How Melton handles it
A snake program, with conditions
Melton City Council's snake removal program covers homes, but it responds only when the snake is clearly visible and the owner authorises its removal. Brown, tiger and red-bellied black snakes are active from spring through to autumn, often sunbaking on paths and driveways near creeks, bush and wetlands.
Wasp nests: a local law duty
Melton's General Local Law 2015 says an owner or occupier must not let English or European wasps nest on the property, and must take reasonable steps to have a nest destroyed once they know it's there.
Honey bee swarms as well
The same clause asks owners to take reasonable steps to have an unmanaged honeybee swarm removed. In Victoria that's usually a beekeeper's job, and the Department of Health tells pest businesses to refer bee enquiries on.
Other pests on private land
Snakes aside, the council says it doesn't remove pests from private property. It will look into reports where something is drawing pests in, such as stagnant water full of mosquito larvae or food scraps left lying around.
A snake near the house
Get people and pets inside
Keep well back. Never try to catch or kill it: the council says so, and harming a snake is illegal.
Keep it in sight
The program only responds when the snake is clearly visible, so one person watches from a distance while another calls.
Call the council
Melton City Council arranges a catcher under its program once you authorise the removal.
Then take away the hiding spots
Cut long grass and clear piles of rubbish and timber around the house and yard.
Swarm or wasp nest? It changes who comes
A swarm is a ball of bees hanging off a branch or fence while it looks for a new home. A European wasp nest is papery, built from chewed wood, and most are in the ground with a steady stream of wasps at the hole.
The swarm is for a beekeeper. The wasps are for a pest business. Our European wasp page and bee swarm page show the differences up close.
If it were our yard in Melton
Mow the long grass and shift the timber pile before spring, when snakes start moving. If you find a European wasp nest, keep everyone away and have a pest business treat it, since the local law expects it dealt with. For everything else, send us what you've seen with your postcode.
Want someone to look at it?
Tell us what you've seen and your postcode, and a local pest business that handles exactly that calls you to talk it through.
