In my experience, I have done my share of hiking in the Florida swamps, the gators aren't a big problem as long as you make noise, stay aware of them and don't step on them.

Near a bank keep your feet on the bottom and shuffle your feet so you bump into instead of step on any submerged gator. Same method used to keep from stepping on a skate on the ocean. Bumping into them while they are dozing under, or mostly under, water and they tend to just slither away. Running you shin into a large meaty mass underwater, alligator skin isn't hard like a turtle shell but more like stiff rubber, and feeling it shift and then the thrust from the tail as it swims away, all this happening underwater, is disconcerting the first couple of times. Gators are just a whole lot more adept at fleeing in their natural environment than I am. I step back a bit in shock and they swim off.

Snakes, In my experience particularly water moccasins, and mosquitoes are much bigger problems than alligators.

I also suggest that anyone spending time around swamps to learn the fine art of using 'dummy cords'. Swamps are notorious for making anything that sinks disappear forever. I have lost a couple of small knives, a compass, and various other small items. If the water is clear and the bottom firm it isn't hard to retrieve most of what falls in. But if the bottom is soft, the water murky and full of neutral buoyant leaves you can drop a pocket knife and know exactly where you dropped it without being able to find it.

Best strategy is to stop and hold still when you drop something. In shallow water you reach straight down and gently feel around using a patting motion. In deeper water I have had luck using a bare foot to feel around in a similar motion. If your good, and lucky, you can retrieve what you drop.

Dummy cords, lanyards, make it all a lot easier. They save a lot of trouble in swamps, but are also generally useful around sugar sand or anywhere losing gear might be an issue. My compass, light and pocket knife get a lanyard attached when I go into the swamp. Using dummy cords I don't lose so much stuff. The most used stuff in my PSK have dummy cords.

Before anyone figures they are smart enough and together enough not to need such cords remember that if you do bump into a gator the last thing on your mind will be hanging onto that compass you were using at the time. Stuff happens in the woods and humans don't stay their sharpest for long, tired, terrified, dehydrated and borderline hypothermic it is easy to forget or drop gear. Or, as it happen once to me, miss the pocket when your putting equipment away.