snake bit

[trucker2015]

No one has been bitten by a venomous snake while hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Your a little off on that. I know of one who was bitten by a Timber Rattler.
It wasn't too bad. walked off the trail to go around one in the path stepped over a rock and got hit by the one hiding.
I know now look before you step and if you do get bit you should live but it will hurt hell and you will have a really big scare.

I like the snakes better them then the rats

[trucker2015]

worked for me this morning - came across a little Copper Head. He wouldn't have done too much damage, but it was still good to be able to see him that far ahead.

I'm also doing local hiking earlier in the morning while it is still in the 60's. Hopefully they will be a lot less active then.

Cooper heads are nocturnal so the best time to see them is early morning of late evening.

[trucker2015]

I was hiking yesterday at Oak Mtn State Park located just outside of Birmingham, AL. I stopped for a water break, put my pack down and heard the rattle! A large Timber Rattler was 3 to 4 feet from me. Also I will enclaose a picture of a large Copper Head I saw on the AT in VA.Attachment 15633Attachment 15634

Pretty thing I love the vivid colors when you get a little north.

[WingedMonkey]

Your a little off on that. I know of one who was bitten by a Timber Rattler.
It wasn't too bad. walked off the trail to go around one in the path stepped over a rock and got hit by the one hiding.
I know now look before you step and if you do get bit you should live but it will hurt hell and you will have a really big scare.

I like the snakes better them then the rats

So in other words they were not bitten while hiking the Appalachian Trail. Where did this happen? Is there a report?

[lemon b]

Only seen someone bit once. Not on the trail. In Eastern NC while in the Army. Trooper was tracing a communication wire with his hand in the dark in high grass and a copperhead got him. Arm swelled up quickly and severly, he started having wierd visions too. We had him at a hospital quickly and he was back in the bush two days later. Never heard of it happening on the AT.

[Rain Man]

Conversely, if one surprises a venomous snake by stepping too closely to it ...it will strike.

That simply is not true. It MAY strike. "It WILL strike" is baloney. Snakes are not aggressive by nature. Venom is a VERY precious resource that takes time and other resources to create. Instinctively, snakes do not waste it on animals they can not swallow (eat). So, even when they do RARELY strike, those are often dry strikes with no venom.

I know a local college professor who studies rattle snakes. He takes classes into the big, bad woods to take surveys of the greatly declining populations. To combat such fear and ignorance, he will step next to a timber rattler, touching it with his boot, and it STILL DOES NOT strike.

Being cautious and wise is the right thing to do (like wearing seatbelts). Claiming a venomous snake WILL strike if you step too close is like saying you WILL be in a wreck if you happen to pass a teenage driver. Totally over-blown.

Rain Man

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[hikerboy57]

just keep an eye out for ticks, as itll be an active season and lyme disease is much more prevalent than snake bites.and... if you're watching for ticks, a rattler will be pretty hard to miss.

[Rain Man]

So far the only living thing that has injured me while hiking have been yellow jackets. I got nailed last year, they had built a nest right into the bank on the side of a trail.

NOW you're talking about an actual danger of almost "unprovoked" attack by critters that WILL inject venom. OUCH! And these do seem to put nests right on or by the trail and lay in wait. The truthful adage is the smaller the critter, the greater the danger. Don't fret about "snakes and bears," but rather insects!

How We Confuse Real Risks with Exaggerated Ones

RainMan

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[MuddyWaters]

the old saying is the 1st person wakes the snake up, the 2nd person makes it mad, the 3rd person gets bit.

[MuddyWaters]

When my son was 10 he had a run in with this one on our hunting lease. It is legal to kill them where we are, but I still chewed him out for doing so for no reason. Since it was dead, had to do something with it though..
rattler.JPG

[shelterbuilder]

One of my OLD wilderness medical books quoted the 80% dry bite figure, and Rainman is right about the probable reason - venom is a precious resource for the snake! It's a hunting "tool", and the snake isn't about to waste it on something that it can't eat (they may be dumb aninmals, but they aren't THAT dumb). The ability to control the injection of the venom is age-related: younger snakes lack the muscular control to withhold the venom, hence the higher likelyhood of a "wet bite" from a younger snake. For most creatures, just getting bit at all is usually enough incentive to leave the snake in peace....

[vamelungeon]

I think we need a sticky thread about all the things that aren't out to hurt us in the woods. I grew up in a rural area in the mountains, right next to a river and next to a National Forest, and they were my playgrounds. My parents let me wander at will once I reached 10 or so, and didn't worry too much. I can't say that any living thing in the woods has tried to hurt me other than insects and feral dogs. Otherwise I can't think of anything off the top of my head. I feel much safer in the woods than in an urban setting. I do carry a firearm but for protection against the dangerous predator homo sapiens and not bears or snakes. Snakes kill rodents and I HATE rodents.

[hikerboy57]

you have nothing to fear but fear itself.

[BAG "o" TRICKS]

Not true, a hiker named Allegheny was bitten about 6 or 7 years ago on Bear Mountain in CT. I heard for a fact from one of his hiking partners that he was screwing with any snakes he came across the entire way up the trail attempting to get a picture of a snake striking. Guess he got the picture.., the hard way. Lesson.., leave them alone and they'll leave you alone. A warm sunny morning after a cool night and you'll usually find them on southern exposed rock outcrops warming themselves. Don't be paranoid about them, just aware, and enjoy your hike. Personally I'd worry more about the ticks and Lyme.

[shelterbuilder]

Over the years, I've heard many "truths" about rattlers (and copperheads, too), but hard evidence is sometimes tough to find. Being pit vipers (that is, having a "heat-sensing organ" located in the small hole or "pit" on the head), they can acurately tell where you are and how large you are without having to see you. This enables the snake to locate and capture prey even at night, or when the skin-shedding process renders them temporarily blinded (they shed the protective membrane over the eye as well as their skin). Now, I've heard it said that copperheads are much more aggressive than most rattlers (truth?), but I've had many more encounters with rattlers than with copperheads, and these snakes have not seemed overly-aggressive - they seem to want to be left alone. I've never met up with one that was shedding, but I would assume that, when blinded by the clouding-over of the eye membrane prior to shedding it, the snake COULD be more defensive than usual, since it can't really see you. Thoughts, anyone???

Whenever I'm in the woods, I tend to watch where I place my feet, hands, and my big, fat BUTT - so that I don't accidently provoke anyone of the "fanged persuasion"! So far, so good!

[Sidewinder]

yay...a snake thread

[Slack-jawed Trog]

I've never met up with one that was shedding, but I would assume that, when blinded by the clouding-over of the eye membrane prior to shedding it, the snake COULD be more defensive than usual, since it can't really see you. Thoughts, anyone???

Shelterbuilder,

I have seen one, it was the second buzz-tail I almost stepped on and its irises were cloudy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/3156736...in/photostream I was barefoot and when I saw the rattler, it was not much more than a greenback-length away from my toes. I instinctively stepped back quickly.

Just a week earlier in the same area, I almost stepped on a different buzz-tail (the irises were clearly visible) but I froze and stepped back slowly. This was when I decided to also carry a camera on my wild blueberry scouting forays.

[Pedaling Fool]

I actually stepped on a rattlesnake that I believe was shedding. His color looked something like a dull black with splotches of dull-white ash look, kind of the same color as 1/2 burnt charcoal. I was walking through (note, not around) knee-high grass looking for firewood. He was fat, but never saw his head, so don't know the length; the only way I knew it was a rattlesnake is from the rattler.

I didn't put my full weight on him, he didn't even rattle, but I knew I stepped on something that was completely different from normal, so I immediately backed off and looked down and watched him slowly amble off and that's when I saw the rattle.

[Wise Old Owl]

Well when you do "Step" on or near I can tell you what it is like..... As I crossed a corn field it was like getting hit with a small rubber ball that hits you like a hardball in a baseball game on the front of the leg. It was a dry bite. I never felt the teeth. I bandaged it up and later I had to get a chunk of skin removed and stitched. no worries - not like Australia- Right stranger..... Goodday!

[johnnybgood]

Well when you do "Step" on or near I can tell you what it is like..... As I crossed a corn field it was like getting hit with a small rubber ball that hits you like a hardball in a baseball game on the front of the leg.

My wife described that it felt like a twig snapping forward against her ankle.
8 vials of anti venom later the swelling, which was all the to her knee , finally began to subside. She was minutes away from having a fasciotomy, a surgical procedure to open the fascia to relieve the compartmental syndrome that was compromising the blood flow to her lower leg.