A NSW man had an eventful end to 2024 after finding a deadly eastern brown snake coiled up inside his lawn mower.
Troy Hovenden, known as The Reptile Bloke, made a house call in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, on December 30 after the owner found the world’s second most-venomous land snake hidden inside his old mower.
The snake catcher raced to the property within 10 minutes to safely remove the eastern brown from its crafty hiding place.
In a video shared to his Facebook page, the experienced snake handler said he immediately knew the breed because of the distinct yellow spots on its underbelly.
The footage showed Hovenden extract the snake from underneath the mower as it wriggled about and quickly popped it into his bag.
It was all done and dusted in under 90 seconds.
Watch your fingers – can you spot the snake in the box?
“I have had one other instance personally that I can remember where a snake got inside a lawn mower,” Hovenden told 9news.com.au.
“It does happen from time to time, it’s a good place for them to hide and feel safe so it’s definitely something to be aware of.”
Hovenden said eastern browns are “highly venomous”.
Only experienced snake handlers should try to remove snakes if they are spotted inside or near a home.
After removing the reptile from the mower, Hovenden found a safe place to release it back into the wild.
