IF you think winter means snakes disappear, think again.
This article started on Thursday as a straightforward interview with Kurt from Ipswich Snake Catchers. By Friday, it had turned into a lived experience.
A juvenile eastern brown snake decided my Redbank Plains loungeroom was the ideal escape from Ipswich’s on-again, off-again rain. Suddenly, the story wasn’t just about snake behaviour in winter – it was about my own house.
Following advice from local catcher Harrison, we did the only sensible thing: packed up the family and temporarily relocated to Toowoomba for three days.
The snake, thankfully, took the hint and exited via the sliding door grate, returning to the wild and leaving us with a story that proved the point.
As temperatures drop, Kurt said it was not the snakes people should underestimate, but the myths surrounding their behaviours.
“Snakes don’t hibernate,” he said.
“They brumate. That means they slow down, but they don’t stop. They’ll still come out for sunshine, still move around, and still feed if the opportunity is there.”
Translation: winter doesn’t switch them off – it just puts them in low-power mode.
“The toxicity doesn’t change,” Kurt said. “If anything, people get complacent in winter, and that’s where the danger is.
“A snake might be slower on a cold morning compared to a scorching summer afternoon, but not by enough to make a difference.
“If you’re within striking distance, it doesn’t matter what season it is.”
Keeping your yard tidy can help, but it’s no magic force field.
“Short grass improves visibility, but it doesn’t mean snakes won’t come through,” Kurt said.
“We get them in fully turfed yards all through Springfield, even apartments with no backyard.
“They’re everywhere. Just because you haven’t seen one doesn’t mean they’re not there.”
Red-bellied black snakes and eastern browns may favour slightly different habitats, but there’s plenty of overlap, and occasionally, competition turns into dinner.
“They’re opportunistic feeders,” he said.
“If it’s there and they’re hungry, it’s fair game.”
One myth, however, stands above the rest and it’s the one Kurt is keen to see disappear.
“The whole ‘a good snake is a dead snake’ mentality – it’s just wrong,” he said. “Snakes play a huge role in controlling pests. You’d much rather one snake moving through an area than a thousand rats.”
With urban development continuing to push into natural habitats across Ipswich, encounters are becoming more common, not less.
If you do come across a snake, the advice is simple: keep your distance, keep eyes on it if you can, move pets and children away, and call a licensed catcher.
Trying to handle or harm a snake isn’t just dangerous – it’s illegal.
