SNAKES hibernate during the cold weather and are no danger to humans and pets, right?
Wrong! It's a myth and Lee Taylor, of Rosebud South, and snake catcher Barry Goldsmith have the proof - a healthy, 1.3-metre-long tiger snake captured in Ms Taylor's yard.
The mother of two adult children was pottering around in her garden when she stepped on the snake, causing it to rear up and sink its fangs into her pants. "I got a huge fright. It was amazing; the snake's bite didn't get through to my leg, but I could feel the venom dripping on my flesh,'' she said. Luckily, I was wearing loose pants made of thick material.'' Ms Taylor said she'd had a snake phobia since childhood.
She called Barry Goldsmith, of Mornington, one of the peninsula's busiest snake catchers, who spent more than an hour searching for the serpent in her yard.
"I heard the warning call of a rosella that led me to a pile of leaf litter at the base of a tree,'' he said.
Ms Taylor's dog and cat had been sleeping in the front yard and she moved them inside.
She also warned the neighbours of her discovery. She said snakes were common in her area. "A cat brought a half-dead snake into my front yard a couple of years ago, and our kelpie died in mysterious circumstances last November. "Maybe they're looking for mice in the shed.''
Mr Goldsmith said it was common to find snakes wandering around the peninsula in winter.
In the week he captured the snake in Ms Taylor's yard, he removed copperheads and tiger snakes from other peninsula properties. "They don't hibernate but go dormant and they'll come out into the open on sunny days, even in the middle of winter.''
The snake catcher said last week had been busy. "I captured tiger snakes in Balnarring and Sorrento and a copperhead in Mornington.''
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