Snakes for Africa

28/05/2026

Literally yesterday a Facebook memory popped up with a mamba callout, and me saying how callouts have dropped off over winter. And today I got a mamba callout. It was up in the roof of a rural dwelling, and had been seen frequently over the past two weeks.
Anyway, here is a little video of the callout with my good friend Tyrone Morris. Also, even during the day, my torch from JETBeam South Africa is absolutely essential.

20/04/2026

I am currently without a vehicle so I have been borrowing (thanks Mervyn Mayer and Janine Fennel) and Ubering.
Today I requested an Uber and got a driver that I had used before. He took me to a callout to a factory full of refrigeration equipment. Even with the aid of my fancy sponsored Jetbeam torch, I found no snake, but I even had the Uber driver helping me move things!

17/03/2026

I got a nice pretty male Puff adder in a house call last night. This guy slid quietly into the home and the homeowner nearly picked it up, thinking it was a rope or a toy. Luckily it hissed at him!

30/01/2026

Catching snakes can be dangerous enough as it is. And then this one climbs into an electrical distribution board!
A quick and easy catch though, all things considered. Spotted bush snake ..

30/01/2026

I have caught two or three snakes in the same place at the same time, but never caught two Boomslang actually mating! The green one (male) was spotted moving around in a hedge in Hammarsdale over the past few days, and again today. The people also found a shed skin, and saw the brown one today. When I arrived they were right up in the top of the hedge, actually mating!. I caught the male fairly easily but I needed the client to help me catch the female as my left hand was full. Quite dramatic. A normal man would have died.

28/12/2025

I got a photo today that I was pretty sure was a Black mamba. I was mistaken though. It was in fact a rather large female Boomslang. JETBeam South Africa
Jacqueline Helen Phillips was my able-bodied camera person. She said it was too quick and we need to do it again. Slowly.

15/10/2025

A callout for a python in a rural chicken run. It had eaten a chicken last night and taken refuge under the corrugated metal roofing. The drive there and back was more difficult than the catch!
Thanks to JETBeam South Africa for the torch. Useful even on a sunny day. And Point-S Hillcrest for the tyres keeping me on the road.

14/10/2025

After Sunday night's burst tyre incident, Hillcrest business against crime and Point-S Hillcrest came up and sorted out not one, but two new tyres for my van.
Thanks guys! Much appreciated https://www.facebook.com/share/17Q3XjNtyp/

Fitment of tyres, shocks, batteries and brakes

12/10/2025

Sunday night "charity" callout casualty. A pothole destroyed my tyre on the way out of a freebie township callout this evening. I caught a small spitting cobra in a kitchen and hit a pothole on the way home.
I hate the expression "no good deed goes unpunished" but it definitely seems to be true.

11/09/2025

I was sent a video this morning of a large Boomslang sticking out from under a bakkie. The dogs alerted them. The caller said it had been there about half an hour and didn't seem keen to move off, which is unusual.
When I arrived a few minutes later, I saw why it hadn't moved off. It was trapped between the brake caliper and the drum! They had obviously driven over it without realizing, and it was trapped, injured and angry.
I was able to extricate it quite easily and will monitor it to see how it recovers.