Everything the other guys said here is true. Here are a few of other things that might help:
1. What Dmong said about covering the head with your palm is good. Here's another way to do the same thing without using your hand: place a shirt or towel over the snake's head and then grasp the body. I've used this for quite a few snakes.
2. Most of the snakes I've kept do better being removed from shallow enclosures than from overhead. My guess is that snakes are hardwired to view anything coming at them from above as a predator.
3. Wear a shirt all day and then leave the shirt in with the snake. It will associate your scent with non-aggressiveness.
4. Most snakes do not like to be touched on the head or the tail. Even my tamest snakes pull away when I touch the tops of their heads. Again, I think this is survival instinct.
5. Always wash your hands before AND after handling. For sanitation and to keep your fingers from being viewed as food.
6. And finally, this is one I just heard today from my crafty 14 year old brother who is just getting into water snakes: scent your hands by holding a calmer snake of the same species before handling a more nervous one. He has started employing this technique with broad-banded water snakes. His juvies are fairly tame, but the adults are vicious. He noticed that the adults were calm when he handled them after handling the smaller snakesm. After a few days, he was able to stop "scenting" himself. It seems to work the same as when we scent or de-scent pinkies to feed to our picky grey-banded king snakes. Although I wouldn't try scenting your hands when dealing with cannibalistic species.

Good luck!



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