An Australian family was shocked when they discovered a highly venomous snake hiding in a pile of abandoned shoes outside.
A red-bellied black snake, about 1.3 metres long, slithered into a sandal at her home in Burnside, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, on Sunday.
Daniel Busstra of Snake Catcher Dan was called to remove the reptile after the family spotted it sunbathing by their front door.
“When I got there, it was hidden in shoes,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Then when I tried to take it out, it tried to hide from me and go back into the pile of shoes.
“I just pulled the snake out of the only shoe it was in and removed it from the pile.”
The family is no stranger to reptiles and has seen many slithering onto their property from the freshwater creek that runs past their home.
Busstra said snakes are “shy creatures” that don’t like being out in the open with nowhere to hide.
A 1.5-metre-long red-bellied black snake slithered into a sandal at her Burnside home on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast on Sunday.
He explained that inside a shoe is not the most common place to find a snake, but it was not unheard of.
“They always need to have somewhere to hide, under it or behind it,” he said.
‘So if you leave a bunch of shoes by the front door, that’s a good place for a snake to want to hide.’
Although snakes are “less active” during the winter, Mr Busstra warned there are still snakes out there.
Mr Busstra urges anyone who finds a snake on their property to keep a safe distance and call a professional.
“If you have pets or small children and don’t like the idea of the snake being there, keep an eye on it and call a professional snake catcher to come and handle it,” she said.
‘The worst thing you can do is try to fix it yourself.
‘The vast majority of people who are bitten by snakes try to catch or kill them.’
There has never been a recorded death caused by a red-bellied black snake in Australia.