'Stuff that!' Surprising find hidden in backyard compost bin
A snake catcher has made a terrifying discovery buried in a compost bin, with the snake catcher saying it was a “first” for him.
Earlier this week Bryce Lockett from Snake Catchers Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan and Gold Coast found three female coastal carpet pythons along with 75 eggs in a compost bin in Queensland.
According to a Facebook post, the homeowner saw a female snake coming out of the compost bin and called the snake catcher.
“When I got there I could see she was extremely underweight indicating she had just coiled around her eggs for 60 days,” the Facebook post said.
“Upon looking for the eggs in the compost bin I found another two females on eggs!”
Many people were surprised by the snakes hiding in the compost bin.
“Wow! Not something you would ever think to find,” one commented.
“They are just gorgeous though! I feel like the homeowners will have you on speed dial for the future.”
However, not everyone thought the snakes were “gorgeous”.
“Stuff that! I’d be moving!!! The snakes can have the house!” another person said.
Mr Lockett told Yahoo News Australia coastal carpet pythons were completely non-venomous, and despite being constrictors, are little threat to humans as they mainly prey on small animals.
They can grow to be three to four metres.
Mr Lockett said by the time he arrived 40 of the eggs had hatched and the baby snakes were nowhere to be found, but the remaining 25 eggs were placed in an incubator and are starting to hatch.
Once the remaining 25 are hatched, they will be released into the wild.
Mr Lockett explained this compost bin had a hole in it, which a rat chewed through, and suggests maintaining compost bins to ensure snakes don’t slide into them.
“Compost bins, grass clippings they create great little eco-habitats for the [snake] eggs because of the humidity, which keeps the temperature high for the eggs to incubate in,” he said.
Mr Lockett said the three snake clutches – or a snake and their eggs – was highly unusual.
“I’ve come across many clutches, in rock walls and stuff like that, where there’s many two clutches within ten metres of each other,” he said.
“But never, ever have I had a call to multiple clutches in one closed location, that only had that one entry and exit point.”
According to the Snake Catcher Brisbane website, coastal carpet pythons are found throughout Southeast Queensland and is the “most commonly encountered snake within the region”.
The compost bin is seemingly the perfect place for the snakes to settle, as not only do they utilise spaces such as roofs, wall cavities, sheds and garages, they often reside in heavy foliage of trees and shrubs.
“At ground level [coastal carpet pythons] will utilise dense vegetation, miscellaneous large ground litter such as stored building materials and accumulated garden debris.”
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