"There's a snake in the house"

These are not the most welcome words I would like to hear!

But they were words I heard today as I sat outside with my husband, (who had just got out of hospital), and two of our African sons.

Immediately everything else was put aside and we focused on things like: 'Where is the snake?', 'What type of snake is it?', 'How big is it?' etc

I was certainly thankful I wasn't in the house on my own and there many hands to help move furniture and 'keep watch'.  

We closed side room doors to restrict its movement. 

Then as one of our sons moved an item he suddenly not only saw it but partially stepped on it as it slithered to the storage area under the stairs. I could see it through the stair rungs attempting to climb the wall behind and over a large box.  The light wasn't good and I could only see a part that looked the colour of dull olive or steel grey.  It looked about the fatness of my thumb and maybe a meter long.  There was only one snake we knew that was that kind of colour - a black mamba….like the large one we had in our yard on Christmas eve.

So while some of us watched the space, a call was made to the Botswana Defence Force snake handler unit - the same unit we called a couple of months back when we had a puff adder at our back door.

They duly arrived with their handling equipment and big box with the green lid!

We then had to move more furniture - the fridge, a cupboard and various boxes.

Suddenly they said they had found it and we saw it slither out in front of one of the soldiers, and then they had it on their 'pole'.

At first glance they thought it was a boomslang (very poisonous), but then it was realised it was the relatively harmless Spotted Bush Snake.

They like to eat lizards and gheckos, of which we have plenty!

Though we have screens on all the windows and doors, with all the rain, the doors aren't closing properly on their 'auto closers' and its all too easy for it to sit open slightly.

He (or she) was a very pretty snake actually - which our photos don't really show so see the link above for clearer pictures. - a pretty green head and front part with black spots/stripes and that dark olive green on the back half which I had seen.

But pretty or not, we are not keen on snakes inside the house, so it went on the same journey as the puff adder before it - in the box with the green lid in the back of the BDF bakkie!