Snake Bite

Reptile tamer Peter Morningstar has some trouble with a ten foot carpet snake. Peter was called to remove the 15 lb monster from a roof in Brisbane, Australia. The snake turned nasty and sunk its fangs in his face. That's one way to remove a snake. I know Australians can be tough, but I might have tried some other tools first. Luckily the python is nonvenomous and usually kills by squeezing its prey to death.

Snakes generally bite humans on the hands or feet because, well, that is what is available. Most snake bites are from non-poisonous snakes. Among poisonous snakes, there are four major types of venom depending on the snake family.

What should you look out for? It all depends on what country or region you live or wherever you have decided to go for a hike, etc. For example, twenty-five species of poisonous snake live in the United States, and at least one type can be found in every state except Maine, Alaska, and Hawaii. Pit vipers, which include rattlesnakes, copperheads, and cottonmouths, cause 99 percent of poisonous bites in the United States. Coral snakes cause the other 1 percent. In Panama pit vipers are the cause of a good majority of bites. Worldwide, about 15 percent of all snake species are poisonous to humans.

Especially scary are venoms that are neurotoxins that can cause damage to the spinal cord, brain and even cause people to stop breathing.

See here for more about snake venom and snake bite first aid.

Any snake bite should receive emergency medical care because many people do not know what species of snake bit them, and even non-poisonous snakes can cause infection or an allergic reaction. Each year, between 4,000 and 7,000 people are treated for snake bites in emergency rooms in the United States, with the most bites being reported in North Carolina. Men are bitten about nine times more often than women. Between 1988 and 2008, only 97 deaths in the United States were caused by snake bites.

Globally, some people estimate claim there are more than 100,000 deaths from snake bites each year. A good deal of these occur in tropical regions where a healthy snake population borders agricultural land and human and snake too frequently encounter each other when they would rather not.

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