Snake catcher shares experience with snake eggs at construction site
Nick Evans thanks the construction team at the N2/N3 Spaghetti Junction for calling him to safely remove some snake eggs they found.
IN observation of World Snake Day on Tuesday, July 16, Upper Highway snake catcher Nick Evans took to his Facebook page about how he was called to the N2/N3 Spaghetti Junction construction site after snake eggs were uncovered.
Evans said that back in March, the construction team sent him a picture of the eggs which were stuck together in a lump – typical of snake eggs.
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“They looked like Brown House Snake eggs to me. They were laid in a safe spot, under a pipe, just under the surface. I put them in a small box, in the sand that they had been laid in, and stuck them in the cupboard of a warm room,” read the post.
Evans said he was amazed that a female made it across those roads to lay there.
“Although House Snakes are nocturnal, maybe the snake crossed at night, luckily, when the roads are quieter. Or maybe there are a few living there, breeding. I haven’t had any calls, though, from the construction team, for any actual snakes, so perhaps not. It was a tiny patch to live in.
“I was also quite surprised that there were eggs in March. I’d expected most House Snakes to have hatched by then. I thought it was most likely that it was a clutch laid late in the season, maybe in January, which was about to hatch. Or, possibly, it was a second clutch laid by a female. Female snakes, especially House Snakes, it seems, which are well-fed on our healthy rat population in Durban, are able to lay two clutches of eggs in one summer. I think that it was the latter, in my opinion,” he said.
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Evans said that the eggs hatched, and he discovered that they were Brown House Snakes.
“[They were] cute, pretty little snakes, which I released. At their size, they’ll mostly feed on lizards. A big thank you to the construction team for caring enough to call to have the eggs removed safely. I’m extremely grateful to them,” he said.
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