I came home about 2 weeks back only to find a snake in the house. I still have no idea how it got in, the house is completely screened, windows and doors, and I make sure that any tears in the screening are immediately sealed. However, I stepped out of the kitchen into the hallway only to see a long black snake slithering into the hallway too! It saw me and slithered away into the bathroom. I called my husband to keep an eye on it while I telephoned for help.

I called the emergency operator to find out who I should be connected with. They put me through to the police, the police gave me a number for wildlife carers in my area. The wildlife carers said they did not catch snakes and gave me a number for a reptile handler. Meantime, the snake is trying to leave the bathroom for our bedroom. My husband called for help. I handed him a broom and he held the snake at bay in the bathroom while I telephoned the reptile handler. The reptile handler said she did not catch snakes and could not help me any further. The snake was getting agitated so my husband had the snake pinned against the bathroom floor with the broom head to prevent it going into our bedroom. Meanwhile, I ran down the street to see if any of my neighbours were home. I only have two neighbours and no one was home!

I called a friend in Ingham who said to call the fire brigade as they had removed a snake from their house. I called the fire brigade, they asked where I was located, I said Bambaroo, they said they do not come to

Bambaroo (about a half hour drive south of Ingham), but they did give me a number for the local snake handler.

I called the local snake handler, first on her mobile. No answer. I called her home number and got her husband. He called her to the phone. Her first question was what colour was it. I said black, my husband said a dark greenish-brown. His eyesight is better than mine, so I went with his description. He had also been standing there observing the snake a lot longer than I. I had been on the phone or running to neighbours, while he had been standing at the bathroom doorway watching it. The snake handler asked where we were, I said Bambaroo. She hesitated. She then asked the size of the snake, we said about 2 metres. She asked if it was thick or thin. We said thin. She asked about markings under the belly, about markings and colour under its chin. We said we were not getting close enough to look. She asked dozens of questions about its description. We answered as best we could.

By now we had realised that she really did not want to come to Bambaroo unless it was an absolutely deadly snake. She decided by the description we were able to give her that it was probably a tree snake, harmless and non-venomous. Although, there was a remote possibility that it was a venoumous whip snake. Her advice: leave the doors open, it is around 5pm, so it will probably leave the house of its own accord by 9am the following...