After about a month of trying to identify a horrible smell in their living room, a South Carolina family learned that a decomposing, five-foot snake was hidden inside an armchair.
Before they figured that out, they had already tried cleaning the chair and kept using the room normally, including sitting beside it while watching TV.
Here's what to know
Upstate South Carolina realtor Macy Whitted (@easley_sc_realtor) said in Whitted's Instagram reel that the odor had puzzled her family until they traced it to a single armchair. They then used a SpotBot on it, which she described as a "BIG MISTAKE" because it made the odor "approximately ONE MILLION times worse."
After the family decided the chair was headed for the dump, she moved it to the front porch. When the arm was cut open, they found "A DEAD. FIVE. FOOT. SNAKE" curled up inside.
The video captured the family's shock in real time, including the exclamation, "There's a snake on the couch!"
This was especially alarming because the snake wasn't found in a place like the garage or a shed — it was right in a common area inside the house, going completely unnoticed in a frequently used living room chair.
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More background
According to Whitted, the snake appears to have crawled into the chair, gotten trapped, and died there.
She added that the family had been "living our normal lives like there wasn't an entire snake decomposing in our furniture."
She also joked that "my habit of leaving the front door wide open might need to come to an end," suggesting the animal may have entered the house that way.
The episode reflects a wider issue where human spaces and wildlife habitat start to overlap, explored in this article about why wild animals attack humans.
One commenter wrote, "I'm really sorry to tell you this. Especially after what you just went through. But technically, we don't smell death. We taste it and our brain just tricks us into thinking we're smelling it."
Another commenter shared a childhood memory of snakes turning up in a couch.
What can be done?
Only after deciding to throw the chair away did the family take it out to the porch and cut into the arm.
In this case, the SpotBot cleaning attempt backfired: instead of removing the odor, it made it much worse, suggesting the source was buried deeper inside the furniture.
Whitted linked the episode to leaving the front door open. Reducing easy entry points may help keep wildlife from getting into a home and ending up in unexpected places like this one.
Where can I learn more?
These stories show how snakes can turn up in homes and other everyday spaces.
• In Queensland, an intense roof smell led residents to a dead python and a rat-bait warning.
• In Myrtle Beach, a 10-foot albino python stunned neighbors and even an experienced snake chaser.
• In North Carolina, a homeowner found a snake in the wall before learning it was a harmless corn snake.
• In Queensland, an elderly couple needed help after a bedroom snake turned out to be a green tree snake.
• In Udaipur, a rescuer moved a cupboard and found a rare white cobra hiding inside the home.
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