A plan devised after a few "cold drinks" to drive a snake out of a caravan has not ended well at property in Darwin's rural area.

A woman living in the caravan called snake catchers to the Berry Springs location on Wednesday afternoon to catch what she said was a large brown snake.

Police Duty Superintendent Del Jones said reptile wranglers were unable to corral the culprit.

"The snake people attended and, unfortunately, they couldn't get the snake," Supt Jones said.

The woman then took matters into her own hands, but not before some refreshment.

"She appears to have had a bit of a think about it and few cold drinks and decided that setting a fire under the caravan might be a way to get rid of this snake," Supt Jones said.

"However, it just resulted in the caravan being incinerated."

Fire crews and police from nearby Humpty Doo were called to the property around 8:30pm but by then the caravan, and the shed it was in, was well ablaze.

Supt Jones said there were no injuries from the fire.

"The caravan was fairly well badly damaged and the caravan was actually in the shed, so there was damage to the wiring," she said.

However, she could not confirm whether the woman's plan had been successful.

"Well, we don't know what happened to the snake," Supt Jones said.