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So what are the do's then , apart from alcoholic drinks to the
people who are not bitten , but merely in a mild panic .

I must say , this thread is actually very amusing , makes a good read .

Have seen in camps -
boomslang in skukuza next to petrol station in tree.
Phython in letaba at fence, very big , must be the 1 that eats the resident camp bushbuck.
Amazingly , those are the only 2 inside camps i have seen .

Saw a very very interesting twig(or is it vine) snake in january this year , must find photo to post for proper identification .
plenty other snakes in the park though , especially after / during periods of good rain , the year after the floods was a bumper year for the slitthery ones .

The vine/bird/twig snake is extremely venomous, having the same venom as a boomslang but with no antivenom. Boomslang antivenom does not treat this snakes's bite.

Here is some do's.

Lots of snakes at Boulders Camp
There is lots of sighns to warn you about them and photos of snakes that are resident in that area. We did not see any because it was winter time, but in summer there is plenty.

Good thing i didnt fiddle with it then .
Is it also reluctant to bite/inject the venom as they say with the boomslang , doesnt the boomslang also have teeth that are far back in its skull , so doesnt easily "pik" a person .

Unfortunately i have not had the privelage of staying at boulders , idiotic family cant get its act together to all get off work at 1 go and book it out

Back fanged? Yes. The twig/bird/vine snake is not aggresive, fortunately. Beautifull snake though. One of my favourites with Gaboen adder.

I do have one piece of good advice, should your cat, by some wierd chance, get bitten by a snake, give it Rescue Remedy, it will most likely save it's life

Rescue Remedy could save many a life
An interesting thing about snakes (heard on the discovery snake bite progamme) (sorry not a regular tv watcher ) up to 50% of snakebite victims are above the legal limit in terms of alchohol intake.

Hi all
Just a quick visit to let you know that I have found a “Snake Terminator"..... or just call him “The Bill" . He is now my best friend.
This mean machine caught what looks like a young mamba - I saw the kill and the tenderisation process. Hope he can do the same with the Mamma - suppose this qualifies as an organic deterrent?





@Francoisd, sorry cannot help with the ID - bought a snake book Friday but left it in my “bush house" need to tell the doctor what bit me .
Great photos BTW. Looks like it was quite a long snake! {brrrrrr, Jumbo getting chills right into her small toe} Maybe a Cape Cobra?

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We found the following two critters on our veranda, even though I stained all our cement slabs around our house with the purple Jeyes Fluid - any advice how to get rid of Jeyes Fluid stains?

After our first snake, we bought the “Sasol Field Guide to Snakes and Reptiles". Unfortunately we found that this booklet was not comprehensive enough for our needs. We now purchased a very good book on snakes (will also mention this in the “Recommended reading" topic): “A complete guide to the snakes of Southern Africa, Johan Marais). We got it at the shop in Lower Sabie. I can truly recommend this book. It is easy to use and has very valuable info. - includes first aid information.



This beautiful snake we found midday, just as we returned from a Kruger daytrip. It was very relaxed. The steps it is lying on, is next to the driveway. We manoeuvred the car back and forth a few times hoping the vibration will persuade it to leave, but it just moved it's head looking at the 2 people sweating it out in the warm car. Eventually we got somebody to come and catch the snake. The snake lay still, till the guy touched it with the “catching stick" and only then sped off - so much for snakes being scared of humans. With great difficulty it was eventually caught and released elsewhere.

We still have difficulty identifying this snake. First thought was a green version of the boomslang. But the guy, who caught the snake, said his eyes were not big enough for a boomslang. Another options is a Angola Green Snake, but they only have a maximum length of 1.2m and this snake was almost 1.5 - doesn't look like that on the photo but we saw it when it was caught and held up in the air.
Does anybody have an idea? I had no idea that there are so many "green snakes", and that most of them are harmless.



This one was a Mozambique Spitting Cobra (M'fezi in Zulu). Somewhere I posted that they are responsible for the most snakebite casualties in SA, but it seems that my info. was incorrect - and the source I got it from. The M'fezi is however classified as a very dangerous snake that accounts for many bites in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.
This one took us by surprise. We were busy having dinner on the veranda when I by chance noticed a bundle next to the front door. It was quite dark - we prefer to use lanterns i.s.o. electrical lights. It was coiled up between the burglar bars and the door and we have no idea how long it was there and when it decided to join us.
This M'fezi wasn't fully-grown, about 60cm in length - their maximum length is 1.5m. We had to get the “snake catching man" again {At R50 per snake I will have to add a new item to my household budget. )

Some interesting fact on this snake, taken from “A complete guide to the snakes of Southern Africa" (Johan Marais).
It is mostly active by night although juveniles are quite active by day.
“It is a retiring snake that seldom stands its ground"
This sake bites and also spits its venom.
It can spit up to 2m and does not always spread its hood before spitting - “can spit effectively from a concealed position within a rock crevice"
One of its preferred preys is Puff Adder.

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Have seen Mfezi 3 times in Berg in Dal. One, about 70cm in length was caught during daytime near reception and released elsewhere. This ties up with juveniles being active during daytime.

An overseas camper walked around at night in B&D campground and stepped on one during Dec02/Jan 03. He was in hospital for 10 days.

I've seen a product at a nursery that is silicone based and claims to be an effective snake deterrent.

Hi Christo

Thanks for this info. Will keep my eyes open for it.

We only saw an M'fezi once in Kruger. It was crossing the road near Mopani - unfortunately only have video of that. It was a fully-grown one.
Have to say, I much more prefer watching them crossing the road in Kruger that having them on my veranda.

After our experiences with these snakes, I have to say that I have more respect for the Kruger rangers that have to venture into the bush by foot. I'm sure the guys from the anti-poaching units, that do foot patrols, often encounter snakes - and in the even of a bite, it may take a while to get them medical treatment.


LOL Thanks, but I took about 15 photos of the M'fezi, and this was the only one that was in focus - I was shaking too much.

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The name of the repellent is "snake repel", manufactured by a company called repel in Dbn. It costs R64.95 for a 500ml trigger bottle. (But I am sure it can be found cheaper)

Looking at the length, the dark edges of the bright green scales
head shape, colour under the chin and we have..... a superb specimen of a male boomslang!

Thank you Pilane.
Wow but you do have a vast knowledge of snakes! : I'm intrigued to what your "day-job" is

Have to say that this boomslang was so beautiful that I wasn't really scared of him - he was actually cute in a certain way. But the M'fezi, that is a mean looking creature!

Pilane mentioned that the green snake was a male boomslang. Here is some more info. I got from my wonderful snake book “A complete guide to the snakes of Southern Africa" (Johan Marais).
{It has been mentioned that I am now the “snakelady" , well trust me, it is definitely not by choice - I think you guys can see that we do have a teeny weenie problem with snakes at our “bush house". SO and I have now decided to start and mark of the snakes in our book, as we do with the birds.
Seeing that I'm now educating myself on these creatures, I think I might share a few interesting tit bits with the forum}

The colour of the boomslang:
“Most females are light to olive brown with dirty white to brown bellies, whereas males might have the following coloration: (a) green to olive green with or without black interstitial skin, the belly a similar but lighter colour; (b) bright green with black-edged scales, giving the snake a crossbarred appearance; (c) dark brown to black with bright yellow bellow; (d) black above with dark grey belly scales that are black-edged. Brick-red specimens are found in some areas.
There are also intermediates of these colours, and occasionally females have typical male coloration"

To me this basically means the boomslang can be any colour. I think the best way to id them is the big eyes and short stubby head.

As I mentioned before, there is quite a number of green snakes, and to my untrained eye, they all look the same. It appears that the only two green snakes that are dangerous are the boomslang and the green mamba. The green mamba has a more flatter head that the boomslang (talking under correction, but if the snake on my photo was a green mamba, the chin wouldn't have gone up, it would have been flat on the ground)

The other green snakes are of the genus Philothamnus. All of these snakes are harmless but are often confused with the boomslang and green mamba. I have to say, I can see why. The problem is, although they are harmless, they also bite and act aggressively when cornered. This behaviour and their similar appearance to the harmful snakes probably causes them to be killed be people. :
Snakes of this genus are the Spotted Bush Snake, Ornate Green Snake (not found in SA), Angola Green Snake, Green Water Snake and Natal Green Snake.

@Christo. Thank you for the info. and the trouble you went through to get it. I did a search on the Internet and found the product. Am going to try and order it - doubt that the shops in Maputo will stock it. Will let you know if it works.

PS: Pilane, it appears (touch wood) that the chlorine in the cage is working. On the other hand the resident "cage" gecko is still living there and actually running over the dry chlorine

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Having a bush house in "snake heaven", I had the privilege to encounter another snake. Luckily this was a small and harmless specimen.

Initially we thought it was a sort of worm (and weren't far off in our presumption). It was about 10cm in length, thin and had a black polished appearance. It was moving slowly in a straight line - thus our belief that it was a worm. But, when we touched it, it immediately sped away in the typical side-to-side snake movement.
Later, with the help of my wonderful snake book, “A complete guide to the snakes of Southern Africa, Johan Marais", we identified this snake as the Incognito Worm Snake.
Unfortunately we did not get a photo of it. Here is a photo I got with the help of Google, but it is not of the specimen we encountered (it is a worm snake found in the USA). The snake we saw had a more blunt head.



Some interesting facts about this snake, taken from my snake book:
The worm snake is also known as the thread snake.
They are burrowers that feed on termites, ants and fleas.
The Incognito Worm Snake is mostly found beneath stones, logs, or in termite mounds. However, you may find them on the ground surface after heavy rains.
Worm snakes have cylindrical bodies with a blunt head and short tail.
“Worm snakes have no teeth in the upper jaw and have only one lung and one oviduct (the tube that carries eggs from the ovary).
They have reduced eyes that may be visible as dark spots beneath the skin; however they are blind.
Their eggs are attached, resembling sausages {And IMHO massive, if you compare it to the adult snake}
Other Worms Snakes that can be found in Kruger are: Long-tailed Worm Snake (pinkish colour), Peter's Worm Snake (reddish brown to black, average size 20m), Distant's Worm Snake (uniform grey-black in colour) - and then Jumbo's Worm Snake (AKA Incognito Worm Snake - uniform black in colour)