Oh, man. I wish I had snakes. Occasionally I see a black snake and get all happy. I have so many moles and voles that they've pushed up my flagstones and walking on the yard is an exercise in ankle strain. I admit to using Grub-X, but while the grass (non-mole spots) are looking like grass, evidently the moles and voles have something else to live on. I have a good snake story, though. I have this one area where even though I stomp on the mole trails, they redig them into a raised bed. I keep moving plants away from their trail, but inevitably they end up under this one heuchera. One day, I was standing in the yard talking on the phone. I saw something dark move near the heuchera, and couldn't figure it out. I thought it might be a hurt mouse or something. I don't know why I didn't think mole. Anyway, upon closer inspection, it was a snake backing into the mole trail away from me. He'd found a little smorgasboard. Unfortunately, he must have gotten full and left, because the moles are more than ever. But it was so cool to find this snake doing his think in the garden! I like snakes. Not big on spiders, but I like snakes. C.

Corpsman - worry not about snakes. Having lived here all my 63 years I've had snakes in my backyard frequently but never been harmed. In fact, just about all of them will scatter at the first sign of humans. The only aggressive snake is a cottonmouth; they will advance on you if threatened, however, they are a diminishing species, mostly in the swampy areas. Now, if you want something really to be frightened about, I submit to you the penultimate danger in Florida, a species so scary that even grownups cringe, women recoil, babies cry; to wit, a Canadian tourist wearing bermuda shorts, sandals with black socks, sunburned from head to toe, driving a rented car while trying to read a roadmap. It make me shiver and want to curl up with a snake for safety.

snake away products are made from the same stuff as mothballs. They will not repel snakes, make your house stink and you call the poison center for advise and we tell you to take them out from under your house. Do NOT put 8 boxes of them in your attic either! Carry a hoe. Very simple. Use it to beat around the bushes, flower beds and the snakes will run off. I have a friend who has 6-8` rattlesnakes breeding in her driveway and always a few copperheads around the property. She gardens all the time and has never been bit. She lives in the middle of nowhere near San Antonio. Snake central. Snakes eat rats. Rats carry disease. Enough said. Copperhead bites swell a lot and hurt a lot. Crofab (the anitvenom) is rarely if ever needed though we can`t convince some people of that. The antidote was NOT formulated using copperhead venom so it`s only partially effective. The bites can swell for weeks afterward, especially if it`s a leg and you get up and walk around. Coral snakes, they inject with venom in their BACK fangs, what this means is they have to grab on, start chewing and get those back fangs into you. So they have to hang on for more than just a few seconds. Envenomation is very, very rare. The anti-venom is no longe made in the US, there are some bottles from Mexico available in the US and a few that the expiration date was changed. I think the closest vials are in Florida. Talk about expensive, not only is the anti-venom out of the world but you have to have it flown to you. Coral snakes are also the most timid snake in Texas and are usually found in pairs. It is a neurotoxin. Your hospital bill was so much because the cost of cro-fab is several thousand PER vial, that is then marked up by the hospital. Not having access to your records I could not tell you if it was warranted in this instance. If you get bit by a snake in some parts of Texas they give crofab as soon as you walk in the door, there are some pretty toxic snakes here but our copperheads are not nearly as toxic. You may send any and all snakes to Galveston and I will be happy to have them in my backyard. Anything that eats rats if OK in my book. With 3 brothers I have no fear of snakes. I think the few snakes that were here all drowned in Ike. Finally, get some chickens or even better guineas. They will chase out any snakes. Guineas don`t even need a coop, they will sleep up in your trees. Good watchdogs too. Tally HO!

YOU are the one who can't say anything nice or educated, emmawilliams1, not to mention making all Texans look like ignorant and cowardly hicks who feel the need to hack everything to death because something that looked like it hurt/scared/whatever someone. NONE of the snakes that "look like worms" are venomous, so it is quite possible that the animal which "bit" your niece wasn't even a snake at all. Even if it WAS, what animal is not going to defend itself if stepped on? Almost every animal I can think of-which is a LOT of animals-will bite or scratch or do whatever it can to get a foot off of it, and I don't blame them. MOST people who get bitten by venomous snakes, though, are bitten while trying to do exactly what you like to do-killing the snake. By avoiding that behavior and leaving snakes alone, you pretty much negate that risk. I live in SC, by the way, on 56 acres of woods and fields, as rural as you can get and still have electricity, and I state that because I know a lot of the snake haters love to claim that us "city people" just don't understand what it's like to live where there are venomous snakes. I catch Canebrake Rattlers that are far from "worm-like" every year in my yard, and I haven 't been bitten, since I don't try to kill them.