This is the tense moment a venomous black snake lingers at the top of a Christmas tree in a lounge room full of children.
For a heart-stopping half hour, 20 children keep watch over the poisonous reptile at a house in Melbourne’s north, after dog chases it up a Christmas tree.
Snake catcher Raymond Hoser was called to the children’s birthday party at Craigieburn after the venomous red-bellied black snake had slithered through an open front door and into the lounge room.
Snake catcher Raymond Hoser grabs the red-bellied black snake from the Christmas tree
While the adults were scared, the 20 children in the lounge room were calm as the snake wrapped itself around the top of the Christmas tree.
‘There were people everywhere,’ he told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday night.
‘It’s not uncommon for adults to be more scared than kids.’
Mr Hoser, 55, received a phone call shortly after 4pm on Wednesday.
A group of 20 children calmly look on as the snake is grabbed from the Christmas tree
Snake catcher Raymond Hoser managed to grab the snake and take it away all in 18 seconds
When he arrived about 30 minutes later, the adults at the party were in hysterics.
‘The next you you know, they’re all jumping and screaming,’ he said.
‘I just grabbed it. The kids didn’t seem scared.’
The group of 20 children calmly looked on in the lounge room as the reptile handler walked through the front door and grabbed the snake by the tail, all in 13 seconds.
Mr Hoser, who has been catching snakes since he was five, said one bite from a black snake would be enough to kill a child.
The group of 20 children in the lounge room were much calmer than the worried adults
He added the children had done the right thing by keeping away from the venomous reptile, which can inflict kidney damage with one bite if it doesn’t kill someone.
‘The risk is if they try to pick it up,’ he said. ‘They kill dogs all the time. They can kill.’
The snake had ended up in the house after a small Jack Russell dog had chased it from the front lawn through the open front door, causing the snake to slither along a wall, under a couch up the Christmas tree.
Anyone who sees a venomous snake in their home is advised to call a snake catcher rather than trying to catch or kill it.
Red-bellied black snakes inflict the most painful bite and are among the most commonly sighted venomous reptiles in Australia, alongside tiger snakes and king browns.