welshpom

The wife and I have a farm. Was there today to spray the pesky "Salvation Jane" (it's a bad year for it in SA with all the rain we've had).

I drove the quad bike up to the water tank and started filling the spray unit. The cows in the next paddock come over for a look. I'm standing there holding the hose and a 3 foot brown snake (a little 'un) slithers past from behind me, a foot or two away. He came from the direction of the cows, so must have been disturbed by them. I stand still in disbelief. He then slithers under the quad bike. I stay fixed to the spot.

I waited a short while to see if he'd reappear, but he does not, so I go back to the tap to switch the water off. My wife comes over and I tell her the story. We spend the next five minutes trying to see if he's still under the bike. No sign of him. No trails anywhere to confirm his departure. Seeing nothing under the bike I get a 12 foot long pipe and hit the bike to scare him out. Nothing.

The wife then goes up to the bike, climbs on the front where it looks safe and starts the bike up and retreats. Nothing. I return to the bike and put it in gear then nudge the throttle with the pole to move the bike. Nothing underneath. After more looking I have to lift the seat off the bike to reveal a battery space that would make a good hiding place. Nothing.

The snake must have slithered out the other side of the bike in my blind spot. It was a relief to find nothing, but disconcerting to have a snake approach from behind and then slither past me as if I wasn't there.

That's my 5th or 6th snake encounter in the 2 years I've been out here.

Oh, and this week I found a huntsman sleeping on the inside of a kitchen paper roll - not in the tube, he was on the underside of the first sheet of paper. He made me jump.

annqldau

We haven't had the snake problem at our house yet but there is suposed to be a python about.

Huntsman Spiders creeping in all the time various sizes...see attachment, still haven't figured out how they get in though... :scared: .

Praying mantis was just interesting entertainment not scarey, had a good 1/2 hours watching of that.

Luke I Amyofath

Had a few huntsman spiders, some blue tongues and this great stick insect was on my back porch a few weeks ago:

wanderingwombat

Like this one that made the TV news ....

http://redland.yourguide.com.au/deta...ws&m=11&y=2005

WW

A dogs life

I was finally cleaning the pool out yesterday. To be honest I've been too busy and I'd let the pool go off, so its turned an interesting shade of green.

Anyway, I opened up the filter box, and blow me there was a bloody huge snake in it. Its head was sticking out the filter box into the pool, just above water level.

So I was thinking of ways of killing the bugger. I got the Mrs JTL to look at it, just to confirm I wasn't going mad. Yep, a huge big fat snake in the filter box, she agreed.

So I start getting the chemicals to add to the pool (and hopefully kill the snake) when it does a U turn in the filter box and starts trying to climb out....

It wasn't a snake at all, it was a blue tongue lizard. A cute fella too. Once I got over the shock, I just nudged him into the pool proper, from the filter box. He swam like a tadpole (a huge big fat tadpole), and I picked him up with the pool net and dropped him in the bushes.

I'm just a bit sad I was planning to kill the thing with chemicals until I realised it was a blue tongue. Damn, their tails look like snakes!!!

Larissa

Easily done JTL, have done the same myself and confused a blue tongue for a snake when clearing branches. My 8 year old daughter realised what it was though Haven't seen a snake yet in Perth, I thought they'd be more common? Actually, I have seen hardly any creepy crawlies!

welshpom

I see lots of them around. Unlike snakes, they tend to freeze when approached, so the first thing I tend to see is a snake like face staring at me... half a second of terror followed by, Aaaah, aren't you cute.

Luke I Amyofath

/me nods