Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was trying to find some good pics of twig snakes online, but I couldn't, so first of all, can anyone post some good pics for me? Also, I was wondering about twig snake venom... there's not a lot of info that I could find out there. I would also be interested in effects of bites etc.... any experiences? I'm not looking to get one, just curious.
Thanks!
-Will

Are you talking about the African species? I think T. kirklandii? I believe they are relatively venomous and have been known to cause human fatalities. Although, I could be mistaken just remember to treat this species with a lot of respect.
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1.0 snow corn snake '02
0.1 butter corn snake '02
0.1 hi-red corn snake '02
0.1 CB KY locality corn snake '02
1.1 Texas Baird's rat snake '00
0.1 black rat snake '03
1.1 Het for albino and albino radiated rat snake '02&'03
1.1 tri-color hognose snake '03
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0.1 black king snake '01
1.1 black milk snake '01&'02
1.1 pueblan milk snake '03
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1.1 African house snake '03

All Thelotornis (twig snakes) are incredibly lethal. They are right up there with Dispholidus (boomslangs). The only difference between twigs and slangs is that twigs have no AV available. If you have a serious envenomation, you might as well kiss your rear goodbye. Symptoms from twigsnake venom are somewhat similar to a boomslang envenomation: heavy internal bleeding. You may not notice anything for a day or so, then collapse from the hemorrhaging.

As for pictures of these snakes, you can go to venomousreptiles.org and check the photo gallery under the "medically important colubrid" section. Tomas Eimermacher, a frequenter of these forums under the name NightFlight99, keeps I believe two, maybe more, of the Thelotornis species. He has numerous pictures on venomousreptiles.org of his twigsnakes, even some feeding pics I believe. You can also check Mardi Snipes' website at coastalreptiles.com. In his photo gallery, I believe he has some twig snake pictures. I hope this was of some assistance to you.
-Chance

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for. I've always thought boomslangs and the effects of their venom to be very interesting, and I've always heard twig snakes to be compared to them, but I wasn't sure if that meant they had similar venoms. I got to venomousreptiles.org all of the time... I can't believe that I missed these pics!
-Will

what chance said is true to a point. they have a potent haemotoxic venom the does cause all sorts of coagulopathy. For a while in south africa the boomslang and the vine snake were thought only to be mildly venomous like alot of the colubrids there. One of the reasons is that it is fairly hard to get envenomated by these guys. When they finally figured out that these guys were deadly and the first few vine snake bites where diagnosed, they treated them with multiple blood transfusions that when done enough (up to 7 times), and symptomatic treatment, these people survived. Boomslang serum is available in very limited amounts (SAIMR monovalent serum) and the preference is to use multiple blood transfusions in cases of severe envenomation.