Reptile & Amphibian Forums

SUN SENTINEL (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) 28 July 05 Snake bite prompts experts to give physicians a lesson on Reptiles 101 (Tanya Caldwell)
As if hurricanes weren't enough, Floridians have another thing to beware of -- snake-biting season, that time of year when those slithering and sometimes deadly reptiles are most likely to strike.
Snakes tend to attack between April and October. Just last week, a man was bit by a poisonous coral snake and treated at Boca Raton Community Hospital. The incident prompted experts to get together Wednesday to teach physicians and others there about snakes.
Most snakes bite when people are handling them, said Donald Campbell, snake expert at the Green Cay Nature Center in Delray Beach, which opened in February.
"It's trying to say, `Hey, look! I'm down here! Please don't hurt me,'" Campbell said.
He gently juggled a baby scarlet king snake, which isn't poisonous, between his hands as he spoke to the group at the hospital's education center. The snake squirmed, but it didn't bite.
There are 40,000 snakebites in the United States every year, said Dr. Martin Marrero of the Florida Poison Information Center in Miami. Of those, 8,000 are venomous and 10 to 15 result in death.
Florida has six types of venomous snakes, the coral snake and five snakes known as pit vipers. They are: the Eastern diamondback, pygmy and canebrake rattlesnakes; copperhead and cottonmouth, or water moccasin -- and are known for their fangs and elliptical pupils.
The coral snake is known for its red, yellow and black rings, and often is confused with the similarly colored scarlet king snake.
Most people grew up remembering the difference through various rhymes, such as: If red touches yellow, you're a dead fellow. If red touches black, you're OK, Jack.
Campbell said it's easier to think of the coral snake's rings as a traffic light. The yellow means to slow down, he said, and "If the next color you see touching the yellow is red, then you stop."
Marrero said he's got a better rule: "If you see a snake, stay the hell away from it."
Snakebite symptoms can include pain, nausea, weakness, a metallic taste in the mouth and swelling, among others.
If someone is bit, the only thing they should do is seek immediate help -- not try any home remedies, Marrero said.
"Don't freeze it, don't suck it out and don't electrocute the guy," Marrero said. "Call the poison center."
The poison center will then dispatch 911 and start looking for the right antivenin, he said. He said sucking venom out could make matters worse.
Despite the victim's resentment to his or her newfound predator, Marrero said it's not a good idea to kill the culprit.
"Snakes will sometimes play dead," he said. "I'm not kidding -- the tongue will be out and everything. You'll say, `Oh look! I killed it!' and then you'll get bit."
Campbell said people have a better chance of dying from a lightning strike or a bee sting than from snakebite. He calls snakes "the most misunderstood and misrepresented creatures on earth."
"We've always been taught that a good snake is a dead snake. You see one and your first reaction is `Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!' ...," Campbell said.
"[This seminar] isn't to get people to want to hold them and love them, but at least to understand and respect them."
In case of a poison emergency, call the Florida Poison Information Center at 800-222-1222. For more information about the center, see the Web site at http://www.fpicn.org.
Snake bite prompts experts to give physicians a lesson on Reptiles 101

I read the article real quick, but the info I saw was correct, and the lessons taught in the article about how to identify, and behave around wild snakes were well explained, and the plain Jane street advice about leaving snakes alone and playing dead and all was EASY for folks to relate to and not blow off as some snake geek who has a PhD in snakeology.
Good stuff in my opinion. It should be modeled after by other journalists.
-----
Tom
TCJ Herps
"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"