Homestead mailing list

["SISU!" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

> > Can you be tested to see how severe a reaction a person might have
> > to a bite?
>
>
>
> I seriously doubt it.  The range of reaction doesn't seem to be all
> that great.  The venom of various pit vipers varies greatly.
> Copperhead venom is the mildest and some species of rattlesnake is
> the most toxic.  Bites are very rarely fatal and the danger from
> shock is much greater than the danger from toxin. But the toxin
> causes necrosis and that is not only painful and debilitating, but
> takes a long time to correct itself.  The CDC and AMA no longer
> recommend that anti-venom be given routinely after a snake bite as
> the anti-venom often caused more mayhem than the bite.
>
> Pit vipers produce venom very slowly and are in no great rush to
> waste it. Some estimates say as many as 3/4 of all accidental bites
> don't involve injection of venom.

Dry bites are common, I think.  Baby rattlesnakes are born alive,
though, and since they are prey driven from the start and susceptible to
being prey themselves, they almost always inject venom.  So, take this
as a warning that very often the smaller the poisonous snake the more
likely they will envenomate you if they bite.


> Some more bits to consider:  A pit viper's brain seems to be optional
>  equipment.  I've cut the head off copperheads and if you pick up the
> headless snake, it will writhe trying to get away and failing that it
> will strike at you as if it still had a head.  An old saying here
> abouts says that a snake never dies until the sun sets.  I'd have to
> say there is some basis for that.


I've had the same experience.  A headless snake will continue to try to
strike....it's freaky.  I have poked a stick at a decapitated head on
the ground only to see it move and clamp down on the stick after it had
been dead 6 hours.  I think as long as the snake and the snake's brain
registers an acceptable body temperature, it will strike or attempt to
strike even after death, as long as temps remain high.  At sundown, the
temperatures fall, finally "killing" the snake...

> In hot weather in snakey climes, assume that every rock, stump,
> overturned barrel, board, etc. has a snake beneath it and act
> accordingly.

Great advice..


Bev
--
erthnsky AT bellsouth.net  BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm      NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N 85.076W