I don't blame you. When they get close in, I do the same. But as long as they're away from us "in the woods" I leave them be. Besides that, we have several species of snakes including King Snakes and Eastern Indigo Snakes. They all keep bad snakes in check as every venomous snake in North America is on their menu. I know we have at least one family of Eastern Indigo snakes on our property, because I am responsible for putting them there. They and the king snakes are immune to all venomous snakes too, so that's a big plus.