Under a hotter Sun; Insects and Snakes always attract attention;

Fiddle Beetle Eupoecila australasiea

While pottering around in the garden I observe all sorts of interesting beetles. The
Bombardier beetle is one of the funny ones. It produces an audible chemical explosion from his rear accompanied by a puff of smoke and acrid smell when he is disturbed or touched.
One of my Hibiscus shrubs sports jewel like bugs hanging to branches and leaves. This is the Harlequin bug it flaunts its iridescent colours of bright blue, green and red arranged in sophisticated patterns. It is very beautiful considered a pest as it sucks the sap from the Hibiscus plant, so be it.

The Fiddle beetle is a thoroughly benign and lovely bug. It has a strong green violin pattern on its wing covers. It feeds on nectar in the flowers of the Eucalyptus tree. Their larvae live in decaying wood and compost and oddly crawl on their backs.

It is Christmas in Australia when the beautiful, beige golden Anoplognathus porosus, the Christmas beetle emerges from its dark tomb where it lives as a white curl-grub until it flies off as a pretty Christmas ornament into houses attracted by the lights.

The Bombardierbeetle


Sometimes I spot Giant Stick insects. It is always just by chance when I see them they are so well camouflaged, blending in just as any other stick.

I was fascinated when I saw my first Goliath Stick insect. They are more than 2o cm long. Grass green with a flash of red on their wings. They are very impressive Insects. They feed on top of tall Eucalyptus trees so they are never seen only when they have been blown down during storms.
The heat should prompt us to take it easy. Retire through the hottest hours of the day and have a siesta like in hot Latin countries. Oh no not in this country it was settled by Englishmen. They have a song, “Mad dogs and Englishmen are out in the midday sun.” I might add to this, the Swiss are the same. Peter is out on his tractor, pushing ,pulling ,slashing.

In the heat of the day snakes abound on the property. The Red-bellied Black Snake especially. They are sunning their fat, shiny black bodies. Every time I encounter one, nearly treading on it, a little shock wave electrifies my body.
Lots of tall stories are told about snakes. One man was bragging how he would take a snake by its tail and swing it around his head.

We were cleaning up old wood and debris from a previous flood, which were deposited over the property. Peter started to remove a woodpile when he saw the tip of the tail of a Black one.

He could not resist that challenge remembering the guy’s story. He grabbed the tail end and pulled. Peter got the shock of his life when

the snake’s head emerged a few centimetres from his hand to check who was pulling her tail. This day there was no swinging of a snake and I think, from then on, he left them well alone; the snake had earned his respect.
We all come upon snakes from time to time. Generally they are shy creatures slithering away not looking for confrontations. Mostly we do not know when they are around the house, unless our Australian Terrier Ali frantically sniffs around and chases them off.

Along a sunny spot on the river Peter concreted a place complete with a small springboard for the girls were they can spend the hot summer days.

The whole riverbank was a tangle of scrub and trees. A paradise abundant with wildlife. Tiny birds like butterflies flitting around. Goannas and Lizards revelling, sunning their bodies.
Lilli sunning on a towel after a refreshing swim, did not know what prompted her suddenly to look up. There was a fat, long Black Snake right coming towards her practically wanting to slither over her. Frightened Lilli jumped up, the snake jumped at the same time exposing her bright red belly. Both scared of each other fled in a flash.
Pythons, simply called carpet snakes were permanent bed and breakfast guests. They lived in the rafters of our various sheds. We liked their silent company. Noiseless they slide their smooth, patterned bodies along to hold on to anything even the tractors steering wheel. It was possible to touch them when they were in the mood, if they were aggressive you left them best alone.

We were really afraid of the Clarence River Snake, the Eastern Brown Snake and the Coastal Taipan. They are very poisonous and dangerous snakes. So, they are very shy, they are also nervous and aggressive if cornered or harassed also unintentional.

I really like the green Tree Snakes. They are not venomous. I found them curled around the garden gate showing off their green and yellow colours. They are beautiful creatures slim and sleek with tiny heads. Sometimes they have small bumps and nicks in their skin probably from an accident and getting away with it. They also lived in the climbing plants, which were trained on wires along the veranda.

Somehow one got under the roof of our sun room probably to hunt for frogs. One morning there was this particular nasty smell and Peter exclaimed, “oh no!’ He had to open the roof and with a broomstick he fished out what were the remains of a green snake, Yuk!
In the middle of our property stands an ancient, gigantic Morton Bay Fig tree. Its grey roots exposed to form rooms of which animals take advantage to shelter from storms.
All sorts of animals and birds like the tiny fruit that grow on the tree in abundance.
The Lorikeets feast on the fermented figs and get drunk, laying on their backs their feet up in the air. When I first saw this spectacle I thought they were sick until I realised what had happened. Also the horses were fond of the fermented figs. When they were freely grazing, we always found them munching under this Fig tree ..after having eaten a quantity they behaved rather strangely.

Peter was having a rest, sitting down and leaning against its ancient roots when suddenly a very large Tree snake was sliding straight in his direction. He saw her when she was only about half a meter from him. All what the snake wanted was to go up her tree were she lived. Peter took one jump and was away. One really gets quite acrobatic in haste to escape.
When overseas Tourists came visiting, Peter would in detail tell them where it was possible in the wild to observe snakes. One option was to look for a bridge, which are always in plentiful supply. At noon on a hot summers day snakes like to congregate under bridges to soak up the warmth.

So if you see people in shorts with pale thighs and knees, with anticipated terror on their faces, bending over bridges, those are the tourists looking for fat, red-bellied Black ones!
I know of two people who have been bitten by snakes, well one person I know the other is sort of that somebody else knew this person and told me about it. We had a friend, a grazier, who would on his way around his property collect poisonous snakes to bring to a place to milk their venom to produce antidote. Once he found one and as it was to late to bring it to this place he shoved it in his toolbox.
The next morning he had forgotten about the snake. He took his jeep drove out to his property and had a breakdown without thinking he put his hand into his toolbox and got neatly bitten on his wrist. He was a tough man and he did not go to hospital to get antidote.

He was very, very sick it took him three month to get better. He got bitten a second time from a Black snake when he was walking barefoot through high grass just opposite the river from our property. He was very sick again but did not have any antidote either. I don’t know why he did not let himself help with the antidote that he helped to collect. Mike later on had a very bad fall from his horse and lost his kidneys. He had a kidney transplant and lived for an other 10 Years. He died before he was 60 years old. Very sad, we all liked him much. Peter told him once, that the bites of the poisonous snakes could have influenced the failure of his kidneys. He agreed. It was not further investigated.
The other man was a doctor who collected and played with snakes. He was alone in
his surgery where he was found dead bitten in a cheek. The rumour was he could not put a tourniquet around his neck.

Our hens get sometimes bitten when they try to tackle small snakes. We found our cockerel that could barley walk and we thought he had been bitten. We found a nest full of small Blacksnakes under a bail of straw.