People who grew up in or live in Southern states

I think this was a brown water snake from the pond- another snake attraction. We moved into their neighborhood, not vice versa so I need to deal. Wish I had a mongoose.
 
I've lived in the south my whole life, & I used to have a huge, huge fear of snakes.

As I've gotten older, I've learned to appreciate the good snakes more, & I do like another PP & just try not to think about snakes but still stay semi-alert & keep my eyes open especially in "snaky" areas.

I don't mind the snakes if I can see them, but I'm scared to death of being suddenly surprised by a snake. We have a ledge at the top of our shower in our master bathroom &, if I think about it too closely before I get in, I'll convince myself there's a snake up there which will fall on my while shower. So, I'll have to get DH or one of the kids to physically check the ledge before I can get in the shower.

I will NOT go to the bathroom at night w/o first turning on the light because I'm afraid a snake will be in the toilet. Years ago, when we were vacationing in Florida, in one of the local papers, I read about a man who had found a snake in his toilet, & that was it for me. Now, just last week, a woman in TN, not far from where we live, found a garter snake in her toilet.

When I was younger & still living at my parents' house, my dad found a snake in the garage. I now imagine that ALL garages must have snakes lurking about, so I do NOTHING in our garage except get in & out of our cars & go in & out the back door into the house.

My mother-in-law told me about one of her friends finding a snake curled up in the corner of her closet, so I'm a little leery of reaching my hand into the dark corners of our closets too.

But most snakes really are harmless & are beneficial. One way I've tried to get over my fear a bit is to educate myself, &, when we visit places like zoos, I'll look at the snakes & read about them. There is a pair of red-tailed green rat snakes at the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine, FL, & I absolutely LOVE those 2 snakes. I've been visiting & watching them since they were juveniles, & they just fascinate me... they're so pretty!

My son had his 3rd birthday party at our local zoo, &, as part of the party package, the zookeepers had 3-4 animals that came to the party to "visit" w/ the children. One of the animals was a ball python, & I actually held it!

You do have to be careful of the venomous snakes. 2 years ago, our younger son's friend was bitten by a copperhead in his family's garden. He was bitten on his toe & was in the hospital for a day, but he's completely fine now.

I think some places are snakier than others. We live in a suburban neighborhood, &, while I've seen a couple of snakes here & there over the years, we're actually more overrun w/ deer.
 
Honestly, I would just recommend learning as much about snakes as you can. Most people who fear snakes do so because they simply don't understand them. You'll be able to identify which ones are dangerous and which ones (the vast majority!) are not. The first thing you'll learn is that snakes are much, MUCH more afraid of you than you are of them. They aren't going to attack you out of spite or anything, they just want you to stay away from them. Their #1 defense is intimidation.

Just keep reminding yourself that they are more afraid of you than you are of them, and that you are nine times more likely to die from being struck by lightning than you are of a venomous snake bite. And those few, maybe 5 a year in the US, who do die of snake bites were bitten on the hand almost 100% of the time because they were reaching out to grab a dangerous snake. If you keep your distance, they will not bother you.
 


Northeast transplant to sw fla.. love it here But...
Had a snake in my enclosed lanai ( harmless garden) it was as scared of me as I was of it. Hubby took care of that. And one day upon exiting my garage.. walked under the opening door to have a small snake literally fall down just ahead of me.
I hate snakes... but hate gators more!
I’m living right at the border of the Everglades... they were all here before me so I try and be aware ... attend local free seminars ( library/community) to gain knowledge and hope to avoid any negative interaction. Anything near you available?

Best of luck OP, you can do this!!!
 
Have lived in the south since I was 3. We are in the woods and have a pond on each side of our long driveway.

We used to have snakes in the yard all the time or in the drive way crossing from one pond to the other. I haven’t seen one in the yard in a long time. The only thing we could guess is the sound of the dog running through the yard all the time sort of keeps them away. Well I guess it would be the vibration of him running.

But dh keeps the grass cut and the edges around the pond clear of any underbrush. Same around the edges of the woods. I don’t go around the ponds much when it’s hot and we don’t let the grandkids go out there either.

My niece gets them in her swimming pool from time to time. She has a salt water pool so I guess it doesn’t kill them as quickly as chlorine. Her husband gets the job of getting them out.

Mostly we just know to watch for them and live and let live. Well unless a dangerous one gets too close and then he doesn’t get to live. Dh is careful not to mess with the king or chicken snakes as they help keep away the others.
 
I've lived in Georgia my whole life, at first on a farm, then in Atlanta, now in the suburbs, and I have seen snakes in all three places. The best thing is to learn which ones are dangerous and which are not - it shouldn't be that many in your area or that hard to learn. The benevolent ones are really great to have around - wouldn't you rather have a timid but hungry king snake than an army of rats in your yard? Some pet snakes can actually be very sweet - I know, an odd thing to say about a reptile. But I had a pet snake once - not exactly by choice, I inherited her - and she liked to be held (we're warm to them, you know), and would watch TV with me. (We also played fun games like "find your way out of the pillow case" and "don't let the snake get off the table" with people sitting around the table - I actually do miss her.) I don't recommend just getting one out of the yard to be a pet, or handling a wild one - as PPs have said, snakes are actually quite afraid of humans - and the dumb people who get bit are usually trying to grab one. I'm just saying, you can get to know more about them and be okay around them. Watch where you step, and give them room. And hope they eat your rodents.

Raj finds snake in drawer - BBT
 
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I am living in Virginia now but come from Maine. My question is this- HOW do you deal with the abundance of snakes? We have them in Maine for sure, but not like down here. I love living here and I love our home (which is in the woods btw) but I am SO scared of them. Had one poking it's head out of our soffit this spring, had one on the deck a few weeks after, had one in the flower bed after that and today had a big fat brown one right outside my window. Trying to tell myself we live in THEIR neighborhood and that's the way it is but I am so scared. Irrational? Totally. Can't seem to get past it. I tell myself lots of people live down here, some of them must be scared too. UGH I'm ready to sell the house and move back to the tundra.

I hate to tell you this, but that many snakes around one home is really NOT typical of an area around a house in a developed area. They must be there for a good food source.

Snakes go where food is available; if you eliminate the food source, you largely eliminate the snakes. If I were you, I'd contact a pest control company that handles nuisance varmints (as in, not just bugs). They can come out and see if they can discover what is attracting the snakes, and then you can discuss getting rid of whatever that attractive food source is.
 
I'm not south, I live in Pennsylvania. I have lived in a rural area all my life, and on farms for about 20 years. The farm I lived on with my ex-husband for 14 years had acres of cornfields behind it. Cornfields=lots of snakes! I find snakes fascinating when they are behind glass, not so much when they are sunning themselves on my front porch every day, biting my dog, hiding in my piano, dropping on me from a tree, chasing me away from the pond (water snakes are particularly mean and nasty), or leaving 6-foot long skins in my barn, shed, attic, and basement.

My ex-husband's solution to our snake problem was to run them over with the tractor or behead them with whatever tool he happened to have handy. My solution was to throw things at them until they went away. Lol, I used to throw pennies at the snake that sunned himself on our front porch every day until he slithered away.
 
we have snakes here. Black snakes and copperheads, but in over 16 years I've never encountered a copperhead. I KNOW they are out there, so i am vigilant around wood piles and under our water troughs. Black snakes I see often. As long as they stay out of the barn or yard I let them be. They perform a vital rodent control function and they eat copperheads so they are the good guys.

The key to getting over my fear o'snakes, was learning to identify the kind of snake it is. Same with spiders. That way when i encounter one, I know if it's a dangerous one or not. The non-dangerous guys get a pass.
 
:scared: ok, you are tougher then me , I would still be screaming like a 9 year old girl
He was just a little guy, a cute little garter snake, who found his way in through a gap in the wall by the dryer vent. My brothers-in-law had a grand old time catching him :) Being chased by the water snake was when I screamed like a little girl. Those suckers are fast!
 
We've had snakes in our second floor bedroom in our cottage in Vermont. Last time I found the snake skin, but not the snake. I hate when that happens.

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South Louisiana girl here and I totally hate all snakes - scared to see even pictures of them. Keep areas clean around your home area and don't be poking your hands in flower beds that you can't see. We had several acres of land and a dog that ran freely - snakes stayed away.
Moccasins are very bad in deep south, more so than copperheads.
 
I have 3 cats so if one gets in the house I'm sure they will find it.

Do your cats go outside? We have an indoor/outdoor cat, and rarely see snakes. I think he takes care of the rodents, and then the snakes have no interest in hanging out where there isn't any prey.

One time though, I was spreading pinestraw, and it had been sitting for a couple of weeks. Out falls a snake as I'm shaking it apart! It was a little harmless garden snake, but not fun to get surprised by one like that!
 
Lived in Texas pretty much my whole life. My Dad ALWAYS told us to be careful during the summer. To look where we were walking! Even in our suburb. My parents lived on 3 woodsy acres and they kept the brush/undergrowth trimmed back near the house. Didn't plant things that snakes would like too much near the house and had outside "barn" cats. Oh, and a rat terrier that would chase and catch anything he could find :) Here in my rural neighborhood I have seen several coral snakes and once when my dd was washing her hair in the tub before school she had a little guy peek his head out of the drain stopper at her! Little brown/black ones I have no problem with. Others--not afraid of them but certainly have a healthy respect for them!
 
We didn't have a lot of snakes (that I could see) where I grew up, but I was deathly afraid of them. When I got older I learned that most snakes aren't poisonous and do good work to keep the rodent/pest population down, so that helped.
 
I've grew up in Arkansas and now live in FL, I can't recall actually seeing a snake. Now other scary insects I've noticed are in abundance since moving here but no snakes.
Yeah I grew up in FL and don’t recall seeing that many snakes. Most were rat snakes or racers just crossing my path, a few times they were venomous. I just gave them a wide berth and continued about my business. One time there was a Cottonmouth under our hose when my dad went to use it. He called one of the wildlife removal companies, but it was gone when they arrived.
 

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