Snake?!?

So Matt and I were cleaning up outside on Sunday - we moved around our swingset, put up a basketball goal for Kellen (and Tatum, apparently, since she tried to dribble the basketball as well), picked up leaves, etc., when a small snake slithered out from the leaves I was sweeping off of our concrete sidewalk area...

I thought nothing of it as it slithered away from me and under the fence to the neighbor's yard and casually mentioned it to Matt, and was even calling the kids over to come and telling them that it had gone on the other side of the fence and everything. Matt then proceeds to get the broom, somehow gets it back on our side of the fence, and starts pounding on it...I was wondering "Why?" the whole time until I heard him mutter to me, 'It's a copperhead!' - then I immediately got the kids back - yes, at this point in time they were watching Daddy and were still WAY too close.

UG!

He finally killed it with the tail end of the broom and threw it into the trash can - poor Kellen was still asking to see the snake the entire time!

As a side note...I think Matt felt so bad about him not getting to see the snake that this incident was partially responsible for their trip on Monday to the Brazos Center and the Natural History Museum...Kellen got to play with a snake there! I had lunch with he and Matt on Monday before our parent-teacher conference and Kellen told me that the snake was wrapped around him like a necklace! Matt did take some pictures, so I'll have to post them when I get a chance.

Matt made me feel ZERO better when he told me we probably have copperheads slithering all over the backyard. Grass snakes I can handle, but...um...copperheads?? No thanks!!

So how do we get rid of these things, anyway?