KHQA (Quincy, Illinois) 20 August 07 Copperhead snakes (Chad Douglas)
A Lee County Iowa man is recovering after getting bitten in the finger by a poisonous copperhead snake a little more than a week ago.
Randy Cale was cleaning up around this wood pile, when he leaned down to pick up a stick.
He felt a sting and saw a snake slither away.
Cale says the pain was awful from the get go.
He didn't go to the hospital for another 30 hours...that's when he learned it was a copperhead snake...which is not native to Southeast Iowa.
How surprised were you to find out this was a copperhead?
"Shocked, scared, panic attack...especially when they told my I could lose a finger, a hand, arm, maybe my life. Then I got real scared," says Randy Cale.
As for his finger, Cale says the doctors say he'll be fine.
But you should never wait to go to the hospital if you're bitten by a snake.
Lucky for Cale, the poisonous copperhead is one of the least venomous snakes there is.
But they're not normally found in Southeast Iowa, but they are in the tri-states.
KHQA did some checking with a local Conservation police officer for this fact finder report.
Sgt. Glenn Sanders told me the dividing line for copperheads in the tri-states is Interstate 72 in Illinois and Highway 24 in Missouri.
He says the southern part of the tri-states, you can find them quite often, but rarely to the travel north.
We also found out from a researcher at the University of Georgia, a lot of times Copperheads don't inject a lot of venom.
They typically strike at a predator first to try and scare it away, so many times a copperhead bite just needs minor medical treatment.
Keep in mind, any snake bite needs to be treated by a doctor.
But if you are bitten by a snake...especially a poisonous one, keep the affected area below the heart. That means if you get bitten in the hand, DON'T elevate it. And if at all possible, you should take the snake with you to the emergency room.
"Don't cut the head off. We need that for identification purposes because the anti venom is specific to the species," says Sgt. Glenn Sanders.
Now here's some good news about copperheads...they avoid humans. In fact, you probably won't find one around domestic animals...even cows or horses because they just want to be left alone.
"They are very docile snakes. They are not aggressive. Most of the people who come in contact with them are in two locations. One, is on a river bluff. The second is mostly in wood piles if they're cutting up some old trees in the timber," adds Sgt. Sanders.
Copperheads have great camouflage, so they can be hard to spot in the wild.
"If you see one, just leave it alone. They won't come after you," says Sgt. Sanders.
Still, you may wonder how a copperhead might make it's way to Southeast Iowa...the answer may be because of human help.
"We occasionally get cottonmouths and water moccasins here. What happens is they get on a barge or boat in Louisiana or Mississippi, they come up river and bail out in our area," adds Sgt. Sanders.
Sgt. Sanders reiterates, copperheads release very little venom when they strike.
But he says in small children, that venom can do a lot more harm because their bodies are smaller.
Copperhead snakes