With the warm summer weather, snakes are on the move!

Not many of us are brave enough to take on a two-metre African python, but that is exactly what the Van Wyks, who live on the rural Uitkyk Road in Mbombela, Mpumalanga, did when they were alerted to a large African python hanging out under one of their recliner chairs.

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WATCH: A two-metre-long African rock python was discovered under a couch at Tashai van Wyk’s house on the Uitkyk road in Mbombela. Video: Tashai van Wyk #snakesoftiktok #python #pythonsoftiktok #mbombela #snakesoftiktok #snakes #wildsighting

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While we are warned not to ‘nurse vipers in one’s bosom’, this family practically did just that, keeping it safe overnight and releasing it back into the wild the next morning.

When Tashai van Wyk’s Yorkshire terriers kept barking, she went to investigate. Seeing nothing, she assumed it was the usual nocturnal visitors, such as wild cats or porcupines.

Those who live in the bush are used to strange critters sharing their homes now and again, but when her dogs kept alerting her to possible danger, she looked under a couch. Great was her shock when she saw an African python under the chair she had been sitting on before she went to bed.

After ‘freaking out’, as Van Wyk says, the family managed to guide the non-aggressive reptile into a box, using a broom to shepherd it.

“We kept it until the morning and released it into the bush. We live in the bush, surrounded by rocks, but this was the first time we’ve had a snake in our house. We’ve had a few outside, though.

“I am glad that none of our pets were harmed, and neither was the snake, which is now back in the bush where it belongs,” she says.