Welcome susi, are there a lot of adders in your area.
Yup, too many in my opinion.
It's quite a hot topic for some and there are many opinions as to whether they should be protected or not (they are). They are of course part of nature and have their own purpose in the food chain, but hey, so did lots of other animals that were persecuted for being a pest.
I know one lady who has a nearby adder nest where they hibernate during the winter. Every spring she spends some time hanging around outside the nest with a stick, waiting for them to emerge (they are slow and sleepy until the weather warms). Without this annual cull, her garden would be quite over run with adders, not what you need when kids are out playing. Strictly speaking she is breaking the law, but is it justified?
My friend's mum was bitten a couple of years ago and her whole arm went black. Another friend's husband was running naked through long grass, from the sauna to jump into the lake, and was bitten on the ankle. Just two small holes, no poison.
I could write endlessly about adders, but I dont want to bore you, although by far the most worrying story I heard was that someone was sleeping overnight in the forest, he woke in the morning to find an adder happily curled up in the warmth of his armpit. Yuck.