I'd rather have snakes than rodents. :-)

I truly appreciate that phobias are very difficult to overcome, but I can tell you from personal experience that the more you learn about your particular fear (snakes) the less fearful you will be.

Buy a field guide for reptiles and study it. Once you become familiar with the habits of snakes, you'll feel like you have more power over the fear.

Remember: snakes can't hear but have a mighty sense of 'feel'. Stomp your way out to the compost pile and gardens to let them get the heck out of your way. Believe me, they are much frightened of you than the other way around.

By the way, my phobia WAS spiders. Would you like to borrow any spider books? I have a slew of them, lol!

Now that I've lectured, which is NOT what you wanted, I hope that others will have ideas about how to exclude snakes.

You could use hardware cloth to line your compost bin/area on the bottom and the sides. The snake might have been going after small rodents living in your compost pile.

I used to be afraid of snakes, but after being educated by co-workers at a natural history museum where I worked for several years, I eventually became comfortable enough to handle snakes and teach visitors to the museum how to handle snakes.

Lorna

Linked a previous discussion on this below for your reading pleasure. Some good ideas are offered in the many replies.

But I fear you will find that most of us who compost just learn to live with them and many of us see them as very beneficial. Just keep telling yourself that they are harmless, more fearful of you than you are of them, and you are bigger and meaner. ;)

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Snakes in the compost

Thank you for your replies. I have tried reading about snakes and learning to recognize the different types so that I don't have to freak out when I find one - which is not fun for me or the snake.

We have found several rough earth snakes this year. They are small, harmless and eat slugs.. so I am almost to the point of liking them, yet I still have the irrational fear.

What I am really afraid of at this point is disturbing a copperhead. From everything I've read, this seems to be a snake that gives the rest of them a bad name because their first warning is a bite and they do have venom.

If I deal with the rest of the snakes (as in learn to accept them), does that mean I will have a greater chance of coming across a copperhead? Do snakes gather together in an area? If having the rough earth snakes, ringnecks and other harmless ones reduces the risk of copperheads, I think I might be able to stabilize my thinking enough to just stomp around and ignore them. But if having these other snakes might invite copperheads to the area, I think I'm going to have to do something - not that I know what that would be.

Sounds like you have a perfectly harmless and highly beneficial snake called a blake racer . Very common in the south .
I love snakes because they eat rats and mice .
Black racers are much more afraid of you than you are of them . They are quite skittish and scare easily . You will often see them sunning themselves early in the morning and when they feel your footsteps they scoot away quite quickly .
Below is an excellent link with pictures to help you identify southern snakes . Note that the juvenile black racer is often mistaken for a poisonous snake due to it's brown and cream color markings - much like a rattler .

Here is a link that might be useful: Identifying Commonly Encountered Snakes

Probably most everything you have read about snakes is erroneous because all snakes would rather not have contact with us and, given half a chance, will leave where we are. The link below is an article from North Carolina State University that might be of some help.

Here is a link that might be useful: About Snakes

If having the rough earth snakes, ringnecks and other harmless ones reduces the risk of copperheads, I think I might be able to stabilize my thinking enough to just stomp around and ignore them.

It does work that way. If you have a habitat and food source for snakes then you will always have snakes. Kill the harmless snake and another will move in to take his place. Keep this up and sooner or later the new snake will be a copperhead.

With a situation that supports snakes you know you have a snake. Seeing a harmless one in residence to keep the food supply cleaned up is a good thing.

Thanks for all of the information. I braved it and stomped back out to the compost today, and didn't see any snakes.

The thing that worries me the most is accidentally stepping on a copperhead. I stepped on a rough earth snake earlier in the year. I saw it just as my foot was going down on it.. and it made no attempt to get out of my way!

I guess I will continue stomping around the compost pile and banging tools on the ground to let them know I'm out there. Aside from that I'll try to peacefully co-exist.

I'm glad to know having harmless ones in residence will discourage copperheads.

I have been reading a lot about snakes in the past few days and looking at lots of pictures, trying to make sure I can identify ones that I see. I'm in Anderson County, SC and from some research I did last night, I think copperheads should be my main concern in regard to venomous species I might see.

I agree with gator mom that your snake was a Black Racer. Copperheads would indeed be the main venomous snake to beware of in your area. I have actually found copperheads to be very mild mannered most of the time. It usually takes quite a bit to rile them up. I have rarely encountered an aggressive one and when I have it has been in hot weather when they seem more easily agitated than otherwise.

Snakes have territories just like any other living creatures. They do not congregate. I agree with the other poster who said that if you kill a snake, another will move into the vacated territory. Some types of snakes kill other snakes for food. King snakes, for instance, kill and eat rattlesnakes.

I wouldn't want to run into a copperhead either. What is their preferred habitat? Do they like tall grasses? If so, keep your property free of tall grasses. If your compost has rodents which are attracting snakes, fix the compost so that it cannot harbor rodents and snakes cannot get into it.

I live in the desert. There are seven types of rattlesnakes in this state, New Mexico. I keep most of my bushes trimmed up off the ground so that I can see beneath them and they don't offer good places for snakes to hide. Most of my plants are spaced so that they don't grow densely and offer hiding places. There is a snake free zone around the house, which is devoid of plantings.

Being aware is prudent. Being proactive for your own safety is smart. Educating yourself, so that you can recognize different types of snakes is a very good thing.

Lorna

I can't begin to tell you the number of times that I've been asked to remove the dangerous copperhead or cotton mouth (or whatever), only to find out that the deadly snake in question was perfectly harmless.

In my opinion, the regular presence of non-venomous snakes almost insures that the ones you are afraid of won't be around. Snakes tend to be territorial, and do not subscribe to the theory of 'come one, come all' community living.

I'm very happy to hear that the harmless snakes may prevent the copperheads from moving in!

Copperheads and any poisonous snakes (in my experience) are easy to spot. Their heads are usually triangle shaped and have colors and patterns harmless ones don't. Copperheads are like people in one sense: Most seem to be tolerant and would rather slither away than attack (well, humans wouldn't slither). However, some (the ones that give Coppers a bad rap) just want to be left alone... like the old man at the corner of my street. He throws things. Lol.

Abby

Thank goodness some folks seem more educated these days about these creatures so many love to hate. King snakes eat baby rattlers and copperheads, as well as mice and voles, so will rat snakes like your black racer. Keep them and they keep the venomous snakes away. The cute little ringnecks, garters & redbellies eat bugs and slugs, so all are great guys for gardeners to have around.
Remember too, if you find eggs, don't disturb them, they aren't a venomous variety, all the pit-vipers are live-bearers and don't lay eggs.