If a snake bites
Call 000 straight away. healthdirect's first aid is a pressure bandage, keeping the person still and not washing the bite. Never try to catch or kill the snake.
Werribee's river, bay and rules
Snakes on private land
From 1 September 2025 Wyndham City stopped removing snakes from private properties, though it still handles them in parks, reserves and on nature strips. The DEECA Customer Service Centre keeps a list of licensed snake controllers.
Saltmarsh by the river mouth
Werribee River Park runs down the west bank to the river mouth at Port Phillip Bay, with saltmarsh in the low ground and wetlands that form part of a Ramsar site. Along the coast, Victoria's Department of Health says a salt water loving mosquito can spread Ross River and Barmah Forest viruses.
Grassland along the river
Wyndham's 2026 ecological burns include two Werribee River reserves in Werribee, managed for nationally threatened Victorian Volcanic Plains vegetation.
Mosquitoes on the flats
Inland Victoria's mosquito season runs from about November to April, and coastal areas usually start earlier and finish later. Your biggest lever is water: empty anything that holds it at least weekly, from pot bases to blocked gutters, and check the rainwater tank screen.
A pest business can treat the shrubs where mosquitoes rest, but water left lying around will undo it.
Make the yard less inviting to snakes
- Keep grass short, especially along fence lines.
- Clear wood piles, debris and building rubble, or move them well away from the house.
- Seal gaps under doors and around the shed, as Wyndham suggests.
- Keep bins shut and pick up fallen fruit, so rats and mice have less to eat.
Our take for Werribee
Save DEECA's number before summer, and only call a catcher once you can see the snake and someone is watching it, which is what Wyndham asks. Empty standing water every week from spring. For rats, wasps or termites, tell us what you've found and 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.
