What herps have bitten you?

Originally Posted by jameseallenii@gmail.com

i grew up in Florida, seeing gators most every day, and would never EVER stick my hand in a gators mouth just to say i did it! Although, if you are interested, there are some gator farms that offer day-courses in gator wrestling...you might get to put your head in their mouth!

I can say two things, first, you are much smarter than I was at the time...second I will never put any part of my body into the mouth of a gator of any size ever again.

I got the cool story I wanted...but only because of my self deprecating humor. Otherwise you would never know...

Originally Posted by Focal X

Has anyone been bit by a lady bug? I got lit the hell up this summer by one.

Ugh, I have an ongoing fight with my wife over whether this is even possible. Looks like I lose, but then I haven't been bit by one so

Originally Posted by AK907

Oops, hit post on accident...

I used to catch those little mediterranean geckos all the time. I'd tell my wife to hold it so I can take a pic or whatknot and she would freak, "No, it's gunna bite me!". I'd tell her, "So........?". To this day she has only taken a nip from a baby coastal carpet (didn't even draw blood) and a nip from a small amazon tree boa through a pair of thick work gloves (again, no blood). I know bites can suck from something bigger, but she needs to take a REAL bite from one of our snakes. Then maybe she wouldn't be so afraid because nothing we have will really hurt you. Nothing a bandaid can't solve at least. Like my bite above.

Anyone agree?

I don't know what you have, but in general yes, I agree. In the vast majority of cases bites are much worse BEFORE they happen. I laughed through even my worst experience.

When I was younger I would let anoles bite my earlobe and wear them like jewlery till they dropped off. Freaked the girls out when they found out my earings were alive

Originally Posted by Drew Zaun

I don't know what you have, but in general yes, I agree. In the vast majority of cases bites are much worse BEFORE they happen. I laughed through even my worst experience.

When I was younger I would let anoles bite my earlobe and wear them like jewlery till they dropped off. Freaked the girls out when they found out my earings were alive

Worst I have is a 3ish foot dumeril and 4ish foot IJCP. They are the only ones that have the potential to light ya up good (besides the hognose, but I could never imagine him ever biting). Other than that its just an assortment corns, kings and smaller stuff (and an atb that doesn't get held at all).

Funny you should mention the anole earrings. I used to that with the geckos!

Originally Posted by Focal X

Has anyone been bit by a lady bug? I got lit the hell up this summer by one.

Those are the Asian ladybugs or ever brilliant Dept. of Ag had imported to deal with aphids in soybean fields. They bite and it hurts like the dickens. If you look at them the are larger and lighter orange than our native ladybugs. Supposedly due to their larger size and more aggressive nature they eat more aphids than native ones.

I work at a zoo, I have been bit by damn near everything.

Haven't been bitten by me

I always thought the display animals would be nicer though, they all bite?

I work in Education - our animals are not display animals, they are animals that get handled on a regular basis. Some of them are downright mean. The eagle is a face-biter, but it isn't her bite that intimidates me, it's her talons.

Work herps that have pegged me are:
Green iguana
American alligator (young one mind you! only 3 feet long)
Prehensile Tailed skink
leopard gecko
African fat-tailed gecko
Bearded dragon
Tortoises (lol)

Non-herp animals
Bald eagle
Cockatoo
Great horned owl
Screech owl
Red-Billed hornbill
Fish Crow
assorted amazon parrots
Kinkajous
Chinchillas
Sugar Gliders
Flying Squirrel
Prairie Dogs
Domestic rabbits
Coatis

None of those have been serious, though the cockatoo was the worst (broke a fingernail out at the cuticle. Ouch.) Snake bites are nothing compared to parrots.

Most of my snakes have bitten me at one point (a modest collection of mid-sized and smaller constrictors) as has my Cuban Knight Anole, Savannah Monitor, so many turtles I have lost track (mostly small ones).

I've been belted by just about everything over years; from rattlers to big rats.. Thankfully the rattler bite was a dry one; done mucking with them bad boys n girls; a bite from an adult rat is about the finest in my book.. Comparable to laying the proposed spot out and smacking it with a hammer!! Lol.. All time fav: an adult emerald tree boa female that left a caninus tooth in my finger, since I just had to recoil back.. The heartbeat sensation remained in that spot for months... Trying to remove it with tweezers only resulted in it breaking and going in deeper.. That's when you feel the love!!

lol I forgot that I have been nipped by a green sea turtle as well, but I can't really call it a bite as she barely applied pressure and had I not seen it I would not have known it wasn't a bump.

I am starting to think I might be a bit slower than I should be...