The Snakebite Story I Mentioned

8 years ago

This is a follow-up news story on the 7-year-old boy bitten by a rattlesnake over the weekend in Johnston County. I mentioned it a couple of days ago as a reminder to everyone (like myself!) who lives in a rural to semi-rural area where venomous snakes are common. We like to think that the snakes are hibernating for the winter by now, but with the alternating warm/cool days, there's certainly enough heat on some days for them to still be out and active. I hate that the snakes are still active once so many leaves are on the ground because the leaves hide them so well.

Seven-year-old Hospitalized Following Rattlesnake Bite

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Comments (4)

Macmex
8 years ago
Indeed. A friend of mine had hay on pallets, in his barn and moved some pallets about this time of the year. He found SEVERAL copperheads!
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
8 years ago
It is crazy that we are having to watch for snakes so late in the season! We had them coming out in late January/early February and we still have them out, at least occasionally, now. I'm ready for some good, prolonged cold weather (hope it happens!) so we can finally have a legitimate period of not having to worry for a while about moving something and finding venomous snakes.

I hope your friend continues to be careful. My response to finding multiple copperheads might have been to pretty much have a heart attack. I found two in the same day last year in the garden, actually within minutes and within a few feet of one another, and it is one of the very few times that I've actually fired a gun in my garden. The whole gun-in-the-garden thing may be necessary, but it ruins my sense of peace to have to actually use it.

I love living here and never will move, but having said that, if I'd known in 1997 when we bought this property that the venomous snake population would do nothing except, seemingly, grow and grow and grow, I think I would have tried to talk Tim into buying some other place without so much woodland. Maybe something closer to a town. Maybe something on a rocky ridge (though that seems to encourage some rattlesnakes) where we'd be less likely to have so many timber rattlers. Maybe just something that's not so close to the Red River and so close to so much Wildlife Management Area land.
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Macmex
8 years ago
If you can believe it, some years ago, on a sunny January day with snow on the ground (I believe the temperature was about 33 F.), Jerreth and I were sitting at the breakfast table looking out the window, when a hawk swooped down, next to the chain link fence, out by the road, and flew off with a 3' black snake! I suppose the snake found some open ground and the sun created a micro climate which was okay. Anyway, that was a sight to behold!
AmyinOwasso/zone 6b
8 years ago
Someone posted a picture of a hawk catching a snake on the Oklahoma Ornithological Society Facebook page a few days ago. The picture was from a month ago. He said he watched it catch 3 snakes in a matter of minutes. And then he wondered how many snakes were in the grass where he was standing. Pic was of a little garter snake, but I imagine he had an "oh, crap" moment.