Cape Town – A Durban family had to ask for the help of snake rescuer Nick Evans after they discovered that a black mamba was living in the ceiling of their Montclair home.
The task proved to be quite a long and messy one, resulting in severe damage to the home ceiling.
Evans details the events of the rescue mission in a Facebook post, describing it as “a game of cat and mouse and destruction”.
He said that on Sunday at 22:00, fellow snake catcher Warren Dick messaged him about a black mamba in Montclair.
“Its body had been seen and photographed hanging out of the roof, against the wall, in the bathroom. A peculiar but frightening sight for the residents.
“I asked my friend Grant Cavanagh, another Durban South snake rescuer, to meet us there. A builder who spends a lot of time in roofs, I thought his skills would come in handy, and he brought his snake-loving daughter, Savannah, too,” Evans said.
Upon arrival, they found that the black mamba had gone back into the ceiling.
Evans said it was not an easy roof to work with, as there was a small gap between the ceiling board and the asbestos above. No one could climb in and no roof tiles could be removed. The only option was breaking through the ceiling.
“The residents said we could remove the whole ceiling, as long as the snake is gone.”
The ceiling was broken in several places, however, the snake could not be seen, he said.
Evans said that eventually the snake was spotted, but when he went to that part of the ceiling ,the snake had moved.
“You could hear it sliding along the ceiling board. And so started our game of cat and mouse. And destruction,” he said.
Evans said that they decided to call off the search when they could no longer hear or see the mamba at about 01:00.
“It had vanished, somehow. I was exhausted and covered in dust. We didn’t want to, after all that effort, but we called it a night. We were sure it would be back. Early this morning (Monday), or should I say later this morning, I met Warren on scene. Grant and Savannah couldn’t make it.
“…I broke a few more holes in the roof, and we were now getting more sightings of the snake, some close up ones too. We were getting close to grabbing it too,” he said.
They managed to get a tong on the tail, which Evans said was “risky”.
“Warren handed me his tong, and I tried to get his tong up there quickly, but it wasn’t easy with the space I had to work with. Once I did, and once the mamba’s head had come a little closer, I grabbed the head end. I had to juggle the tongs a bit, but eventually had the head in my hand. It was a twisty snake, desperately trying to twist its head out of my grip, but I managed to get a better grip.”
They measured it afterwards, and found out that it was 2.3m and it weighed 1kg.
The male black mamba was released away from humans.
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Picture: Facebook/ Nick Evans – Snake Rescuer
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Composed by Olwethu Mpeshe
