Durban: A 2.4m black mamba found in leaf blower

A well-known snake catcher said this is a first for him, finding a 2.4-metre-long black MAMBA was found in a leaf blower in a Dawncliffe shed.

According to the snake catcher, Nick Evans, a gardener in Dawncliffe, had been seeing a black snake in a shed on many occasions. 

“On Monday morning, I went to search the shed. It was a neat shed with not that many hiding places for a snake. 

“I searched everywhere I thought a snake could hide. I had a brief look in the leaf blower but foolishly didn’t look  in.” 

NICK SAID HE EVENTUALLY LIFTED THE LEAF BLOWER 

He said that afternoon, the homeowner opened the shed and found the snake—what he described as a Black Mamba. 

“I entered the shed but couldn’t see the snake or hear any movement. I checked everywhere. The last remaining place it could be was in the leaf blower, which was on the top shelf.

“I lifted the leaf blower. I’ve never used or needed one, so I didn’t know how much they weighed, but it felt heavier than it looked. I put it on the floor, shone my JETBeam South Africa torch inside, and there was a very unhappy Black Mamba!” 

HE FOUND A VERY UNHAPPY BLACK MAMBA HIDING INSIDE 

Nick quickly snapped a photo of the unhappy snake. 

“You can see it is opening its mouth at me- that means “Go away,” basically.” 

Nick said he thought it would be an easy removal as he would just have to shake the snake out of the leaf blower. 

“I didn’t think it would be a problem getting it out of there. I just needed to shake it out of there. Well, that just would not work.

“No, I didn’t turn the machine on. It needed a plug, but also, I didn’t know where inside the mamba could go, and I didn’t want to injure it.”

Nick said.

NICK SAID HE THOUGHT HE WOULD BE ABLE TO SHAKE THE MAMBA OUT  

Despite all his best efforts, he could not coax it out. Nick eventually had to unscrew the screws in the middle of the leaf blower, taking the main pipe off.

“Then it was game over for the mamba. Apart from struggling to squeeze it out of the smaller pipe, I had it under control.

“A 2.4m specimen, a little underweight, but not worryingly so.” 

THEY EVENTUALLY RELEASED THE BLACK MAMBA INTO NATURE 

Nick said he released the mamba into nature, which was far from people.

“I’m not eagerly hoping for a mamba in a leaf blower again anytime soon, although I suppose now I know how to best get it out.” 

Nick previously removed a beast of a black MAMBA, 2.7m long and weighing nearly three kg in the Nazareth area.