Why Snake Catchers Want You Looking At The Back Corner Of Your Yard Before September

Graham is 68, retired, and lives on a quarter-acre block in Bendigo. Two summers ago, a snake catcher's van pulled up two doors down.

"I went over for a stickybeak, like you do," he says. "The catcher pulled a tiger snake out of their wood heap. And then he looked over the fence at my place — at the pile of branches I'd been meaning to clear for two years — and said, 'That's next, mate.'"

Graham's grandkids play in that yard every Sunday. Their cubby is three metres from the pile.

The advice is simple. Doing it is the hard part.

Every spring, the official snake-safety advice says the same three things:

The logic is dead simple: snakes don't want to meet you. They want cover — a branch pile, long grass, a forgotten corner. Take the cover away, and there's nothing for them to stay for.

So why do so many yards never get cleared? Graham's answer will sound familiar to anyone over 60.

"The petrol saw was the problem. Heavy, cranky, and that pull cord does my shoulder in. Getting it started was a bigger job than the actual clearing. So the pile just... stayed."

The 1kg saw that changed his mind

Graham's daughter found the answer: a battery mini chainsaw from an Aussie company called BetterGardens. It weighs 1kg — about a carton of milk — and starts with one button. No petrol. No pull cord. No ladder.

"I cleared the whole corner in one afternoon," Graham says. "Branch pile gone, long grass opened up, everything cut down small enough for the green bin. My shoulder didn't even notice."

The saw cuts branches up to 10cm thick and comes with two batteries, so you can finish the job without stopping to charge. There's a dual-switch safety system — it can't start by accident — and gloves come in the box.

Why this works when "I'll get to it" doesn't

The clearing job was never hard. It was just heavy. Make the tool light enough, and the job the authorities have been recommending for years finally gets done — in an afternoon, before the warm weather arrives.

One honest note: no tool keeps snakes away. What this does is the one thing the advice actually asks of you — remove the cover they shelter in, and leave open ground they'd rather not cross.

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The spring window is short

Snakes become active as the weather warms in September. The clearing only counts if it's done before then. That gives you the next few weekends — and one afternoon is genuinely all the job takes.

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