Unwelcome visitors
Snakes at our front doors
SNAKES are slithering their way closer to Geelong homes.
Local snake handler Darren Keiller said that calls to his service had increased during the past fortnight, including several from residents who had spotted a potentially venomous reptile inside their homes.
In one incident yesterday morning, a Corio resident found a tiger snake on Plantation Rd, within metres of passing schoolchildren.
That incident came after a man in his 40s was taken to Geelong hospital following a suspected snake bite in Newcomb.
Mr Keiller said the calls were coming from across the region and were likely due to changing temperatures in recent weeks.
“Tiger snakes are more common around the Geelong area, but lately I’ve been doing a lot of jobs in Bannockburn and areas on the outskirts like Lara and Steiglitz Rd — and they’ve all been brown snakes,” he said.
Tiger and brown snakes are both venomous and have been responsible for multiple deaths in Australia.
But Mr Keiller said the risk to people was s low if they left the snakes alone and called a catcher for help.
A spokeswoman for Barwon Health said d its emergency department had received four ur admissions for possible snake bites since the he start of the year.
She said the man who was admitted to hospital on Tuesday was discharged on the same day.
RUSTY WOODGER