Durban — Work was temporarily halted when workers spotted a puff adder in the area they were working at a cement plant on the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal on Tuesday.
South Coast snake catcher Sarel van der Merwe said he and Paul Cook were having coffee when he received a call from NPC Oribi for a puff adder at the plant.
“The guys were moving concrete slabs and the snake went under the slabs,” Van der Merwe said.
“They (workers) watched the area until I arrived.”
“I couldn’t see the snake under the slabs, so I asked them to lift the slabs gently.”
The employees had to pick up the concrete slabs with a forklift so that Van der Merwe could access the puff adder.
Van der Merwe said he removed the snake safely, an easy rescue.
He said puff adders were better handled using hook sticks instead of grab sticks.
He needed two hook sticks, but only had one which worked.
“I found the other stick today (Wednesday), when I no longer needed it,” Van der Merwe chuckled.
He said he got the snake safely in the bucket and released it on Wednesday.
Van der Merwe said the snake was well under a metre, but it was “a nice fat one”.
He said puff adder venom is potently cytotoxic, causing severe pain, swelling, blistering and, in many cases, severe tissue damage.
“All reptiles produce eggs, and while the puff adder does 'give birth' to living snakes, the process is deceptive. The eggs are in fact produced, but these eggs are carried within the mother during incubation, and the young snakes hatch from the eggs before they emerge from her,” Van der Merwe said.
He added that he had caught mostly puff adders and Mozambique spitting cobras there, and a few black mambas too.
Daily News