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PICS: Monster-size black mamba (more than 3m) bagged on KZN South Coast
This black mamba is Sarel van der Merwe's biggest catch to date this season.
Snake catcher, Sarel van der Merwe waited more than three months to bag this ‘big boy’ in Gamalakhe.
“I’ve being trying for about three months to remove this particular black mamba from this property,” he said.
Sarel said this catch certainly got his adrenaline pumping, to say the least.
“As I was looking in the store room, the mamba came in from the roof and went to hide in a corner. The store room was suddenly too small for the snake, me and my grab stick, so I fell backwards,” he explained.
The snake tried to escape past Sarel but he managed to seize it quickly.
He added that he was very glad to be able to leave behind a relieved and happy family.
Sarel stressed to keep your place clean, so that you don’t get rats, which in return attracts snakes.
It seems Gamalakhe is a popular place for black mambas. This is the second one he has removed (from a grape vine) in about three days.
“It appears that you buy a house and get a black mamba for free in Gamalakhe,” he chuckled.
So far, it has been a busy season.
Most recently, Sarel together with the help of his assistant Emma-Jane Cox retrieved green mambas from the top of a dish rack in Sea Park, a curtain rail in a bedroom at Pumula and he even went searching for a green mamba on a calabash farm, to name a few places along the coast.
After chatting to Sarel about this story earlier today, he phoned back to say, he was dashing off to Umzumbe to rescue a green mamba.
Never a dull day for the coast’s popular snake catcher.
Snake season is certainly here!
Save his number: 082 6831604.
