Arrested Development - Ex-Pats Mexico

"Every snake is potentially a bad snake in my book!" That's one of the all time dumbest comments I've heard in eons. We have many varieties of snakes here in the midsouth. A couple poisonous....most not. People go out of their way to kill ALL of them. I guess it just takes too much time and brain matter to learn to tell the difference. I won't kill any of them..even the poisonous ones as long as they're far enough away from my house and barn not to be a danger. Without them, we'd be overrun with rodents.

I once saw a copperhead in the middle of the road with a mouth full of frog. Since he was busy, I was able to get safely close to him. Very pretty snake, and since he was a safe distance from my home and critters, I left him to enjoy his lunch.

The snake is alive and in a flower bed.

I agree 100%.

I am also a snake-o-phile and handle snakes all the time.....I am careful to know about the snakes in my area and help others to learn to identify and appreciate them so they don't kill all snakes...my experience with locals is that they mostly are very fearful of snakes and kill them all whether they are poisonous or not....if you were to ask most of my neighbors they would identify all snakes as nauyacas (fer de lance) whether or not they are....they have lots of old wives' type tales that describe how some of them whip and sting you with their tails or suck the life out of babies....

Re: taking antihistamine for a snake bite and the article from which Pamela quoted....that reference to using an antihistamine was to deal with anaphylactic reactions to the antivenin and not for reactions to the venom itself....antihistamines will only help you with a snake bite if you are allergic to the venom and not if you are having the normal reaction to the venom.....

I assumed because of the look of the snake that it wasn't poisonous and I have saved several snakes of that type here because the cats catch them and bring them home. I wasn't concerned about one being poisonous until it bit me and then I thought I should find out. I took the antihistamine as a small precaution figuring it wouldn't hurt and might help. I do not spook too easily and thought I would wait awhile to see if the bite areas had any reaction such as discoloration, swelling, etc., and nothing happened within 10 minutes so I knew it was safe. A poisonous bite shows signs almost immediately and I'm not very good at getting overly excited or hysterical even if I had a reason.

It's a shame schools can't be more active in teaching children about animals and subduing the fears kids are taught. I know people who are afraid of dogs, birds, and reptiles. If you ask them if they have ever been in a car wreck and they say "Yes," then ask them if they are afraid of cars, they will say "No." It seems more logical to be afraid of something that you have experienced like a car wreck than to be afraid of an animal that has never injured you, but then most fear is illogical.

How do we really know if Pamela was truly bitten by a snake? Maybe she concocted this story to draw attention to herself? If so, it really worked!

Pamela & Kippy - Now there is a pair to draw to! Obviously reading comprehension challenged! I never stated that: 1) snakes did not have a place in the world and were not part of natures balance, OR 2) that I was afraid of animals (furthest thing from the truth)!

Boy, you are really getting nutty. Did you notice that the snake bite didn't really bother me? I only posted to ask what kind of snakes are indigenous to the area. Immediately after the bites, I told my neighbor about it so that she would be aware if I yelled out for to her for help, that the bites would be the reason. Just a precaution in case I did need medical help. The Mexican boy who was digging the hole to bury my dog saw me place the snake in the flower bed a foot away from him and he saw the three spots bleeding on my right hand. I asked him in my bad Spanglish if he knew if that kind of snake had poison. He didn't.

You wrote:

We assumed from that statement that you don't like snakes and Kipp wrote that you are wrong, snakes are beneficial. I won't quote the rest of your hysterical ranting.

If I want attention, I'll go hang out at a bar. I can get plenty of attention there.

Living in a part of the world with mostly garter snakes (non-poisonous) and rattle snakes in the desert/drylands. I would be frightened of a milk snake Lakeside cuz they have red stripes. As Tamal posted, these are non-poisonous. Here is one link: http://www.applegatereptiles.com/species/arcifera.htm

My first reaction would be that these are dangerous - usually bright colors are a warning in the nature world that this animal is deadly - but in fact most snakes, and most humans, don't follow this principle.

Gary, I was just looking at the photos of coral snakes and it's look alikes. What stood out to me was that the red and black bands were bordered in yellow..none of the harmless ones had that particular pattern. I think of it now as red and black framed in yellow.

I had a neighbor when I was growing up who was hysterically afraid of snakes. Her motto was " The only good snake is a dead snake" ( Every snake is potentially a bad snake in my book) didn't matter if it were harmless and beneficial. She was nasty tempered and spitefull, not a whole lot of fun to be around and she treasured an imagined slight like the Hatfields and McCoys. I didn't think I'd ever run into her again as that was many years ago and several thousand miles away. But looking back over the postings.....Nellie Jo? Is that you?