Durban - The day after a black mamba was removed from the living room of a house inEmona near oThongathi, a bigger mamba was spotted in the bedroom of the same house on Thursday.
On both occasions, the residents contacted Reaction Unit South Africa (Rusa) for assistance.
Rusa spokesperson Prem Balram said on Tuesday the homeowner discovered a mamba measuring 1.5 metres in his living room.
“The snake was removed by a snake catcher and relocated to a reptile park,” he said.
On Wednesday, Balram said the homeowner contacted Rusa again and reported that a second snake was spotted in a bedroom.
“Reaction Officers proceeded to the property and located the much larger reptile under a TV cabinet,” he said.
He said professional snake catcher Jason Arnold was contacted for assistance.
“Professional snake catcher Jason Arnold arrived shortly thereafter and captured the reptile which was released in its natural environment,” said Balram.
The second mamba measured approximately 2.2 metres.
The release of the mamba was captured on a video shared by Rusa on Facebook.
In the video, Arnold opens the bag to release the snake and at first the mamba moves towards him but quickly changes direction after spotting him and slithers off.
Earlier this month, at the start of the snake season, The Mercury shared local snake rescuer, Nick Evans’ answers to some of the frequent questions he receives from the public about snakes.
Here are some of his responses:
1. Firstly, don't bother with repellents. None work: That includes Jeye's Fluid, commercial repellents, various plants, garlic, vanilla essence and many more. The best you can do is keep your yard clean, no piles of wood, rubble, bricks etc and hope for the best. Cutting down trees etc won't help, rather keep them, although if you have branches growing against your roof, trim them back.
2. Lock pets away, if you discover a snake first. Cats kill a lot of wildlife, including snakes. However, they usually know to leave the larger, venomous snakes. Dogs will go for any snake, and this often results in them being bitten or spat at.
If you see your dog attacking a snake, do whatever you can to get it away from the snake, apart from putting yourself at risk. If a pet is bitten by a snake, please get it to a vet ASAP.
3. Do not attempt to capture or kill the snake yourself. The snake may well be harmless, but rather confirm this with a snake catcher, by sending a photo, before picking it up. Killing snakes, especially large ones like a black mamba, can easily result in a person being bitten. The snake is terrified of you, and just wants to be left alone, with no intention or desire to bite anyone.
4. If anyone is bitten by a snake, please rush that person to the nearest hospital. Do not take the snake with you. If you can send a photo of the snake to a snake catcher for identification, great. If not, go to the hospital.
5. If you are going to phone a snake catcher, please phone when you see the snake! Snake catchers may charge a call-out fee, or in some cases even just a small donation, to cover expenses (particularly fuel, although everything is expensive nowadays).
6. The African Snakebite Institute free app is very useful with a lot of information, as well as a snake removers list that's nationwide. Just search 'ASI Snakes' on the app store on your phone.