Garden snakes can be very dangerous

[Muss Muggins]

In the famous words of Richard Pryor, "Snakes make you run into trees . . . " I would post a link, but the video breaks the forum rules 5 seconds after the ad ends, and every 3 or 4 seconds thereafter . . .

 

[Watchdog]

Make sure the snakes you see are real before you shoot them!

Those snakes that aren't really there can be just as dangerous as real ones.

My friends in Beaufort, South Carolina alerted me to this news item.

 

[steelslaver]

I suspect that human bites are probably more toxic than the majority of non venomous snakes. I have been bitten by bull snakes and garter snakes with no ill effects and one of my friends need some serious treatment after managing to get a cut to the bone from a guys tooth.

 

[JSR III]

Well thanks guys, all of this snake talk has really creeped me out. I don't know about "genus odatria" but I do know about "genus runawayisus" which is the one I belong to.

 

[steelslaver]

I find it so interesting that people have fears of snakes, bears, mtn lions, spiiders etc. The whole lot of them don't kill 2 dozen people in this country a year. Yet, they think nothing of hopping in cars which kills tens of thousands every year.

Just thinking

 

[Watchdog]

I find it so interesting that people have fears of snakes, bears, mtn lions, spiiders etc. The whole lot of them don't kill 2 dozen people in this country a year.

I have a feeling someone's Googling their fingers off right now, searching for statistics in an attempt to prove you wrong about that "two dozen people a year" thing.

The mostly unwarranted fears are more puzzling than interesting to me.

 

[steelslaver]

Here you go.
Human deaths in the U.S. caused by Animals | History Lists

Notice that bees, dog and horses each out kill, the rest combined.

Average Number of Deaths per Year in the U.S
Bee/Wasp 53
Dogs 31
Spider 6.5
Rattlesnake 5.5
Mountain lion 1
Shark 1
Alligator 0.3
Bear 0.5
Scorpion 0.5
Centipede 0.5
Elephant 0.25
Wolf 0.1
Horse 20
Bull 3

 

[Watchdog]

Here you go.

Notice that bees, dog and horses each out kill, the rest combined.

Average Number of Deaths per Year in the U.S
Bee/Wasp 53
Dogs 31
Spider 6.5
Rattlesnake 5.5
Mountain lion 1
Shark 1
Alligator 0.3
Bear 0.5
Scorpion 0.5
Centipede 0.5
Elephant 0.25
Wolf 0.1
Horse 20
Bull 3

I figure an elephant will get me.

 

[Wee Hooker]

Here you go.
Human deaths in the U.S. caused by Animals | History Lists

Notice that bees, dog and horses each out kill, the rest combined.

Average Number of Deaths per Year in the U.S
Bee/Wasp 53
Dogs 31
Spider 6.5
Rattlesnake 5.5
Mountain lion 1
Shark 1
Alligator 0.3
Bear 0.5
Scorpion 0.5
Centipede 0.5
Elephant 0.25
Wolf 0.1
Horse 20
Bull 3

Interesting, I would have thought pigs would be up there on this list.

 

[Old TexMex]

I've said it before.....
"There's only three things that scare me.

a live snake

a dead snake

and a stick that LOOKS like a snake."

(From a South Texas rancher)

 

[old tanker]

The snake that gets my attention is the one I can hear, but don't see.

 

[model70hunter]

Steelsaver thanks for the stats.

I'm not fearful of most on the list.

I guess I would feel pretty powerless facing an elephant bare handed.

I've gone into thick brush to scare out a black bear. He was growling and snapping his teeth. Yet as a farm boy a sow snapping her teeth made me clear a fence in one jump.

Stepping and standing on a snake might be bad news.

Hogs did kill a few farmers when I was a kid.

Cattle have also. Hard to deter a 100-2500 lb animal.

Buck deer get some too, usually a pet gone harmonal.

Horses. I've ridden since a very young age. I was never reckless but pushed all the envelopes. I still have visible scars. I gonna say, with horses, the cat family saved me, loaned me 9 lives a time or two.

I did outrun bulls twice when young. While running when your back feels the bulls breath thru your perspiration soaked t-Shirt one develops speed, world class speed.

I know 4 or 5 folks who have been bitten by the Brown house spider. If not treated a hole ulcerates at the bite.

 

[JSR III]

I'm kinda surprised that current or ex wives did not make that list.

 

[islamoradamark]

I remember running at great speeds after putting a firecracker in a underground yellow jacket nest, cant say I outran all of them. I never did that again.

 

[nicky4968]

My first heart attack came when I stepped on a pheasant.

 

[Stevens]

My wife spotted this one in our bedroom, I dragged him out from behind the curtains and chucked him out into the yard. There is a big Cypress Swamp right behind us so we have plenty of snakes hanging around here

 

[rwsmith]

Learn something new every day....

Pat-


Offcially, only two lizards are venomous, with fangs and poison: the Gila Monster and the related Mexican beaded lizard.


But I understand that bites by the Komodo dragon contain a toxic saliva and toxins/pathogens from rottng meat in the animal's mouth. Infection is likely, if the victim can even escape the attack.


It stands to reason that other large varanid monitors like the Crocdile lizard or the Nile Monitor would have a similar effect.
With that in mind, snakes may well pose a similar problem.

That's the first I've heard of venomous non-venomous snakes.

I saw a film of a Komodo Dragon that got one good bite into a deer/antelope or whatever hoofed animal is where they live. All the lizard had to do was wait a while and the animal collapsed from whatever the thing had in it's mouth.

PS They made an injectable diabetes med from the saliva of the Gila Monster. I took it for a while and called it 'Lizard Spit'.

 

[patvince]

That's the first I've heard of venomous non-venomous snakes.

I saw a film of a Komodo Dragon that got one good bite into a deer/antelope or whatever hoofed animal is where they live. All the lizard had to do was wait a while and the animal collapsed from whatever the thing had in it's mouth.

PS They made an injectable diabetes med from the saliva of the Gila Monster. I took it for a while and called it 'Lizard Spit'.

Helodermatidae belongs to the varanoids group ! Monitor lizards (varanus stricto sensu) are the sister group to the Heloderma and Lanthonatus (earless monitor lizards endemic to Borneo) clade. Heloderma are similar to Varanus in many respects, such as several skeletal features, ritualized male combat, forked tongue, ability to shallow large prey.....Their venom system consist of 2 venom glands that empty through "ducts" at the base of the venom conducting teeth (like some harmless snakes) Their venom gland are not surrounded by compressor musculatures possessed by true venomous snakes... This evolution is because Heloderma can not quickly sprint away from predator (or human)...as monitor lizards can have. ALL varanus sp. do have venom gland, far less elaborated than Heloderma, witch make their bites dangerous, especially when they are big..Komodo dragons, is the well known...so his bite is full of nasty bacteria, BUT without the venom (mostly anti coagulant, but not only) the bitten prey would have more chance to survive.
PS ;Sorry for those who doesn't give a care about reptiles .....

 

[rwsmith]

^^^^Yeah

.... I think the point of the show was that the deer died quickly from virulent infection rather than venom. They may have cut out some of the wait on the film, but the deer hardly ever moved. It got sick on its feet and just collapsed.

 

[CoMF]