ADRENALINE-FUELLED CAREER FOR VETERAN SNAKE CATCHER
FEW people can say they have a career as adrenalinefilled as Gunter Glaser, who has been catching and releasing snakes across the Darling Downs for more than two decades.
The owner of Darling Downs Snake Catchers 24/7 usually receives upwards of five calls a day during Springtime but said this year had been one of the quietest seasons.
“Every year people think it’s worse than it was the season before, but this has been the quietest snake season for us – we’re averaging one to three calls a day,” Mr Glaser said.
The snake catcher said the erratic weather could be the cause with cooler temperatures and windy conditions causing movement which frightens or deters snakes from emerging.
Mr Glaser has been hospitalised three times on the job after he was bitten by black snakes in Toowoomba, Warwick and Kingaroy.
While his last hospital stay was just six months ago, not even that could deter him from returning to work.
“I’ve made mistakes before like grabbing their tail too close to their head, especially with brown snakes because they jump around so much,” he said.
“But it’s always a little bit exciting and keeps your adrenaline going.”
Despite it being a slower time than usual for the snake catcher, he caught a 2m long eastern brown in recent weeks, but his biggest catch has been 4m long carpet pythons.
Mr Glaser said snakes liked to hide in quiet and warm spaces such as garden sheds, barbecues, washing machines, inside shoes and underneath car bonnets and hedges.
His tips for minimising snakes are to regularly maintain the lawn and to keep a gap between garden hedges and the ground.
But even these measures wouldn’t stop snakes from lurking regardless of if you’re in the bush or the middle of the CBD.
“It’s always amazing when I catch a four-foot brown that’s about four years old, and the homeowner says ‘that’s the first snake I’ve seen in 10 years,’” Mr Glaser said.
“Even if your place doesn’t have rats, mice or chooks, snakes follow fence lines and may wander into a quiet house before it heads off into its original destination,” he said.