Bite Club

I was working at a reptile store in Atlanta, feeding snakes one Friday, and I got hit pretty good. I was tossing a rat into the tank housing the last unfed redtail (nasty, 7ft male), when time suddenly slowed to a crawl. The rat hung suspended in mid air while I noticed the snake's mouth opening and his head rushing toward my face. With my cat-like reflexes (note the sarcasm), I threw my upper body backwards and brought my hand up in a cross-blocking motion as if to slap him away. I was too slow. When he hit me, my head had moved back enough so that his upper teeth tore down both sides of my nose,and his lower teeth went straight into my upper lip, then straight back out again. At this point, time began moving as it normally does again. I fell down onto my butt, knocking over several sweater boxes full of feeding snakes. I sat there for a few seconds, stunned, and all I could think while looking at this snake hanging out of its tank was, "That snake bit me." It took a second, but then my face realized what had happened, and began bleeding profusely. I'm sure I ran off a few customers on my way from the hotroom to the bathroom, but it made for a great story later on.

It was two weeks before I could touch a redtail again, and even then, there was an 11 foot female that still made my hands shake. All I could think of when I looked at her was how far across my face her mouth would extend.

Getting bit in the face is... almost... the worst.

I got tagged in a local herp shop a little over a year ago, I was wandering around, didn't realize they had some of the cages open (sliding glass vision-style doors, but not visions) and got tagged right in the side of the head by a (fairls small, four maybe five foot) burm. Didn't really realize what happened for a couple seconds, as it was a strike and retreat kind of deal.

It was a nice clean quick bite though, no real tearing or hooking of teeth and rending of skin... I did end up with a tooth in me though, behind my ear and it had healed over before I really realized what it was... I wear glasses (Heavy, thick glasses) and the earpiece was rubbing against this tooth which had been covered by new skin, built up fluid around it before I really figured out what it was. Had to lance the irritated area and squeeze until I got the tooth out.

I have kept snakes for well over 35 years, and from when I was a kid keeping them up until the present many non-snake people have told me how brave I am to hold a snake. I usually go along with the ego boost, therefor little do they suspect that I am a real wus when it comes to being bitten by a snake - just about any snake. My last bite of any merit was a Rainbow Boa at a local show about a year or so ago. A guy I knew wanted me to try to sell it for him and I agreed. As I pulled it out of the sack it was in, I asked that ever so ridiculous question: "Does it bite?" No sooner had the friend answered me: Nope, never has bitten" than the snake launched itself forward like that 5,000 mile per hour jet (of a few days ago) and struck me in the left forearm twice. Nice bleeders, but little if any pain. What surprised me was my reaction, or should I say lack of it. I calmly removed the snake and put it away in a display box. Of course, I almost swooned, but I hid that pretty well.

You may think that my calm actions would be the normal course of action for the big brave snake handler - but it was far from normal for me. Usually when a snake bites me, even when it is a neonate corn snake, I jerk back in sheer terror trying to avoid being bitten and scream "Aaaaahhhhh" or something to that effect. Many times over the years I have been too darned slow and the snakes got me. Other times though, and this has been due to lots of snakes trying to chomp down on me like I was a tasty mousicle, I manage with speed faster than a speeding bullet to jerk away just in the nick of time. The thing is though that when I do that, I do it in a motion more powerful than a locomotive. When you combine faster than a speeding bullet with more powerful than a locomotive you don't necessarily wind up with superman - especially when you add scared s--tless to that equation. What I do often wind up with is the scraped elbow as it rakes backwards across a tank top (those inside aquarium edges are a fine place to peel of a few layers of elbow grease and elbow skin). I once had about a 6 to 8 inch long, 2 to 3 inch wide scrape through several layers of skin avoiding a Gopher Snake bite. The thing is the bite would have been much less painful or damaging. Sometimes I smash backwards into the wall that I forgot was there. Or other times I have jumped backwards so fast as to lose my footing and land unceremoniously on my duff. Worse still is when the dogs are watching and I land atop one or two of them and the snake gets away because it fell to the floor in the mass of mammalian bodies. That can cause some pandemonium and embarrassment if anyone else is watching; heck it is bad enough in front of just the dogs!

I once pulled back so fast and hard - with the snake attached to my index finger mind you - that the snake flew about 15 feet across the room. Yes that was with a vicious baby corn snake all of less than a week old. I guess that is the worst thing, when I loose it when a baby snake bites me. I have this absolute, I am a big sissy boy, aversion to being bitten by a snake, any snake. I have tried to control it, and last year's bite by the Rainbow Boa showed some control, but maybe only because it came so unexpectedly. Then again I have watched in rather morbid fascination as a Northern Water Snake or three has chewed on my hand or fingers drawing lots of blood. My son has seen me do it many times to - that is scream or pull back and scream, or scrape myself etc, not act brave while a snake chews at will... We were in upstate NY once, walking along a river under a water fall when he spotted a Northern Water Snake. Once I had ID'd the snake, I told him to go for it. He made a few grabs, finally listened that he had to grab forward of where he wanted to get the snake, and then came up with one heck of a pissed off, nasty, and biting mass of coils. This was a pretty good sized one too, about 3 1/2 feet as I recall. It bit once or twice and then bit and chewed. I could see the panic in Brendan's face, and anticipating his next move (because I saw him tensing to do so) I immediately yelled out "Don't pull it off, let it chew it'll be better that way and hurt less". At that moment I saw a look of total bewilderment come across his face, and in a moment another look, that of doubtful trust. Yet another moment later I saw that all was well and Brendan was smiling as the Northern chewed away for a couple of seconds. I then told him to gently push his finger into the mouth a bit more - again that perplexed look - but he did it and the snake's mouth opened. I then had him push the head forward with his other hand, shimmying side to side a bit to unlock all the teeth and he was free. After that we both admired his catch before he released it. Then, and more importantly, we admired his war wounds. He now looked pretty proud of himself and seemed pretty confident that a snakebite from a nonvenomous snake that size was no big deal if on his hand anyhow. I, of course, was quite happy to see him overcome my ridiculous fear. It is always nice to see the young ones growing up better than yourself.

Mostly recently I have avoided bites by a female Western Hognose that I have. Brendan and I are afraid of that after seeing a picture spread of the effects of a Hognose bite. She is nasty until picked up and repeatedly strikes. I really do not want to find out if a quick bite and release from a hognose is enough to envenomate or not, so I continue my slapstick antics of pull back and scrape or pull back and smash.

As to the number of bites. Well it has got to be up there, at least 100 maybe more; or should I say attempted bites, as many wound up as bashes or scrapes instead of bites. Still, many have connected. With all that said, you would think I would never handle a venomous snake, but I have caught Mojave, Western Diamondback, Pygmy, and other types of rattlers. I was very careful when I handled them, and kept hands on to a minimum. Of course when I am bitten at home by one of my snakes, it is due to sheer carelessness. I am quite careful with large nonvenomous snakes as I am with any venomous snake - and by quite careful I mean extremely careful. There are no Steve Irwin antics for me while catching hots.

If anyone is interested, there is a GREAT book out there called the Snakebite Survivor's Club. It is available at Barnes & Noble. It is an account of one man's attempt to overcome his fear of snakes by visiting 4 or 5 continents and checking on survivors of venomous snakebite while doing so. He is a travel writer, if I recall correctly, and wrote this one very well. I think the author's name is Jeremy Seal. A truly fun read.

Oh well, time to head to work.

All the best,
Glenn B

Oh, I almost forgot, my absolute worst bite came from a Guatemalan. No not a milk snake, but an illegal alien. I still have the scar today, some 21 to 22 years later, on my left bicep. And me afraid of a baby corn snake, jeeesh!

Yesterday an ornery yellow-bellied racer bit the tar outta me.
As bad as any colubrid bite I've had (which means not very bad), but it actually hurt for a second. Surpise!

I've had coachwhips go for my face, but never got me, I've had smaller snakes, like patchnosed strike madly and repeatedly. I've been tagged many times by assorted ratsnakes and such, but my worst thus far was a friend's nigritus (black kingsnake).
It is a fairly large female. She latched on between the thumb and index finger of my right hand and would not let go. We must have tried to remove it for over 10 minutes. Tried the water thing, to no avail. Finally, we managed to slip a credit card between its top jaw and my skin and pried her off.
That bite left a mark for several weeks.
It was my fault, of course. I'd handled a milksnake prior to holding her.
Later, I heard that alcohol with make them let go, but I don't think I'd try that.

You would need be very careful with alcohol. I used it once held under the nose of the snake and it let go but only after a minute or so. If I had gotten any into the snakes mouth it may have killed it as I was using denatured isopropyl alcohol. Luckily the wiff did it no harm. No it was not a smart move, but one that came recommended by someone, somewhere, sometime. After I got a strong wiff myself, I decided against using it again. Apparently it can cause blindness, and even kill if ingested and I do not believe there is an antidote for poisoning by denatured alcohol.


Best regards,
GB

I've been keeping snakes for roughly 13 years and I've gotten a few bites but not a terrible number of them. My female boa nipped me once when I first got her as a yearling. Then some years later she bit me good when I reached into a tub to return her to her cage and startled her (since they don't have eyelids, I had no clue she was evidently asleep and didn't notice my approach). I've gotten a couple of nips from babies - offhand my juvenile coastal carpet is the only one to come to mind. My female dumerils boa bites me on a regular basis...I hardly even count her bites as part of the total because I know she's slightly neurotic. She is an 'always use a hook and leather gloves' pet. However her brother is an absolute angel and is quite nice to handle. My female Solomon Island ground boa that I got in 2002 was wc and bit repeatedly. Even now I only have a truce with her that allows me to move her from her sweater box to a tub and back again while I clean her tub. My Colombian rainbow once started chewing on my forearm (barely scratched the skin) while I held him with one hand and grabbed his water bowl with the other. At first I thought it was simply his belly scales scratching my arm as he crawled, until I looked and he was steadily chewing. This is the only time in 6-7 years that I've had him that he's ever even so much as acted as if he'd bite. And even this time it wasn't vicious, just a calm chew.

The two most significant both happened just this past February. The first was one of my 7' male Bci decided to bite my hand and completely wrap my arm to the elbow - strictly my fault as I'd put him in a cleaned feeding tub while I cleaned his cage, instead of a pillowcase like normal, with no intention of feeding him. My other half poured rubbing alcohol around him mouth on my hand to make him let go (more on the alcohol in a minute). He bruised the hand pretty well and left a good number of puncture wounds (in fact, I still have a slight pattern of his lower jaw showing where he grabbed my hand). Exactly one week later, I was at my Mom's cleaning out my 13' burm's cage and when I reached in to pet her prior to hauling her out, she nailed the same hand in the same spot and though she didn't wrap me, she did decide to hold on. Rubbing alcohol worked again...but it took a bit longer for her to decide to let go. As it turned out later, she was going into shed and just didn't want to be bothered. I'd been working with her for two years before getting her myself last November (she'd belonged to my best friend who had to get rid of her) and she had never so much as hissed before when we took her out of the cage - shed or no shed - in the two years my friend had her. Her bite really rattled me and I'm still a bit more nervous about taking her out than I EVER was before...even so, I have no plans to get rid of her but I do have a more healthy respect for her potential to harm.

Now, on the rubbing alcohol. I did contact my reptile vet after the first incident with the boa and he said it is safe to use to get them to release in a situation such as these two - where the snake latches on and does not let go. Also, my Mom took a swig of rubbing alcohol once by mistake and it did her no real harm (just tasted like crap). She'd had a bottle of it in her car for cleaning her windshield in the winter (doesn't freeze like many window cleaners will and doesn't streak period) and she also had a bottle of lemonade. She reached for the lemonade while driving and grabbed the wrong bottle. She got a full mouthfull and swallowed. While she wouldn't recommend it, she suffered no ill effects other than a rotten taste in her mouth and momentary burning. Yes, it can be harmful in quantity and should be used only in emergency situations. Ideally you should pour it on yourself around the bite, rather than directly in the snake's mouth. Most of the time the snake will let go on it's own. With large or giant constrictors, there is more hazzard - especially if the animal is wrapped. Ultimately when it comes to our safety versus the snake, we should be looking to ourselves.

That said, with the boa I was more concerned about him than I was me (drove my other half NUTS since I was bleeding all over the place) and even flushed his mouth out with clean water to help him out before I'd even properly bandaged my hand (just wrapped in paper towels). He salivated more than is normal for a short while but was just fine afterwards. The burm had no problems at all because of her size - my hand was almost completely in her mouth and she got little to no alcohol in her mouth. I believe it was the smell that made her let go. As an alternative to rubbing alcohol, I understand that hard liquor works as well. Hopefully I don't have a next time, but if I do maybe I'll try the Smirnoff.

Dianne

I understand that hard liquor works as well.

For the record, from my experience hard liquor doesn't work.
Years ago I had a ball python that didn't see well at all. He would strike and miss his prey several times before actually getting hold of it. He would do it even with thawed prey that was motionless.
I generally helped him get the rodent at feeding time. Once I put a thawed mouse in his cage and he struck, missing two or three times. Using forceps, I moved to bring the mouse to him when he suddenly lunged and had me by the knuckle. It was a feeding strike and before I could stop him he lifted his body and constricted my hand.

He had quite a grip on me and I proceeded to sit down to wait him out, since you're normally released in a couple of minutes anyway. (This was just a ball, I don't blame you for not waiting out a 13 foot burm haha.)
After 30 minutes he was showing no signs of turning loose, and any muscle movement on my part caused him to tighten up grinding his teeth into my knuckle.
My fingers were turning blue, so I decided that was enough. I too had been told of the liquor trick, so I took some burbon and poured it into his mouth. Five minutes and a couple more drinks for him and he hadn't loosened at all.
I finally had to slowly unwind him, and even then I had to work his mouth from the death grip he had on my knuckle.

He was fine after that, but I filed that information away, in the event of constriction by a large snake, the drink is better saved for yourself after you get the snake off you.

Hmm, if that had been me with the BP, I think I would have joined him in a drink! As for a 13 foot Burm, gotta be careful and have at least one, and I would think, preferably two other people on hand when that snake's enclosure is open, it might be hard to grab the alcohol if it ever wrapped around both your arms and body.

An idea just struck me. I just got issued pepper spray at work - after only 24 years on the job - took em a while heh - well, I wonder if it would do the trick, or if something like hot sauce would work? I would experiment, but I really am a wus about being bitten. Maybe I'll have to keep a bottle of Tabasco Sauce in the snake room, just in case, and to see if it works. With my luck, the snake would like it.

All the best,
GB