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In the last 8 years I've killed four snakes on my 1.1 acre property here in NC. Only 1 of the 4 was poisonous. It was a baby copperhead I found in my driveway. Stepped on his body and cut his head off with my pocket knife. He was less than a foot long.
Of the other three, two struck at me, even though they were not poisonous.
One was a northern water snake that almost cleaned out my goldfish pond till I took him out with a brushaxe. I had a year long war with this snake. Photographed him three or four times below the water surface in my pond. Could never get him to where I could catch and kill him. Caught him by hand once and he bit me and I let go. Wasn't into shooting him in my pond in my front yard. I watched him swallow one of my fish whole one morning as I was leaving for work. Finally last spring I was moving the waterfall from one end of the pond to the other. As I was picking up pieces of slate and moving them I caught sight of him between two of them. Slipped the brushaxe in between and hooked and sliced him.
Another was a rat snake that I ran across twice in one weekend. I was moving a brush pile and he struck at me. I decided to live and let live. Next day I was moving an aerator and he struck again. Then I struck, with a machete.
Had another rat snake clean out two birdhouses of baby birds. Killed him before he got to the third.
I don't go out of my way to kill them, but I also don't tolerate the ones that become nuisances on my property either.
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