A cautionary tale has emerged from Australia that rivals any number of possible contenders for the most disgusting thing that could be found in a toddler’s underwear drawer.
Last week, Mark Pelley of Melbourne shared on social media his encounter with a 5-foot Eastern brown snake in the dresser of a 3-year-old’s bedroom.
The boy’s mother had discovered it there and called Pelley, a professional snake catcher.
As noted by the Brisbane Times, Australia’s Eastern brown is the world’s second-most venomous snake behind the Australian inland taipan.
In a brief video on his The Snake Hunter page, Pelley said, “A brown snake in an underwear drawer, that’s not something you see every day.”
“Mum Went to get some clothes for her son and found a large 5 foot brown snake instead,” he wrote in the accompanying post.
“We figured out what happened. She carried in folded washing yesterday and as she was taking clothes from clothes line, brown snake crawled into it. Then without realising, she put a bundle of folded clothes containing the world’s 2nd most venomous snake into her son’s drawers,” Pelley wrote.
@snakehunteraus 2nd most venomous snake in top underwear drawer #foryoupage #fyp #reptile #snake #viral #drawer ♬ original sound – SpongeBob background music
After one Fakebook poster questioned why no one noticed a snake amid the underwear, he said, “they weigh next to nothing and seriously – this can happen to anyone. I’ve seen people carry brown snakes in their handbag or otherwise shopping bags. One day this could happen to you.”
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A poster using the name Katherine Van Langenberg offered a tongue-in-cheek reply on Pelley’s Facebook page, writing, “I was looking for an excuse to not do my laundry and I believe I just found it”
Not to be outdone, a poster using the name Phil Davis chimed in, “That was a clothes call.”
John Simmons, writing on Outkick, offered his two cents.
“Apparently, if I’m ever in Australia, I could open up my backpack and find a lethal predator just chilling next to my clothes!” he wrote.
“If I ever visit Down Under, I think I’ll just stay in my hotel room. I’d like to leave with my blood still functioning properly,” Simmons said.
The snake is a common, if not welcome, visitor in Australian homes, according to the Australian Museum.
“Because the Eastern Brown Snake can cope and even thrive in areas of human disturbance, and its natural range happens to include some of the most populated parts of the country, this species is probably encountered more than any other type of snake,” its website says.
The bad news is that its venom “contains powerful presynaptic neurotoxins, procoagulants, cardiotoxins and nephrotoxins, and successful envenomation can result in progressive paralysis and uncontrollable bleeding. Occasional fatalities have occurred as a result of bleeding into the brain due to coagulation disturbances (consumptive coagulopathy).”
“This species has the unfortunate distinction of causing more deaths from snake bite than any other species of snake in Australia,” the museum’s site says.
It suggests a live-and-let-live approach: “Many bites have been a direct result of people trying to kill these snakes and could obviously have been avoided.”
