An animal rescue service in the Western Australian Wheatbelt region said increased rainfall and enduring mice numbers were to blame for a surge in residential snake sightings.
Jyden's Reptile Removals has been relocating snakes in the Avon region for five years, with founder Jyden Couzens saying this Summer has been his busiest yet.
"In the past three months we've relocated more than 100 venomous snakes, which is double the usual amount," he said.
Mr Couzens has found snakes everywhere from sock drawers to swimming pools and from back sheds to behind fridges.
A 1.5-metre Western Brown snake became his latest rescue, when it was found next to a swag on a verandah in York on Sunday.
"We drove out from Northam to York. When we got there, [the tenant] was standing on the edge of his verandah pointing to where the snake was," Mr Couzens said.
"I walked straight over to the snake. It was nice and calm because no-one had agitated it.
"I walked straight up to it, used the hook and hand to pick it up and got it into the tube."
All snakes captured by Mr Couzens are relocated to bushland within a five-kilometre zone of where they're found.
Rain and rodents
Mr Couzens believes more grain, along with increased rainfall, has provided the perfect recipe for more mice and, in turn, more snakes.
This season, West Australian farmers produced a record grain crop with more than 26 million tonnes being harvested.
"With the weather pattern we've had the past couple of years it can help with the rodents breeding," he said.
"They get pushed into the properties and then everyone gets an abundance of mice. Then the snakes follow."
Don't panic
Unsurprisingly, most people who find a snake slithering around their home become "fretted and panicked", according to Mr Couzens.
His main advice is to stay calm and call the experts.
"The snake doesn't want to come for you or anything. It wants to get away as fast as possible," he said.
"So if you stay away from the snake, it's no threat to you, your pets or your family."
He also suggests clearing away anything that could be used by the snakes as a shelter.
"You want to keep all lawns and weeds and garden beds to a minimum, nice and low," he said.
"No piles of tin, rubbish or debris lying around the yard.
"The fewer places they've got to hide — and for rodents to breed in — the less chance you've got of encountering a snake."
