Red Touch Yellow

 

A 19 year old student attending the University High School in Orange County Florida was hanging around outside before school started one day and noticed something in the grass.  Maybe he had watched too many of the wrong wildlife shows or maybe he was a budding zoologist.  For whatever reason he thought it would be cool to grab the pretty little creepy crawly and take it in the building with him.

Big mistake.

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The young man may have thought the pretty red, black, and yellow snake was so small that the girls would think it was cute, or that they’d think he was super macho because he wasn’t afraid of snakes.  Either way, everybody was going to think he was cool.  I don’t know for sure what he was thinking but I know from personal experience that it’s the way boys often do think.

Yeah, I was a boy once.

The critter was actually a coral snake, which is one of the most dangerous species of reptile in the United States.  The boy was bitten, necessitating a trip to the emergency room.

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Now, if you’ve been reading my blog very long you know that I like snakes.  I’ve spent most of my life living in the country.  Well, in the country, you know you’re going to have plenty of snakes, which is a lot better than all the mice and rats that you’ll also have in the boonies.

Usually.

If you’ve ever lived in a house infested with rodents you know how horrible it can be and how difficult it can be to get rid of the buck-toothed pests.  They stink, which is horrible.  They eat your food, which is awful.  They chew things up, which is very irritating.  But worst of all, they spread disease, which can be deadly.  Ever heard of the bubonic plague?

Yeah, that.

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It’s usually easy to keep snakes out of your house.  Snakes generally don’t stink.  Most snakes love to eat rodents.  But best, snakes don’t carry diseases that infect people.

See why I prefer the snakes.

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Annie was scared of snakes when we started dating.  Now, well, she’s still scared of them but she is no longer REALLY scared of them.

Also, we raised six sons out in the country, yet not a single one of them ever got bitten by a snake.  But I did.  Yep, I did, but it was my fault, and it was a calculated risk that I took.  I knew exactly what I was doing and I was in no real danger.

What?  No danger?

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Annie and I taught our very rambunctious and extremely active boys first: NEVER pick up a snake unless you KNOW exactly what it is.  If you don’t know, DON’T TOUCH IT!  I didn’t mince words as I explained to them that, if you get bitten by a poisonous snake you will be in a LOT of pain and could die.  That death is, by the way, even MORE PAINFUL!  I taught them, if they saw a snake, get away from it and come get me.

Now, our boys didn’t always obey us but when it came to the risk of suffering a very painful death, they did pay attention.

So, how did I get bitten then?  Let me tell you.

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As you know, I keep chickens.  Often, in the spring, I buy new little chicks to renew my stock.  They have to be kept warm at first and a lot of snakes like to eat little chicks at least as much as they like rodents, so I tacked one-inch chicken wire around the openings in my brooder room.  That kept most of the reptiles out but one determined serpent crawled through the wire until he got stuck, then tried to crawl out through a different hole, then back in, then…you get the idea.

I said I like snakes; I didn’t say it was because they are smart.

The tangled serpent was a beautiful black rat snake, named that because of their normal adult color and what they like to eat.  If I relocated the snake it probably wouldn’t find its way back to my chickens, but would continue eating rodents.  Pretty much a win-win, right?

Not wanting to subject my boys to the fear of holding the head of a six foot long snake while I worked it loose from the wire, I undertook the job all by myself.  I did let them watch if they wanted though…educational experience and all, you know.

I may not be too smart either, but I was smart enough to start freeing the critter at the end farthest from his head.  One hand had to hold the clutching constrictor’s tail end out of the way so I could cut the wire with the other hand, which held the side cutters.  When I worked closer to his head, the ungrateful reptile bit me.

Well, I did have the satisfaction of knowing he was non-venomous.

Yeah, there’s that.

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Unlike us, snakes continue to grow new teeth throughout their lives so any that are lost when they are catching prey will be replaced.  So will any lost when biting the hand that rescues them.

That would be me.

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Fangs feel pretty much like splinters except for one thing.  While splinters and thorns soften when they absorb body juices, fangs, being basically bone, do not.  It took me a few days to tease the curved spikes out but the only danger to me was of infection.  A little antibiotic took care of that.

What, fangs not dangerous?

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All snake teeth are fangs.  Poisonous snakes have (usually) two hollow ones that serve as hypodermic needles to inject the venom.

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There are basically four different species of poisonous snakes in the U.S. – coral snakes, rattlesnakes, copperheads, and water moccasins.  Coral snakes don’t look at all like any of the other three, but they look a LOT like several NON-venomous snakes.

We don’t have coral snakes in Missouri where we live, but the other three species of venomous snakes are regionally abundant.  There are several ways to identify them but most require close examination.  You have to either be holding the snake or be pretty much within striking distance.

Yeah…no thanks.

In our state, if the snake has a head shaped like an arrowhead, there’s a reasonable chance it’s poisonous.  That’s the venom glands that make the poisonous critters’ cheeks bulge.

But the type snake the Florida boy was bitten by is different.

The poisonous coral snake has a pattern of colored bands encircling their length.  The design goes red, yellow, black, yellow, etcetera.  All the non-venomous snakes that resemble them have the repeating pattern of red, black, yellow, black, and so on.  That may be a little awkward for some to memorize, but there’s an easier way.  Try this little rhyme, “Red touch black, good for Jack.  Red touch yellow, kill a fellow.”  Or cut it even shorter and just remember, “Red touch yellow, kill a fellow.”

Of course, as I taught my sons, “If you don’t know what it is, what do you do?

Simply put, LEAVE IT ALONE!”

Is that simple enough?

 

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(above) This photo mockup shows how easy it is to confuse the poisonous coral snake (top) with some harmless species.  It also shows the key to telling them apart.

 

(below) I’m no doctor but this guy is, according to this news report.  He gives advice on what to do if you suspect you may have been bitten by a poisonous snake.