Orange Snake Service - Licensed Snake Catcher

23/08/2024

These past few warm days will have snakes starting to come out and bask. This Highland Copperhead was out enjoying the sun today at the Nestle Factory in Blayney

14/04/2024

Snake activity is starting to quiet down now. I’m down to only getting a few calls a week now. Here’s an Eastern Brown caught today at Borenore that was likely planning on spending winter under the warm concrete of this family’s back patio.

19/03/2024

Diamond Drive Copperhead

This won’t win any cinematography awards but here’s a snake capture from earlier today. I usually get a few call outs each year for Copperheads in the backyards of homes close to the wetlands at Waratahs. Wetlands provide perfect habitat for this inoffensive species which loves to eat frogs, small lizards and other snakes including each other.

18/03/2024

Imagine stepping out of the shower and nearly treading on a little Red Bellied Snake hiding out in your bathroom! This cute little intruder was moved to a safer place for all involved.

03/03/2024

Here’s a closer look at the Clifton Grove Tiger Snake being released.

15/02/2024

Tiger Snake in Orange!

Well that was a first for me. After living in Orange for close to two decades and having caught hundreds of snakes, I’ve never seen a Tiger Snake here until this afternoon at Clifton Grove! Every reported Tiger Snake sighting over the years has either turned out to be a banded Eastern Brown or a Copperhead. I have never seen a photo of one, a dead one on the road and there isn’t a single historical Tiger Snake record from Orange on any wildlife databases. I don’t know if this one is a transplant from elsewhere but it was a big healthy specimen and certainly has me intrigued.

03/02/2024

Last night I was kept busy until late with a couple of Copperheads at Forest Reefs and a Tiger Snake in Kelso.

On warm summer nights, primarily diurnal snakes can still be active well after dark. In my experience, juvenile Tiger snakes and Copperheads are particularly fond of warm nights. If you live in a “snakey” area then make sure you wear proper footwear and use a torch if you go outside at night to take out the rubbish etc.

Here’s a photo of a beautiful diamond python I saw while on holidays over the Christmas break.

29/01/2024

“We found adult eastern brown snakes can collectively remove thousands of mice per square kilometre of farmland each year, which substantially increases farm productivity.”

The benefits of snake populations on agricultural land far outweigh the potential costs, and farmers should tolerate rather than kill them.

12/12/2023

A well fed Tiger Snake that had been on rodent control duties inside a chook run. Bathurst

06/12/2023

This is the second Eastern Brown Snake inside of a home in the last two days. It’s also no coincidence that these have been our hottest two days and historically, most of my jobs for snakes inside homes have been hot days. We think of reptiles as liking heat, but temperatures around 30 degrees means snake will start seeking out cooler places such as under verandahs, at backdoors, inside garages and unfortunately inside people's homes. You will also see most snake activity restricted to the mornings and afternoon/evenings as they lay low during the hottest part of the day. Make sure you don’t leave your doors open or have gaps under the door especially if you live out of town. The snake isn’t up to anything malicious, it just wants to avoid overheating in the sun.

12/11/2023

Gravid female Eastern Brown full of eggs - Molong.

05/11/2023

Eastern Brown Snake hiding inside a bag of potting mix - Molong

05/11/2023

This could have ended badly…

27/10/2023

The Snake Service will be unavailable Fri-Sun. Apologies for any inconvenience.

24/10/2023

Eastern Brown - Windera

23/10/2023

Snakes very seldom stay in the exact same spot for an extended period of time, usually moving around within a “home range”. There are some exceptions though and ecdysis (skin shedding) is one such example. Like this Tiger Snake caught on the weekend, as a snake begins the shedding process they will become less active and find a warm and secure retreat which they remain close to. The scales of the snake become opaque for several days and this causes the snake’s vision to become impaired due to the scale covering the eye becoming difficult to see through. The scales then become transparent again and the snake then sheds its skin and usually moves on. This Tiger has been seen in the same place at a water tank for several days. Once caught, I could see that it’s skin was beginning to slough off.

22/10/2023

Eastern Brown - Wiradjuri Pl

21/10/2023

Tiger Snake - O’Connell

21/10/2023

Double the Fun - just picked up two Eastern Browns for some lovely people on Dean Dr. I had caught one and was just telling the home owners that multiple snakes are quite rare when all of a sudden their dog jumped back from a bush alerting us to the second snake. Our fairly limited understanding of Eastern Brown behaviour would so far seem to indicate that compared to many other animals and even some snake species, they aren’t a social or communal species but Spring is mating time and that does increase the likelihood of multiple snakes. Language warning on the video 😂

30/09/2023

Third Brown snake at this location caught and bagged.

30/09/2023

Two male Eastern Browns caught now and playing the waiting game for the female

30/09/2023

I think we’re in for a busy day today

25/09/2023

I caught this Copperhead trying to make a hasty retreat. Pinnacle Road

20/09/2023

Orange's Big Three

If you're a new follower of the page or perhaps you're a new comer to Orange, allow me to introduce you to the three large venomous snakes that you may encounter in the Orange area. All three species are not necessarily commonly found in all areas of Orange but in some areas you may be lucky enough to see all three! Seeing a snake is not a cause for concern and snakes are not a danger if left alone. It is possible in some situations to coexist with venomous snakes but if a snake needs to be relocated from private property then please abide by NSW wildlife law and use a licensed snake handler.

20/09/2023

Eastern Brown at a home in Borenore today

19/09/2023

Copperhead relocated from Yackerboon Place over the weekend

07/09/2023

Eastern Brown at CSU today

25/08/2023

First snake of the new “season”. It’s sufficiently warm enough now that our snakes, particularly the darker coloured ones like this Copperhead, will be venturing out and sunning themselves near the entrances to their winter hibernacula. They still won’t be very mobile yet - that will occur over the coming weeks, warm weather pending.

23/01/2023

The smallest (and cheekiest) of a couple of Copperheads caught on jobs yesterday. This one had made itself at home in a rock wall in Millthorpe but after arriving 15 minutes after it was sighted and dismantling the entire rock wall, it could not be found. While standing around talking to the home owner and feeling bad that I couldn't get the snake, the little bu**er just came casually slithering out of the garden right in front of us!