There is a Snake in my Basement!!

Alright I am just going to cut to the chase. There was a snake in my basement on Friday. 

Friday I was on a cleaning and organizing rampage. I was determined to deep clean and organize my whole house. So I took my guest room comforter and sheets down to the basement to wash them. 

I turn on the light and I see a snake coming out from under the washing machine. I froze. The snake froze. I turned around and ran upstairs. 

Philip was in a dead sleep because he was sick. I walked as calmly as I could into our room and said "I just need you to know there is snake in our basement." Groggy, he looked at me and said "what?" I said "I just need to know if you put a rubber snake in the basement, because technically it never moved" "No I didn't put a snake in the basement"

So Philip woke up, put shoes on and grabbed a snow shovel.

I followed him down the stairs - filming the whole way. He turns the corner and says "Oh there is a little guy" 

I see that the snake had slithered a few inches away. Here is a picture of the beast:

Alright..here is the same picture a little zoomed in.

I understand that it looks like a worm. But it is a SNAKE. And it was in my basement. In the dead of winter. In all of the scenarios I have played out in my head about what I would find in my basement, I never pictured a snake. Burglars, intruders, raccoon, sure. Snake? Never. 

Philip used the shovel to whack the snake. Below is the video of that moment. When you hear my scream - you will hear the scream of a calm, cool, and rational person. 

After a while the snake started fighting back so Philip had to crush it a few more times. I said, with all sincerity "Amen! Crush the head of the serpent!!" 

I called 2 exterminators. The first one said "it's probably just a fluke and I don't think it came in through your sump pump"  the second one said "there is definitely something weird going on here - it for sure came in through your sump pump"

So, what your saying is, you have no idea. Awesome.

I googled it. Apparently garter snakes don't hibernate and after they hatch they separate from their mother. The website said if there's a snake in winter he's probably trying to find somewhere to hibernate. THAT IS NOT ANY BETTER!!!! What if I didn't find it?? What if, in the spring, a giant snake slithered UPSTAIRS and into my kitchen. I would die.

For the foreseeable future I will not be going to the basement without the supervision of Philip. I also am 99% sure I am going to have an exterminator come and check out my house...every few days... I can't live like this! Clearly we have to move!

Have you ever had a SNAKE in your house? What did you do??? What would you have done if you were me??