Editor’s Note: Having recently been to Tasmania to do some fly fishing, I was surprised to learn that Tasmania only has three species of land snakes, and that all three are venomous – Tiger snake, Notechis scutatus, Lowland Copperhead, Austrelaps superbus and White-lipped snake, Drysdalia coronoides. I then returned home to find this article in my copy of the Tasmanian Beekeepers’ Association Newsletter, a coincidence I thought worth sharing with all readers of The ABK, especially as it contains some updates I (and presumably others) was not aware of.

3,000 snake bites are reported annually in Australia. Of these 300-500 need