walk past every day, more times than not the dogs have a big sniff there and I have been feeling a tad nervous about it. This time, oh joy, a tiger snake! About 2 1/2 feet, big enough... EEEEK.
Thankyou for my therapy

Bet it's in 6" peices now.
Look rejoice it is raining.
A short but pleasant reprieve, time is marching on and Autum is getting nearer.
Crack a can, put your feet, rest your weary eyes, now relax. ............Fell better now.!
Do you need a hug or a wet sloppy kiss, talk to those little fur balls of yours.

Okay..don't flame me..

Photo of a Tiger Snake (light banded form) taken at Basalt Plains, Victoria Notechis scutatus

I feel like I'm at a police line up.
Yes officer that him, that's the one
Now post a photo of a king brown and I'll identify him too.
This is much better than meeting him in person.
Have you noticed that good things like planes and ships are called she's.
And crappy bad things like snakes are called hes, I think I am beginning to see a pattern here.

MMMMMMMM Thanks for the piccies, now all three can identify dangerous snakes, much easier than going to a snake specific site as they all love the "www koolie world" as it is called here

Betcha the 21/2 footer is a tad smaller now?? (who said that?)

I like Megs theory of legs and no legs, although I have a 8 yr old daughter who'd still pick up a monitor lizard based on that ruling..then again so would have I at 8

Sorry if you felt ignored, Tjukurpa, did not mean it

Maybe the tiger had just arrived under the bush, Silhouette, at least the dogs have enough sense to bark and warn, not flush and chase. Aussie Terriers (which my mum bred) flush and chase, but of the four or five I remember them catching they had enough sense(or luck) to grab the snake behind the head and hold it and shake it all about, do the hooky poooky, and throw it all around Is funny to think about now but at the time scary that they could have been bitten.

Lets hope theres no more snake experiences to be had by ANYONE

Sorry to resurrect an old (and icky) thread, but now I'm wondering...

As I mentioned in another thread, we recently got our first Koolie - Bear. Now, we've been living here about 6 years and _never_ seen a snake, some bobtails, but no snakes. Our other 2 dogs (a Kelpie and a GSD X) don't bother the lizards, but today I walk onto the verandah to find Bear growling at a bobtail which hightailed it as soon as I distracted her. Then this evening we get home from the christmas party at the fire station, and the neighbour comes over to tell us that Bear was out of our gate the other day (which is a whole other thing to investigate in the morning) and barking at a massive dugite on the road - he ran over and called to her and said dugite apparently wriggled into our place...

So tell me, do Koolies actively go looking for wrigglies compared to other breeds???


Is there any way I can dissuade her from this?

Not sure, Meg. Lawson certainly jumps back when he finds anything( frog, duck, lizard, bird, snake) to check it out and looks to me for confirmation of it being "OK" but barks at it anyway.
Hey, TK and Silhouette.....HELP here PLUUUZE
I'd be interested to know other members experiences with such stuff and their dogs reactions anyway
Edited for punctuation...you know stops and commas and such

Hi Meg & Lawson

Sorry for the delay in reply...thought we might have got some other input, but it would seem we have the most wrigglers just here!!

Koolies will certainly learn and enjoy hunting, they will indeed develop a habit of hunting snakes (probably the biggest problem), rabbits, hares, possums and I believe they are used at times for pig hunting. I am assured that their appeal for pig hunting is that they will find the pig then hold it yapping without biting while the more cumbersome hunting dogs arrive. I think a koolie could easily learn to attack pigs. With regard to other wriggly things, if allowed they might develop an urge, which could start as simply their herding instincts, but then develop further. A firm No or Arrr will help, but boredom can be a big enemy of local wildlife. A lot seem to have a natural instinct regarding snakes and know the danger, unfortunately if the dogs are in pairs or more when they come across one, they will encourage each other to take risks and they learn to attack instead of warning and backing off. Our first dog a koolie bc X, used to love to hunt rabbits and would dive into a bush...if the tail was wagging it was a bunnie, if the tail fluffed out like a mad cat...get the shovel! Fortunately she always backed off and lived to 16 years.