BACKYARD & WILDLIFE
Spring snakes in the Sydney backyard after the cold wind: keep calm, keep your distance, and reduce the draw
When a cold, windy spring week breaks into sunny twenty-degree days, snakes come out to bask in the warmth. A snake in the yard is not a pest emergency if you follow a few simple rules: keep back, keep pets away, and deal with the food and shelter that drew it in.
Sydney has just come through a cold, windy stretch, with a Marine Wind Warning and nights close to nine degrees. Now the forecast turns sunny, warming from the high teens into the low twenties over the weekend. That is exactly the change that brings snakes out. Reptiles rely on the sun to warm up, so after days of cold wind they will be drawn onto paths, retaining walls, rockeries and the concrete edges of slabs. Seeing a snake in the yard is a normal part of a Sydney spring, and it is almost always handled safely when people keep their distance and leave the catching to a licensed handler.
Why the warm turn brings snakes out
Snakes are ectotherms: they cannot generate their own body heat, so their movement follows the temperature. Cold, windy nights keep them under cover in logs, rock crevices, thick grass and wall cavities. When the first clear, sunny days arrive, they move to warm, open surfaces to raise their temperature enough to hunt and digest. Spring also coincides with heightened activity and movement, with males travelling further in search of mates.
The pattern is worth remembering. A snake basking on the back steps or a garden path at mid-morning is not hunting you and is not trying to enter the house. It is warming up where the sun hits. Most negative encounters happen when a snake is surprised at close range or when someone tries to move it.
Which snakes you may meet in Sydney
Several species live in and around Sydney suburbs, and exact identification from a quick look is unreliable because colour and pattern vary with age and light. The red-bellied black snake is the one most commonly seen in gardens, near creeks, ponds and park edges, and is generally shy. The eastern brown snake is associated with drier, grassier edges and is a serious medical risk if provoked. Smaller species, such as the small-eyed snake and various tree snakes, also turn up around houses.
The safe rule is not to identify your way into bravery. Treat any snake you cannot confidently identify at a distance as dangerous, and let a licensed handler make the call.
If you find a snake in the yard
Snakes move faster when they feel threatened, and they defend themselves when cornered, grabbed or struck at. Give them space and they almost always move on.
Stop where you are and keep at least several paces back. Do not approach, corner, chase or attempt to pick it up.
Bring children and dogs inside or to another part of the yard; keep cats in. Curious dogs are the most common reason for snake bites around the home.
From a safe distance, note which way it moves and where it disappears. If it settles or hides, keep watching until a licensed snake catcher arrives.
If it vanishes under the house, into a shed or into a wall cavity, block pets from the area and tell the catcher exactly where it was last seen.
Never try to kill or injure it with a shovel, hoe or mower. Snakes are protected native animals, and striking at one is how most people get bitten.
What draws a snake into a yard in the first place
Snakes follow food and shelter. A yard that is tidy, with the rodent population under control, holds very little that interests them. The weekend is a good time to make the yard less welcoming before the next wet spell.
Rats and mice are the big drawcard. Backyard chook feeders, spilled seed, open compost bins and pet food left out overnight feed rodents, which in turn draw snakes.
Remove stacks of timber, bricks, sheet metal and builders' waste, and store firewood well away from the house and off the ground.
Keep grass mown, trim dense ground cover, and clear long growth along the fence line and under the shed.
Clean up around ponds and birdbaths that attract frogs, and store chook food in a sealed metal bin.
When moving anything stored outside, lift it away from your body, wear gloves and closed boots, and use a torch underneath.
How pest control fits, and when to call
Snake removal itself is a licensed wildlife handler's job, not a pesticide treatment. Pest control cannot and should not catch snakes. What pest control can do is remove the reason a snake is visiting: a sustained rodent problem around the coop, the shed or the compost, and the gaps and harbourage that let rats breed. If rodent numbers are down, the snakes that were feeding on them move on.
If you see a snake repeatedly, find sheds in a shed or roof, or live near a creek or bushland reserve, ask for a licensed snake catcher and, separately, have the yard assessed for rodents. If you keep chooks, the two are often linked.
If someone is bitten, call triple zero (000) at once, keep the person completely still, and apply a firm pressure-immobilisation bandage over the bite and along the bitten limb, then splint the limb. Do not restrict blood flow. Do not wash the bite, do not cut the skin or try to suck out venom, and do not try to catch or photograph the snake for identification.
SEEING SNAKES AROUND THE YARD?
Text your suburb and where the snake is.
Tell us whether you are seeing the snake itself, or finding rodents, chook feed losses or shelter around the shed. We can direct you to a licensed snake catcher and help remove the rodents and harbourage that are drawing it in.