Hey I grew up in South Florida too. I learned to swim in the ocean and took many trips in the Everglades. With Girl Scout camps we learned a lot about snakes and had seen plenty of them. All those from S. Florida do you remember the Serpentarium in Miami? I can't remember all the school field trips we took there, but there seemed to be one every year I was in Elementary School.
http://www.pbase.com/donboyd/image/64581068
Out here in Colorado, we have rattlesnakes that love Prairie Dog holes. I see them on the road occasionally and do not hesitate to set my brakes and run over them. We also see a lot of the non-poisonous bull snakes.
Two days ago, the BarnGod called to tell me he had just killed a 3 foot rattler with 9 rattles. I went out later in the day to help with some of the fence building he was doing and saw it. I was going to bring it home and skin it, but it was starting to shed. I noticed later that the snake had appeared to have rolled over exposing its belly. He told me the old wives tale that if a snake was belly up, it predicted rain. Well, that night we got an inch. We haven't had rain in quite a while and needed it desparately.
I'm going to print off the article today and hope that scares the p*ss out of him. Tomorrow, he's taking the .22 revolver if I have anything to say about it.
Farmers around here have a saying: "If it crawls, it's dead." Too much livestock can be bitten while grazing. We had a friend who lost her horse to a rattlesnake bite. They get bitten on the nose and then can't breathe with the swelling.
I see Nova really knows about those dreaded riptides. I've only been in one once, a minor one.
My horse was bitten by a rattler too .... I was so scared she would die.
I spent 2 nights awake sitting in the pasture with her. She some how got through it .