It's everyone's nightmare. A commonly feared and potentially dangerous animal silently approaches as you sleep and decides to join you under the covers.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It was reality for a central Queensland woman who was woken by a snake biting her arm after she rolled on top of it in her bed as she slept.
Janice Terrill was sound asleep last week in her Grasstree Beach home, 37 kilometres south of Mackay, when she felt a "prick" on her upper arm about 11.20pm.
"I thought it was odd, so I reached to my bedside table to turn the light on and I felt what I was sure was a snake bite my thumb," she said.
"I let out this primal scream and my husband woke up terrified.
"There was no sign of the snake when I turned the light on ... I thought it could have been a rat, but I was pretty sure it was a snake.
"Our 13-year-old ageing labrador came in because it had probably been traumatised by my scream, but it just wandered around for a bit.
"My husband then got a torch and looked under the bed and there was the snake."
Mrs Terrill's husband called triple zero and wrapped up her bitten arms.
Paramedics arrived and took Mrs Terrill to hospital, where she stayed for 12 hours for observation and routine blood tests.
"I was quite surprised how quick my survival instincts kicked in and I don't remember being scared ... I didn’t go into a mad panic after it happened," she said.
Fortunately, the culprit was discovered to be a non-venomous spotted python, about a metre long.
It was believed to have been around head-height in Mrs Terrill's bed when it was squashed.
It is very common around Mackay and is described as a pygmy python.
Sarina Snake Removal snake catcher Heather Lampe removed the un invited guest from Mrs Terrill's house.
"I have had a snake seen going into a bedroom and found it under the bed between the slats and mattress, but this was the first time there was a person in the bed as well," she said.
"We had extreme temperatures last week, so the snake was basically looking for somewhere to cool down ... because they can’t regulate their body temperature like humans can.
"[Mrs Terrill] has slate floors in her bedroom, so that is a nice cool place, but when the temperature dropped a little bit at night, the snake probably got too cold and climbed into bed.
"I would probably have jumped a little bit and I'm not even scared of snakes."
Ms Lampe said she moved the bed and found the spotted python hiding in a corner where the bed had been.
"It was understandably a bit grumpy and nippy when I tried to catch it, but I just grabbed it by the tail ... it had had a bit of a bad day," she said.
The snake was released in nearby bushland where it would have plenty of food and water available.
"A lot of people still think a good snake is a dead snake, but snakes are only doing their thing and they are very important to our ecosystem," Ms Lampe said.
