An Umdloti woman almost picked up a 2.4m black mamba she mistook for a strap in her bathroom last week.

Mandy Courier, an Umdloti resident for more than three decades, returned home to find her downstairs guest bathroom in disarray. Decorative items and guest towel baskets were scattered across the floor.

While tidying up, she noticed what she thought was a strap.

“I thought, ‘Good Lord, what is this?'” said Mandy.

“I actually went to pick it up, and as it moved, I realised it was a rather large black mamba.”

Her partner, Garth Baird, had earlier heard a disturbance from upstairs but assumed it was monkeys. A quick check downstairs revealed nothing unusual and the snake went unnoticed.

Mandy suspects the reptile may have been unknowingly transported to their home. Her sons Chad and Tristan Baird, who work in conservation in the North West Province and northern KwaZulu-Natal, had recently visited. She believes it may have hitched a ride in one of their vehicles.

“It’s very rattling, actually. It could have gone sideways very quickly and very badly,” she said.

The couple contacted Jason Arnold, founder of Universal Reptiles, who safely removed the snake. Arnold said he has caught dozens of black mambas in Umdloti, although this was the first one there in three years.

“They prefer to be a little inland, away from the salt air,” he said.

“Green mambas, on the other hand, are far more common in Umdloti because they favour coastal bush and salty conditions. Funnily enough, I don’t recall catching a black mamba in any road other than Bellamont Road.”

He added that mamba activity typically increases between May and July, during mating season.

“It’s not uncommon at this time of year to be called out for a black mamba, only to arrive and find several snakes within a small territory.”