Aussie mum's 'shocking' find in potato box
The resident swears she will never blindly stick her hand into a vegetable box again after finding a snake inside.
A woman has sworn she will “never reach into a box” without first emptying its contents after inadvertently grabbing a green tree snake among her potatoes.
The vegetables were being stored inside the local's backyard shed in Monaltrie, NSW and concealed the non-venomous snake's presence well before it slithered across her hand.
"Never imagined something would be hiding amongst potatoes ... I felt him go across my hand and dropped the entire box like a hot potato."
The sighting comes after a snake catcher has been inundated with messages from Aussies asking why there are "more and more snakes" appearing around the country, however Mathew Hampton said there was a simple answer.
"Snakes are naturally more active in summer," he told Yahoo News Australia. "All Australian snakes breed at this time ... It mellows in December and baby snakes appears late January."
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Why potato box was 'perfect shelter' for snake
According to the snake catcher the box of vegetables was an ideal hiding spot for the reptile but he refuted the belief that snakes have any "particular fondness of potatoes".
"Like all snakes they'll use any kind of shelter they can get in and that's sort of perfect shelter for a little snake, there's heaps of holes down the bottom and it would be safe in there," he said.
The resident admitted she would "never reach into a box without dumping it out again" and confirmed the snake was "safely relocated" to a nearby bush, using the opportunity to teach her young daughter about snake safety.
Are green tree snakes good dancers?
The snake catcher debunked the common myth that this species of snake "dances" when encountered in the wild and instead explained the behaviour helps them to gauge the level of danger they are in.
"They raise their head off the ground, and they sway their heads side to side, because their eyes are either side of its head so basically it's hard for them to gauge depth," he said. "It's called error scoping and they'll try get a better look at what's in front of them."
The green tree snake is one of the most commonly seen snakes in suburban backyards and inner-city gardens, and are non-venomous.
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