I've always just used a forked stick to hold the snake's head down and then grabbed it, but I guess then you still have to actually handle the snake.

On another note, have you ever eaten a snake? They're surprisingly tasty.

What do you do with any snakes caught?

Jim --- This contraption is meant to deal with snakes who sometimes come back day after day to eat the eggs in our chickens' nest boxes. We figure, if we can catch the offending snake, we can relocate it and thus solve the lost-egg problem without any loss of life.

Sorry, when I interfere. But this is the worst tool, to catch a snake or any other animal alive. You don't want to get caught by a snare yourself. Do you? I'm doing snake rescue service, and have to deal with cobras quiet often. Sometimes I met the common rescue service of our island on site. Unfortunately they were on site earlier than me, and caught the cobra with snare. I asked them to hand it over, and I would take care of the relocation. I kept it in observation over night, and it didn't survive, because of the bruises inside the throat. After that I asked them to stop using the snare, but they were to scared to learn the proper way from me. So I asked them to bring me all snakes for observation. And I found the same case again. In the morning I found some of them dead. So pleeease don't recommend this tool. It's just torture. It's even better to kill the snake straight away. I don't understand, why people think, that snakes don't feel anything. They're pretty sensitive. Try the snare on yourself, and you can imagine what they feel. Please call the local snake relocation service or private reptile keepers. They know how to deal with snakes in a proper way. Thank you! By the way... there are not many chicken egg eating snakes on this world. And if you find one, it wont be dangerous. Not necessary to use any of the available snake catcher tools.

Reading through the comments here, I noticed that Stefan said not to use a snare, but failed to mention what HE uses. So, what he said means nothing.

@Snake snare, the best method to catch a snake without making it scared or aggressive is, to not hurt it. Snakes don't have very strong muscles around the neck. If they get caught in a snare, they get panic and try to get out of it by rolling sideways. That way they hurt themselves badly. And a hurt snake will do anything to defend itself. If you catch them gently by lifting up the body on a snake hook, you can easily grab the abdomen gently, and support the front body with the hook. The snake tries to get a way. But it wont strike, because it doesn't get hurt. With the hook you can also keep the head in safety distance, and guide it towards a PVC pipe with a snake bag on the other end. The snake wil even crawl into it by itself. I've caught hundreds of wild cobras and huge king cobras with this method. And it works just perfect. No reason to harm the snake with a bloody snare. For people, who are not able to catch snakes gently, I wouldn't recommend, to interact with venomous snakes at all.