BB,
I certainly agree with Jeff. Leave them alone, unless you are on a destruction mission.
I normally leave most snakes alone, or I relocate them. I don't know if it is just a local name, but the snakes we have are called Northern Water Snakes. They look about the same as yours. The can get huge. Probably the largest one I've seen was about 5-feet long. However, even when they are tiny, they have real bad attitudes towards humans. They don't brush their teeth, so they have lots of nasty stuff in their mouths to cause bad infections.
This little juvenile water snake was quite tiny. He ambushed me at the basement door one morning. As small as he was, he actually had the audacity to strike at my pants leg. That quickly turned him into a two pieces snake.
Good luck,
Ken
