Makes my skin crawl.. my deepest emotional scars involve snakes 
...I'd rather face a gut shot black bear than a garter snake. 
. glad you came out unscathed.. snakes are big reason I turned to the brine. 
I grew up being afraid of snakes since I got bit on the ankle by a black snake while messing around in the woods as a kid. And the water moccasins were scarce but still needed to watch for those aggressive SOB's, mom got bit by one once back then and luckily we got her to the hospital quickly!
Copperheads in the woods too, so always head on a swivel while heading into the forest. Had a 4' on a padsite being prepped for construction once that met it's demise with a shovel.
Had a job site that was infested with snakes in Maryland back in the day. Renovating a large mansion that was left unoccupied for several years.
Main part of the building had a full basement the previous owner had built partition walls in and covered them with bamboo from the floor to ceiling.
Rest of the mansion was additions over the years that had crawlspaces access thru the main building basement.
To put this in perspective, one addition was 100'x32', and the entire building had 14 bedrooms, 10 bathroom & 3 kitchens! 8,700SF on 600 acres.
Anyhow, the crew that came to renovate had no idea the building was infested with snakes, and the french drain around the perimeter allowed them entry and they were feeding heavily on mice.
When it came time to go down into the basement & crawlspaces, the abatement crew was in during the winter when snakes & critters were dormant/hibernating so they were not affected. But the electricians, carpenters & myself were in for a rude awakening!
Sparky was the first to discover black snakes in one of the crawlspaces very early spring as things were just starting to warm up.
I go thru the basement with no idea there's a mess waiting in any of the crawlspaces, I get up in where sparky is and start to do my work and he's like: hey! you see that?! me: what? he shines his flashlight over behind my head about 3' away...THAT!!! lo & behold, a ball of black snakes about a dozen of them all between 12 & 24" long coming out of hibernation!
Well now, I hit my head on several floor joists making my exit from that crawlspace!
Now I'm totally woke up to the fact of the infestation, as are several other workers.
Fast forward a week and the crew hired to demo the basement partition walls & bamboo refuses to go into the basement since they spotted snakes.
Me & my helper, said ***censored****, we cannot do our work without that all being removed, so I says to the project super...tell ya what...me & my helper have the most work to do down there and we are not going to hold out for anyone getting that crap demo'd, so we will take it upon ourselves to demo on behalf of your sissy crew that won't go down there...it'll cost ya some beer and hunting privileges for the entire property for life and a boat ride for some stripers later...my warning: we will be armed and if it moves it'll get shot! All the demo will be thrown up the stairs for your guys to pull out and load the dumpsters.
They agreed to my terms and we went down with crowbars & prybars, 38 & 357 strapped to our sides respectively and both loaded with rat shot.
We proceeded to demo the basement of all the framing & bamboo & 3 days later that was done, along the way killing 63 black snakes ranging between 12" & longest 6'3" and 1 copper head!
Once we made the basement clear, we proceeded to the crawlspaces and shot up another 40+ black snakes.
Throwing snakes up the stairs was a real charm and I really wish we had internet & FB back then as the terrified look on those guys faces when we threw snakes up at them was priceless!
There were times when we'd rip out a section of partition wall and a snake would fall out and lunge that made for some pucker moments.
So happy we didn't encounter more copperheads too!!!
Fast forward a few years later, I'd left the company I was working for at that time & this owner became my top client. I knew better than to solicit to him, yet He sought me out after I went in business for myself & requested me to service his property exclusively...must've made an impression, eh?!
Lots of deer & so many, many buckets full of soft shell crabs later and memories for a lifetime!
