A TEAM of Brisbane snake catchers have been fielding up to 45 calls a day this snake season.

But Bryan Robinson from Snake Catchers Brisbane said the high snake activity isn’t unusual for this time of year.

“October’s the busiest month for brown snakes - always has been - when the males are charging around like crazy trying to service as many females as they can. We get the same thing every year,” he said.

Even before the season started, a 2.4m carpet python had to be carefully removed from the pipes of a home at Chapel Hill in the city’s western suburbs.

“They said they had a blocked toilet so the plumber’s rocked up and found it,” Mr Robinson said.

“The snake went up through the pipe and they had to cut him out. They end up in toilets all the time. They got him out and he was fine, but the problem was the toilet was blocked because he was just that big.”

media_camera The snake that blocked a toilet at Chapel Hill. Photo: www.snakecatchers.com.au

Mr Robinson said his business had also been called out to deal with a plastic shopping bag that someone though was a snake, as well as a rubber snake put into a washing machine by the caller’s grandchildren.

“Nanna rings up and says she’s got a snake in the washing machine. When you look at it from a distance – and it was low light – you could actually think it’s a live snake. We all had a bit of a laugh at that one.”

SNAKE HOT SPOTS IN THE SOUTHEAST

Snake activity flared in September when people started hearing duelling male carpet pythons fighting in their roofs, combined with people seeing larger species moving through their yards.

“There are a lot of smaller, inconspicuous species of snakes that go through our backyards and remain completely undetected because they’re just small and quick to get out of the way. Or they move nocturnally when most of us are tucked away in bed,” he said.

“We expect an acceleration in numbers (at this time of year) because the more obvious species of snakes are more active.”

Not all calls are for snake removal, with some people just calling for advice.

“We service a lot of the westside, and the westside of Brisbane has always been a bit of a mecca for snakes. We do get quite a lot, especially in those leafy suburbs.”

Mr Robinson said brown snakes and carpet snakes should stop mating this week, but that snake movement would probably be seen until mid-November.

media_camera The ‘snake’ found inside a Brisbane washing machine. Photo: www.snakecatchers.com.au

“Females that are preparing to lay eggs will find those sites, and the male will go out getting as much food as they can so they can be the biggest boy on the block next year. If you’re up in people’s roofs wrestling with other carpet snakes, you want to be the biggest boy around. That wrestling situation doesn’t occur with every snake that meets another snake. It only occurs where carpet snakes of equal size meet up with each other,” Mr Robinson said.

“If one’s bigger than the other, the bigger one will usually just give the other one a quick bite and they realise they’re outmuscled and take off. Any footage you can find of carpet pythons fighting, they’ll always be similar size.”

media_camera A snake snapped at Taringa. Photo: Roderick Ferguson

He added that snakes have a very low reproductive output, and that brown snakes only breed once a year.

“A brown snake averages around 16 eggs, but mortality rates are around 80-90 percent, so out of the 16 you might get one or two that actually make it to become viable adult animals.”

Mr Robinson also said there were steps you could take to reduce being bitten by a snake.

“It’s very infrequent that people have accidental contact with snakes. Usually contact is initiated by us,” he said.

“If you’ve got something that’s sat there for a long time and there’s a possibility of a snake being in it, put a rake through it first and then pick it up using gloves.”