Strange news about a snake bite.

[cherrypointmarine]

Years ago Jerry Mucilek and his wife were at my club to shoot a match . She saw a snake and reached down and got bit , pygmy rattler . She was rushed to the hospital and they kept a surgeon there all night in case they had to take her arm .

 

[MTC(SS)Ret]

I'm not particularly afraid of snakes but this one gives me shivers!
Diamondback. Texas mid 70's.

That would make a beautiful holster and belt combo

 

[lihpster]

Luckily, there is only one venomous snake species in Oregon. The Western Rattlesnake, like most rattlesnakes, isn't aggressive to humans. Rarely found in town, most Oregonians have never seen one. Also, like most rattlesnakes, if you respect its personal space, odds of you being bitten are near zero. If you mess with it, well, a snake's gotta do what a snake's gotta do. Leave them alone and they're usually pretty easy to avoid. Fatal encounters usually involve an automobile, much to the snake's detriment.

 

[john17427]

Late year my cousin reached into his pool skimmer and got hit by a copperhead. Many vials of antivenom later along with three days in hospital he was able to keep all of his fingers and hand. It was touch and go for a while I understand.

A few years before that I was opening my dad's barn to get the lawnmower out and right at the threshold inside the door was the biggest cottonmouth I've ever run across. Opening the door suddenly really pissed it off and I appreciate it following true form and snapping into a coil so fast you can't miss hearing it. With my legs well out of the way I reached inside the door for the shovel leaning against the door frame. I'm guessing it was about four and half feet. If you take a foot off that to account for the adrenaline, that's still a big cottonmouth. I've seen a lot of them in my life and this one was the biggest (and maddest) I've crossed paths with.

 

[Phenix]

So the moral of the story is if you're going to get bit by a snake, get bit in Mexico.

In Mexico poisonous snakes are the least of your worries . . .

 

[TX-Dennis]

Unfortunately, in Texas we have 15 species of venomous snakes; rattlesnakes (9 species), coral snakes (2 species, I think), cottonmouths, and copperheads (3 species). None are aggressive to humans, but they will strike if they feel threatened.

 

[rwsmith]

While we certainly have the most expensive health care in the world, our positive results are not near the top. It is about greed.

Everthing is for profit. Even human lives.

 

[rwsmith]

We had a young Lady hit 3 times by a Rattler, three hits and three scratches. Caught the snake, One fang was missing, In Arizona, bites are common, with alcohol being the main cause.

So the snake had been drinking?

 

[rwsmith]

I'm starting to wonder about this story, he might have been bitten by a snake, but did he die of something else? Maybe a heart attack brought on by the snakebite. If he had health problems before the snake encounter, that might have done him in.

 

[lihpster]

Whatever happened, with about 6-7K bites per year and about 5 or 6 deaths per year in the U.S., fatal snakebites are extremely rare.

 

[rwsmith]

I will tell you a good story that goes with several days on morphine. I had a nurse that I really wanted to get a sponge bath from until I sobered up and thought, "Man what were you thinking?" She was big, fat and ugly?

I did see how people could become addicted to the stuff, it feels good. The only problem is it will lock your bowels up like Ft. Knox!

Yeah, I've heard of addicts in history somehow living with extreme constipation. Makes you wonder how they accomplished anything but necessity probably calls for extreme measures to deal with it. I think a few supposedely stroked out in the effort.

 

[ladder13]

Copperheads around here. I keep my hands and torso out of pine straw and shrubs. We have an excellent EMS system and many hospitals within 5-30 minutes away. I'm staying put.

 

[Jerry in SC]

Copperheads around here. I keep my hands and torso out of pine straw and shrubs. We have an excellent EMS system and many hospitals within 5-30 minutes away. I'm staying put.

Same here, but we are real careful in the spring and early fall.

Russell snake boots were the first thing I bought when I moved to SW Georgia in the late 60's. There were some monster rattlers there. The farm ponds were full of moccasins and banded water snakes, fishing at night with hula poppers could be exciting….

 

[Golphin]

Whatever happened, with about 6-7K bites per year and about 5 or 6 deaths per year in the U.S., fatal snakebites are extremely rare.

Most time those that are bit are messing with the snake. Either trying to kill it or catch it.

 

[03hemi]

I love rattle snakes myself.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

Plain to see those that grew up around " Sylvester no shoulders" and those that didn't. Anywhere around them Have a snake bit kit handy, wally world has them……

My snake kit a pistol of some kind.........Hope never need the bite kit.

 

[CalifEd]

Unfortunately, in Texas we have 15 species of venomous snakes; rattlesnakes (9 species), coral snakes (2 species, I think), cottonmouths, and copperheads (3 species). None are aggressive to humans, but they will strike if they feel threatened.

What, no poisonous spiders, scorpions, or lizards?

Seems a good way to clear the area of City Californians that move there.

 

[Mr. Vito]

Growing up in NYC I had no personal experience with snakes of any kind. During my first military assignment as a newly commissioned 2nd Lieutenant I was stationed in El Paso, TX where I decided to teach myself to ride horses. I enjoyed many a long ride out into the desert north of El Paso, and on the advice of others carried a handgun in a western style holster just in case I encountered a rattlesnake. I felt like a Western movie cowboy out in the desert, and maybe I just was not observant enough but despite numerous rides like this I never once saw any snakes at all. I shot a few cactuses and bushes, but no snakes at all.

 

[IAM Rand]

When I was younger I had multiple snake bites.

Regretted it the next morning

 

[JcMack]

I sold a light weight Charter Arms 2.5" .44 to a guy in Texas. He said it was for his wife. I talked to him on the phone and I said that sucker is quite a handful. He told me she needs it loaded with snake shot she when she does her gardening.
Only snakes by me in NW Indiana are two legged kind from Chicago.

 

[kozmic]

I bred snakes for 25 years with my son. No "hot" snakes; kings, corns, rats, ball pythons and others. I've grabbed enough to know they are faster on a strike than I am on a retreat if handled improperly. Grabbing poisonous snakes is not how you want to test your wrangling abilities or show off to friends. I've seen a few poisonous snakes and reptiles in the wild. They are fascinating, but I never had the urge to pick them up. Just a few pictures from outside their "strike zone" and let them be.
Ultimately, all snakes do provide a great service in nature and don't deserve their reputation as killers and evil serpents.

 

[gym cat]

What great service are they doing in Florida??????

 

[LVSteve]

What great service are they doing in Florida??????

If you are talking about the Asian Pythons there, don't forget it was naked apes that introduced them.

 

[Sevens]

I am in awe that a 25-year snake breeder refers to them as poisonous. That's like long time hardcore gun guys calling them clips instead of magazines.

 

[TX-Dennis]

I am in awe that a 25-year snake breeder refers to them as poisonous. That's like long time hardcore gun guys calling them clips instead of magazines.

True, but most people use the term poisonous when they really mean venomous.
And, I have a good friend who has been shooting all his life. Yes, he says clips rather than magazines.

Yes, I know better than to start a sentence with a conjunction, but I did so anyway. Why? Who knows.

 

[kozmic]

Well, I'm so very sorry to disappoint you. I didn't realize the word police were going to call me out on 2 words that have basically the same meaning.
I use "venomous" and "poisonous" interchangeably and have since I got my 4-year-old son into herpetology some 27 years ago. Call it a character flaw. However, I will continue to do so whenever and wherever I choose.
So, if that isn't up to your high standards, I suggest you toss me in your "ignore list". An action that I'm considering for you.
BTW, is "awe" the best word to use in your post? I can think of a dozen better words for that particular application and as we know, I'm just a dumb ***.
Have a terrific night.

 

[kozmic]

True, but most people use the term poisonous when they really mean venomous.
And, I have a good friend who has been shooting all his life. Yes, he says clips rather than magazines.

Yes, I know better than to start a sentence with a conjunction, but I did so anyway. Why? Who knows.

Yeah, so there is no confusion, I meant to say "Poisonous". But thanks for thinking for me. Perhaps you'd like to pay a few bills for me as well.

 

[jeffrefrig]

To the OP, my sister lives down there and she/they didn't hear about it. Was it on John's Island? They live in one of those overpriced row houses with woods and a pond across from the alley out back.

 

[Oldsalt66]

Good grief. This and the above comment leaves open a debate about the health care system.

My best friends son was playing golf in Tulsa and saw copperhead on the green. Instead of clubbing it he stepped on it's head and grabbed its tail to throw it into the woods. Probably showing off to his buddies, but the snake bit him on the hand. His medical bills were $50,000 and he didn't have health insurance.

And also, personal responsibility for one's own poor choices and foolish behavior.

 

[jaguargolf]

I grew up in downtown Manhattan. As children we used to ride our bicycles along East River Park. At the southern end of the park were some commercial ship piers. The first one was the banana boat pier. The bananas were shipped as large tall bundles. Hiding in the bundles were snakes.
The Bronx Zoo always had a van or two with snake wranglers to catch the snakes The techs would show us the snakes sometimes. Just normal 8, 9, and 10 year old boys intrigued by snakes.
For many years the Bronx Zoo milked the venomous snakes to make anti-venom and I remember reading at one point it had the largest supply/assortment (?) of anti-venom in the world. There was one story of anti-venom getting shipped cross-country by fighter plane out of Floyd Bennet Airfield which is on the other side of Jamaica Bay from Kennedy Airport.

I regularly have local children riding bikes on my driveway and woods. I have the only little hill they can BMX on. (They also eat my blueberries!). I keep a professional type snake grabber in the garage near the firewood stacks. I see snakes fairly regularly near them. I bring them into my woods and let them go. ("stack wood to dry with enough space between pieces of wood for the mouse to get through, but not the snake")
I've found using a leaf blower on the stack of firewood before bringing wood into the garage and house for the winter eliminates the possibility of seeing snakes , and clears away the nesting/droppings of mice, and hopefully, hanta virus.