When a Sydney resident spotted the tail of a deadly red-bellied black snake in her yard, she initially thought it was sunning itself and would move on.
The next day, however, the reptile had failed to move on, so she called in the experts for help.
Tyler Gibbons from Shire Snake Wranglers arrived at the home in Gymea last week, and quickly realised there was a reason the snake hadn’t moved — it was tightly entangled in dangerous tree netting.
“The netting was actually next door,” he told Yahoo News, explaining that the snake’s head was stuck inside the net on one side of the fence, while its tail remained on his client’s side.
The neighbours were using the netting to protect their fruit trees from bats and birds, and while one side of the yard was using the correct material — with mesh smaller than 5mm — the other side where the snake entered was covered with netting that is illegal in some jurisdictions.
Snake catcher Tyler Gibbons had to free the snake onsite. Source: Shire Snake Wranglers
Using illegal netting can be a costly mistake, with fines of up to $800 in the ACT and on-the-spot fines of $395 in Victoria.
“It’s really bad for bats and birds and things like that, and reptiles, of course,” Tyler said. “It’s a bit sad.”
Usually Tyler and his team are able to take a snake away to treat it and remove netting, but in this case the netting was so tight it had to be removed urgently.
Photos of the rescue show the netting so firmly wrapped around the snake that its head can’t be seen.
Thankfully, Tyler managed to cut it free and it escaped with only minor scale damage.
“It was very, very lucky it actually didn’t do too much damage,” he said.
The snake was stuck between properties. Source: Shire Snake Wranglers
Wildlife trapped ‘all the time’ in netting
Tyler also works with WIRES, and said jobs relating to wildlife trapped in nets came in “all the time”.
“It’s fairly common, probably a couple a week,” he said, noting that in some cases the netting can start cutting into the animal’s flesh if it has been trapped for too long.
“I think the message is definitely getting out there around this netting,” he said.
“Even Bunnings is getting to the stage where they’re only having compliant netting. So it’s good, but you can still purchase the non-compliant netting in other places, online as well.”
WIRES advises gardeners to use either individual fruit protection bags or a densely woven net to protect the whole tree.
The mesh size should be less than 5mm, and you should not be able to poke a finger through.
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