It was not a sensation anyone would expect. When Mara Ranger of Gorham, Maine, reached into her washing machine to retrieve her freshly laundered darks, something moved.

"Something moved under my hand and I just jumped back and all of sudden its head starts coming out of the washing machine and I mean it looked huge," said Ranger.

An eight-foot snake had tangled itself among her clothes during the spin cycle.

Ranger closed the cover and picked up the phone, dialling the police, animal control and the media before reaching out to snake-buster Richard Burton of Maine Animal Damage Control.

Burton donned a pair of welding gloves and wrestled the serpent out of the washing machine and into a bag.

"He is shedding, because he's very, very hungry," observed Burton.

The snake buster says in most cases, the wayward reptiles start out as pets, but become too big to handle: "I would say they got tired of it, probably got a little too big and they just threw it out," he said. 

Burton said he's getting more and more snake-related calls.

"Last year in Lewiston, I took one out of a woman's shower; it came down her sower head," recalled Burton. "They get very dehydrated and they can sense a water source and they go to it. Travel in pipes, suspended ceilings in bathrooms anything like that to get to a water source-- they'll do it."

The snake was identified as a reticulated python, which hails from Southeast Asia. The snake was not venomous.

"I'm going to be checking crevices, and corners..." said Ranger, referring to her newly snake-free home. As for laundry: "I'm going to be looking in the tub first and, before and after, maybe even during the rinse cycle," she said. "I'm just a little paranoid right now."