14/11/2025
A great message about snakes and the vital role they play, especially in agriculture.
If you have a snake that needs relocating, please give me a call on 0438 145 772
... Again
This topic is always difficult to approach. We don't blame anyone, we aim to teach after mistakes are made. Educate so people understand for next time. Let's move forward and make the world a better place.
Today we attended a job where an was between the front door and the flyscreen door. A good reminder to check the seals on the fly screens, make sure nothing can squeeze through.
By the time we arrived. A neighbour had also attended and...let's just say...the snake is no longer with us. The attitude was. They are farmers and that's what they do. We have kids, we need to protect them. We have doggos, we need to keep them safe. I can understand that thinking.
It turns out, they have had snakes turn up a few times in the last year. And at the same spot. So we did a thorough property inspection to identify why a snake would be there and not 50m away down at the wetlands (which are already bone dry). We pointed out a few things. Doggos water bowl nearby, three outside fridges, air con units, hot water services, all can be a supply of water, as well as other things. We also noticed the paddock across the road had recently been slashed ready to be bailed ... And their own yard had been recently mowed. This is where the education started. When a paddock is slashed ..wildlife will want to get out of there. And if you start from far away, and work towards residences, wildlife will flee towards residences...next, mowing your yards. I asked them to describe how they do it. Surprise surprise, they do the outside, then zig zag back towards the house..again, pushing wildlife towards the house ... Snakes are wildlife. Start at the residence area, and work your way out towards wilderland. Whilst previous year's events aren't fresh in their minds...they believed the other incidents also occurred at similar times to slashing and mowing.
Next we approached the topic of ☠️ snakes. We approached it from an ecological perspective...as well as a financial perspective for the farm business. We started with the basics...most farmers say "the only good snake is a ☠️ snakes" why? Because their dad told them that ... And they said it, because their dad said it before them. And they say it because their dad told them that...and so on, from a time where no one understood ecosystems and all that stuff. No blame on them, no one thought twice, no one had done any research etc. so the attitude gets passed onto the next generation on how things are done. Nothing out of the ordinary there. I mean, we are starting to track the saying back to a time where some members of our species... werent considered members of our species. I think we have moved past that...surely we can move past the snake thing too.
We next asked some questions. Your income is based on grain and hay production? "Yes"
Do you have problems with rodents? "Yes, mice and rats."
How much, in dollar value do you think gets lost to rats and mice a year? "Well, They get into the trucks and farm equipment, they destroy wires and stuff, that costs a lot to get fixed. They also eat a lot of the grain, break into bags etc. It could be thousands of dollars a year."
My next comment was. That's a lot of money going to waste. Did you know, that one snake from earlier. He would control 10,000 rodents a year. Now you will have 10,000 more eating your profits this year. I went into more detail to demonstrate the effectiveness of snakes. What other animal can squeeze into a hole the size of a 20c coin and clear out a nest? Cats, foxes, hawks, Kookaburra, need to wait for mice to come out of the nest to get eaten. Snakes, go in, eat them all, eat all the babies, then move on (like our video from the other day where one brown snake had eaten two rats). A baby rat will be mature and able to make more babies in about five weeks. And it only takes 20 odd days for them to go from hu***ng to birthing a litter of 8 -18 babies.... (The two rats from the other day, would have been 36 in a month...those 36 would have had 18 more...each...in another month or so. That's 648...)Those numbers compound quite quickly until...there are a great many of them. As each of those 648 babies, can have another 18 each...within a month or two themselves...this is why, snakes are a CRUCIAL part of the ecosystem...arguably the economy. The numbers can go from 1, to 10,000 very very quickly.
As we service a rural community. I think it's important to consider all of the above, A lot of our rural economies rely on grain, and hay production, to feed our sheep and other livestock. How much do you estimate you loose to rodents every year? Can you put a dollar value on that? How much do you think it affects the cost of grain and hay? Considering we are also in a drought. Whilst pest control, baiting etc can have some effect. It's no where near as effective as the job snakes can do. There is also the second hand poisoning issue from baiting as well. But that's not a discussion I think is needed at this point in time...unless you want to consider...baiting is less effective to start with...a snake may come along and eats one of those baited rodents. Snake is now no longer living...now you have 10,000 more rodents... because you baited one mouse. Obviously I'm not saying every mouse that gets baited will get eaten by a snake. But the chances are high, that where you are baiting, it's because mice are around. Snakes are attracted to mice. One of those snakes may get unlucky one day and eat a baited mouse...and now we are back to where we started.
I feel like I have ranted for a bit. I hope it all makes sense. If you have questions, feel free to ask. But, our customer today was definitely happy with all the information and I believe their attitude is on the way to change :)
