Neighbours freaking out about my under house python- Mr Hissy

[MrHissyLives]

I live on tropical northern Australia and have had a resident carpet python living under my house. My kids call him Mr Hissy. I’ve been here 15 years and have seen him about half a dozen times, usually sliding in or out between the slats that close off the under side of my house. Carpet pythons are famously zen and most Aussies are happy to have one in their shed as they won’t bother you and keep the rats sorted.

Anyhow, I heard dramatic screaming last evening and rushed out to see my terrified neighbour frozen in fear, looking over our fence as Mr Hissy went back in under my house. I explained he has been there forever and is harmless but she was having a proper freak out and shouting that she couldn’t sleep ever again knowing he was next door. I said that there would be dozens mores snakes in our tropical gardens that she had never seen and she had lived there for three years and clearly Mr Hissy had never bothered her. This did not help. Her husband arrived home and said his wife was terrified of snakes and Mr Hissy Had.To.Go. In fact, he would call his cousin to come and remove Mr Hissy. I said no. Mr Hissy was on my property and was welcome to stay. They gave me death stares and left.

I do understand that phobias are irrational but fuck me, Mr Hissy has never done anything to them. I’m certainly not letting some random cousin come and get Mr Hissy- he will either take him away and kill him or release him somewhere where he won’t survive. In fact pythons are a protected species and only authorised wildlife removalists can move them as they will know the release places where the snake will most likely survive.

I’ve always got on well with these neighbours up till this point. Should I tell them that if they pay for an authorised wildlife remover to come and get Mr Hissy, I will allow it? Would that be a reasonable compromise? I really don’t want Mr Hissy to go, but is it worth falling out with my neighbours over?

So YABU- let neighbours pay to remove Mr Hissy
YANBU- Mr Hissy stays

We too have a resident python in our pool room adjoining the lounge. We call it Nagini, my daughter reckons it is an anaconda as it so huge.
Previous pom now living in northern NSW, we’re used to them and fully accept we are living in their home.
haven’t got a pic of the big boy, this is a smaller one in our garage a while ago

Amazing that we live only 1200 miles from you lot, across the ditch, yet we have nothing at all that is either deadly or scary. Though I seem to remember that a few years ago, some random Aussie who had decided to sleep naked in the sand dunes was bitten on the todger by a katipo, a very meek and genteel cousin of the Aus redback, and only very, very mildly venomous. Apparently the swelling was worth seeing, though.

I love snakes! Mr Hissy stays. Tell the neighbours they’d be far worse off if the rodent population suddenly explodes because poor MH has been removed. Anyway the likelihood of there being more is so high that removing him won’t make much difference anyway and they are a protected species so I would kindly share information with them but be firm that they better not go near “your” Mr Hissy nor send anyone else to deal with him.

I like the strong Harry Potter influence in the naming of theses snakes - assuming that Fluffy is after the three-headed dog in the first book and film.

words fail me. Definitely a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock.

Go Mr Hissy.

Hmm, alright. Mr Hissy stays.
Make sure to lightly sing 'Trust in MeeeeEEeeee' whenever she is around though.

Miss Slytherin
Fluffy
Nangini

I feel that my kids jet the team down with Mr Hissy.

It’s 28 degrees where I am right now. A nice crisp winter day.

This one hell of a thread. Snakes under your house, one in the garage. 28 degrees is a winter’s day!

We’re in the Dordogne and our resident snake is Sid ( hissing Sid) a 1.5 metre whip snake who lives somewhere between our pool and terrace.
We’ve not had any mice since he appeared.

Dd was visiting a few years ago and enjoying the pool when a young whip snake had made his way up through the pipe work and dropped out of the skimmer swimming straight towards dd.
I’ve never heard such a loud scream.
Dh netted the young guy and popped him over the hedge into the farmers field.

Haha this is why I live in South Australia- I am NOT chill about snakes and don’t want one living in my garage 😂
Ours are all venomous and so we can get them removed at the first sighting and I am most pleased about that!

My other favourite was Hissy Higgins.

Like a PP, I am 100% on Mr Hissy's side whilst being very grateful to live in a country where the wildlife isn't nightmare fodder..

Fuck off! 😮😮 I was all ready to say yanbu but bloody hell, is that how big they get? And they can climb trees? Australians are a different breed I swear.

Interestingly I'm pretty fine with snakes and spiders but put a frog or toad near me (or god forbid a grasshopper) and I scream and run for the hills. Had to fish a toad out of the dog pool one day. Kept the neighbour amused for ages. I was using the rake to lift it out (maximum distance from the cold blooded killer) but everytime it touched the rake I'd squeal and run away. Tree frogs etc are no different. Petrified.

This thread is worth not being able to sleep 🤣

Despite not being a huge fan of snakes I am fiercely team Mr Hissy...def rather have no rats!

Team Mr Hissy, here. I love snakes and I’d much sooner a snake than rats. In any case, as you say, there’ll be snakes all over where you live. If Mr Hissy were to go, a Mr Hissy 2 would probably move in anyway.

I'm in the UK and quiche is very much a summer food. Love a bit of warm quiche with crispy cold salad on a hot day.

Also, I kinda want a Mr Hissy!

I'm on team Mr Hissy.

You want to revert there?

They will wait until you are out/away and the cousin will come and remove and kill it.

I would contact a wildlife organisation and have him humanely caught and taken to a suitable environment.

I would then tell the neighbour a few weeks or months later that you've just seen another one in your garden that's twice as big just to put the shits up them.

Who eats cold quiche?? Eew

Team Mr Hissey brw. He stays, get pest control to remove neighbours

Mr Hissy should stay. Someone who is terrified of snakes should not be living there. If you get rid of Mr Hissy you will start having rat problems - or a different and potentially more dangerous-to-humans snake will move in as the local ecosystem needs a predator for rat-sized prey. Either your neighbour needs to learn to live in the knowledge that she kives somewhere where there are snakes, or she should move to somewhere where there aren't snakes. Which option she chooses isn't your problem.

I've lived in Australia all my life but that video of the snake in the tree would have had me bolting, for anywhere really.

True story regarding Huntsmans ( I think I've told it before.)
I put my kids to bed upstairs, they had a nightlight , but they kept yelling out asking why the ceiling was all sparkly.
Me - shoosh and go to sleep
Them - it's pretty but the lights are getting longer
Me - stomping upstairs. Then.....
FUCK!!!!!!
Their whole ceiling was covered with hundreds of baby huntsmans who were sliding down their thread at different rates and the nightlight was making their silk shimmer.
Grabbed the kids , bolted downstairs and sent DH up with a very large can of Mortein ( sorry spider lovers but that is just rude to invade kiddies bedrooms)

Well I think that story has crossed Australia off the list of a few prospective immigrants - apologies, huntsmans actually are pretty harmless and having living in Sydney for 45 years I have never seen a funnel web - they are scary - except for in a jar in front of my doctors as they were a collection point for them for anti-venom.
Actually , not sure that additition has helped !

OK that settles it. Snakes are one thing. But 28 degrees in WINTER? Not moving there (shudder.)