PROFESSIONAL snake catcher Warren Dick made a 33km trek from The Bluff to rural Adams Mission to catch what turned out to be a green mamba recently, helping a family that had initially thought it was a harmless snake.

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Catching snakes is not cheap as there are many costs involved, but Dick said he wishes he could always offer his service for free. He said he was sent a short video clip that morning by an Adams Mission woman who wanted a snake identified. From the video, Dick identified the snake as a green mamba.

“The snake was first seen on Friday climbing up the front door burglar bars, but quickly moved off. It was seen again on Saturday sticking its head out of the corner of the brickwork above the door; this is when the video was taken. A Google search of the snake said it was harmless. It soon disappeared, and no one thought of it again until her little boy was playing on the lounge floor and spotted it under the couch,” said Dick.

The woman’s teenage daughter grabbed her brother and closed up the house.

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After struggling to secure a professional snake catcher because they were either unavailable or she could not afford the fees, Dick decided to help the family.

“However, living in a rural area, she has no proper address, and her daughter’s phone was broken, and she was at work, so no location could be sent to me immediately. She had to try to make her way back home from work to send me a pin location. She got home at 13:00 and sent me the location, and I was off,” he said.

Because the house had been closed up, it took Dick five minutes to find and catch the intruder, which measured at about 1.2m long. He said he was grateful for the monthly R250 fuel donation from an Edwin Swales filling station, as it helps him do one or two calls for the poorer communities. The caller also gave a R300 donation.

To have snakes professionally caught, Dick can be contacted on 072 211 0353.

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