snake bite

BARTGN

Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2005
Don,t quite how to start this, Close friend, long time buddy died today as result of rattle snake bite.Was returning home from party, possibly drunk stopped on road when hesaw large rattle snake,(details hazy) either attemped to catch live snake, or remove dead snake from road and was bitten. had reaction to anti venom ,placed in induced coma ,never came out. I have always respected snakes have captured non-poisonus and poisonus snakes. Taught friend how to handel non-poisonus snakes.Leave it at this.
 
Condolances

Sorry to hear about your friend them Rattlers are hard to handle when sober much less after a few beers. I've killed a few out here the thing about them is even though you think they are dead. I had smashed it's head and cut off the tail (10 rattles) when I went to grab the head and it was dead it struck at me fortunately I was quick enough to pull my hand back before getting struck. Their infra red/heat sensing system is still operational even after being dead a few minutes. If he ran over it and the darn thing was dead when he reached for it it probably reached out and got him. Bummer man!
 
That is horrible, sorry for your loss. Anti Venom is a dual edge sword and you don't know until it's too late. :(

I made the mistake of catching a copperhead with my bare hands while drunk and it missed my thumb by a hairs width. I never knew they could kick their fangs to the side like that. I was 1.5 inches too far behind his head. First and last time I handled one while under the influence. I have caught many venomous snakes and snapping turtles and have never been bit, luckily.
 
FYI- I don't know why- but I found a snake while weeding and chopped it's head off. 3 HOURS LATER that dang thing was still looking at me and trying to squiggle around. I put it in a shoe box directly in the sun and after another 2 hours-it was STILL trying to move out of the box. I had put it's tail end in the box and gave it to the 8 yr old boy across the street. Upon squishing it's rear half, 12 baby snakes come falling out-still alive! Mom's head didn't die until squished with a rock approx. 8 hours after decapitation! I don't know what kind it was(sort of flesh color)but dead is best !:)
I am sorry your friend didn't make it :frown:
 
I consider myself lucky

Monday, I almost stepped on this one. It was a Pygmy Rattlesnake.

You are correct about them having movement after decapitation.

I arrived on site and he was there defending his territory. I have to go to this site 1 time per month (at least). So, if I did not get him while I had the chance, it could have been different next time out.
 

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Sorry to hear about the loss of your friend.:( Very unfortunate, I'd say the best way to deal with snakes (especially the poisonous type) is to leave them alone! Living down here in south Florida (basically in the Everglades where I am) I have seen quite a few snakes including the Cottonmouth/Water Moccasin. Have acutally had a few run-ins with them being that I have a canal in my backyard and actually had my dog almost step on one. My neighbor ended up killing it with a shovel because his grandson is always outside playing and occasionally wanders down by the canal.
 
Sorry about your friend, it sucks losing friends.

Was returning home from party, possibly drunk

Was the person who was driving not able to remind him not to play with snakes while drunk? Please say he wasn't driving under the influence? :(

The only good snake is a dead snake!

That's not a real good attitude to have there, I'd much rather have one good rat snake or 3 in my barn as a bunch of mice in my corn crib. Or one nice fat king snake or two in my field as a dozen copperheads (king snakes eat other snakes). I will kill ANY poisonous snake I find near my house or any other houses, however.

I found this guy tangled up in some deer mesh earlier this summer:

Faith's Stuff :: Operation Extraction :: PICT0001

He was one mad dude, but he'd been in the sun long enough he was probably nearly dehydrated, so I cut him loose and dropped him in my goldfish pond, he had a nice long drink and slithered off into the wife's flowers (you're welcome dear).
 
Monday, I almost stepped on this one. It was a Pygmy Rattlesnake.

You are correct about them having movement after decapitation.

I arrived on site and he was there defending his territory. I have to go to this site 1 time per month (at least). So, if I did not get him while I had the chance, it could have been different next time out.

those are fat and small right?that one looked pretty big..
 
Well I think one could conclude that he probably screwed with a live snake that ran across the road for which he must have exited his vehicle to catch or mess with for whatever reason.

Because moving a dead snake probably wouldn't bite you cause it's dead?:confused: Either way that is sad. I too love snakes, so I could see it happen to me I guess to.
 
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