geedee

I found what I thought was a long, thin, black centipede in our bathroom two days ago... went to pick it up and it tried slithering away. I think it was a baby snake! Picked it up with tissue paper and threw it in the field next door....

Today my wife found a shedded snake skin in the garden, very near the house. It was about 30cm long. Now it will probably be twice that size. Security came and had a look for it, couldn't find and left saying it's probably a cobra.....

It's our first encounter with the things in nearly 6 months. Is this dry spell anything to do with it?

I'm dreading my kids or our dozy dog mooching around the garden and getting bitten.

Have any of you had any encounters?

Is there anything we can do to discourage them? I heard putting sulphur around the border would help.....

I'm putting this in the JB section because it's around here that I'm really interested in.

Bocat

I know some of my friends in LF have used sulphur.

I saw a couple when I was living in LF - once whilst walking near the sales office and the other time was, thankfully, from the safety of my car as it was rather large!

I saw one as I was leaving the school one day too.

The guards were walking by here in EL with one they'd found.

I really don't know what you can do to deter them. We tend to have all our sliding doors open all day so we may have to deal with a slithery intruder eventually but I can't keep my doors closed.

I think they come out more when there's a lot of building work going on.

Froggybarnacle2000

We have had some snakes in our garden too. We were given sulfur by our next-door neighbour after his long-time pet died from a snake bite a few months ago. He did not want the same thing to happen to our dogs. Our dogs have seen snakes twice. On these two occasions, they were barking incessantly in the back yard. Husband comes out to tell 'em to shut it, then he sees what they've been barking at. Husband grabs shovel from the laundry area and hits 'em dead (the snakes, not the dogs, yeah!). Snakes weren't huge, just long, maybe 5 feet. Husband loves the dogs now even more (than me?), we are relieved that the dogs kept their distance from the snakes, but we also worry that if this happens again, the dogs will have a go. But we haven't used the sulfur because it smells like rotten eggs. And snakes love to eat eggs, don't they? Wouldn't they be attracted, and not repelled, by the smell of sulfur? Plus the fact that the dogs might take a lick or two of the stuff. So… until the next non-stop barking episode… Any other ideas to keep the snakes away? Keeping an eagle or a falcon as another pet/snake deterrent not an option...

Harlow Lad

Get one of these bad boy and plant it on your garden.

http://www.snakerepellent.com.au/

geedee

Interesting anecdote, FB. My dog wouldn't have a go... it would try to make friends and get bitten on the nose! She's that stupid....big heart, small brain

Thanks for that HL.... looks very promising. Mixed reviews on t'internet, but they have to be worth a try.....

ATMLedang

I agree with Bocat - sprinkle sulphur powder along the parameter or bushy / hedge areas to prevent them from coming near your house.