I volunteer at a wildlifre refuge (caring for the snakes) and we get visitors all the time who miss the label on the 7 foot Green Mamba's cage and say "hey, that's one of the snakes we used to catch as kids". Of course, they are talking about Rough Green Snakes (the only bright green snake in the South, and very common). The average Joe can't tell a Cottonmouth from a Black Racer, but of course you can't convince them that there's any possibility they could be mistaken. They've never seen or heard of a banded water snake, but they know they've seen a BUNCH of Cottonmouths and never run across a fat dark colored snake that could have been anything else...