A not-so-welcome visitor

Those of you who follow me on Facebook will already know this, but my plans for today's post have been thrown into disarray by a unexpected and totally unwelcome visitor. Last week, we met for what I hoped to be the first and last time, but alas - that wasn't the case. Here in Brisbane, particularly in acreage areas like ours, snakes are an unfortunate part of life. I have a healthy respect for them, and in fact, I've saved many from drowning in our pool. We've snakes of all shapes and sizes, including one huge carpet python, but up until recently I hadn't had the pleasure of a visitor like this:

Eastern Brown Snake 

Coastal Taipan

Notice the smaller than usual pics - I didn't want to scare you too much :)

Australia boasts nine out of ten of the world's most venomous snakes, and these guys are numbers two and three on that list. From the Queensland Museum's website:

The Coastal Taipan is Australia's most dangerous land snake.
Photograph by Angus Emmott.

Danger:

This is a dangerously venomous species with strongly neurotoxic venom.  It possesses the third most toxic land snake venom known.  Many human deaths have resulted from bites by this species.  If bitten, apply first aid and seek urgent medical attention.  First aid procedure for any snakebite from the Australian Venom Research Unit.

I was on the phone to mum yesterday, when I saw our pooch Darcy (who would have to be the world's most cowardly dog, or so I thought) frantically chasing something under our barbeque.Expecting it to be nothing more than a cane toad (yuk, I know!) you can imagine my shock when one of these fellas came shooting out, with the dog in hot pursuit. I had to risk life and limb to rescue both dog and snake, and after locking the dog inside, I called the snake catcher. He proceeded to tell me that unless I knew where it went, it was no use him coming out, and all I could do was lock the dog in and keep an eye out. He also thought it would be a good idea to let the snake take cover in our laundry so that we could contain it until he arrived with a nice big carpet snake, which would apparently fix the problem. Of course, why didn't I think of that?????? 

I'm still unsure whether it was a taipan or a brown snake, but neither option is particularly appealing. My daughter called this morning to say it was back again, so the time for fun and games are over! No more Mrs Nice Guy, I'm calling in the big guns - Steve's Wildlife Warriors are my next point of call. I'll let you know how I get on, so wish me luck!