To think I almost stepped on one of those fuckers at least once.
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JFC, the fellow already told you it was drumline camp! 
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We have rattlers in Western Maryland (as well as copperheads). Someone told me recently that because so many people kill rattlers when they find them (which is fucking horrible), rattlers with non-functioning rattles are reproducing more than those with rattles that make a sound, thus, rattlesnakes are now becoming stealth rattlesnakes. I would prefer noisy rattlesnakes, thank you. And don’t kill snakes, they are awesome.
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Sometimes, you can just be sitting there and a snake cruises by. It happens to me fairly regularly. Usually, they just keep running their snake errands or whatever. But when they get close, the thing to do is hold still so that you don’t startle them. You never want to startle them.
But I almost always carry snake hooks,just in case.
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Thanks for the info on the guy. I had never heard of him. I guess his name is sort of a tell.
I used to scuba dive with a guy in Australia who did this funky thing with sea snakes. It wasn’t uncommon for sea snakes to wrap themselves around your arms or legs. He’d grab the snake by the tail with one hand, and with the other, run his circled fingers up the body to force the air out. At that point the snake would have no choice but to head for the surface …
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Still, it’s an honor just to be nominated.
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And I’d thought I’d heard/seen all the stupid things people do with incredibly deadly snakes. Did he play with blue ringed octopi too?
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Those costs seem a little nuts. Back when I was a kid (Florida) the vet had antivenin for dogs, and our dogs used it more than once. And once, the vet’s own kid was snake bit, they tried the nearest hospital (in Tarpon Springs), they had none, and rather than hoof it to Tampa General he used animal antivenin on his kid. At some point around about then they quit making antivenin with horse serum and switched to something else less likely to provoke an allergic reaction.
At any rate – $10k/pop seems nuts, we didn’t anything like that on our dogs even adjusted for inflation. Maybe there’s been some gouging along the way?
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Welcome to modern American medicine where a couple of stitches can cost you thousands. College was much cheaper back then too.
Bayonne Medical Center billed Ryan Edgerton and his insurance company just more than $17,000 to treat a 2-inch cut with “five or six stitches” after he accidentally cut his index finger while slicing some melon last summer.
I-Team: Hospital Charges $17,000 to Stitch a 2-Inch Cut in Emergency Room – NBC New York text**
That would be a browned pants moment for me.
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Nope. He claimed that harassing the sea snake wasn’t that dangerous as they have short fangs that couldn’t penetrate the 5mm wet suits we used to wear.
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I wonder if there are some “well endowed” outliers…
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Just be careful when travelling, coral snakes exist all around the world and that rhyme doesn’t hold true everywhere.
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Most real wranglers carry a stun gun these days. (If you have no stun gun or the battery’s dead, and there’s a vehicle nearby, you can use a spark-plug lead instead.)
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After reading that and chuckling, I have to:
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I for one don’t understand. What does stun gun have to do with venom? And I had no idea there were non American coral snakes. I’m never in their American habitat, nevermind overseas, so I think I’m safe.
At least the snake didn’t offer him an apple.
The guy needs an attack rabbit.
I now live in southern Alabama, where we find copperheads in our yards frequently and rattlers occasionally, so I read up on anti-venins. (And alligators, dear lord, don’t get me started.) Anyway, yes, basically it’s gouging. It is complicated to produce, so it would be costly anyway, but gouging is an issue. That’s Crofab.
I don’t think they even make stuff for coral snakes anymore, at least the last I read, but they’re rare and reclusive; I think I read even endangered or threatened. If so, that would be because paper companies have largely destroyed the beautiful long-leaf pine habitat they like.
Also, the current treatment for copperhead bites is “watchful waiting.” So you just lay there in the ICU and hurt like hell; at least that’s how the guy fixing my AC described it.
