Big scare last night...

Down here we have rattlers, cottonmouth moccasins, and coral snakes (rare).
I don't think those copperheads live around here, but I believe they're
common in western US.


"David Yehudah" wrote in message
...
: Usually the only real danger from getting bitten by a non-poisonous
: snake is that you might hurt yourself.
:
: Until recently the received intelligence from the experts was that there
: were only four species of venomous snakes in the US; rattlesnakes, coral
: snakes, cottonmouths, and copperheads. The most common bite is from the
: copperhead, but supposedly there are no verified cases of humans dying
: from a copperhead bite. Recently they discovered that the hognose snake,
: also called puff adder, has rear fangs and venom. However they
: apparently only use the venom for paralyzing prey as there is no record
: of a human ever dying or even getting sick from a hognose bite.
:
: Hopitus2 wrote:
: John is correct re the lack of venom. I've been told that nature's
: anesthesia goes into effect on the soon-to-be-swallowed mice in that
type
: snakes jaws......mouse is in severe shock, which probably kills it along
: w/suffocation factor. It's just a fact: people don't like snakes,
whether
: they have venom or not. They do have fangs, though, and what would be an
: annoying venom-less bite to us hoomins might be enough to shock a
smaller
: mammal to death.
: