Black mamba lurks inside the wall of a Durban home for weeks

Snake rescuer Nick Evans removes black mamba living inside the wall of a Clermont home for weeks. Picture: Nick Evans

Snake rescuer Nick Evans removes black mamba living inside the wall of a Clermont home for weeks. Picture: Nick Evans

Published Mar 25, 2022

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DURBAN: Residents living in the Clermont area in Durban asked snake rescuer Nick Evans to break a wall inside their home that a black mamba had been living in for weeks.

The came hours after Evans caught a 2.3me black mamba in a wall in Inanda earlier on Wednesday.

Evans said that when he received the call, he was advised that the mamba was hiding between the top of the wall and the roof for weeks.

“When I arrived, the mamba's head was still visible at the top of a very high wall,” he said.

Using a long ladder, Evans climbed up and noticed that there was a hole in the building block of the wall.

“The mamba was in the wall… The residents told me: ‘Break the wall’. They were sick of this snake being there,” he said.

Evans used his phone’s video camera to determine where the snake was

“I got my hammer and chisel, and started hammering away… Eventually, I broke through. It shot up to the top of the wall.”

However, it was not an easy catch as the mamba darted further down the wall through a hole in the blocks, and more holes had to be made in the wall to catch it.

“I struggled to get through. When I eventually did, the mamba shot up again, much to the panic of the residents.”

This time, Evans managed to catch the reptile.

“I grabbed it, and using two tongs, held the body while I pulled the head towards me, and grabbed it with my hand. I was relieved that was over,” he said after spending over an hour trying to capture the snake.

Evans said the 2.1m mamba was not huge.

Snake rescuer Nick Evans removes black mamba living inside the wall of a Clermont home for weeks. Picture: Nick Evans

Snake rescuer Nick Evans removes black mamba living inside the wall of a Clermont home for weeks. Picture: Nick Evans

Snake rescuer Nick Evans removes black mamba living inside the wall of a Clermont home for weeks. Picture: Nick Evans