Living in the bush, as we do, comes with an expectation that you will be required to share your home with a variety of critters, some more welcome than others. Snakes are among the less welcome, and over the years we have evicted everything from non-venomous Carpet to the more dangerous Red-bellied Blacks.
Once, we discovered, not one, but two slightly venomous Brown Tree Snakes who had gained access to the bathroom through an air vent after insect-proof netting had become dislodged. Fortunately, Pat is a trained snake handler, so we didn’t need to resort to calling on emergency services.
The roof and wall cavities are a haven for possums and microbats, five different species of the latter, as we discovered after setting up an ultrasonic call detector. No doubt these, and the large and very vocal Green Tree Frogs, also long-time residents, are what attract the snakes.
Our frogs live in the top of sliding glass doors, climbing up the glass using ‘suction pads’ on their toes, leaving muddy footprints in their wake, incredibly entering through a gap barely bigger than my finger.
Microbats are well-known for helping control mosquito numbers, reportedly consuming their body-weight nightly, and therefore welcome, as are the Velvet Geckos which are the reason why we haven’t seen a cockroach for decades. These beautiful little creatures, with their brown and black patterning and fat tails, live behind pictures and cupboards, and only venture out after dark in search of insects.
Our latest invader, a Brown Antechinus, is a small rodent-like critter about the size of a mouse, with a long, pointed nose. They are clearly not wholly nocturnal, as we see them foraging through the shrubbery in broad daylight.
One has recently taken up residence in my office, a quintessential “man cave”, filled with clutter and mess, and has become quite tame, hopping all over in search of a tasty silverfish or spider while I work.
Living close to nature may not be for everyone, but we’ve invaded their environment, so it’s only fair that we share.
- John Edwards
Originally published under the title "Space Invaders" in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent , 19 February, 2025.
No comments:
Post a Comment