Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire SNAKE BITES on the rise!!!

We have had several rattlesnake bite victims in the ICU over the past couple of weeks. The patients have been in very serious condition when they got to the hospital. Our physicians have told us that there are multiple snake bits victims hospitalized across the city, including Children's Hospital and the Univ. of Alabama. We had yet another admission for snake bites this past week. I am really curious as to why the sudden rise in admissions for snake related injury.

I was relaying this same info to Jim the other say when he told me that he had been seeing a lot of snakes on the roadways as he traveled to and from work. He said that some he had seen in the road were as big as a mans arm circumference!

Have any of you guys seen an inordinate ammount of snakes this year? Also, have any of you heard of a rise in snake bites? I am curious to know if there is a rise in the aggression of snakes as well as the population itself.

I found a picture on the net of a finger that looked strikingly similar to the patients arms/hands that I have seen in the hospital recently. It will give you an idea of how severe these bites can be.

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/05/25/top/80na_080525_rattlesnakes.txt

Good grief. I never realized that the bite of a rattler produced that kind of skin degradation.

I've not seen one of our timber rattlers this year and only a few black snakes up here my way.

Maybe the rattlers were Clemson fans!!

IIRC, one effect of even nonfatal amounts of viper venom is spontaneous sloughing of skin and muscle. I've never seen it and hope that I never do!

The skin wll literally rot from the inside out. By the time you see the outer damage, the muscle and subcutaneous layers of skin are dying or dead. The skin will begin to slough off. Its awful and awfully painful. Its just shocking to me to see so many people with bites. Of the two we had in ICU last week, one was a male who worked for the power co reading meters, the other was a female who worked for a concrete company who literally picked the damn snake up on a dare from a male co-worker.

I have not seen a poisonous snake all summer , now having said that I will probably walk out the door & step on one.

Mike

LOL..... Maby so!

This is actually a little late for snakes to be this aggressive. Normally late July early August is when they get really aggressive. I had always heard that the dog days of summer was the time of year to be vary wary of snakes in the south. What I can't stand is to see them when I am bowhunting. I killed 2 water moccasins on my way to my stand one afternoon a few years ago. I never made it to my stand. After the 2nd one I decide to head back to the truck. I didn't want to run into any in the dark.

they are moving out of the area because of the storms that are coming to destroy new orleans, they can sense those things months in advance.

It's an election year!
The no-legged snakes are following their two legged cousins out to meet the electorate.

Jim

we had a somewhat compressed snake-bite season this year but the overall number of cases (human and animal) pretty much ended up average. I only had one de-gloving injury to deal with, the rest had no serious sloughing.

it matters a lot which body part gets bit.

From what I recall of my snake lore, they shed their skins around this time of year, which makes them hyper agressive. I don't like poisonous snakes, and usually kill all that I see, especially after seeing the results of two friends who got bitten, one an innocent mistake while cleaning out a sprinkler head receptacle by a pygmy rattler, the other a piece of foolishness such as you described while trying to capture a copperhead to give to the herpetology center at the zoo. Caught the critter OK, but during transport, it got out of the gunny sack and things got interesting. The results were not so pretty; swelling and pain, followed by sloughing skin and permanent scarring. My rule is keep your distance, and CCI shot cartridges are great inventions. I use mine often.

Middle west Texas has always had it's share of shaky tails. There was a nest under the hunting 5th wheel last years. A little gas convinced them to come within 20 gauge distance. I popped the head off a Copperhead that same trip. Oddly it was a very cool morning and we was content to let me put the blade of my knife over his head without putting up any struggle. I used a stick to pin 'em down, but a finger would have worked as well.

Three years ago a GPS caught a rattler bite to the sinus cavity (one fang only) while chasing quail. He blew out a copious amount of blood. He never exhibited any symptoms, so we assume it was either a dry bite or the venom was only in the cavity and came out with the blood.

I'm not going to be flip about this, but no I have not seen many snakes at all this summmer. Other than one Coral Snake down in Florida last month, I don't stick my hands in places I can't see or pick the dam things up. On the other hand I will not shoot one just because either.

I will. A poisonous one, anyway. If you leave them to their own devices around your place, sooner or later a dog or a loved one will get bit. I would rather be proactive and save the ensuing pain and anguish for all concerned.

Very interesting.

Seems kinda early but may be the beginning of migration back to densights. Early spring and late fall are always the most active seasons for hibernating herps. (In the south, though, many don't need to hibernate and only go into a couple months brumation.)

Late august is usually the hottest part of the year. It is here anyway. When it's hot most herps hide out in cool spots during the day and come out only at night. Another thing to consider is this is an important time of the year, gaining weight before hibernation is mandatory. If winter is coming early they'll be all the more eager to find food.

Lots more snakes here than usual.

This time of year, the northern snakes are getting ready to mate and go into hybrination, many are sheding as well, that makes them very bad tempered, and aggressive. I don't know about the rattlers in the Southern part of the country, I have lived most of my life in the drier areas. The snakes are a lot differeant in size and temper up here. Do yours go underground to winter? if so, are the storms haveing an effect? Around here you try to avoid rock cliffs or outcrops this time of year unless you want to find snakes.

Thanks guys, I just came in from my garden and I spent half of my time looking to make sure there weren't any snakes around. I know they are good but I don't like surprises.

This is the first year since we moved to the farm 15 years ago that I haven't seen a snake of any kind. Fine with me.

"This time of year, the northern snakes are getting ready to mate and go into hybrination,"

???

So far as I know all North American snakes that hibernate do their breeding in the early spring. However in the south where the season is longer some egg layers double clutch. That means a second breeding season in mid-summmer. All North American pit vipers are live bearers and breed at most once per year, some every other year, and some even less often than that. (timber rattler for inistance often only reproduce every 3 to 6 years).

When I lived in North FL the snakes never really hibernated, they'd just find a deep hole for a few hours until the temperature warmed up, and then would sun near the hole. The coldest it ever got for the 18 years I lived down there was in the 20's, but only for a few hours at a time. Even on the coldest days it would get up into the high 30's low 40's in the afternoon. I've killed many a moccasin or rattler while hunting in December in FL.

In TN it's totally different. They seem to den up in late fall, and stay that way until early spring. Of course it gets a great deal colder here than it ever did in FL. I haven't seen near the amount of snakes in general since we moved 19 months ago, but I'm sure that will change the more I get out to hunt.