Urban sprawl and an unsettled spring have led to a bumper start to this year's snake season, according to Melbourne wildlife handlers.
Snakes are on the move across Victoria in search of a partner as the breeding season gets in full swing, leading to more encounters with the humans who share their habitat in metropolitan areas.
Stewart Gatt runs a snake removal service in Melbourne's west and had 21 call-outs to remove snakes from homes, businesses and properties on Thursday alone.
He said his phone had been ringing off the hook for weeks.
"It's not so much that people are seeing more [snakes], it's urban sprawl," Mr Gatt said.
"We're destroying their habitat at a rate of knots and it's pretty simple — the snakes are running out of room."
Licensed handler Stewart Gatt received two dozen calls in a day earlier this week as the snake breeding season continues. (Supplied: Stewart Gatt)
Tiger snakes and eastern browns are the most common species found in the west, with red-bellied blacks and copperheads also known to call the region home.
He said the loss of habitat meant more snakes were showing up in the suburbs, particularly around Melton, Werribee, Point Cook and Wyndham Vale.
He said many new housing estates in Melbourne's outer west featured lakes and waterways, which is dream real estate for snakes.
Mr Gatt said children's playgrounds were often located close by, leading to more people coming across a snake.
But he said snakes were also showing up in the inner, longer-establish suburbs.
"Any sort of construction work that goes on, be it the West Gate Tunnel, be it a new estate going up, of course you're going to disturb the wildlife," he said.
"All that vibration and digging is scaring the wildlife and it's going to end up moving into people's houses and into suburban areas."
A spokesperson for the West Gate Tunnel project said most of its sites were in industrial areas of the inner west.
"We work closely with our construction partners to ensure vibrations during works is reduced as much as possible," they said.
"Tunnelling activity ended more than 12 months ago."
Mark Pelley says brown snakes have learnt to adapt to living with humans and are good at keeping themselves hidden. (Supplied)
The unsettled spring, which has seen some above-average warmth mixed in with rainy days, has also been attributed to the increase in encounters.
Mark Pelley is a snake catcher and consultant based in Diamond Creek on Melbourne's north-eastern outskirts.
"On the cold, windy days, there's no snakes with all the rain and the next day that it's sunny, they're showing up everywhere in people's backyards and I can't be in enough places at the same time," he said.
Mr Pelley said tiger snakes and brown snakes were also common in the city's east and its fringes, "with the occasional copperhead".
He said there were fewer new housing developments in Melbourne's east than in the west, but where new homes have been built, some snakes had adapted to live with humans.
"As some snakes are being displaced from their homes with the urban development, eastern brown snakes, particularly I've noticed, seem to be replacing them," he said.
Stewart Gatt says people should never touch a snake but call a licensed wildlife rescuer if they need it removed from their property. (Supplied: Stewart Gatt)
"They seem to be thriving in and amongst houses because they eat all the mice that come for our rubbish."
Mr Pelley said eastern browns were shy and good at hiding away from people.
He said humans should not be too worried about whether there were any snakes around, so long as they did not touch them.
He said anyone who was bitten should call triple-0 immediately, with brown snake venom capable of killing a person within 30 minutes.
"In Australia, we actually have the best anti-venom research and the best facilities for treating snake bites in the entire world, so we're very lucky," Mr Pelley said.
"The big thing that people should be worried about is their dogs and pets.
"We're smart enough to leave these snakes alone or to call local snake catchers but dogs see a snake and go, 'Oh what's this fantastic moving thing on the ground?' [and] put their nose into the snake's face. The snake will bite the dog and the dog can die very quickly."
Stewart Gatt added it was illegal for Victorians to kill or catch a snake if they had not had training to gain a license.
Wildlife Victoria said it was rare for a person to be bitten by a snake in an urban area.
St John Ambulance advises anyone who is bitten should lie down, apply an immobilisation bandage and call triple-0.
Local councils can provide home or business owners with a list of licensed snake controllers.