A Tasmanian snake catcher has been called into action after a baby lowland copperhead was found in a child's bedroom at Brighton.
Homeowner Mitch Lance said he was alerted to the small snake on Saturday evening by the yelling of his nine-year-old son Xavier.
"He came out to get a drink of water and then he headed back into his room and you could just sort of hear him yelling, screaming something," he said.
"My wife went in and there was a snake down the side of his bed."
Mr Lance quickly used a wooden spoon to scoop the snake — which Reptile Rescue chair Chris Daly estimated was as young as a day old — into a pillowcase.
He said Xavier rebounded quickly after his scare.
"He was scared at the time but afterwards, because it was so small, he was fine … it was like a skink with no legs," he said.
Mr Daly said he suspected the snake, which was just shy of 10 centimetres long, was dragged into the house by the family cat.
"For a little snake to actually get up onto the bed is impossible, it couldn't do it," he said.
"But a lot of the time, especially now, we're getting a lot of calls for snakes inside houses and it's where cats have caught the little baby snakes and taken them inside.
Big scare, small bite
The lowland copperhead was venomous, but Mr Daly said a combination of its "poor venom delivery system" and the snake's young age meant it was less likely to bite.
Mr Daly said the household pets and the snake were all fine. However, he warned people to be vigilant.
"Try and keep [cats] from wandering around as much as possible, and definitely check that when it is coming inside, if you're letting it inside, it doesn't have anything in its mouth," he said.
Mr Daly said he would monitor the snake over the next week before releasing it back into the wild.
"He's got a little bit of a mark on him from where the cat had him in the mouth, which is a normal sign, so I've Betadined him up and I'll treat him for the next week or so and make sure he hasn't got any infections from the cat," he said.
More snakes are about right now
Snake breeding season is leading to an increase in calls to Reptile Rescue, with Mr Daly saying it is receiving as many as 50 a day.
But Mr Daly said there was a common misconception that finding one baby snake meant more babies would also be on the property.
"An average size lowland copperhead will have 20 to 30 babies, and people think they're going to have 20 to 30 babies if they find one, but that's not the case," he said.
"So what actually happens is mum just cruises along and she drops them off. They fend for themselves from the first moment they're born."
