Snakes have had a bad stigma attached to them since the Garden Of Eden, in the Bible, with Adam and Eve. Snakes then were considered to be the bad news and that feeling is held by most women. I have known a few men who only talked about killing them, running over with car, instead of just tolerating the presense of snakes.
I was never to fond of them and even in learning more about them, I find them to be interesting creatures and beautiful to look at, but the fear stigma is still there.
I worry about being bit first thing, and second is handling them correctly. Keeping the poisenous ones apart from non-poisenous ones in my mind is a bit hard too. A copperhead and rattlesnake are easy to identify, but water moccasins are often harder to see and can be different colors, when shedding their skin. So I can be afraid of the real alive snake even now, but I do not fear the dead or tanned verisons.
