As the weather heats up, snakes become more active.
The metro has increased its snake handling staff compliment to enhance community safety and conservation of the hissing creatures.
Mapaseka Maleka and Mbali Masango, both from Daveyton, have a passion for the environment and conservation, including snake handling.
Having undergone an intense snake handling course at the African Snakebite Institute, the women are now well equipped with skills such as snake awareness, first aid for snakebite, and venomous snake handling techniques.
Mapaseka said it took guts and bravery for her to develop a passion to handle snakes given that it is a field perceived to be only for men.
“I used to see my male colleagues responding to calls from members of the community to come assist them with snakes in their houses and I would see how terrified some people get by just looking at a snake in incidents where I went with my colleagues.
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“That was where my passion to assist others grew.
“More importantly, I wanted to assist those with snakebites with first aid,” Mapaseka said.
Ekurhuleni is home to the brown house snake, among others, known to frequent human dwellings where it feeds on rodents or lizards.
It is completely harmless and relies on muscle power to constrict its prey.
This snake is active at night and is relatively slow moving.
Meanwhile, the rinkhals resembles a cobra and is very poisonous and deadly.
The rinkhals can spit venom with reasonable accuracy up to a distance of about two metres.
Upon catching the snakes Mapaseka and Mbali donate them on behalf of the metro to Snake City in Edenvale for conservation and educational purposes.
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Contact the newsroom by emailing: Melissa Hart (Editor) germistoncitynews@caxton.co.za, Leigh Hodgson (News Editor) leighh@caxton.co.za.
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