Snake found in Durban resident’s toilet

IT’S every person’s worst fear, finding a snake hiding in your toilet. This was true for a Reservoir Hills family recently as local snake rescuer, Jason Arnold, was called into action to rescue a Spotted Bush Snake. Arnold said this wasn’t the first time he had found a snake hiding in someone’s toilet.

“One of the family members went into the bathroom to close window because it was cold. He noticed the snake sitting on the closed lid of the toilet which had a warm fluffy cover. He quickly closed the door and called me. When I arrived I opened the door, but the snake was nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere I could, around the shower and the bathroom. I noticed the window was open so I went outside and searched the garden, including the roof eaves.

“It’s only when I went back inside, that I thought to search in the toilet rim. I noticed the holes where the water comes out when you flush it. So I used my endoscope camera and sure enough, the snake had snuck into the hole. I flushed the toilet to get the snake out and rescued,” he said.

The 37-year-old said he was receiving numerous call-outs for snakes seeking shelter inside homes, garages, roofs, Wendy houses and pool pump covers – all places that snakes are seeking out for shelter and warmth.

“The bush snake is one of the most common snakes in Durban and is active all year around. They are capable of biting, but nothing more. It’s not the kind of place you would expect, nor want to find a snake, but it occasionally happens. If I wasn’t as experienced as I am at finding snakes when they vanish, I probably would never have found this snake and the resident may have discovered it at a far more vulnerable time,” he said.

In a call out this week to Ballito, Arnold discovered a bush snake which had gotten into a weighing scale.