My son asked me to go & listen to his Ford Ranger 4x4 last night. It was making a mild thumping noise, with a vibration that you could feel from under the dash. It stopped when he turned the air con off, but started when ever the ventilation fan was running.

He decided it was either a mouse, rat or snake that had got into the ventilation system. Not wanting a snake to join him in the car, he borrowed my shopping trolley, leaving the Ranger in a car port for the night.

Today in moderate trepidation, in case he was about to have a meeting with an angry snake, he dropped the ventilation fan & motor & found his passenger, a rather deadly 1.3m eastern brown, coiled up in the drum fan. Well most of it was there, the head & about 10mm was spread around the housing. It must have been sticking out of the fan when he turned it on, & was ground away by the housing.

At least that made the thing less deadly, but the clean up has been quite an effort, & very unpleasant.

Don't tell anyone, or the greenies will be complaining he didn't rescue it. I was thinking perhaps it would be safer in suburbia, then remembered a rash of snakes in suburban barbeques, wardrobes & toy box stories on TV. I guess that's why greenies live in high rise apartments, to avoid the consequences of the protection of dangerous species they have pushed for.

Blowflies seem to come back after you kill the lot . But snakes can be killed if someone is in imminent danger. Browns need 4mg to kill and a full dose can kill 70 men. Let's hope gloves were used in cleaning up the fan and venom as a scratch could take in enough to spoil the day. Driving in an aerosol of brown venom in the car is not good bu the number of flies would be down.

Hasbeen found it strange but they thrive around here, seems people are killing far too many red belly blacks who eat the browns
Known to be able to handle them I get a call now and again
But as I get old the fast kill is my only help with a brown
PS local press of late has several photos of snakes crossing the beach and going for a swim

Haven't seen a red belly black around here Belly, but lots of yellow belly blacks. They get big & very aggressive. We have lost 2 dogs to them. One was asking for trouble, but the other was ignoring the thing & still got hit. It is really amazing how quickly the dogs, big ones, go when a black hits them, it is only seconds.

Found a dead 4m python down by the dam pump the other day. We've had a big yellow belly black around there for a couple of years. If we are noisy when we go down there we only see him sliding away, which is why he is still there. He won't be there long if he starts to get aggressive. I think the python may have been silly enough to take on the black to its cost.

Hasbeen not even sure I have ever seen a yellow belly, are they the copper heads we get in this state?
Browns are never nice, the king brown being the biggest
Bloke near here has chooks, swears only a netting wire fence saved him when it chased him
Three working cattle dogs, chained up, on my next door neighbor, across the paddock,all killed by browns

//Haven't seen a red belly black around here Belly, but lots of yellow belly blacks.//

Those are red-bellies, Hasbeen. The only other snake that gets referred to as a yellow belly black snake is the common tree snake, Dendrelaphis punctulata. They're not highly venomous, and wouldn't be able to kill a large dog that quickly.

Do you have a creek on your property? Red bellies like water, you'll often find them near creeks.

Yes, fresh water river front, 400 or 500 metres from the house, & the dam half way down to the river. Perhaps our red belly blacks have yellow bellies. These were venomous to kill a dog in just one minute.

We have lots of trees in a windbreak south & west of the house, a small orchard & many tree plantings around the house paddock, so lots of green tree snakes. One quite large one for a tree snake lives in the hay shed.

We had a couple of very nasty aggressive ones a few years back. Sage green with blue spots. Large sort of triangular body, with a small head so probably venomous. One threatened my daughter when she went to open the gate to the saddling enclosure. We showed it to the snake expert at Canungra army base. He had never seen one or seen it described. He thought snakes might be cross breeding as he had seen a few he could not recognise recently.

//Perhaps our red belly blacks have yellow bellies.//

Colour variation aside, do your culprits resemble these snakes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-bellied_black_snake

Or these ones:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrelaphis_punctulatus

Hasbeen thought last night it had to be a redback
Know some yellow appears in some
Water here too, dam, but not sure about interbreeding, know it has been said it happens

Definitely not a tree snake. Not much like the first either, & most definitely have fangs, & kill very quickly.

They are mostly over 2.5m, & many are well over 3 m when around the house paddock. We are very careful when moving stacks of timber roofing iron & the bath tubs we use as water troughs for the horses.

//Definitely not a tree snake. Not much like the first either, & most definitely have fangs, & kill very quickly.

They are mostly over 2.5m, & many are well over 3 m//

Well, I'm stumped. I can't think of an elapid snake that grows that big and matches the colouration. I recommend you take some photos and get in touch with ophidologist.

Good advice Tony Lavis, once kept snakes and mixed with others who did
Wandered around the Australian Reptile park often ,no idea what it is
Story in Sydney press told of snake catcher removing a brown from a bed in Brisbane
Here red belly,s grow to huge sizes, unlike the southern highland , there the browns are huge
Shame more do not know red belly,s kill browns
Tony Lavis any thoughts on cross breeding?
Heard about it but never saw it

Some weeks back I was standing just off the left rear of my car when my old neighbour walked towards & past the right front of the care when a good 7' long Taipan shot out the left front of the car like a rocket. This snake would have been less than a metre from him. The snakes on Cape York appear to have recovered from the shock of the Cane Toad invasion & seem to be catching up on breeding.
An older bloke about 50 km down the road was struck in the leg by what was diagnosed as a taipan about 4 months ago & he survived despite being 1 hr before he received first aid from his neighbour a nurse who happened to arrive home just as 000 rang her. He was touch & go for several weeks.

Indy saw a mate walk right over a red belly black in short grass and did not even see it
Inches away from him
Being warned it is going to be a bad summer for them around here