It was the gift that kept on giving for a Sunshine Coast snake catcher who ended up relocating a bagful of snakes from one job on the weekend.
Dan Busstra, who works under the business name Snake Catcher Dan, collected nine yellow-faced whip snakes during a call-out to a small acreage property at Towen Mountain, west of Woombye, on Sunday.
Dan said he knew at the start that he was going to have to catch more than one snake but not exactly how many.
“When I first received the call, they knew about four snakes. They had eyes on two males that were fighting at the side of the house and when they went around the back, they saw another two,” he said.
Dan arrived and caught the snakes, as described, and asked if he could take a look around for any more.
“I was walking around. I’d lift a paver, there’d be two. Under a brick, another one. I was walking around the property looking for any cracks, anywhere that a snake would like, and every 10 minutes there was another one,” he said.
Dan said that unlike other snakes, which live a solitary existence, yellow-faced whip snakes often lived in communities.
“If you have one or two, you’ve probably got three or four,” he said.
Dan said the property had been perfect for whip snakes, which prefer drier, rocky conditions to denser bush.
He said he checked the area as thoroughly as he could over about an hour but given the number of snakes, all adults, it was possible there could be more.
“There’s probably going to be a nest of them around. The mums are probably still sitting on the eggs,” he said.
“I wanted to look to make sure that I couldn’t find any more but I couldn’t find any eggs,” he said.
Fortunately for the home’s occupants, Dan charges a flat fee rather than per snake.
“They got their money’s worth,” he said.
A snake lover since he was a kid, he enjoyed being able to catch and relocate the snakes somewhere safe for all.
Yellow-faced whip snakes are mildly venomous.
Dan said the occupants of the property had wanted the snakes removed to reduce the risk for their elderly pets.
“If a whip snake bites you and you’re healthy, it might just feel like a wasp sting and that might be all it is, but if you’ve got elderly pets, I wouldn’t want to find out how they’d react,” he said.
“The best thing people can do is keep their pets away and wait for the snake to go, or if you can have the snake removed for the safety of your pets and the snake.”
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