A couple of days ago my bride was putting some stuff away in our storage building and was freaked out by a common brown worm snake. Poor thing was only about 6" long... Knowing it was harmless, I picked it up and tossed it out into the yard. My wife proceeded to take the axe and chop it into pieces. Shoot, I used to keep a garter snake in a terrarium when I was a kid. I wasn't freaked out by that tiny little worm snake, but she sure was!