Tiger snake bites father and son in Melbourne home

A father and his 11-year-old autistic son have been bitten by a tiger snake that slithered into their home in Melbourne’s north-east.

Matt Horn was bitten twice as he tried to protect his son, Braeden, who was bitten when playing with the snake in the hallway of their Diamond Creek home on Tuesday.

The pair were treated by paramedics and taken to The Austin Hospital, Ambulance Victoria said this morning.

Snake catcher Mark Pelley, known as the Snake Hunter, was called in to nab the feisty tiger snake.

"Both of them got bitten and they got away unscathed because they did the right thing by calling triple-zero and the ambulance attended them straight away," Mr Pelley said. 

"The only problem was the father was trapped in the room (with the snake) and he couldn't get any treatment from the paramedics until I arrived to remove the snake."

Mr Pelley said tiger snakes weren't normally aggressive and would only strike if people attempted to handle them.

"The son had autism and didn't know what was happening so he handled the snake and it bit him," he said.

Tiger snakes often enter homes to escape the heat on hot nights, Mr Pelley added.