Be wary of snakes near the floodwaters: Reptile handler
Ballina security guard Jason Straton has a word of warning during flood time: Be wary of snakes.
Jason, who has been a reptile handler for 30 years, spoke to Ballina Info after an incident near the Ramada in Martin Street last Sunday.
He and his wife had just finished lunch at a restaurant when they saw a crowd gathering on the riverbank.
They went to see what was happening: The crowd was watching as a 1.1m common brown snake which had been swimming in the Richmond River slithered up the rocks, searching for dry land.
With the aid of a broom and a bag, Jason caught the snake and took ‘out bush’, where he released it.
Jason, who works for ECI Security, said there would be plenty of snakes being swept out of upriver regions, and he warned swimmers and people walking along river and creek banks to be extra careful.
His advice if you see a snake is to stay away from it. “Snakes are usually just passing through,” he said. “They’ll only hang around if there’s something for them to eat.”
Jason said smaller snakes such as the one which he removed last Sunday could be more venomous than the larger ones.
He said that in 30 years of snake handling, he had never been bitten – but he was once bitten by a funnel-web spider when putting on his shoes!
