Sue, interesting post. Seems we are back to "cut & suck" which I thought was obsolete. Interesting that you say there are no poisonous snakes in W. Va. I would have thought you would have copperheads and rattlesnakes at least.

In West Kentucky we have copperheads and cottonmouths here in the Mississippi River bottoms. As you go further East, add rattlesnakes. I have seen maps that include West Kentucky as the home range of the coral snake but I have never seen one nor have I ever heard of anyone else seeing one. As to identifying poison snakes around here, all I mentioned except the coral snake have elliptical or "cat eye" pupils and nonvenomous snakes have round pupils. I have read that the coral snake has round pupils.