Bobad,
In my small town, every year I read of at least 1 death by drowning, 1 by bicycle, 4 by automobile, .5 by fire, 1 by tractor, .5 by lightning, .5 by firearms, etc. In 33 years, I have never read of a single death by snake in my town... or my entire Parish (County) for that matter. Your situation may be different!
It would stand to reason there would be more snakes if no one killed them. Then it would also follow there would be more human - snake encounters.
Snake bites are somewhat infrequent but 4000 to 7000 are reported each year in the US. The site below states most go unreported:
In the US: Snakebites frequently go unreported. Approximately 4000-7000 bites are reported to national centers each year. North Carolina has the highest frequency, with 19 bites per 100,000 persons. The national average is approximately 4 bites per 100,000 persons.
I have to agree with Rad here:
�But with a poisonous snake you may only get one mistake and with those odds who is more important the child or the snake?.�
There are lots of snakes. They certainly aren�t in danger of extinction.
I could never forgive myself if one of my granddaughters had to suffer from or died from a poisonous snake bite if I knew the snake was in the area & did nothing to remove it.
As I said, I built this pond & therefore by default obviously don�t believe in letting nature make all the decisions.
