The brave Cockroach and the big black mamba: No small feat for this snake catcher
Mdhluli took great care not to harm the 4,3m black mamba when removing it from the roof of a house in Acornhoek.
The well-known snake catcher, Cockroach Mdhluli, rescued a 4,3m black mamba in Acornhoek on June 18.
Mdhluli said the snake was spotted by a resident as it was creeping into the roof of his garage. He didn’t know what kind of snake it was, so he closed the house and alerted Mpumalanga’s own snake man.
“Upon arrival, I found the snake on the roof pole. I needed to ensure that it was not harmed during the rescue process and softly pushed it to come off the roof. I caught it and placed it back in the wild where it belongs, unharmed,” he said.
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It has been a busy month for Mdhluli, who said that since the beginning of June, he had to save at least five black mambas, two Mozambican spitting cobras and three rock pythons. In all instances, no humans or snakes were harmed.
He advised people not to attempt to catch snakes when they encounter them, especially when they are not trained to do so. The black mamba is one of Africa’s deadliest snakes and an untreated bite is fatal.
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“It is critical that a person receives professional medical care a soon as possible before the black mamba’s venom gets into the bloodstream, as that would be fatal. Once bitten, a person will collapse within 45 minutes and without treatment, it can take seven to 15 painful hours for a black mamba’s bite to kill a human,” he said.
This brave man almost does a little dance when catching a snake, reminding a person of the mambo, or shall we say, in this case, the mamba? Mdhluli is available to assist in catching snakes in the Hazyview to Bushbuckridge areas and can be contacted on 079 324 2493.
