An elderly woman from Mokopane is in a critical condition after being bitten by a black mamba she was trying to chase off with a can of insecticide and a broomstick, according to a report on Friday.

Sarie Senekal, 76, was airlifted to Polokwane Provincial Hospital in a critical condition on Wednesday afternoon, Beeld reported.

According to her daughter, Frieda, the snake bit her mother in a neighbour's flat after she tried to evict it with a can of fly spray and a broom handle.

"She apparently tried to beat the snake to death with the broom before it bit her twice on the leg. She called me and said: 'My child, a snake bit me'."

She was on a ventilator in the hospital's high-care unit.

In a separate incident, an elderly woman from Polokwane was in a serious but stable condition after she was bitten by an Egyptian cobra that had slithered into her daughter's car, reported the Citizen newspaper.

Sannie Roos, 74, was in the Medi-Clinic Limpopo's intensive care unit.

She was picked up by her daughter after a shopping trip, and after they drove off she felt a sharp pain in her foot. She was taken to hospital and the snake was later found hiding in the car's air vent.