South Australian mum’s horrifying discovery in child’s lunchbox
A South Australian mother has made a frightening discovery while packing her child's school lunch, finding a baby brown snake hiding inside the lid of the lunch box.
The woman, from the Adelaide Hills, had already put an apple and two other snacks in the lunch box when she noticed the deadly eastern brown snake.
She quickly shut the lunch box and called a snake catcher.
Rolly Burrell from Snake Catchers Adelaide told 9NEWS even though the reptile was only a baby at two weeks old it was still a dangerous threat to a child.
"Eastern brown snakes are the second deadliest land snake in the world. The baby snakes are as venomous as the adults," Mr Burrell, who has been a snake catcher for 43 years, said.
"It could have been very dangerous for the child if he put his hand in there, he could have been bitten and probably wouldn't have known he'd been bitten because it would have been a very soft bite."
We are currently in the middle of hatching season for eastern brown snakes and Mr Burrell said he was receiving 50 to 60 phone calls a day to report brown snakes around the Adelaide area.
"It's been a very good (breeding) season, the weather has been fantastic ... the weather is fine and the humidity is there and that's what snakes need to hatch," he said.
"Snakes don't like hot conditions so they've got to find somewhere to cool off. Obviously he's gone into the pantry ... maybe he was looking for something to eat."