The search for a ball python in a Halifax apartment building has been put on hold.

The snake went missing from one of the units at 2327 Brunswick Street on Thursday.

Terry MacLeod of Nuisance Wildlife is the expert hired to find the snake. He says he's torn the unit apart, but there was no sign of it.

"We searched, and we searched, and we searched," he says. "We checked every piece of clothes...we took everything apart, we absolutely searched. There's five of us. And I can honestly tell you, I feel that snake is not there."

MacLeod is convinced the python did not escape into the building because the unit was sealed.

A snake expert says the ball python, similar to the one pictured here, is less than a metre long. (Tony Smyth/CBC) However, he says no one is certain where it could be now.

The python is less than two metres long and not considered dangerous to humans, he says.

Some residents were alarmed when they received a notice under their doors Thursday morning warning of a loose snake in the building. The notice asked them to watch their "small animals and babies."