With notable exceptions, if you have a snake problem, you are probably most of it.
Please allow me to explain.
You aren't born with the fear of snakes, you are taught, usually in your childhood, because someone who was Superman to you saw one and freaked. Scary stuff. Something just scared Superman.
But like every fear learned rather than inborn and innate, the facts are the cure, especially if delivered with a bit of disarming irreverence. Enter the Herpetological Humorist.
You see, the vast majority of US snake species are non-venomous, and therefore pose zero threat to you, your kids, or your pets (well, parakeets and hamsters notwithstanding, especially if you let them out of their cages). And from their point of view, YOU are too big (way too big) to eat, and therefore more than big enough, to be eaten by. (Snakes taste like chicken. They seem to know this.)
Here in the states, you mostly have little Rough Earth Snakes (they look like earthworms, which they eat, and no, they're not Garden Snakes)
In much of the country (east of NM anyway) a big snake near or in the house is going to be one of the local species of Rat Snake, like this one.
If you see one of these, do two things. Leave him alone, and name him George.
George is a little fuzzy here because he was heading for the hand that held the hook. No, the bite wouldn't be dangerous, but it would break the skin.
But George is your friend. George eats animals that would chew your wires and burn down your house, then he goes away. As wild animals go, name me another that does so much for you?
Tell all of your neighbors, don't muck with George.
Saving the world, one snake at a time.
