Deadly, heavily pregnant snake found under fridge

An Adelaide woman has managed to avoid having a nest of highly venomous snakes hatch in her home when she discovered their mother nesting under her fridge.

A video posted on the Guardian website shows Snake Catchers Adelaide's Rolly Burrell retrieve the snake.

He can be seen picking up the heavily pregnant reptile by its tail as it thrashed around, before eventually entrapping the 1.5m eastern brown snake in a sack.

Contrary to how difficult the capture of the snake seemed, Mr Burrell told the Guardian all he'd had to do was move the fridge and go in and grab it.

"I've been doing it for 40 years and I make it look easy," he told the British paper. "When you're doing 300 snakes a month you tend to get a little blasé."

He said that given the snake later went on to lay 15 eggs it was good the woman found it when she did.

"She might have been going to the fridge to get a drink later on and seen all these little critters over the place."

He said the snake was recovering from the exhaustion of laying the eggs and would be allowed to rest up before being released back into the wild.

According to the Australian Reptile Park's website, the eastern brown snake is the species responsible for the most deaths caused by snakebite in Australia.

However, it added that efficient first-aid treatment and anti-venom meant there was usually only one to two deaths attributed to the snake per year.

The eastern brown snake is a fairly common species in South Australia, where Adelaide is located, though the snake is generally found in open grasslands, pastures and woodlands.

The Australian museum website said the snake often reacted defensively if surprised and could strike with little hesitation.

But it said if the snake was approached from a distance it would tend to flee or remain stationary in an effort to avoid detection.