To paraphrase the poet, I never see one without getting a zero at the bone.
That’s the way most of us would describe our generalfeelings about snakes.
According to local anglers, snake sightings appear to be up this year, especially around the streams and riverbanks.
A fellow was telling me the other day about running into a huge copperhead on Glade Creek.
The snake apparently had crawled out of the water and was resting on a rock when the angler almost stepped on him.
“Snakes are more active during hot weather because they’re cold-blooded animals,” explained Larry Berry, retired wildlife biologist in the area. “More people are likely to see them in late summer and early fall.”
During the dry months, many creatures are forced to seek water from small streams.
As a result, mice and other prey species are concentrated near water, which attracts snakes of all kinds.
All the snakes are beneficial, though, in that they consume mice, rats and insects.
“The likelihood of human contact with snakes increases during hot weather,” Berry noted, “because many homes in Southern West Virginia are located near streams and creeks.”
And while most snakes in people’s backyards are non-poisonous, it still pays to be careful when dealing with any kind of the scaly, legless reptiles with long tapering bodies.
Several years ago, West Virginia had the third highest poisonous snake bite rate of the state’s east of the Mississippi, according to one medical school study.
The study revealed that some 200 West Virginians were bitten each year by poisonous snakes. Most bites were attributed to copperheads.
That figure, of course, is much lower today, but the potential is still there for snakebites in our area.
According to the DNR, there are only two species of poisonous snakes native to the Mountain State.
They are the Northern Copperhead and the Timber Rattlesnake. The remaining 20 species or sub-species are non-poisonous.
And though there have been frequent reports of the Cottonmouth Moccasin in the state, the southern species simply does not exist here.
In fact, the boundaries of the moccasin’s known range falls more than 200 miles from the borders of the state.
So, how do you determine if a snake is poisonous or not?
Well, if the snake has a set of horny rattles on the end of its tail, it’s certainly poisonous.
Sometimes, though, these rattles are broken off and the snake must be identified by its pattern.
Both poisonous snakes in West Virginia are pit vipers.
That is, they have a small pit or opening between the eye and the nostril on each side of the head.
This is a sense organ used to detect the presence of warm-blooded prey when the snake is feeding at night. Both species have a large, triangular-shaped head.
The copperhead and the rattlesnake also have vertical pupils in the eye, and a single row of scales underneath the tail.
The fangs are long, hollow, curved teeth that lie in the front of the upper jaw. When the snake strikes, the fangs are erected to deliver two injections of the venom into the wound.
Here are how biologists identify a poisonous snake in the Mountain State:
The Northern Copperhead is a rich brown color. The top of the head of a newly shed specimen is a bright copper color. The dark blotches on the back are hourglass shaped (narrow on the back and broad on the sides). The belly is pinkish, and there is a row of dark, rounded spots along each side near the belly.
The Timber Rattlesnake has a ground color which varies from bright yellow to a brown, gray, or even black. The dark brown or black markings are V-shaped or irregular blotches. The presence of a horny button or series of rattles on the tip of the tail are the most distinctive characteristic.
To be bitten by a poisonous snake is serious business, no doubt.
Such a bite can occasionally result in death or permanent injury.
Copperhead bites generally are less serious than rattlesnake bites because copperheads are much smaller in size.
The body size of the poisonous snake dictates the amount of venom stored.
The copperhead venom is less toxic than rattlesnake venom.
“A person bitten by a poisonous snake should first attempt to obtain the snake for identification purposes and then go directly to the nearest hospital,” Berry advised.
“The sooner that antivenom can be administered, the better,” the biologist said. “The quicker you get the treatment, the less the amount of tissue damage from the poison.”
I second that.
And I can appreciate how the poet felt about the creepy-crawly things of the woods.
If they hiss and wriggle, I don’t want anything to do with them.
They give me…aahhhh
…a zero at the bone.
—
Top o’ the morning!