Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This was posted by a person on a different forum I use:

"So i'm standing on the bank stretching out when my calf feels like it's on fire. Look down and there were some yellowjackets just going to town on me. i smacked 'em off and jumped in the river. I'm not allergic to the little bastards, but by the time i got home my leg was swollen and i felt like crap. went to see the doc and here's the clincher: the yellowjackets had gotten into something poisonous like a rattlesnake. the poison then gets tranferred through the sting and into my sorry ass. apparently i'm lucky i didn't get stung near the heart or throat."

Absolute, total, utter and unmitigated nonsense.

1. Wasps and bees secrete their own toxins for their venom, and do not recycle what they have ingested.
2. Even if the above were not true, how, exactly, are they supposed to have taken up the rattlesnake venom?
3. As anyone who has been stung by wasps will know, they cause plenty of swelling by themselves, particularly if you get multiple stings into one limb - no recourse to other venoms/toxins needed.

Cheers,

WW
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WW Home

Thanks... that's what I thought. And the person claims the doctor gave him this info.

A doctor in north Georgia treating a snakebite from a black ratsnake admitted a child for overnight observation because "the snake might have swallowed a toad, and they can be venomous for up to a day after that."

I wonder if the child didn't have health insurance would the story have been the same..............

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I've heard the story several times that rattlesnakes crawl up into trees and suck the poison out of hornets nests, and that's how they get their venom....

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There's also the dreaded black copperhead which is a cross between a blacksnake and a copperhead. It looks just like a blacksnake but is 'deadly poisonous'

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A paramedic related the story of a person who stuck his hand into a pool drain and was bitten in the palm by a baby copperhead. Thinking they only had minutes to live if they didn't cut and suck the wound, they grabbed a rusty screwdriver and proceeded to tear flesh away from their hand and bleed out the wound.

They did far more damage with the screwdriver than the venom would have done....

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errrr, that's all I can think of at the moment..........

I have to say all those stories are the dumbest things I have heard. I cannot believe someone will take anyone as a credible source when they come up with this stuff. Did any of you guys see the big sqeeze when the guy was wrapped up by his big burmese...they gave him rabies shots because they snake eats rodents which carry rabies. In fact, I believe that so strongly I went to the hospital the next day to be tested for rabies since I have been bitten by many snakes and they eat lots of rodents.

A few years back I got a really bad monitor bite on my thumb that went down to the bone. After my wife and my vet convinced me to go to the emergency room (I was taking the monitor to the vet, they hate the vet,not the first bite on way to the vet and most likely not the last.) I went waited 2 hours (bled for 4 or 5hrs.) and was finally stitched up the physicians ast. who sewed me up asked Me if monitors carrie rabies. I always thought that was a basic 6th grade science question that should be known by a good majority of the general public. I was somewhat horrified that a medical professional who got 4yrs of medical training would know that only mammals carrie rabies (according to the books you could theoretically get it from birds if they got bit by a rabid mammal and survived the attack which is not likely.) It made me wonder just what other medical knowledge these people lack. I've had some other experiences with the medical profesion that make think we would be no worse off going to witch doctors.

The classic is the one about the boy who mistook a nest of baby rattlesnakes for fishing worms and later died from all the bites.

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There also was the rattlesnake fang embedded in a boot, that killed several generations of men as the boots were passed down from owner to owner.

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And, of course, the woman who died from the bite of a non-domestic venomous snake that was in the pocket of her newly-bought imported winter coat.
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MichaelB

I hate to add to an already rediculously long list of insane stories that people actually believe, but around here, and I imagine in many other places, there are a couple I can think of right off hand that are so persistant that the majority of "snake knowledgable" people I have spoken with believe them.

First is the belief that cottonmouths will gather into large breeding balls and travel around lakes or down rivers, mobbing and biting anyone they come in contact with. No doubt these people have seen large masses of aquatic snakes that look similar to cottonmouths, and then thanks to movies like Lonesome Dove, add the mobbing and biting part. But of course they are seeing various Nerodia congregating for breeding and feeding. There is an area here in a wildlife refuge that is a perfect spot to fish for striped bass and huge crappie, and we usually have it all to ourselves because all the poisonous cottonmouths (aka N. rhombifer, N. fasciata, N. sipedon, and very occasionally the super poisonous T. proximus) are all over the place. It's pretty amusing. I can't tell you how many people have nearly lost it when they've seen me catch one, especially if the snake manages to nail me, as watersnakes are good at doing.

Then there is the ever popular story about "Dog Days." I'm at a loss as to what was the basis for forming this myth, and it surprises me that so many people believe it. Supposedly there are a few days during spring when all snakes shed their skin at the same time and are especially venomous and aggressive, often to the point of chasing anyone that comes near. Can't figure out exactly where this one comes from...but it's very annoying nonetheless.

Lastly is the incredibly persistant myth that baby snakes are more venomous than adults. I've had herpers and college professors relate this story to me, so it must be even more persistant than all the rest.

I bet there have been no other group of animals throughout history that have had so much hatred and myth given to them than snakes. Some cultures place then on a deistic level, but all seem to give them supernatural abilities for one reason or another. Too bad there aren't more cultures like India where they are revered.
-Chance

Could the hornet have stung the venom gland of a rattlesnake? I doubt it, just a stupid doctor expecting worst case senario.

>>Could the hornet have stung the venom gland of a rattlesnake? I doubt it, just a stupid doctor expecting worst case senario.

1. I doubt it would get far enough through the skin and gland capsule to actually get into the sting into contact with the venom itself.

2. Even if it did, bear in mind a wasp injects venom, it does not suck anything up with its stinger. The only venom it could transfer would be what is stuck to the outside of its stinger, or rather, what is left once it has pulled its stinger out of the gland and through the layers of skin and connective tissue. The amount left (a fraction of a milligram) would be so fantastically small that ay effect would be barely perceptible.

Either someone is having a laugh, or a physician should ask for his college fees back.

Cheers,

Wolfgang
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WW Home

I was told by somebody at work that insisted that if a rattlesnake's severed head was not buried a wasp would eat it and then would become deadly instead of an intense annoyance when it stings. I laughed at him, and he took it as an insult. It took some fast talking to explain that he wasn't the first to fall for that one, and that I didn't mean any disrespect.

You almost got into a fight over that. Maybe he was not insulted and he just felt stupid. What if you burn the rattle snake, the smoke gets into the lungs of birds making them toxic, the birds poop, the ants crawl acroos it, they eat a bologna sadwitch (which is well known to magnify rattle snake venom), and then they bite a child causing intant death. I would stick to the rules when it comes to crotalus...no margin for error. i also heard that if you eat the heart of a rattle snake you become some crazy warrior ninja immune to snake venom for life. But thats not the best part, if you do not kill a rattle snake you see, it will find everyone you know and kill them in their sleep because thats how they get more rattles on their tail..should I go on...NO WAY these are the dumbest people I have heard of in my life...maybe it is because most people dont know anything about snakes and they listen to anyone that says they do.

That is funny. What I was thinking not trying to say that it would ever happen would be that since wasps bury into decaying animals what if they got into the venom glads while eating a dead venomous snake and latter bit the guy while the were stinging him beings they do bite on occations? Just curious not a statement that I would ever try to defend.

Jeremy

Well, as far as the possibility of a wasp getting into the venom glands and biting(possibly becoming temporarily venomous), I remember reading in some rattler book an item about a Native American tribe-maybe Navajo? that tried putting rattlesnake venom on their arrowheads and it didn't work because of the fast breakdown of the venom. I THINK the book was an old one just called "Rattlesnakes" by J. Frank Dobie-it was interesting 15 years ago, don't know how accurate the info actually is, as I haven't seen it since.
Using this case as a starting point, I don't think a wasp biting into the venom gland would be a big issue, but I don't want to be the one who gets bitten by that wasp to try the experiment either. I know wasps CAN bite-some have nasty looking jaws, but the question is, would they? That would be another issue-if anything, the bite would have a bit of venom, it wouldn't transfer to the sting.

NP
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Peace
Derek

yellow jackets don't bite....they sting!

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

I worked the county fair with some snakes on display a couple of times. There are people who only show their faces to attend fairs, or so it seems. One fellow insisted to me that he had been bitten in the thigh by a rattlesnake while riding horseback. I politely asked if it happened in mountainous country. He said..no, it was on level ground. I tried to find something to make me look busy.

~~Greg~~

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CB

"I'm a truckin bassmole, and proud of it"