Snake Terrorizes Family in Massachusetts Then Vanishes: 'House of Fear'

Halloween came early for a family in Springfield, Massachusetts, after a bright orange snake, that had been terrorizing the house for days, vanished.

Tenant Talisa Alexander told Western Mass News earlier this week that the snake had been living in her kitchen walls, regularly leaving its shed skin around the apartment. However, when local pest control services were called to the property, they were unable to find the trespassing reptile.

"Only remark I have is the snake is no longer there," Paul Dube, owner and operator of Urban Pest and Wildlife Removal, told Newsweek. "Tenant has not seen it since. We used cameras to look behind cabinets and voids initially."

Alexander told Western Mass News that she was first alerted to the trespassing reptile when she was in the bathroom: "My kids were freaking out in the kitchen and they ran to bathroom and tell me there's a snake on the counter."

Since its discovery, Alexander said that the unwelcome visitor has turned her home into a "house of fear."

"I'm afraid of it, my kids are afraid of it," she said. "We're confined to two rooms right now because we can't move around the house alone, so we're moving around as a unit."

"It's not one of those skinny snakes, [it's] kind of fat, kind of big," Alexander's son, Ja'hire, said.

Anthony Witman, who owns the company Witman Properties, which manages Alexander's building, confirmed that the snake was between 12 to 18 inches long and was most likely an escaped pet. "This used to be somebody's pet that was either released into the wild or into the home and escaped," Witman told Western Mass News. "It's totally harmless. It only eats probably bugs."

In an effort to remove the snake, Witman Properties called in Urban Pest and Wildlife Removal. Although they could not find the snake, Dube did find what had likely attracted it to the Alexanders' home in the first place.

"Snake came into her unit due to a major mouse infestation," Dube said to Newsweek.

Rodent infestations are a major attractant for both escaped and wild snakes, of which there are 14 different species in Massachusetts. Therefore, one of the most effective ways to keep snakes off your property is to keep food and garbage sealed to avoid attracting mice. That said, snakes play an important role in their local environment, keeping populations of rodents low and maintaining a stable ecosystem.

Other snake-proofing tips include:

• Checking your home's foundations for cracks and openings and sealing any gaps.
• Cover open drainpipes with mesh.
• Keep the lawn mowed and bushes trimmed.

Snakes rarely bite humans unless they feel harassed or threatened so if you are concerned about a snake on your property, the best thing you can do is to call in your local snake catcher or pest control.