It has been a busy September so far for snake catcher Sarel van der Merwe of Shelly Beach.

Sarel recently received a call from Margate police saying that there might be a black mamba inside a rondavel.

Sarel was escorted to Mvutsini by the police, and found the snake on top of a cupboard.

“After moving a few things, I spotted a black mamba playing hide and seek inside the cupboard. Thanks to the police for taking me there,” said Sarel.

The first person that was supposed to take photos dropped my phone and made a run for it when he saw the black mamba.

He also recently went out to set up a trap on a property in Izotsha for a black mamba that has killed two dogs.

“I do hope that we catch this black mamba, and move him off the property… I’ve caught two black mambas and a Mozambique spitting cobra in a similar trap, unfortunately that trap was stolen. No harm is caused to any animals or reptiles with this trap.”

On two separate occasions, Sarel was called out for a twig/vine snake in Southport and in Sea Park.

The vine snake has a very slow acting, but potent Hemotoxin, which as it sounds affects your blood, slowly destroying red blood cells and disrupting your blood’s ability to clot.

There is no anti-venom for this particular snake bite, but luckily, these bites can still be treated.

Medical attention is required urgently, although the venom is slow acting.

Vine snake bites are rare. This species is also rear fanged and does not have a good venom delivery system, so would need to literally chew on you to get venom into your blood stream.

The snake is also a very shy and peaceful species and will only strike as a last resort. If threatened it will first inflate the neck, then hiss loudly and possibly open it’s mouth to further effect, to scare off potential predators. Only after exhausting all these defensive techniques will it resort to striking. As you can see this snake is also incredibly well camouflaged.