Durban — A male black mamba, longer than 2m is believed to have spent a couple of nights in a young boy’s room in Newlands West.
On Friday the 13th, Snake Man Jason Arnold headed to the home at about 8.15am for his first call out for the day, in the Hillgrove area of Newlands West, for a large snake inside the pantry.
The family sent a picture but it was extremely dark and Arnold could only make out the silhouette.
“So I can’t actually see the colour and I can’t make out the size or anything like that, but in all likelihood, it's probably going to be either a Mozambique spitting cobra or a black mamba,” Arnold said.
The little boy’s grandfather, name unknown, said that on Wednesday during the course of the day, his helper left the bottom window of the child’s bedroom open.
“So we suspect during the course of the afternoon that this snake came into the house, and it was in our house from Wednesday afternoon. So we only noticed something wrong yesterday, that was Thursday when my grandson’s things on this table were all on the floor,” the grandfather explained.
“So today morning, Friday, my daughter-in-law phoned me upstairs, saying that she thinks she saw something in front of the door (grandson’s bedroom). When I came down I never saw anything. So at 6.30am when she was leaving she called me again and she said she suspect she heard something rattling inside a pantry.”
He said that his daughter-in-law then went off to work.
He also said that he then slowly started removing things from the pantry and when he removed one of the items, he saw the snake coiled up in the corner. He then took a board and barricaded the pantry and called for Arnold.
He said that while he was waiting for Arnold, he kept guard of the snake, even after Arnold arrived.
“It is a mamba,” Arnold said.
“Imagine having a mamba in your house for a few days without knowing.”
“Just shows that they are not there to bite people. They are just there to do their thing and keep out of harm's way and just do what they got to do to get food and water and shelter and avoid people at all costs,” Arnold explained.
As he grabbed the snake with his tongs, Arnold said the snake was chilled.
Within seconds of grabbing the snake, Arnold had it secured in his left hand and pulled it out of the pantry.
Arnold said the snake was over 2 metres, a decent-sized male mamba.
Daily News