Tammie Watts returned home on Sunday to find the chewed remains of a 1.21 metre long brown snake by her back gate.

The family’s five-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier, Honey, had apparently killed the snake.

Mrs Watts said she was playing outside with her son Jet, 5, about 30 minutes before she discovered the snake’s remains.

“We were in the sand pit that morning before I took Jet to the doctor for half an hour … it must have happened then,” she said.

The Watts are worried a snake could harm Jet while he plays outside and are encouraging the community to keep an eye out.

“Honey is still sniffing around so there could be another one,” Mrs Watts said.

She and husband Chad were worried Honey had been bitten by the snake. When they carefully checked her out they spotting fang marks where “the snake had obviously tried to latch on” but had not been able to inject venom.

“We searched for possible symptoms we should be looking for, on the internet, but thankfully she came out ok,” Mr Watts said. “This time we were lucky.”

Stuart Clark from Roxby Downs Pest Management said he believed snakes will be active with the warmer weather searching for mice.

He recommended residents use baits to get rid of mice to minimise the risk of attracting snakes into residential areas.

A Roxby Downs Council spokesperson said people who called the council about snake sightings were referred to a snake catcher or Arid Recovery.

Every effort is made to trap the snake alive so it can be released back into the wild.

Native snakes are protected species.