Im with Tupac. I dont have a deathly fear of them and have held snakes before but around my house is unacceptable. My neighborhood has a small stream across the road (hidden well behind several hundred feet of trees) and early on we would get cottonmouths and the occasional pygmy making their way into peoples yards or pools. Which with small kids running around in the neighborhood simply isnt safe. A neighbor of ours caught a rat snake, he worked at the 6th army ranger training battalion about 30 minutes from my house. Said snake got to go live a cushy life with rangers taking care of him. They teach the soon to be rangers about all the potential wildlife hazards of mucking around in swamplike areas.
My worst snake encounter was with my little brother (7 at the time) he was playing outside and it started to get dark so my dad called him in and as my brother got near the door he froze and then ran around the house to front door where he barged in yelling "SNAKE!". He got our attention lol. The pygmy rattler had curled up in the corner where house meets patio because it was a warm surface. My father dispatched of the snake promptly.
