Gladys Dressner, 72, of Middletown said she first encountered two of the 8-inch snakes when she opened the bathroom door to find them staring at her Sept. 1, The (New Castle/Wilmington, Del.) News Journal reported Monday.

"They just laid there and didn't move," she said.

She said the reptiles slowly became more bold, at one point slithering across her bed sheets after she had retired for the evening.

"I flung it off of me and screamed," she said.

Dressner vacated her Hampstead Court apartment and stayed in a motel while Denton, Md., company Critter Control worked to remove the snakes and apartment complex managers worked to prepare a new unit for her.

Dan Santuchi, the Critter Control employee who removed the snakes, said the woman was not in any real danger from the non-venomous snakes, which do not have fangs.

"They pose no real threat, even to children," Santuchi said. "They just get pretty big when they get to their mature, natural size."

He said all of the snakes were less than one month old.