Durban — It was four black mamba catches for Durban snake catcher Nick Evans who was called out to rescue a black mamba in a roof, one from under a geyser, then another mamba in a garage and a fourth in a ceiling.
Evans said it started when he received a call from a homeowner in Westville telling him that a team working on the roof of her outbuilding had found a snake in there.
“My heart sank.
“I get many calls like this. I’ve been trying to think of the number of times I’ve actually caught a snake in such a scenario – none come to mind.
“Sometimes, it’s a wire and not a snake. Most of the time it’s either a non-venomous brown house snake or spotted bush snake, both of which either vanish before you arrive or get into places you can’t reach.
“To catch a small snake in a ceiling is nearly impossible,” Evans explained.
He said the woman was close to a nature reserve, so he thought there was a chance it was a mamba. They did say it was big, the thickness of a pick axe handle, apparently, but most of the time, the description of a big snake did not match the snake in question.
“On my way to investigate, I got a call from Westville North, for a black mamba inside a home, so I opted to go to that first,” Evans said.
He said the snake was in a wendy house, under the kitchen cupboard.
“I had to lift a few planks up to get at it. Bit of a feisty one, around 2.2-2.3m in length, although a bit on the skinny side,” Evans said.
He said he eventually arrived at the Dawncliffe home and climbed onto the roof.
He said he shone his JETBeam South Africa torch down, and the snake was in plain sight, with a good torch, much to his relief.
“It was curled up under the geyser. I could just see a tiny section of the body, but enough to know it was a black mamba,” Evans said.
“I thought finding it would be the hard part, but it wasn’t, catching it was.”
Evans said that at first, there did not seem to be a way of accessing the snake, so he half-attempted to grab it from above but could see he was wasting his time.
He said he was thinking that there had to be a way of accessing the geyser, impossible for there not to be.
Then he noticed there were wooden planks that looked like they could be taken out, on one side of the geyser.
After going into a few rooms, they figured out where they could be accessed from a bathroom.
“I went in, and unscrewed two planks joined together. When they dropped, a section of the mamba's body dropped out! Fortunately, I half-expected that. The mamba got a massive fright! I could see it was trying to think of somewhere to escape to, but before it could do that, I got the tongs on it,” Evans described.
“The body came sprawling out of this gap I had created, and I basically lowered it down onto the floor as gently as possible and grabbed it there.”
Evans said it was not a massive mamba, around 2.1-2.2m. More well-fed than the first mamba of the day. If there were rats in the roof, they would not be there anymore! Mambas are a rat's worst nightmare.
He said he was grateful to the homeowners who called.
Evans said his third mamba was at a home in Westville where a mamba was seen in the garage but when it saw people, it panicked and ducked behind some tyres.
He said the next call, in Malvern, had come in and he was in a bit of a hurry.
“I moved the tyres quickly and grabbed the snake. Uneventful catch really of a 2m± mamba,” Evans said.
He recalled that he had been to the home before.
“The first mamba I got there had been killed. Now, they know they can call for help, it's the safer option, and I'm so grateful for that, I really am.”
Evans said that the mamba in Malvern was a bit more tricky.
“The homeowner had seen it in the garage, but, to make my life difficult, it moved up into the ceiling. Of course, it did, on a sweltering hot day and, I had to climb from one end of the roof to the other to get where it had gone into. They know how to make life inconvenient!” Evans exclaimed.
He said mambas are excellent climbers and they like ceilings because they are warm, and sheltered and there is usually a rat or two in them.
“I climbed across, sweating in the sauna-like roof. As I neared the end, by the wall, I spotted the mamba, curled up,” Evans said.
“I'm not sure if it was my JETBeam South Africa headlamp blinding it or if it was just confused, but it didn't move. It just watched me approach, and finally, grab it. Probably the easiest roof capture I've had.”
Evans said it was a young snake, about 1.5m±.
“I enjoy days like today!”
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