Kurri Kurri residents Louise and Ron Harmey faced this frightening scenario last week.

On New Year’s Day Mr Harmey spotted a small brown snake near the back door of their Acacia Street home.

The screen door was only millimetres ajar, but not wanting to go anywhere near the venomous reptile, Mr Harmey went around the front via the drive-through garage and through the house to close the back door.

But by the time he got there, the snake was gone.

Mrs Harmey called the Cessnock District Rescue Squad, and volunteers thoroughly searched the house, garage and yard for the snake, but to no avail.

“We were on tenterhooks that night – every noise, every shadow,” she said.

Then on Wednesday, Mrs Harmey walked into her bedroom and was shocked to see the snake near her window.

“I had come home from shopping, took my shoes off and put my bags down,” she said.

“If I had taken two more steps I would have stepped on it.”

By the time Mr Harmey reached the bedroom it was gone again, but he went outside and could see it in the window.

He put a towel under the bedroom door to block the gap.

The rescue squad volunteers arrived promptly, found the snake behind the couple’s dressing table, and removed the unwanted visitor from the home.

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Mrs Harmey said it was terrifying to know the snake had been so close to where they slept.

“We get up and down during the night without the lights on,” she said.

“I’d stripped the beds, vacuumed, dusted and polished.

“Goodness knows where it’s hidden for two days.”

“I still get chills, it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up to think we spent two days living with it,” Mr Harmey said.

“I wanted to burn the house down or put a for sale sign up,” Mrs Harmey added.

The Harmeys have lived in their home, which backs onto bushland, for 26 years and say they usually see one snake per summer.

“We get the odd snake, but not that many considering how close we live to the bush,” Mr Harmey said.

They keep the rescue squad’s number handy, and have called them in the previous years.

“I’ve got them on quick-dial now,” Mrs Harmey said.

“They did a fantastic job.”

The rescue squad’s trained volunteers catch and relocate snakes into bushland where they are set free.

Anyone who finds a snake is advised to stand still and slowly move away, but to maintain visual contact of the snake until the rescue squad arrives.

Call the rescue squad on 4991 2444, as soon as possible, if you require assistance.

Check out the rescue squad’s recent efforts to cut a snake out of a curtain in the video below.