However, after a rather hair-raising encounter that I had with one on Thursday evening, 9 May in a very unlikely place, I have decided that I better write about it.
At around 5.10pm my phone rang again, this time from a gentleman living on the Bluff. Where he lives he often encounters snakes and safely relocates them himself.
For a while his dogs had been very agitated and barking at something in his lounge, eventually he shone a torch under his display cabinet to see what the dogs were after, he said that there was a huge brown/ grey snake under there and it was spreading a hood.
Being on the Bluff, I immediately thought that it must be a harmless herald snake, but he was convinced that it was no herald. I am also quite used to people over exaggerating the size of snakes in fear, so I was still not quite believing him. Anyway, I rush off to his house expecting to see a large herald or maybe an escaped exotic pet snake of some sort, but what I saw was something that left me speechless. I even forgot that I had a perfectly good camera on my phone. It was a huge Mozambique spitting cobra, over 1.5 metres long, nice and thick. Being the first big cobra that I have encountered, it was a bit more difficult in getting it in the tub that I use for large venomous snakes, but fortunately the snake could not escape out the house and I managed to contain it in the lounge and eventually managed to get it in the tube safely. However, I got covered in venom spray which does not have any effect on the skin, but if gotten in the eyes, it feels like a mix of sand and chili sauce in the eyes. I felt quite fortunate to wear glasses.
Fortunately, the man’s dogs avoided getting venom sprayed in their eyes.
Mozambique spitting cobras are definitely uncommon on the Bluff. It most likely got displaced in the recent floods as there have been a few reports of them getting washed up on local beaches. There was also an incident over the weekend in Kingsburgh where someone’s dogs found a Mozambique spitting cobra in their garden and got venom spat in the eyes. Kingsburgh is also not a place where these cobras are typically known to reside.
This cobra’s first line of defense is to spray its venom, so what should you do if a Mozambique spitting cobra spits venom in your eyes? First and foremost, rinse eyes under clean running water for 10 to 15 minutes, if severe irritation persists, seek medical attention. Do not put milk into the eyes as this can introduce bacteria into an already irritated eye, causing an infection. If bitten by a Mozambique spitting cobra, seek medical attention as soon as possible.
If you would like to make contact with Warren to have some of your interesting insects, snakes or spiders identified, send him a WhatsApp or call 072-211-0353. Visit Warren’s Facebook page called; Warren’s Small World.
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