A terrified family was forced from their home after finding a nest of venomous cobras.

Erawan Mamha, 43, his wife, and his three children had to leave the single-storey home they had rented in Songkhla province after finding it infested with dozens of baby cobras.

The father first saw one of the creatures slithering out of a hole under the storeroom's floor on May 21. The tiny reptiles made more appearances in the following days, hiding in paper bags, under pillows and duvets, inside the closet, and even curled up in his children's shoes. Erawan said the storage room and bedroom were favourite haunts of the juvenile reptiles.

He said: 'My family had to temporarily evacuate and live with a relative in the same village. We couldn't live in a house full of cobras as it was very unsafe. I believe there are many more hiding underneath the house.'

After moving out, Erawan decided to smoke out the cobras by spraying insecticide around the nooks and crannies of the building. He managed to find and kill a total of 24 young snakes that had left their freshly molted skin scattered in different rooms inside.

Erawan said the family had likely been living with the cobras for months, during which time the deadly animals had bred and proliferated.

He said: 'Fortunately the people in the house are safe. Usually during the day, when the baby cobras come out of their burrow, no one is home. The children go out to open our shop in the village. We only come back to sleep at night.'

Bunma Pinthong, a 62-year-old former tenant of the house, said that he had previously discovered and disposed of two cobras shedding near the house one month ago. He believed these two cobras might have spawned the dozen snakes that had invaded the residence.

The landlord said the house is planned to be renovated to get rid of the cobras' nest.