Sea Park, Port Shepstone recently played host to some unexpected and dangerous visitors keeping snake catcher, Sarel Van der Merwe on his toes. The reptile handler was called out to assist with a vine snake, spotted bush snake and a black mamba, recently.
Van der Merwe said: “The vine snake popped up at a property in Sea Park where it was spotted in the garden. The spotted bush snake made an entry through a kitchen at one of our local retailers.
The vine snake has a very slow acting, but potent hemotoxin, which affects your blood slowly destroying red blood cells and disrupting your blood’s ability to clot. Although there is no anti venom for this particular snake bite, fortunately its bites can still be treated. Medical attention is required urgently, although the venom is slow acting,” Van der Merwe said.
He said vine snake bites are rare and it is a very shy and peaceful species, striking as a last resort. “If threatened it will first inflate the neck, then hiss loudly and possibly open its mouth to scare off potential predators. Only after exhausting all these defensive techniques, will it resort to striking. This snake is also incredibly well camouflaged, so will very seldom need to even use any of the mentioned ‘scare tactics’,” added Van der Merwe.
To add to the mix, Margate Police Station contacted Van der Merwe for a possible black mamba that had been spotted inside a rondawel in the Mvutshini area. “I was escorted to Mvutshini by the SAPS officers to the location of the black mamba. The homeowner told me that she did see the snake on top of the cupboard. After moving a few things, I spotted a black mamba playing hide and seek inside the cupboard. Thank you to the police officers for escorting me to the black mamba and for taking some pictures after my chosen person dropped my phone and fled upon viewing the snake,” said Van der Merwe.
