Large Scale Central

Suprise visitor

General Discussion
#1

I have had to reactivate my railroad due a suprise visitor. I had not used the railroad for several months as my ‘enthusiasm’ had wained. For a few weeks now we have had a lizard visit the railroad daily, stealing food from the cats. While a very, very harmless Blue-tongue Lizard, his size of over 24 inches in length does intimidate a little. His only defence is to raise his head, open his mouth wide and then hiss loudly. The intimidation felt is finding him inside the house as he ventures indoors after the cat food. The adrenalin does pump a little when he is spied and he is then gently coaxed outdoors.

The other day he decided to move close to the food source and took up residence under the railroad among the rocks. Daily I see him sunning himself on the tracks as early as 8.30 in the morning. This afternoon I tried gently persuasion to convince him to go back to his original home which is not my place. I decided to run a train constantly with the volume up loud. The hiss between piston strokes simulates the hissing sound of the lizard so maybe he thinks he has competition. When he first saw and heard the train hissing towards him he skeltered back into the rocks. I have not see him since today. After a few days of running noisy trains hopefully he will get the hint and leave the premises.

#2

Well I guess that beats the rather large dark green tree frog I had in my letter box for a few days.
Still the mere fact they are around at all means the environment around this part of Casino must be in reasonable condition.
There is also a blue tongue around here too. Not as big as the one Tim has in residence.

#3

Tim as long as it wasn’t we are having a few problems with here. Eastern browns. This time of the year for them

#4

Hey guys, you all know how stories go around here, they’re nothing but old wife tails without pictures. So how about pictures of your “Visitors”.

BTW my wife read what Tim had to say and said she would run if anything 24" long hissed at her on the railroad or in the house. I just laughed.

Chuck

#5

Bob,
if my visitors were as you describe then the house would go immediately on the market. For those not familiar with an eastern brown, then it is an extremely venemous snake which gets a little excited (and aggressive) during the mating season. A friend of mine in Victoria has the company of a few brown snakes and he just accepts them as part of nature. Of cause I have no intention of visiting him.

  Parts of Sydney are rife with funnel web spiders.  There is now an anti veneme available assuming one firstly identifies the culprit and secondly gets to the hospital before your entire nervous system shuts down.  Fortunately, I do not live in those parts!!!!!!  Maybe I am blessed with just a largish lizard to contend with.
#6

Hi Tim & G’day Tony,
I live on the south side of Brisbane.
Un-be-known to me a 5-6 foot long green tree snake (very pretty & harmless species) had taken up residence in my fuse box…
You can imagine what happened when the meter reader opened the box today to take a reading…
I’m still laughing…but the meter reader bolted!!!
Cheers, Nelson

#7

Peter,
my little friend has now found himself a ‘live in’ companion. Looks like I could have more than just one lizard on the railroad. Green tree snakes are beautiful but they should be in the trees in the bush and not the fuse box. I think you will be getting a nice letter from your power utility.

#8

I live in Ottawa, Ontario, The Dominion of Canada, and we don’t have excitement like that around here…more like worrying about snow load on roofs, is the order of the day…!!

#9

Fred,
sounds pretty tame in your neck of the woods. Obviously the brown bears, the grizzly bears and the Kodiaks are extremely urbanised and well behaved. The only bears we need to fear are Koala bears and they are not bears at all!!

#10
Fred Mills said:
I live in Ottawa, Ontario, The Dominion of Canada, and we don't have excitement like that around here....more like worrying about snow load on roofs, is the order of the day.....!!
We just have to worry about those 400 pound creatures (black bears). Other then that all is quiet.
#11

You may enjoy this at the 1:33 mark…

http://vtrailers.com/52846/movies/The-Giant-Gila-Monster.htm

#12
Tim Brien said:
Bob, if my visitors were as you describe then the house would go immediately on the market. For those not familiar with an eastern brown, then it is an extremely venemous snake which gets a little excited (and aggressive) during the mating season. A friend of mine in Victoria has the company of a few brown snakes and he just accepts them as part of nature. Of cause I have no intention of visiting him. 
  Parts of Sydney are rife with funnel web spiders.  There is now an anti veneme available assuming one firstly identifies the culprit and secondly gets to the hospital before your entire nervous system shuts down.  Fortunately, I do not live in those parts!!!!!!  Maybe I am blessed with just a largish lizard to contend with.</blockquote>

Yes, there are some “choice species” in OZ. We saw quite a few of them while on a tour in '91 and tried to keep at a safe distance. Spiders, snakes, crocs, sharks etc. but we just had to see the parks, the Outback.

Around here we just have bears, cougars, wolves, rattle snakes, bull snakes, coyotes, very aggressive deer i.e. really not much to worry about. :lol: :lol: :wink:

#13
Shawn said:
Fred Mills said:
I live in Ottawa, Ontario, The Dominion of Canada, and we don't have excitement like that around here....more like worrying about snow load on roofs, is the order of the day.....!!
We just have to worry about those 400 pound creatures (black bears). Other then that all is quiet.
We do get the occasional confused bear, and errant moose. Quite a few coyotes around nowadays, but the real panic is the wild turkeys terrorizing the suburbs and impeding the drivers of Suburban Futility Vehicles. Clearly, the coyotes need to stop carrying off toddlers and puppies and get to work on the birds.
#14

Mark V said:
You may enjoy this at the 1:33 mark… http://vtrailers.com/52846/movies/The-Giant-Gila-Monster.htm

You haven’t seen this movie until you see the Mystery Science Theater 3000 cover of it. :lol: Here is a taste: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-eVDGY5WAs

(http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/_cb20110808180606/lyricwiki/images/2/25/The_Dead_Milkmen-_Big_Lizard_in_My_Backyard.jpg)

This? Oh nothing, just a silly album cover i like

#15

Vic,

Actually I really like that album…It’s thier first album

#16

Related to pests:
Has anyone used the “electronic”, vibrating, or other stick-in-the-ground gropher or like animal deterrant? I have seen ads in garden mags for the electronic versions – scary radio frequencies and vibrations. Yes, I’m skeptical. If they work, I would like to know from your experience. My skepticism has merit…please read on.

As to mice: Our daughter’s science experiment was to build a mouse labrinth and install a Sunbeam brand “electronic mouse and rodent deterrant” device at one end of a long box container containing varied passage ways. The premise was the white mice, once placed within different distances from this high frequency mechanism, would run quickly through the passages to the far end of the container. NO! the mice gathered at the mechanism no matter what their starting location. Yes, I speak the truth. A complete contradiction. Whatever brought them to the mechanism is speculation. Bizzare. Costco quickly stopped selling the products as anecdotal evidence from customers proved what the experiment dramatically showed visually .

Now, any data on the other threats to our garden RRs? Moles? Squirrels? Neighbor’s dogs? Neighbor’s kids?

Wendell

#17
Wendell Hanks said:
Now, any data on the other threats to our garden RRs? Moles? Squirrels? Neighbor's dogs? Neighbor's kids? Wendell
Just watching a squirrel schlepping through the snowdrifts ... We used to have quite a few free-roaming cats in the neighbourhood. They seem to have passed on, and there has been a noticeable increase in the squirrel/chipmunk/rabbit population.
#18

Of the worlds TEN most deadly animal species, ALL TEN live in Australia.

A spider that you can cover with a 1c piece has venom can can slay a hippo - so what do these things EAT? :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth:

A cute fuzzy pink caterpillar can dose you up with stuff that is so poisonous that you can break your neck with your ankles from the resultant convulsions…

and a pretty-looking jelly fish can give you half a billion stings that are SOOOOO painful that you don’t stop screaming even after the paramedic has rendered you unconscious.

Just WHAT are they all afraid of that we dont know about?

tac, ig, ken the GFT and The Hyperallergenic Boys

#19
Wendell Hanks said:
Related to pests: Has anyone used the "electronic", vibrating, or other stick-in-the-ground gropher or like animal deterrant? I have seen ads in garden mags for the electronic versions -- scary radio frequencies and vibrations. Yes, I'm skeptical. If they work, I would like to know from your experience. Wendell
I much prefer the application of a 55gr V-Max at about 3750 fps. That'll do it, fer sure.

tac, ig, ken the GFT & The Winchester Hi-Wall Boys