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"The walls, floor and ceiling of O's attic apartment were dismantled and the two units on the ground floor below were also carefully searched. Flour was strewn on the floor in the hopes of collecting tracks. Strong, double-sided tape was installed to perhaps trap the cobra baby. The fire department even brought in mini-cameras to search the tightest and most inaccessible corners. To no avail. On Sunday, the search was called off and the renters were told they would have to find alternate accommodation for eight weeks-by which time, it is assumed, the snake will have starved to death."
-Bedbugs are bad. A cobra that escapes from a terrarium in your upstairs neighbor's apartment, as Der Spiegel reports, is worse.
Kill it dead with fire. Just to be safe.
Either starved to death or just really really hungry.
and PISSED.
Damn Snakers. The neighbors can't be pleased.
Nah. It could've happened to anyone.
The kinds of people who keep exotic reptiles as pets are often creepier than the reptiles themselves.
Ew yeah also FERRETS.
@katiebakes: BUT Riki Tiki Tavi would come in handy in a case like this.
On a scale of 1-10 where does the chipmunk in my dryer vent figure into this?
My dad's amazing with animals, snakes in particular. We lost a pet boa in our crazy, full of nooks and crannies house. My brothers and I looked for it all day, with no luck. Dad came home from work and found it high up in some closet in about 5 minutes (it was the first place he looked). Said he just tried to think like a snake.
My dad once brought home a huge snapping turtle that was just soaking up the summer sun in the middle of a busy road. It terrorized the neighborhood, tramping about and snapping at anyone who came near it. Dads.
These are just two of the many reasons that contributed to the No Reptiles Policy in the Bittersweet household.
And I have fond memories of a snarling opossum in a big metal garbage can (I guess they go with snarling after playing dead fails).
I had an Eighties flashback when I read it as Coma-Baby as opposed to cobra-baby
no way the cobra is worse. snakes won't bother you if you don't bother them. bed bugs LIVE IN YOUR BED AND EAT YOU WHEN YOU SLEEP. just keep some anti-venom handy or something.
Well, 40,000 to 50,000 people a year die of snake bites, although not many of them are hanging out in their homes in Germany. But if you had to choose, you're probably right.
Did anyone read Donna Tartt's The Little Friend? Not as good as The Secret History but there is some ultra creepy/awesome snake stuff in it.
Does anyone remember the ridiculously wonderful SNL skit that may have inspired "Snakes on a Plane," in which a pilot (Will Ferrell) announces cheerfully to the passengers that a bunch of deadly cobras are loose in the cabin, and then continues to happily narrate his own hallucinatory descent toward death after being bitten himself? Then a cobra sock puppet comes on and taunts the audience in a Disney-Siamese-cat voice? Anyone?
Snakes can slow their metabolism down to a crawl (heh) EIGHT WEEKS IS NOT ENOUGH TIME.
Yes, I would get the math guy who turned down the award to calculate the amount of time you need to wait.
Math guy who turned down the award might even volunteer to live with a cobra as opposed to cockroaches.