Ya, can't say I've ever looked at one long enough to figure out if it needed killing or not. Bang. Boom. Bang.
I don't kill anything that is long and thin. Those are usually good snakes. As a matter of fact, I have been known to catch them and move them where I know I have a rodent problem. Put one under my house when I lived in Clarksville and I never saw sign of another mouse until we moved.
Short and fat, however, get the shovel treatment.
Killed a cotton mouth that came up from the lake and got in the kennel with the dogs a couple of weekends ago. He moved about the time I brought the shovel down so I missed his head and caught him about halfway back. Interesting having a very angry venomous snake pinned to the ground but still alive and striking and two very, very dumb labs trying to "help". Much yelling ensued.
Eventually they understood "If you get me bit by this snake, I will kill you instead of the snake" but it was probably the "OUT, OUT, OOOUUUTTT
NOW!"
Had another small one that literally came after me while I was trimming down around the lake in my avatar picture. Killed him with the trust Husqy and a quick boot heel.
Seems to be more than usual and quite a bit more aggressive than usual this year.
