Residents across East Australia have been reporting an increase of toilet snakes, and the recent wild weather is to blame.
Yep, those using toilets anywhere that’s had recent rains is advised to lift up the seat before they sit down, unless they want a spicy surprise.
In a video shared online, wildlife rescuer Tennille Bankes showed the moment she pulled a spotted black snake out of a public toilet in Goondiwindi, NSW.
The snake is considered highly venomous.
Speaking to The Guardian Australia, Bankes said the “wild weather” was to blame for the rise of toilet snakes.
“The issue is the heat. They’re going wherever they can for the water,” she said.
“The seasons now are incredibly crazy. We’ve got a lot of heat at the moment and flooding, so climate change is a real thing.”
Bankes said snakes seek out toilets as they have “pretty much everything they want in the one spot”.
“It’s not like they go in there and they linger. It is usually just to get a drink, or to look for a food source,” she said.
“You quite often find frogs in toilet bowls, in public toilets.”
She said toilets are a good place for snakes to cool down.
Other recent snake sightings include a deadly Eastern Brown caught in a Western Sydney bathroom, a python falling off a roof during a podcast recording, and even a venomous baby brown tree snake hiding among bananas at a Darlinghurst Aldi.
Locals are told that the best thing they can do if they find a snake is to leave it alone or call a professional snake catcher.
Snakes aren’t the only animals on the move. Other creatures displaced by heavy rains include crocodiles, cane toads, crown-of-thorns starfish and venomous jellyfish.
In addition, heavy rains support more insects, so larger populations of animals such as snakes are able to survive.
