Snake Bite
We have our share of snakes in the Southeastern United States to include venomous and non-venomous varieties. While I am not normally fearful of snakes, I do treat them with caution and respect, particularly if it requires that I have to remove those that occasionally make their way into our backyard or garage.
One evening several years ago I arrived home from work in the early evening to find my wife frantic. While I normally park my vehicle in the garage and enter our home via a door leading from the garage area into the house, she met me in the driveway and motioned for me to stop. I knew something was up – this was not normal behavior for her to greet and stop me in the driveway.
“What’s going on?” I asked curiously, a look of panic on her face.
“There’s a snake in the garage,” she replied, twitching and bobbing around, nervously looking behind her as if the snake was ready to pour out from under the closed door and leap all over her.
“Where is it?” I asked as I sighed, knowing there would not be a moment’s peace or rest until the, “snake emergency” was fully resolved.
“It’s under the shelve closest to the door” she pointed with her right hand, covering her mouth with her left hand as she spoke, not wanting to believe this was happening (again).
I walked to within a few feet of the shelve, dropped to my hands and knees and placed the left side of my face flat to the smooth surface of the concrete garage door floor in an attempt to confirm the location of the snake; sure enough, there he (or she) was. The bottom of the shelve was about an inch off the floor, and I could see what clearly was a snake, but it was too dark to determine what type it was. I stood, grabbed the end of the shelve closest to me, and moved it to my left approximately 90 degrees, exposing the snake, who was now beginning to move. Even with the garage lights on, the lighting was not very good for, “garage snake handling” but I recognized our visitor as a red corn snake, aka known as a red rat snake. It was approximately 18 inches in length and non-venomous. It stopped moving just long enough for me to make my move. I slowly kneeled, and as quickly as I could, I reached to grab the snake behind his head. At the same time, my wife, in a blood curdling scream, yelled, “NO, IT”S A COPPERHEAD.” It was like an observer or participant sneezing at the golf course as a player makes his swing – the club passing right over the top of the ball as the jolted player completes the swing. It had the same effect on me – I wound up grabbing the snake too far behind the head and it immediately turned and bit me on the web of my right hand, that soft spot between the index finger and thumb. My wife , who was still standing on the driveway, fainted, and fortunately, fell face first onto the front yard. I twisted and dislodged the snake from my hand and tossed it over the fence, my hand bleeding profusely. I grabbed a clean rag off the same shelve, wrapped it around my hand, and then walked to where my wife was, picked her up and carried her into the house and laid her face up on the sofa in the family room as she started coming around. I elevated her feet and sat next to her, gently coaxing her back to consciousness, thankful she had fallen on the grass and not the hard concrete driveway.
She was still glassy eyed as I explained to her the, “snake problem” was over. It wasn’t a copperhead I told her, just a red rat snake (with a painful, but non-lethal bite). It was all beginning to sink in as she became more aware of her surroundings and her color returned. I stood and walked to the guest bathroom, unwrapped my hand and began washing the bite area with copious amounts of anti-bacterial soap and water. The bite was a good one – it left a horseshoe bite mark on both sides of my hand as I completed cleaning it up, covering it with antibiotic ointment and a large bandage. The mouth of a snake is not very clean, so any bite, even a non-poisonous one requires this kind of attention to prevent possible infection.
We still occasionally find a snake in the garage or the backyard. The difference now is I use snake tongs to ensnare or coax it out of the garage or the yard. I tease her every now and then about what happened – funny, but she doesn’t find it so.
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A very well written incident . In a short story form with a happy ending ! It had enough suspense to keep me interested even when snakes is not my favorite subject!
I have never had a close encounter with a snake even when I know there are some in the area Where i live …
If I ever find one in my house …I will probably put the house on the market , the very same day !
Good read ,thanks or posting it !
Australia is home to two of the most deadly snakes on the planet, the Tiger Snake and the Brown Snake. A bite from either of these two and it’s possibly game over, even with immediate medical attention and available anti-venon. The lesson here is NEVER get bitten by either of these !
Good blog Jon. I see brown snakes often here, I live out in the bush. Half hour from nearest hospital so if I get bitten its goodbye. But when you know what you are doing its not so bad. But its if you stand on one unexpectantly, thats when it happens. They dont chase you or hide behind the corner of the house waiting for you lol I have had one brown slither over my foot, I was nearly dying of a heart attack with fright but I did not move one bit as I knew if I jumped it would of bitten me. Put it this way, I didnt bother washing those underpants lol
Thanks Jon for reminding me ! :-/
oh jon lol, glad you and your wife were ok. good blog. I once had a siamese cat who used to bring in a put treasures on our bed lol. first time i rang hubby at work, HELP lol. I put a bucket over the snake and kept it there till he came home, harmless little python, felt such a dill lol xxx
Cat’s that bring home these, “little treasures” are telling you something. They are telling you how much they enjoy being your cat, and are bringing home a, “present” to let you know!
Yes, cats have a strange sense of giving gifts. lol We’ve had tiny mice and rats, bugs, birds, lizards placed on our front porch. Of course, I jump about 10 feet high and SCREAM each time I discover one of these treasures. Ha!
Most i get is a dead mouse on the patio, courtesy of the cat !!! and thats all i want lol !! Brill blog jon xx
Same thing here as well !
Not everyone likes snakes – obvioulsy – your poor wife!! lol. Good blog Jon, thoroughly enjoyed it. I used to have a pet carpet snake – to kill the rats on the farm. It had to go when Mum found it in the laundry tub one washday – she was NOT fond of snakes!!! I did miss “Millie” – she was the highlight of my school “news’ days… thanks for the good read and bringing back memories… Lina x
🙁 only nightmares i have is snakes uuurrrghhh horrible creatures
I have a phobia about snakes and always remember my first visit to Florida in the 70s. I was told that there are 4 leathal snakes in the USA and Florida has all of them.
Crossing roads was a terrifing experiance for me as I would not go on any grass in the centre and tried to jump over.
I cause much amusement to drivers whilst doing this and got beeped a lot but I never got bite.
The 4 venomous snakes are: The Rattlesnake, the Cottonmouth Water Moccasin, the Copperhead, and the Coral Snake. In reference to the first three their venom is a hemotoxin, whereas the Coral Snake’s venom is a neurotoxin. In practical terms, the Rattlesnake is the most dangerous, and it’s venom is beginning to take on a combination hemo and neuro toxic characteristic, although snake experts are not quite sure the reason behind it, they suspect it may have something to do with more interbreeding of different rattlesnake species.
I had a very close encounter with a huge, healthy venomous snake (rattlesnake) while out walking on an early weekend morning with a neighbor. We suddenly decided to take a different route during our walk and walked up and down a ditch. As I stepped out of the ditch… there in front of me (inches from me) was a coiled and resting rattlesnake which appeared to be asleep.
Do rattlesnakes sleep? I have no idea! But, I froze and stepped back and then slowly walked away from it. My friend was not that close to it.
I must say… I felt my blood drain from my body that awful morning and can’t ever shake off that memory.
I feel that it may have just had an adequate meal and had found a warm, safe location in which to coil up and rest until its prey was digested. Snakes will occasionally sun themselves in the middle of an open trail.
I can only say that I was being watched from up above and am thankful that it did not strike me.
Did I say that I am terrified of snakes? lol When we’d go to the zoo, I’d avoid the “Snake Glass Enclosure” like the black plague.
Jon, I’m so glad that the snake was not ‘lethal’.
Rattlesnakes and Copperheads are very common in Texas.
Jon, Good Blog and glad your wife was ok and you also . Had a baby black snake in my house last xmas under the rug at the patio door and my son was here and picked it up and threw it outside and I haven’t seen anymore since then. I am sure they are rattlesnakes here in the Baltimore , Md area and also other kinds of snakes . Have never enclounted any snakes and we owned a cabin in the mountains up in Pa. years ago and never saw any up there. I have seen some snakes in the Everglades in Flordia but they were in the water but I hope to never encounter one as I would probally faint like your wife did.
So glad you and your wife are okay Jon, but I would have reacted the same as your wife – I hate snakes. I have only had 2 encounters with snakes and that was when I lived near a wetlands and small snakes came into my yard, but I had my sons then to get rid of them. The other time was when a friend and I were about to enter a pub for lunch and there was a large snake curled up in the entrance to the pub in the main street. How it got there I will never know, but a snake handler was called in and he took care of it. Still sends shivers down my spine just thinking about them. xox
Great blog Jon. When we lived in the southern states, a long black snake decided to pay us a visit on our lawn. Like your wife, I totally freaked out! My husband was not as gallant as you to engage in battle with it. Down in S. Alabama the water moccasin is deadly and all we could think of was “deadly” don’t got near it! Well, our gallant neighbour came along and assured us it was harmless – it went after rats only, The neighbour deftly lifted it and marched it to the woods across from us. I never did venture into the woods after that.