#Snakes infiltrate upstate Columbia observatory amid COVID-19 vacancy

While the employees of The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory are away, the snakes will play.

With workers at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, word is snakes have slithered their way inside the Palisades, NY, institute.

The creepy crawlers caused quite a kerfuffle in the Twittersphere.

“My husband is getting notifications from his place of employment that, in the 6 months since anyone has gone into the office, RATTLESNAKES have taken up residence. And they’re happily multiplying,” tweeted Brooklyn-based writer Seyward Darby. The Sept. 25 missive garnered 150,000 likes and 13,000 retweets.

Darby’s husband, Corey Sobel, is a technical writer for Columbia University, according to his LinkedIn page. Sobel texted The Post that he has been working remotely “this whole time, and will be for the foreseeable future — so I didn’t see the snakes myself (just photos that were shared internally).”

The observatory is a research unit of The Earth Institute at Columbia University that “focuses on the earth sciences.” It’s located on a 157-acre campus in Palisades, 18 miles north of Manhattan on the Hudson River.

Those with ophidiophobia — fear of snakes — should not venture anywhere near the compound, whose website warns, “While the Lamont Campus is a very safe place as far as crime is concerned, there are a number of ‘natural’ hazards of which you should be aware.”

Those hazards include bears, coyotes, snapping turtles and three species of serpents, including the poisonous copperhead and timber rattle.

“If you are bitten, call 911 and remember to direct the responder to take you to Nyack Hospital as they have the anti-venom,” the site notes matter-of-factly.

An observatory rep rattled off via email that snakes “are not infiltrating Lamont,” but admitted the slitherers and other wildlife “just seem to sometimes wander in.”

A Post photographer approached an old-timer at the Observatory security gate Wednesday inquiring if he had heard anything about snakes taking over. “Oh yeah, we got a lot of ’em. A whole lot of ’em,” he said.