trinabean Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 (edited) Last time I spotted a dugite in my yard it was the first hot day in October. Snake catchers were all flat out, and it took me 2 hours to get one to come here. By then, the snake was long gone/ hiding well. Yesterday this one (same type and size) zipped into the shed and I was able to get a snake catcher here within 30 minutes to remove it. I'm so relieved! I just want to recommend that everyone keeps the phone number of a local snake catcher in their phone (I know it's a different outside of suburbia, - not an option for everyone). Now, does anyone have any great suggestions for how to get rid of the smorgasbord that probably attracted the snake, -rats? We've had little success with traps so far. Ratsack got a few while we were away for a week, but I'm hesitant to use poison now that our dog is home again. Back neighbours have an aviary that seems to attract rats, and next door neighbours have a date palm-ish tree that they party in too. Edited March 7, 2015 by trinabean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliwake Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 My pest control people use baits that are not harmful to pets if the rats say, crawl outside to die, then are eaten by a dog... I have no idea what it's called, but it definitely exists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huga Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Argh, they're everywhere right now! Our snake catcher is flat out too. Do you know what that snake is, Trina? Is it a keelback? We've had a few small browns around, a few pythons and a whip snake in the pool about a month ago. Just now there was a kookaburra on the fence with a very intense stare and I'm pretty sure he was after something. Probably one of the small pythons that have been hanging around on the fence and in the trees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trinabean Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 Aliwake, last time a pest control guy baited inside the roof for rats here, he told me that my dog would need to eat about 25 poisoned rats for it to be a problem. The secondary poisoning isn't the main concern, but the rats tendency to move around with the baits is. He told me to do a perimeter check where the gutter overhangs the yard every morning, before letting the dog outside. Three times I found a chunk of bait that the partying rats had dropped off the roof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trinabean Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 Huga, it's a Western Australian snake that I hadn't heard of before moving here from Qld, -a dugite. A type of brown snake that is very common here, highly venomous. Since seeing one in our backyard in October, .I've been locking Bruno inside the house when I go out. I'm so relieved that it's gone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huga Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Huga, it's a Western Australian snake that I hadn't heard of before moving here from Qld, -a dugite. A type of brown snake that is very common here, highly venomous. Since seeing one in our backyard in October, .I've been locking Bruno inside the house when I go out. I'm so relieved that it's gone! Oh, interesting - thank you! I bet you're relieved! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliwake Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Aliwake, last time a pest control guy baited inside the roof for rats here, he told me that my dog would need to eat about 25 poisoned rats for it to be a problem. The secondary poisoning isn't the main concern, but the rats tendency to move around with the baits is. He told me to do a perimeter check where the gutter overhangs the yard every morning, before letting the dog outside. Three times I found a chunk of bait that the partying rats had dropped off the roof. Oh god! Cheeky buggers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trinabean Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 Aliwake, last time a pest control guy baited inside the roof for rats here, he told me that my dog would need to eat about 25 poisoned rats for it to be a problem. The secondary poisoning isn't the main concern, but the rats tendency to move around with the baits is. He told me to do a perimeter check where the gutter overhangs the yard every morning, before letting the dog outside. Three times I found a chunk of bait that the partying rats had dropped off the roof. Oh god! Cheeky buggers! I know! It's made me a bit hesitant to use that stuff again. Very stressful for a couple of weeks, worrying each day that I might have missed a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trinabean Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 Huga, it's a Western Australian snake that I hadn't heard of before moving here from Qld, -a dugite. A type of brown snake that is very common here, highly venomous. Since seeing one in our backyard in October, .I've been locking Bruno inside the house when I go out. I'm so relieved that it's gone! Oh, interesting - thank you! I bet you're relieved! Yep, totally relieved. I'm not scared of all snakes, just don't like venomous ones moving in. I really, really wanted a python as a pet when I was a kid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iggy mum Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Get a cat that likes hunting. Rats and/or mice will soon be gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdierikx Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Rat traps set with chocoloate... they can't resist chocolate. My dad would set one in the roof and it would go off before he could replace the manhole cover! T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yonjuro Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 bah-luddy hell, dugits are highly venomous !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yonjuro Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 my old pop told me a way to get rid of them many years ago- not politically correct - or legal these days for that matter Get a flat saucer and crack a raw egg and a splash of beer. Get a long thin metal pole - like rebar, when it comes out you whip it along the ground and it will break its back. I did this years ago when Tiger snakes would come up from Herdsman lake to my parents backyard and we were worried it would bite our Maltese terrier that liked to hunt for frogs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ptolomy Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 2 weekends ago I had been out for a couple of hours, had come home and I was sitting on the lounge which I never do, watching TV and I looked up and there in the back room was a snake. I called all the dogs and was madly counting them, closed the door, turned around and the snake was gone. It took me 30 minutes to find a snake catcher that would come out and then a further 30 minutes for him to turn up. Meanwhile I was watching the dogs not knowing if they had been bitten or not I was told to sprinkle flour around the door so we could tell if the snake left the room. When the catcher turned up I explained where I thought the snake was hiding and of course it wasn't there. He hunted for 5 minutes and I thought he was starting to think I was nuts, and then he found it. It had climbed up the wall and was sitting in the window track - 1m dugite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlaznHotAussies Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 2 weekends ago I had been out for a couple of hours, had come home and I was sitting on the lounge which I never do, watching TV and I looked up and there in the back room was a snake. I called all the dogs and was madly counting them, closed the door, turned around and the snake was gone. It took me 30 minutes to find a snake catcher that would come out and then a further 30 minutes for him to turn up. Meanwhile I was watching the dogs not knowing if they had been bitten or not I was told to sprinkle flour around the door so we could tell if the snake left the room. When the catcher turned up I explained where I thought the snake was hiding and of course it wasn't there. He hunted for 5 minutes and I thought he was starting to think I was nuts, and then he found it. It had climbed up the wall and was sitting in the window track - 1m dugite. Oh my gosh that is absolutely terrifying. I freak out if a snake goes UNDER my house, let alone if it's IN my house!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSoSwift Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Yep sprinkle flour around, any snake tracks show up in it. Good to see it has finally gone. You can get lockable bait stations to put rat bait in. I got some from my pestie. They can't drag it around and it's easy to check when it's empty. I haven't had one in my house but had a few in my garage and on that got up into the wall when we were sheeting what eventually became a passage. The biggest dugite we have had around the house was around 6 foot long, the biggest one I have ever seen whilst out walking through the farm was a good 7 feet long and as robs as my forearm. The muscle definition was incredible. I have never seen one that big since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VizslaMomma Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 2 weekends ago I had been out for a couple of hours, had come home and I was sitting on the lounge which I never do, watching TV and I looked up and there in the back room was a snake. I called all the dogs and was madly counting them, closed the door, turned around and the snake was gone. It took me 30 minutes to find a snake catcher that would come out and then a further 30 minutes for him to turn up. Meanwhile I was watching the dogs not knowing if they had been bitten or not I was told to sprinkle flour around the door so we could tell if the snake left the room. When the catcher turned up I explained where I thought the snake was hiding and of course it wasn't there. He hunted for 5 minutes and I thought he was starting to think I was nuts, and then he found it. It had climbed up the wall and was sitting in the window track - 1m dugite. Oh my gosh that is absolutely terrifying. I freak out if a snake goes UNDER my house, let alone if it's IN my house!!! Agreed! I would be so terrified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HazyWal Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 I've been so paranoid about the tiger snakes since moving here, I'm always looking around but I keep the lawn mowed and there's no rubbish laying around. I thought of this thread this morning when I was walking out to the clothesline and Stan was outside near the backdoor eyes wide open and staring at something, he was backing away and had a look of fear. I dropped the laundry basket, ran out and grabbed his collar but he pulled back and his collar came off and he took off down the yard. I turned around to see what he was looking at and saw a big mound of soap suds from the washing machine coming out of the drain outside.....veeeeewy scarwy soap suds Bloody dog gave me a heart attack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuralPug Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 OH STAN! We wuv you Stan - you never fail to entertain! Sorry he stressed you out HW! We mostly get copperheads here, so I sympathise with the terror that dogs could get bitten. I have lost two cats to snakebite here and now have strictly indoor only cats... I have never yet lost a dog to snakebite, although some came really close following a large mulga when we were stationed in Woomera in the 1990s. Those mulgas were unlike any other snakes I have ever encountered as in breeding season they would range really widely and become quite bold and sometimes ludicrously aggressive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 (edited) getting a cat to hunt the rats is probably condemning it to snakebite too use pelletised rat bait - that way they don't cart bits of wax block around ! The bait I bought recently and now use is stuff from HERE "The Big Cheese" The ingredient is one which is safer to use around animals/children . I will also highly recommend their live catch mouse traps for multiple catches ( but yes, you do have to kill the trapped rodents) !! Edited January 16, 2015 by persephone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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