By Oliver Winn
A Dixons Creek couple received quite the scare on Sunday 30 March after discovering a snake in their toilet.
Mr and Ms Steele returned home from a school fete, when Ms Steele needed to go to the toilet.
But upon opening the toilet lid, Ms Steele was given a rude awakening – a 70cm copperhead snake was lying on the toilet seat.
“My wife was desperate to go to the toilet, so she came inside very quickly and lifted up the lid and lo and behold, there’s a snake lying on the toilet seat.”
“So she went away and I took a photograph of my photographs and I tried to decide what I was going to do with it. So I raced off to grab a garden rake and I was only gone about a minute and the snake disappeared.”
Scared the snake could be anywhere in the house, the couple frantically searched around, giving the rooms “the best spring clean they’ve ever had”.
But they quickly realised the snake was still hiding out inside the toilet, which prompted them to call a snake catcher.
“Shortly thereafter the snake catcher came and he lifted the lid and in the course of doing that, the snake fell into the toilet bowl,” Mr Steele said.
“It was pretty easy for him then to catch the snake.”
“He had a pair of tongs and he caught the snake and put it in a bucket,” he said.
Mr Steele suspects the snake must’ve made its way through the septic tank, up the pipe leading to his house, and eventually the toilet.
Having completed earth works around his septic tank recently, he theorised that the works must’ve disturbed the snake.
While it’s not common for snakes to be found inside of toilets in Australia, it does happen, and the snake catcher who responded to Mr Steele’s request said it’s a “possibility” to be aware of.
“Because my wife won’t sit back on that toilet, and the snake catcher suggested that we should continue to check the toilet, because you never know, you might find another one of them,” he said.
“The problem is, you just never know where snakes are, and that’s an issue.”
In February, Ambulance Victoria (AV) said 129 snakebites had been recorded over the summer.
AV emergency management director Dale Armstrong said of these cases, 125 people were transported to hospital.
“With hot weather continuing, the snakes are out, which means we need to be vigilant,” Mr Armstrong said.
Though summer has ended, snakes such as the lowland copperhead stay active until late April before seeking shelter over the winter.
