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VALLEY MORNING STAR (Harlingen, Texas) 22 November 04 Local man escapes snake’s deadly bite - 48-old-year says leather boots saved his life (Allen Essex)
Photo at URL below: Nat Lopez holds a deadly coral snake he killed Sunday near Arroyo City. Lopez considers himself lucky to have been wearing high-topped leather boots when he accidentally stepped on the serpent. (Allen Essex)
Rio Hondo: A Harlingen man had a close encounter on Sunday with something he’d rather avoid — a deadly 31-inch coral snake.
Natividad "Nat" Lopez said he was fishing at about 1 p.m. Sunday on the bank of the Arroyo Colorado between Rio Hondo and Arroyo City.
"They usually don’t grow this big," he said of the snake. "I stepped on it,’’ he said. "I didn’t have anything to hit it with, so I went like this (stomping motion). If it had bit me, I don’t think I would have made it here."
After he stepped on the snake, he felt something hitting the side of his leg, but fortunately, the snake was trying to bite him through his heavy leather boots concealed under his jeans, Lopez said. The boots saved him.
Although he regrets that Lopez killed the snake, Rio Grande Valley wildlife reporter Richard Moore said people should definitely avoid Texas coral snakes.
"They’re bad boogers," he said. "They’re actually the most virulent snake in North America. Their venom is something like eight times that of a diamondback rattlesnake. It’s basically equal in potency to the toxins in most cobras."
But coral snakes are not aggressive, Moore said. Unlike rattlesnakes, a coral snake has to chew on a victim to inject the venom, so it usually is quickly removed by the victim.
"Coral snakes occur all through Central Texas, all up the Rio Grande, pretty far up past Laredo," Moore said.
There were once many coral snakes in the Valley, but development has reduced their habitat, as with all wildlife, Moore said.
The Mexican milk snake and the king snake have colors that closely resemble a coral snake, but are harmless, he said.
Lopez said that, after he went home and looked the snake up on the Internet to make sure it was a coral snake, the fear started to sink in.
He recalled the old saying about coral snakes: "Red touch yellow, kill a fellow. Red touch black, venom lack."
Lopez, 48, said he killed another coral snake about eight months ago near a resaca at Los Fresnos. That snake was smaller, only 18 inches.
Moore said the snake Lopez killed is a little larger than normal. Adult females are usually 26 inches and males are 24 inches.
The record size for a Texas coral snake was 47 inches, Moore said.
Lopez has been fishing in the same area where he encountered the snake since he was 6 years old, he said.
"I’m not going to be scared off," he said. "I’m going right back and fish there again tonight."
Local man escapes snake’s deadly bite

The other day when I was stomping this chihuahua into a fine paste, the vicious beast would certainly have savaged my ankle if I hadn't been wearing my heavy boots. Since chihuahuas posess teeth nearly identical to those of wolves and much sharper than those of tigers, it would have been tragic for me, the poor defemseless boot wearer.

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Here's your sign!

Not only am I defemseless, but I don't speel good neider...

I have heard of their fiendish attacks and notoiously deadly nips! (lol).

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