It looks and sounds like this is a case of a dirty house attracting the rodents (and probably cockroaches?), and the rodents attracting the snakes. Nothing makes a home in a barren wasteland where there is no hope of finding food.
Anyway, seeing snakes and then not knowing where they went can play interesting mind games on someone. I once ran from my bed years back in a suboptimal state of undress when I felt what felt absolutely like a sizeable snake wrapping itself around my ankle for warmth. Turned out to be nothing, but again - where I am from there are snakes you don't want to be bitten by. Some will kill you quick (e.g. mambas, most types of cobra and the boomslang have fast acting neurotoxic venom), while others will kill you slower but make you wish you were dead (venom from the likes of a puff adder or certain types of spitting cobra are hemotoxic/cytotoxic, and will really damage your body around the area of the bite even if you survive).
There are people who have removed all furniture from a house and cleared it after seeing a black mamba ...which was found curled around several clothes hangars in the jacket cabinet (and mambas can get really long). While this lady might be dealing with only garter snakes, I can certainly understand her predicament.
Poor woman. She’s mistaken a Democrat gathering for something entirely different.
What's her husband think about all this?
You could tell that people seriously into these things were showing up to see them. I guess they are high-shelf critters. The spider was hiding, my wife seen it before and said it was large and hairy with impressive colors. Also a thing called tiger salamander drew photographers but it was hiding too in the damp soil.
I got good pictures of a googly eyed thing:
This guy was large (it has a long tail), about the length of my leg.
Near a den. Hibernating garters. Yes, we had the thread. [2011]
Bit of spelling/editing trouble there.