Imagine walking into your house one day to find an 8-foot snake slithering down your hallway!

Most people would be scared stiff, but 80-year-old Lorna King from Victoria was having none of it.

Lorna worked as a wildlife rescuer for 30 years. It was her work that led her becoming a self-taught snake catcher by accident when someone rang her for help.

She said she became more familiar with snakes when she moved into a house in Townsville, Queensland.

Lorna King worked as a wildlife rescuer before becoming a self-taught snake catcher. Image source: Facebook/Lorna King.

'We had snakes in the house always, little pythons and things get up in the beams,' she shared.

'Our house was high set, and I'd be out putting washing on the line under the house and there'd always be eyes looking at me.'

'I got used to them because I knew they weren't dangerous.

'The fact that I'm not afraid to touch them is what enables me to catch them.'

Now, she is registered with the Victorian government to catch the slithering creatures across the state.

Lorna once caught a huge black snake in an elderly man’s house behind a cabinet along the wall.

'I guarantee you, it was about eight-foot long, he was huge,' Lorna shared.

'Poor old man left the door open for his dogs to come in.'

'As he was walking down the passageway, [he] saw this massive snake coming into [his] house.

'The poor old darling, he couldn't go back into his house for three days after the snake,' she recalled.

And despite her close encounters with these reptiles, Lorna has never experienced being attacked by one.

'A lot of people ask me that, and they look at me as if I’m lying,' she said.

'I would be too frightened to do it again if I was bitten.'

Unlike many other catchers, Lorna doesn’t document her journey on social media.

'When I can get someone to get a bit of footage for me or take a photo, it’s wonderful,' she said as she rarely gets to do it herself.

In similar news, a Queensland family owes their life to their ever-watchful snake-hunter who sniffed out the potential danger lurking in their backyard.

Sun Sun, also known as 'good doggo' to her family, found a red-bellied black snake tucked away inside their hose reel.

Thanks to Sun Sun's strange fixation on their hose, the family cautiously approached the hose reel to investigate why she was behaving that way.

Other users filled the comments section with their theories about why the snake might have chosen the hose reel as its hiding spot. Suggestions ranged from the snake following frogs—a popular meal for the red belly—to merely seeking shelter.

You can read more about this story here.

Key Takeaways

• An 80-year-old woman named Lorna King has become a self-taught snake catcher in Victoria, after living with the reptiles for 12 years.
  
• King, a wildlife rescuer for 30 years, became familiar with snakes when she moved to a home in Townsville, Queensland.
  
• Despite her close encounters with snakes, she has never been attacked by one.
  
• King doesn't document her call-outs on social media and said she would be too frightened to continue if she'd ever been bitten.
  

Have you ever spotted a snake in your home? What did you do then? Share your experience with us in the comments below!

 

[MariaG]

Bless her cotton socks. What an amazing lady.

I have had a python draped around my shoulders and neck, under controlled conditions in a wildlife park. It was actually on my bucket list (before it became trendy) as one of the things to do. Handling a snake was OK, and, the thing that concerned me more at the time was that I had the poo end hanging over my chest. Luckily, it did not have the urge when I had hold of him.

My siblings and I spent most of our spare time growing up, rambling through the bush that grew alongside our home. In all those years, never saw a snake. That tells me they avoid you if they hear you coming.

When it comes to snake wrangling, I'll leave that up to the experts. It would me my luck to get that one cranky bum snake.