When can I move in?

[ConcinusMan]

I'll tell you where the fear comes from. Like you said, there's movies / media and also social input.(example, family is afraid of snakes and it rubs off on you)

Most very young children are fearless and even curious of snakes. It's only after years of subconscious "programming" and or negative experiences with snakes, that people become afraid of them. In most cases, people who are terrified of snakes were brainwashed into it subconsciously, or they were flat out taught to be afraid of them which is useful in parts of the world where deadly snakes are everywhere, but not here, not useful when we're talking about garter snakes.

We are not born afraid of them. It's a learned/subconsciously acquired fear. Shows like animal planet are definitely not helping matters.

[Didymus20X6]

Animal Planet used to have Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Erwin; a great deal of my appreciation for reptiles came from watching his show. Granted, it took actually handling garters to overcome my fear of snakes, but it was his show that largely motivated me not to kill them unless absolutely necessary. Whatever happened to shows like that? Nowadays, we have that one show with that crazy British guy who goes into deserts and swamps so he can kill snakes, eat them, and urinate into their skins so he can drink it later. :S

[kibakiba]

I've had plenty of bad experiences with garters but I was never scared of them. They were too cute to me. My mom and dad didn't like the fact I wasn't like a normal kid who just wanted a hamster. I always wanted a newt, salamander, turtle (I had two of them until my mom let them go and we found them dead in the yard... ). We had a cornsnake for about 5 minutes until my dad said it would kill me, and threatened to kill it if I wouldn't let him throw it in the field. I feel really bad for that snake.

[ConcinusMan]

Animal Planet used to have Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Erwin; a great deal of my appreciation for reptiles came from watching his show.

I wasn't talking about Animal Planet the channel, I was talking about the stupid sensationalistic shows they make like this one. They have had some pretty good shows on that channel but shows like "infested" "untamed uncut" and "swamp wars" are total garbage.