NATIONAL NEWS - A snake catcher on the South Coast in KwaZulu Natal caught and relocated a massive black mamba, his biggest catch for the season, after searching for the reptile for more than three months at a property in Gamalakhe near Margate.
Sarel van der Merwe has had a busy snake season, rescuing several green and black mambas from the most peculiar places like a dish rack and even searching for a snake on a calabash farm.
Van der Merwe says the most recent black mamba catch certainly got his adrenaline pumping.
“As I was looking in the storeroom, the mamba came in from the roof and went to hide in a corner. The storeroom was suddenly too small for the snake, me and my grab stick, so I fell backwards,” he explains.
The snake tried to escape past Van der Merwe, but he managed to seize it quickly.
He says that he was very glad to be able to leave behind a relieved and happy family. The snake measured more than 3m.
Van der Merwe stresses the importance of keeping your place clean, so that you don’t get rats, which in return attracts snakes.
He says this is the second black mamba he has removed in Gamalakhe in about three days.
“It appears that you buy a house and get a black mamba for free in Gamalakhe,” he chuckles.
It has been a busy season for the South Coast snake catcher.
Most recently, Van der Merwe 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.
Shortly after the South Coast Herald chatted to Van der Merwe about his most recent black mamba catch, he phoned back to say, he was dashing off to Umzumbe to rescue a green mamba.
