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I live in Kyalami, Midrand, Gauteng, on the Agricultural Holdings, and I have a batch of brown hatchling snakes cruising around my garden.
I've fished three from the pool, one drowned unfortunately. When you put them down, they are very eager to get away, and sommer wants to have a go at your hand too.
I accidentally pinched one's tail in the sliding door, it was very miffed I can tell you.
Now, in general, I'm quite good with identifying snakes, but these little buggers is having me scratching my head.
They are, at the moment, amount 15cm long, with an reddish brown upper, and slightly lighter belly, with red/yellow/orange under the eyes, which would make me think it's the common brown house snake, BUT, it has yellowy-mustard little spots on the upper. I am not used to a house snake having that colouring.
Is this maybe just juvenile colouring, or am I dealing with a different customer here? the mouth, what i could make out, is darker coloured, but that was the drowned one i inspected, so it could be post-mortem discolouration. There were no apparant teeth, so I could tell if I'm dealing with a venomous or a constricter.
I dont want to let them cruise around, and kill my cats and later chow me if they are dangerous.
Any idea, sorry, I didnt have a camera handy when I spotted them.

hi the brown house snake have a triangular head the snake u descripe sounds a lot like the rooilippie hope it help

i checked a pic on the net of the Rooilippie. Face colouration seems about right. The scales are also that smooth, and not 'ragged', if you could call it that. but, i couldnt see that yellow dots. does the rooilippie's colouring change from season to season/region?
allthought. i checked another pic though, and it seems that this is my customer. thanx for info, at least i havent got a ravenous cat-muncher on my yard.

Adele…firstly, welcome to the forum!
According to my snake guide, the Herald Snake (AKA Red-lipped Snake) often has white specks or dots on its body.
They are harmless to humans, so you should not worry about them….

Oops a little late but anyway, I agree with all the other forumites that these are Herald snakes.

Hi there,

Please can anyone help me identify this snake? Is it poisonous or not etc.



It was caught by a friend of mine who lives in KZN at his house, he posted this to me on my facebook and have no idea where to start.

Thanks!

It looks like an adder of sorts - what do the rest of you think? Which would certainly make it poisonous. However, what adder, I do not know... In any event, I hope your friend removed it and placed it far from the house - not a nice bite!

Woodlin
I tend to agree,it does look like the adder family,difficult to judge the size as there is nothing to measure against,it does not look like a puff adder although it has the markings,could be a night adder

Okay I asked my friend for a bit for info and this is what he said:

"It was a juvenile maybe 30cm long. Second one I caught. It is not a night adder. I took it to a reserve close to our house"

If I am not wrong its a red lipped snake or red lipped herald! Not really poisonous just gives you a headache.They stay close to water and it feeds on frogs and stuff!

That is undoubtedly a Red lipped Herald snake (although inmost coastal KZn they lack the red lips) Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia

On the note they feed mainly on frogs and toads but also house geckos ect.
These snakes are venomous not POISONOUS lol.
And the old wives tale of these snake giving you a headache is pretty much that a tale.

Where in KZN was that snake found any idea?

When I was about 12 I owned to of them!A guy sold them to me!I didn't know it was against the law!

Wasn't bitten so dont know!

Fooble, I'm not sure on the area but I would say close to Durban knowing the couple. He said that was his 3rd one he caught around the house and said that he took the nature reserve close by. If you want I can find out for you.

He also just asked me to thank you guys for making an positive ID since their baby just started to crawl... which means he just might pick something shiny up and want to taste it...

He will only pic it up once!But lets hope not!

Okay why i ask as many of these snakes are killed meaninglessly,
I often do call outs in Durban area and will gladly remove the snakes
within a reasonable distance for free.
Feel free to PM me for details.