Anyone here been bitten by a venomous snake.

[KeithDavies 100]

Never been bitten, thankfully. I grew up in Zambia. Mambas are probably the most widely known - outside Zambia - snake from that area, though we also had puff adders, cobras, boomslangs - beautiful snake! - and several others. The real problem snakes, though, were twig snakes. They use their appearance to "hide" from predators, and therefore go dead still when they sense danger, whereas most snakes will move away. This leads to a lot of bites, when people are collecting firewood for example. According to Wiki, its claim to fame is that it's what killed herpetoligist Robert Mertens. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twig_snake

 

[Fretting out]

I almost stepped on a Coral Snake in San Antonio, TX on an abandoned road, circa 1993. I didn't realize until the last moment that it was at my feet. I froze and didn't want to startle it. It moved its head as if it were looking back and froze. Then thankfully it slithered away into the forest.

It looked "just like itself" in the reptile books. No, it wasn't a Milk Snake or a Scarlet King Snake.

Red-touch-yellow (can kill a fella).

View attachment 985262
Coral snake^

View attachment 985265
Scarlet King Snake^

I never saw any rattlesnakes. There was supposedly a nest in our old apartment complex. Only babies with no mother in sight.

Red touches yellow can kill a fellow, if red touches black you’re okay jack (or at least I think that’s how the second part went?)

 

[Rustbucket]

Never bitten thankfully. My wife saw this western D-back on the property earlier this week:

She had been clearing brush and lower limbs around the base of the ironwoods early morning and caught this one by surprise. This time of year you really need to be on the lookout for them.

 

[Red Ryder]

We've got a good supply of venomous snakes in northeast Texas. Fortunately not as bad as Australia where everything is venomous. A friend of mine was killed when his Australian girlfriend accidentally racked him with her teeth. And that's the truth.

 

[Colo Springs E]

Lost our black lab, Max, to a rattlesnake about 10 years ago. "Pig Dawg" was about 12 years old, we tried everything to include a blood transfusion. He was just too old. Lasted about a week and went downhill, stopped eating... had to put him down.

 

[scook]

I haven’t personally but both of my dogs have been bitten by copperheads. The first one in the front leg and the following year the second one in the face/head.
Symptoms were swelling, lethargy, and no appetite for about 2 days. Antibiotics for possible infection but nothing for venom. Vet says that can be tougher than the actual venom and only recommends for a lethal bite, which around here for a dog would be a timber rattler.
Dogs are German Shepherd/Lab crosses, around 75 lbs/35 kg.

 

[Greggorios]

Not since I got divorced.

 

[Wally]

May I hijack this thread to simply say thank you for saying "venomous" instead of "poisonous". A pet peeve of mine that bites me once in a while...

Definition of POISONOUS

destructive, harmful; having the properties or effects of poison; producing a toxic substance that causes injury or death when absorbed or ingested; also : venomous… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

 

[That Cal Webway]

See Rattlers all the time on my MTB rides. Never bitten. Knock on wood.

View attachment 985266

On my cross country bike trip 100 years ago, somewhere outside of Twentynine Palms saw a dead Mojave rattler in the middle of the road.

I jumped my bike over it
(Well that part I'm lying)

.

 

[Dan German]

Dang. I came here to scroll through and make sure no one else made that joke before I did, and you got it in one.

Other than my ex-wife?

 

[Texicaster]

Good friend of mine got bit by a rattler a few years ago..... He survived just fine but explained the problem is the anti-venom is so precious they give you the smallest doses to turn the tide. You could be "cured" with one fat dose but they give you tiny ones then if you start to fade out you get a little more....etc...I think he said it was $25K.... He was "lucky" a lot of people emerge with life long issues. He was 100% a month later. Don't wear flip flops out side at night without a flashlight!

Living in the southwest for most of my life I've seen a million rattlers and learned to have constant radar on. Most I ever saw was in El Paso Texas. Great mountain bike trail on east side. I'd do a couple 8 mile loops and would see at least 3 rattlers every time.

 

[Gnometowner]

Mojave greens are no joke--neurotoxic as well as hemotoxic. I used to do survey and other fieldwork, and working in scrub or tall grass in San Bernardino or Riverside County always made me nervous.

Friend of mine in Ajo Arizona keeps a 5gal bucket, snake stick and a Taurus judge 410 pistol by her back door. She catches and releases 99% of the crawlies she finds around her place, but shoots Mohaves on sight with her blaster full of #4 shot. Her old man was an old HA who had pet snakes. One day she got tagged on her hand while filling a water bowl, just a scratch, not a full puncture but she got huge swollen hand and puked all night afterward. Her hand is ok now, no necrosis, it was a usually very docile diamondback. She thinks she had mouse scent on her hand from their snake food mice she had cleaned their cage earlier in the day.
She caught a pink Gila monster in her air conditioner cover, cool looking critter.
She had a friend in Sierra Vista die from a Mohave bite on her toe, baby snake was in her shoe when she put it on. She thought it was a scorpion first, the little snake was only 5" long.

 

[24 track]

I've done an autopsy on a tiger snake and can do intra muscular injections on reptiles if needed but I've never had any official uni type schooling on reptiles just hands on training on how not to die.
To be honest the job was exciting 90% of the time and truly terrifying the other 10%.
Aussie snakes are not for the faint of heart nor is any venomous reptile from any country.
There are two overseas snakes in particular I would hate to have to deal with and that's Indian or Egyptain Cobra's and American Rattlesnakes, My deepest respect to anyone who handles those animals.

Agreed on the thrill factor with these animals, awe inspiring to watch and observe
My tegu was about 8 pounds roughly the size of a small cat , he was captive raised and super well behaved
hts favorite foods were prime rib and quails eggs ( chicken eggs have too much colesteral for them ) so one day i put a whole chicken egg in his dish to see what he would do , he picked it up and dropped it on the concrete paver stone in his cage until he got a small hole in it then lapped up the contents ,
this is by instinct , it was his mate who bit me she had a nasty disposition , definately not one to cuddle with .

we have only one type of lizard here a Northern Alligator Lizard , a small anole type of lizard , I believe in the lacertid family, tons of garter snakes all harmless, and Pacific coast rattle snakes, I've seen them but left them alone

 

[telemaster03]

I hate snakes.

I'm with you, TD. In my world the only good use for any snake is for boots or guitar straps.

 

[Toto'sDad]

I'm with you, TD. In my world the only good use for any snake is for boots or guitar straps.

I won't even listen to that nonsense about not harming snakes. There is a real world, that's the one I live in, see snake, kill snake. I come by hating snakes honestly. When I lived in Alabama, a three-foot-long copper head could hide under a stick of wood that was only a foot long, and two or three inches around. You had to keep them eyes peeled, and them feet ready to move!

 

[mad dog]

I haven't, but my stepson has. We got a call from him late one night. He'd been out hiking (drunk) somewhere in the Bear Mountain area. Saw a little snake and picked it up. Baby copperhead. Got him with one fang on the thumb. His whole arm was swelling up bad. I told him to stop effing around and get to the hospital. He was in the ICU for a day or two. Took months to get full use of that arm back. He still has partial numbness in the area.

 

[phart]

Don't wear flip flops out side at night without a flashlight!

I'm a firm believer that men shouldn't wear flip-flops unless they're going directly to the beach or pool. Snakes are one good reason. I was cured for life from wearing flip flops in public by a trip to the porta-johns by the biergarten at the Ohio State Fair.

On topic, yeah, snakes suck. Luckily, the only thing we have to worry about in my neighborhood are the skunks which are everywhere!

 

[dkmw]

I knew a kid who was bitten by a pygmy rattler. It wasn’t life-threatening, but they had to fight to keep all of his thumb intact.

I would wager pygmies are #1 (in terms of # of bites) here in Florida. I tried to look it up, but apparently they don’t parse out species in bite statistics.

These little (12”-24”) guys used to be very common.

 

[Esquire Jones]

We see both Diamondback and Mohave snakes frequently in our yard and even up on the patio. After a while you gain an “instinct” to be aware, always, that they are out there somewhere.

In fact, some days just feel like “snake days”. You can almost sense a smell in the air. Weird.

 

[Toto'sDad]

We see both Diamondback and Mohave snakes frequently in our yard and even up on the patio. After a while you gain an “instinct” to be aware, always, that they are out there somewhere.

In fact, sometimes just feel like “snake days”. You can almost sense a smell in the air. Weird.

Arizona must be snake country. My brother-in-law who has passed now, lived outside Tonopah for quite a while. He had an old trailer with an industrial steel diamond plate porch. He's ease the door open in the morning, and shoot the rattlesnakes off the porch with a twelve gauge.