Beware! It is snake season
Check your beds and surroundings before you retire as cobras are notorious for hiding among the sheets.
During heatwaves and high temperatures, snakes, especially cobras, tend to seek refuge in cooler places, such as in residents’ homes.
In view of Randfontein’s many farms, plots, rural areas and open veld, here are some safety tips:
1. Do not leave your windows open for too long. Cobras and mambas can reach high heights.
2. Avoid leaving your front doors open for fresh air in the evenings. These reptiles are silent movers. You won’t hear or see them go inside your house.
3. Before sitting under a tree, check the branches for snakes.
4. Check your beds and surroundings before you retire as cobras are notorious for hiding among the sheets.
5. Avoid chilling outside the house on mattresses and mats in the evening. Most reptiles hunt at night.
6. Not only snakes pose a danger, centipedes (Mosithaphala) are fast and venomous.
7. Clear bushes round your house. They attract rats and mice, which are the favourite snacks of most dangerous snakes.
8. Apply snake-repellent powder around the buildings on your property to decrease the chances of a snake entering your home by 90 per cent.
Beware of confronting snakes that get into your homes. If threatened, they will chase you at an alarming speed and give multiple bites while still on the chase; and you might not live to see the next forty minutes.
• Source: Johannesburg Zoo
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at randfonteinherald@caxton.co.za (please remember to include your contact details in the email) or phone us on 011 693 3671.
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