First of all, I never understood some peoples need to kill every snake they see. The way I see it, they are there minding their own business usually laying in the sun trying to raise their body temp when we come strolling through. We walk up on them, they start to WARN us and what do some people do then? They smash the living daylights out of the thing and then go home and tell all their friends how they narrowly escaped death by beating a snake with a rock. Snakes can strike half their body length but venemous snakes rarely choose to do so. It takes too much energy for them to create venom and the last thing they want to do is waste it on a non prey animal. I just wish more people would let them live rather than beat them with sticks or cut their heads off with shovels.