20+ yrs ago I hired my ex-BIL's brother to rip out an old tie wall and dig me some footings to put an addition on our house at the time with his backhoe. He was on the machine above the wall, and I was down below doing the grunt work. Now Mike was/is a big ol' burly Grizzly Adams type hunting and fishing outdoorsman extraordinaire, the whole family still spends months every year in the woods.
1/2 way thru the job a 2-1/2' long milk snake (see sceva's link http://fishandboat.com/snakes.htm, striking resemblance) comes out of the wall, looking to get away from the demolition team. :shock:
Mike sees the snake, and virtually crawls to the uphill side of his seat, trying to get away from the 'copperhead' hollering 'Kill that damn copperhead!'. Raw, naked fear. To his credit, no obvious wet spot. He's up on the backhoe, +5-6' uphill from the critter. If the snake had tried crawling up the tire, I think he would have run to his truck and locked himself in! :lol:
I grabbed a shovel and dispatched the evil reptile, didn't look poisonous to me. Got a reptile book from the MDC later, and ID'ed it as a milk snake.
I'm guessin' Mike didn't like snakes.....
I haven't seen a copperhead on my property for awhile now, but have a few black snakes and king snakes around to run them off. Had a 3' black snake in the driveway a week ago, crawled up an old elm tree when I scared him.