It was a close call during our photo shoot which ironically came when Fairfax Media visited Mr Lantry at his Largs home to do a warning story on snake season.

Fairfax photographer Max Mason-Hubers said it was a “super close call” for Mr Lantry who owns Bills Snake Relocate with the brown snake he was handling making several attempts to bite him, narrowly missing his arm and chest.

“It was pretty scary. After the photo shoot Justin was even checking his shirt to see if there was any venom on it,” our photographer said.

Mr Lantry told Max the snake was unusually irritated.

The display of anger should serve as a warning to Hunter residents to never approach snakes which are out and about in force at the moment during breeding season.

While Mr Lantry said this year is by no means his busiest, he said social media is making people much more aware about snakes, their environment and their movements.

People are posting sightings on Facebook which have attracted a raft of comments.

“Snakes generate interest and controversy so the social media reports are unlikely to be an accurate indication of the abundance of snakes or how many have been encountered this year,” Mr Lantry said.

He receives on average four to five calls a day of sightings, mainly of brown and black snakes. He has had more calls to Windella and Thornton, but does not consider them to be any worse than any other Maitland suburb. The most unusual places he has found snakes were in the rear of an oven and around a refrigerator motor.

Mr Lantry has been bitten once by a red belly black snake but after appropriate first aid and a two-day hospital stay he has fully recovered.

“If you find a snake in your house the safest way to deal with it is to confine it to the room it is in. Close all doors and jam towels firmly under the doors,” he said.

Snakes generally get inside through open doors, windows, gaps under doors and damaged screen doors and windows. It's a good idea to keep doors and windows closed, carry out maintenance where required, add weather strips to doors with gaps and seal other gaps.