Personally...I don't intentionally kill anything that doesn't actively and aggressively try to kill me....including poisonous snakes. But...please note that I prefaced this statement with "personally". I don't impose my attitudes and/or beliefs on others. What my Zen heart dictates for me may not work for someone else.

Never!!!!!!!!!

I also DO NOT run over turtles. I love the wild life that lives around me....and leave it alone. (golfers @ the Country club stick their hands in the lake to retrieve their ball and get bitten! They want ALL the turtles killed) There is NO "wild life" that's "safe" or that everyone agrees on liking.

I run screaming and hope they are not following me.

You know what Anne you sound like a sweetheart and your hubby or boyfriend is lucky, thanks for your input

Here we have an occasional gopher snake. I would never kill them because they are getting rid of gophers, which I hate. We even caught a baby rattlesnake in the garage and let it go in a 200 acre wilderness area way off the beaten trail.

I actually stop and pick up the turtles and bring them home to release them so they don't get run over. Every spring they get out in the road and I try to get them before the kids round here . I love wildlife to but don't want the poisonous around

Inside the house, yes. Not outside.

Snakes are venomous, not poisonous (the ones that are venomous). Snakes are very helpful, keeping the rodent population in check, etc. I've kept pet snakes in the past, would not kill a wild one one if I could help it.

Do you have the kind of environment required for turtles to breed and lay their eggs? If not, they probably have a better chance of surviving the road to get to their destination.

All snakes need to be protected by law because there are idiots out there that are willing to kill anything that even looks like a snake. They are hugely beneficial animals.

But you DO have the law on your side when it comes to killing one that poses a threat. It's not safe for the majority of people to attempt to move them, and no one wants venomous snakes to become comfortable where there is a lot of human activity.

I always encourage people to learn about all of the snakes found in their area and to recognize the few venomous snakes, especially.

Tell everyone to stamp their feet, make vibrations, before going out on the deck or anywhere else where snakes may be.

I have always been told that if you find a turtle on the road you should carry it across the road to safety in the direction it was heading and release it there. They are either heading to to find a good spot to lay their eggs or heading home after laying them. They are not migrant so familiarity with thier surroundings adds to their lifespan.

I didn't know some golfers feel that way about turtles. My family is very fond of turtles, and we're big on helping them cross roads--in the direction in which they were headed. Maybe it's no coincidence that none of us play golf. :-)

As for snakes, my son handed me one the other day and suggested I look it up to identify it. I told him it's usually a good idea to get the ID first. (He's old enough to know better.) Fortunately, it was harmless--like all the snakes I've encountered here so far. Knock wood.

I would kill a copperhead if found in my yard, but in twenty-one years here, I've never seen one. I am happy to see black snakes--I've always been told that if a black rat snake is in residence, copperheads won't come around. I don't like it when they invade the blue bird nests and eat the babies, but that's nature.

When my kids would find corn snake eggs in the horse manure in my in-laws barn we'd put the eggs in a gallon glass jar filled with dry leaves, until they hatched (in the mud room!). After the second molt we'd turn the little snakes loose in the barn.

Well, for goodness's sake! Instead of killing the turtles, couldn't the club put out ball grabbers? Or offer the loan of one to every foursome? How's a poor ol' turtle supposed to know that a golfer's finger isn't dinner?

I don't have the snake problem. I wouldn't live up against chaparral because of fire and flood. We have a lot of rattlers, but if you don't startle them, they leave you alone, and they're not in the city. I might have a different opinion if they were in my garden. I'd call someone to fetch them and put them back in good habitat if they were a bother.

As to insects, we have a pact. Outside they're part of creation. Inside they're dead. I try to shoo spiders out, however, rather than killing them, and outside I'd only kill black widows, and then only if they were around the habitation. We do have them. Scorpions are rare here and I wouldn't want one in the house. I don't mind tarantulas, but wouldn't play with one unless I was sure it was one of the harmless varieties. Both are pretty easy to move. The boys had garden snakes when I was growing up, but I never saw anything more threatening than a woolly bear caterpillar in our yard, so I don't know if they found them in the wild and brought them home, or what. My own yard is much too urbane.

Hm... Karl, I think if I saw a copperhead on the porch, like Murraysmom, I'd hightail it, and call animal control. It seems a shame to kill a snake which is probably just looking for water. Shooting it is solidly against the law here. :)

Over in the Reptile and Amphibian forum http://nature.gardenweb.com/forums/reptile people as posting all the time in a tizzy about a copperhead they saw in their yard. Only once in all the messages I've read over there was the picture of the supposed copperhead, actually a copperhead.

A better reaction would be to take a picture, go to your computer and conclusively identify the snake before attempting to harm the snake in any way. Odds are its a water snake, or a garter snake, or a corn snake, or a milk snake, or a juvenile rat snake, or a hognose snake. And the best part is while you are safely in the house looking up what kind of harmless snake it is , the harmless snake will likely harmlessly slither to safety.

I've rescued 17 turtles from roads or parking lots or other dangerous situations. Although two were injured so I'm not really sure I rescued them, and three of the rescues might have been the same turtle crossing the same road at the same place, on three different days.

Wow! Bob, really? I've never seen a copperhead up close, but they don't look like garter snakes to me.

And the best part is while you are safely in the house looking up what
kind of harmless snake it is , the harmless snake will likely harmlessly
slither to safety.

Beautifully said.

Never ever would I kill a living thing. The only exception would be fleas and mosquitoes. I save spiders and mice. Why would anyone kill a snake? If poisonous ones are in your yard , there are many people to call to take them away. Respect wildlife.

A non-venemous snake outside I'd leave alone. A venemous snake—in the house, on the house, under the house, or in the yard—I'd dispatch without a moment's hesitation. I'm not going to put my family's or my pets' safety at risk.

I agree with Bob about the misidentification of snakes. I'm often the go-to person when it comes to snake ID and even removal. The vast majority of people will wrongly identify a snake, even those who profess to be knowledgeable. I get a little bit ill when innocent snakes are killed out of phobic fear.

I haven't seen a snake in decades. I don't kill anything, really. There are wasps getting in our laundry room and I'm scared of them. I open the door to the outside and swat them out with the broom.

Just this weekend there was an aggressive buck on a local golf course. He was attacking the golfers, so the cops were called and he was shot.

I have a live and let live policy generally speaking but anything that could put my kids or my dog in the hospital (black widows, scorpions, rattlesnake) would be killed without hesitation inside my house or in the yard. Thankfully, I've not seen a rattlesnake on my property, just bull snakes and grass snakes, which I leave alone as they are helpful. Same with the tarantulas.

A few years back a kid was bit by a rattlesnake on the school playground. Poor kid was in the hospital for quite a while.

It would depend on the circumstances but I live in the country and snakes live here too. We have a family of roadrunners that seem to keep the population in check.

There are a number of different species of garter snakes. In my opinion none of them look very much like a copperhead, but there are many posts in the reptile and amphibian forum from people with a picture of a mangled snake asking "Is this snake I just kilt a copperhead?" and the answer is nearly always "No that was a <blank> which is harmless and beneficial and which doesn't look much like a copperhead"

Many of the regulars in that forum seem to honestly like snakes, so it must be a little like people coming to a forum about dogs, posting a picture of a dog they just shot, or ran over with their car, or beat to death with a shovel, and asking "Is this one of them dangerous pit bulls?"

Here's my picture of a copperhead that I saw swimming across in front of my kayak. He was minding his own business, I only bothered him to the extent of using my kayak paddle to move a branch he was hiding under out of the way to take this picture. (with a zoom lens)

Key identification features are the cat-like slit pupil, and the hourglass-shaped dark markings where the narrow part of the hourglass is on the top of the snake and the wide part of the hourglass is on the sides of the snake.

We get copperheads here a lot. Our cats and dogs get bitten occasionally and swell up terribly, but Benadryl and antibiotics fix them up, knock on wood. I trapped a Pygmy rattler in a bucket after getting yelled at for beating on a snake that struck at a puppy. Turned out to be a harmless snake that looked like a rattlesnake. I no longer capture snakes as I stink at ID'ing them but my husband is very good at it. He found a copperhead right next to our driveway last week. Last summer, a woman I know got bitten on the foot as she came out her door and spent a very long week trying to feel like she would live. So yeah, copperheads near the house are dangerous.

I almost stepped on a copperhead walking out on my back patio one night barefoot. Thank goodness I looked down right before I stepped. I have a horrible snake phobia, I froze, tried to scream, no sound would come out. Finally was able to regain movement and ran into the house. I am afraid to get close enough to kill them. Dogs have been bitten numerous times, they have been on the vaccine for several years now.

Not many snakes here in the city. See them occasionally on the golf course, but leave them alone.

One was sunning himself in a bunker, so we just took a free drop.... in another part of the bunker of course....lol.

I saw a young cottonmouth when I went out to feed the horses this morning. He was to the right of me.....he "froze" and I walked on like I didn't even see him. I looked for him when I came back, but he was long gone. I am sometimes given snakes to release. Someone gave me two "water snakes" not long ago. They were in a pillow case and I didn't look at them until I got to the bayou. I dumped them out and it was two rat snakes. I wish I had turned them loose at my barn. Funny thing, the person who sent them to me has a terrible rat problem. They chewed the wires in her new truck. She hadn't caught them herself....she is afraid of snakes, but someone took them to her because she is a wildlife rehabber. She passed them to me. Snakes do so much good. It's a shame so many people are so afraid of them.

I'm lucky I live far away from snakes, other than an occasional garter snake. As far as I know, there are no poisonous snakes in long Island, tho there are rattlers found in the more mountainous upstate areas of New York.

Have to take my stand with Texasgem. In my yard or house, you're toast when it comes to a creature that can send me or mine (including pets) to the hospital.

My little 4 yr old cousin was bitten by a Copperhead. Little feller was on his porch and the snake was by a flower pot. Yes they killed the snake. Cut off his head and sent it to the ER in the vehicle behind the frantic parent driving the the little tyke, as the hospital wanted to be sure they were treating him with the right anti-venom. Little cousin was in ICU for 3 days. Fortunately, he recovered fully.

We live in the country and in my yard, a venomous snake, I will kill, without hesitation. We have little kids that play out there and I'm not taking any chances. Non-venomous, I will "shoo" along. Like Ruthie, we too have a pair of Roadrunners that patrol our yard, and I'm quite thankful.

I will say that I agree with those who say proper identification is necessary and good. If you live in an area with snakes, it is important to know what the actual dangerous ones look like.

As I said before, I know rattlers are in the area and every year there seems to be a few news articles about people getting bit. We also have bull snakes which mimic rattlers, even making the familiar rattle sound.

I had a scary moment a few years ago. We were plagued with wildfires due to a severe drought and we had to evacuate our home.

We were let back in around 11 that night and we got the kids in bed. A few hours later, I woke up to contractions. I didn't want to bother the rest of the family yet as it was still early labor so I just started making preparations.

Packing bags for my kids to stay at grandma's, loading the car with my hospital bag, etc.

I was going in and out of the house, leaving the garage door open to carry stuff out when I heard a loud rattle right next to my feet.

I like to joke that the snake sped up my labor.

It was RIGHT next to the door into my house, curled up under a work bench.

Since I was full term, I didn't want to risk getting close enough to id if it was a rattler or a bull snake but now this snake was between me and the only transportation to the hospital I had!

I woke up my hubby (not good with snake id) and called my dad (great with snake id) and hubby helped me get the kids ready while my dad came over to investigate.

Turns out it was just a bull snake who probably came in the garage when we were evacuating to escape the fires himself. I guess I woke him up and he didn't like it so he was trying to tell me to back off. But he stayed in the same spot for 45 minutes until Dad put him in a bucket and took him across the street and released him.

My baby was born a few hours later.

I'm glad the snake didn't die. I'm also glad he didn't come in the house when I left the door open!!