I am quite afraid

sternus1 starts with ...
So, I heard a whole bunch of birds chirping about half an hour ago, which means they can see a snake. This is always a carpet, which doesn't bother me. Except for today.

So I go outside to inspect, and I'm greeted with a massive eastern brown sitting on the lawn with its head up. I've found big skins before, so I guess this must be the one.

There's nothing really on hand but a pick, because my shovels are in the shed. So I get this, and edge up towards it which proves to be a bad idea, because it immediately starts getting more aggressive, starts flicking its tongue faster and sitting up higher. I pick up a stick and throw it at it which gets it moving down the pathway and towards the back paddock. This is fenced off, and I take a punt while it is crawling through the wire buy hurling the pick at at, hoping I can injure/stun it enough to allow me to get a shovel to finish it off.

Also a bad idea; the pick hits it in the mid section and definitely injures it badly, but not enough. It does a few coils, and then starts heading in my general direction but towards the pond. There's a pot with some big stones in it near me, so I pick up one of these, take a shot for the head and miss totally. The brown now crawls into the thicket which is growing over the stone surrounding the pond, and it is gone.

So now I have the world's second most venomous snake lurking somewhere in the stones of my pond, and I'm guessing that since it is wounded, it isn't going to be happy.

Brilliant. Another day in paradise.

Edit: I normally never kill snakes, but Eastern Browns are just to dangerous to have around as I do a lot of work in the garden/paddock, and if I get bitten without my mobile I'm probably brown bread, because by the time I could get to a phone, bad things would be happening to me. I also have dogs.

They are also territorial, and cannot simply be moved on.

gimme says...
Shame to hear you have harmed a snake. They are best left to do their thing.

sternus1 says...
YRT,

I've got to say I'm a bit perplexed by your reaction. Despite your assertions about them, they are an objectively aggressive and dangerous species. And you know it.

I agree with the spirit of your post, and do not like killing any animal because it happens to have been born what it is. But if I don't get rid of the browns and they bite me, or one of my dogs, then what?If you say you live with browns, then you must know the risks. Especially when they've paired. Please do not treat me like some violent sadistic redneck, this is an absurd supposition about my nature. I hardly see how removing the presence of the world's second most venomous land snake amounts to irrationality, I'd suggest the opposite would be true.

Pioneer delusions..you know, when I woke up this morning, I didn't see that accusation coming my way. Or ever, really..

You are correct about the illegality, but frankly I don't care. Bureaucracy isn't the one living with the risk in this situation. They are territorial, and like I say, I've found skins very close to the house. Go figure.

I didn't feel very brave or masculine today, just a whole lot of fear and adrenaline. Did I you overlook the fact that in the title of my post? I am disappointed that I wasn't able to kill it outright, my attempt hasn't solved anything.

The chances of you ever even seeing an eastern brown in Sydney is virtually nil.

I have a good population of whips and carpets as well as a resident keelback, and I encourage their presence, with the exception of particularly large carpets.

yrt says...
Sternus, Please allow me to deflate your "conflate" It is a mistake. As is your notion that I do not have brown snakes . Two occasions a brown snake became tangled in a net . I cut the net and placed net and snake in fridge and freed chilled snake . Good feeling. Only 20 per cent of brown snake bites result in envenomation ,the rest are a warning just like the habit of rearing up as if to strike. It is a lovely worthwhile animal that deserves better than what you propose.

Mike Tr says...
yrt it is great that the 2 snakes you dealt with were not killed. Being confronted by a dangerous snake can make people react to remove the perceived or real threat. It is scary. I don't think it is good to be harsh towards those who take that path.As a species they are widespread and common and they don't have a rosy outlook in urban areas.

yrt says...
Sternus, the fact that you reported ,in detail, your escapade with a snake in a forum devoted to fruit suggests that you saw your action as laudatory and ,perhaps as enhancing your image. Allow me to address that -- in reality I see you as a suburban hubbydaddy who takes satisfaction in the fiction that he was in a life and death struggle to protect his family. But in my eyes it was mean spirited ,unlawful and just dumb.

yrt says...
Hmm, I rest my case; the gentleman doth protest too much.

yrt says...
Thanks Mike - and you might like to take your medication in order to still your grandiosity.

Mike Tr says...
Kert your distinctive brands of charm and wit unfortunately are not left behind with each alter ego.

JohnMc1 says...
My old man once told me if you have red belly black's around your property, you'll never see any brown's. Don't know how true that is. I had a resident red belly black hanging around for years until I saw him dead on a track one day with a large branch that had snapped off and had fallen on him. Unlucky. Was sort of my security blanket remembering what my old man said.

sternus1 says...
John you are 100% right about the red bellies, browns will not go where they are. I've been told that redbellies are immune to brown venom but not vice versa, don't know if this is true or not. Used to get redbellies in the past but they seem to have disappeared for whatever reason, and now the browns have moved in. There is a really 'tame' whip snake at my place, he's crawled over my boot while I've been sitting under the pagola playing guitar before. So much for them not liking sound. I think whips are slightly venomous but can't really do much harm, I've never encountered an aggressive one. Despite being harmless I still rate the garden variety tree snakes as one of the most aggressive types, they can get really shirty if you happen to be trimming in their patch.

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yrt says...
Ok , Sternus, if there was any doubt about you, then your words are enough to dispel them. Who writes such monstrously silly sentences? I imagine in the real world you keep this stuff under wraps in order to be taken seriously and only let it off the leash in a forum such as this.
And Mike I notice you have morphed your identity --perhaps to better act as a editor here ,enforcing what suits you.

BJ says...
We've just got a few pythons now. One seen last week was a good 3 metres and had just polished off a big possum before it was relocated. I rememebr when I was abou 8 I killed a Red Belly. He was not much more than a foot and a half, but he was hanging around the playground. There was a construction site nearby and someone left a hammer laying about, so I knocked him on the head, put him in a jar and put him on my shelf for a while. Kids do some awful things. I now really like snakes and spent my work experience in senior high doing snake relocations. I dont like stepping on them at night though when I'm out applying liquid fertigation and cant see what type I've just annoyed.

jakfruit etiquette says...
It is illegal to kill a snake in Vic(or harm any wildlife). That said unlikely you'll be prosecuted ??
A chap investigated old newspaper reports of snake sightings, going back to early settlement. Snakes have got smaller with each decade,(+probably less aggressive.
Large aggressive snakes are easy targets, smaller cryptic snakes of the same species survive better around human settlement, you probably never see many of them.
Last year I was doing roadside surveys, saw one or two browns each day, esp on 20'days when they were sunning. Best policy is to quietly walk around and away.

Jason says...
You aren't suppose to kill snakes in Victoria but of course if you are in danger you can do whatever you need to do. Its not like Queensland where you have a lot of harmless snake, here the least venomous snake is the red belly and It'll still put you in hospital. The rest of them you are lucky if you get that far.