Snake found outside business in Ladysmith

A very unusual ‘customer’ rocked up at a business in Francis Road on Monday morning, July 8.

When employees arrived at work, they saw a snake outside the front door. No one could get into the business, so there was no choice but to contact local snake expert Fanie Cilliers.

When Fanie got there, he found a “beautiful” 1.2m female Brown House Snake which is not venomous.

After he removed the snake, the questions came thick and fast as to why a snake would be roaming around in the middle of winter.

Fanie replied that snakes are not bears that hibernate in winter; they do, however, mate in winter.

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The snake found in Francis Road was probably foraging for a meal.

Fanie explains that as winter will soon be coming to an end in a month or so and we head into the rainy season, snakes look for a place to deposit their eggs right after the first rains.

The eggs need to stay in a warm, humid and moist place such as a compost heap at the back of someone’s yard. Scarily, between 58 and 62 days after the eggs are deposited, your backyard can become a snake incubator!

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