6-Foot-Long Snake Wanders Into A Home, Gets Trapped In AC Unit

A family in India recently had an unexpected guest – a six-foot-tall rat snake that sneaked into their bedroom and got trapped in the air conditioner’s unit.

The incident happened in India’s capital New Delhi. The snake wandered into the residence and made its way into one of the bedrooms in the house. The reptile then scaled into the window air conditioner unit in the bedroom and got stuck inside the unit, One India reported.

The family immediately contacted Wildlife SOS, a non-profit, and a team was sent to the residence to rescue the snake. The officials had asked the family to keep the bedroom door shut until they arrived so that the reptile remained inside.

Rescuers took an hour to safely take out the snake from the AC unit, the report said.

"The team had to remove the air conditioner from the window and open the compressor to locate the snake. After a one-hour-long rescue operation, the rat snake was safely extricated out of the air conditioner and transferred to a snake bag," a Wildlife SOS official was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-Founder and CEO of Wildlife SOS, said: "Over the years, we have rescued snakes trapped in air conditioners, washing machines, and even car engines. Snakes are ectotherms, which means they need to use outside sources to regulate their body temperature. Therefore, on hot summer days, they seek out shade and cooler places to rest."

Ptyas mucosa, commonly known as the Indian rat snake, is a non-venomous mostly found in parts of South and Southeast Asia. They are usually found in forest floors, wetlands, paddy fields, and suburban areas where they prey on small reptiles such as frogs and rats.

Last year, Joshua Castle, a snake catcher from Brisbane, Australia, spoke to International Business Times about why snakes end up in unusual places such as bedrooms and kitchens.

"Smaller species often get brought inside the home by a cat, larger species end up inside by accident through cat/dog doors and/or flyscreen holes due to temperature. It may be too hot outside so they need to cool off inside on tiles. They also sneak in through doors and windows that are left open for longer than needed. Some species of snakes can slither up the pipework to your toilet /sink/shower, this often happens by accident too, they either were looking for water or they got into a disagreement with a cat and bolted into the sewage," he told IBT.