This question gets asked often here. They are complacent snakes and rarely act aggressive. Sometimes they hiss and hood up, but when picked up they tend to calm down and slither around. The venom is very mild but if you get chewed long enough you could get some swelling. There's this website (lost the link) of a guy who let his adult chew him for about 3 minutes and he got pretty swollen up. However, they have a poor venom delivery system and weak venom, so unless you too want to try it out like he did you’ll be fine. I've owned several and never had a problem with striking or envenomation.
Aaron
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"Bones heal, chicks dig scars. Pain is temporary, glory is forever."
-Evil Knevel

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• How potent is Hognose Venom? What are the chances for getting tagged? - frank k, Fri Oct 10 09:10:01 2003
• RE: How potent is Hognose Venom? What are the chances for getting tagged? - cpn_aaron, Fri Oct 10 09:58:26 2003
• Thanks so much. Exactly what I was looking for. N/P - frank k, Fri Oct 10 10:33:30 2003
• RE: How potent is Hognose Venom? What are the chances for getting tagged? - meretseger, Fri Oct 10 10:52:37 2003
• Just as potent as a ratsnake, garter,or any other colubrid.n/p - Tom Dickinson, Sun Oct 12 15:52:06 2003
• RE: How potent is Hognose Venom? What are the chances for getting tagged? - BGF, Sat Oct 11 07:08:29 2003
• a bite from a hognose will KILL YOU !!!! - jimfmcdonald, Sat Oct 11 23:52:41 2003