Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone here know the percentage of dry bites apposed to envenomated bites in the USA?

There are numerous estimates for rattlesnake bites...some say as low as 20%, others as high as 50%. I'm not sure the breakdown by species, and such estimates undoubtedly have a large margin of error...I know I wouldn't want to count on some statistic when it comes to my life or limb being in grave danger.

With species like D. polylepis however, the percentage of dry bites is easy to estimate...it's pretty much 0.

At the Venom Conference in Tucson this year several talks mentioned dry bites in the range of 30%-50%. This was higher than I had previously heard.
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Tim Cole
www.Designeratrox.com/
www.AustinReptileService.net
www.AustinReptileExpo.com/
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Conservation through Education

That's what I have always heard, too. But I always figured that dry bite percentages were higher than that because of unreported cases. Amateur keepers often do not seek out medical assistance when bitten and the same happens in the general population. But then again, there are the cases in third world nations where many people are bitten by large Bothrops, Echis, Russell's Vipers, cobras and such, and they die in a remote village. Those people never become a statistic so maybe unreported dry and hot bites balance themselves out.

In Mississippi, *every guy* has been bitten by a rattler or Cottonmouth. None of them ever went to the hospital though. They just drank a six-pack and laid down for a couple of days.
To challenge them is to risk a violent argument since you are now calling them a liar. And everybody here knows someone who died of a snakebite, even though Mississippi has no snakebite fatalities on record, ever.

Cheers,

Terry Vandeventer

As mentioned in other replies it will vary from species to species,but also will vary depending on the circumstances surrounding the bite.
In captive settings you are more likely to receive a feeding response type of bite, which is less likely to be a dry bite than a defensive bite would be(hiker stepping on an animal and getting bit). How agitated the animal is could also be a factor as would temperature.

Psilocybe brings up an interesting point when he mentions D. polylepis... Why dont we consider the reverse of the original poster's query? Aside from the black mamba, what other species are known for the LEAST amount of dry bites?

Immediately, the tree vipers come to mind.

Your thoughts...