Anyone Ever Bit By A Rattler?

M

munk

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Mar 22, 2002
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OK, so I'm bored. But have any of you, or any one you know ever been bit by a Rattlesnake?

No bites here, but some close calls.

Come to think of it, outside of a being bitten by a German Shepard Dog when I was a child, I don't think anything scary has taken a bite out of me. No Blackwidows, Scorpians, Recluse spider, Brown Hobo Spider, or Rattler of any kind.
A few Bee and Wasp stings, and lots of housespider bites. Oh, and of course the dang Mosquitto. A few chiggers, gnats, no-see-ums, ants, fleas....I have been bit a couple times by psychotic patients.





munk
 
I've bit a rattler....that count?
 
Nope but I know of 3 folks bit by snakes. One a fellow I went to college with was bit by a 6' rattler as a kid and his dad got him to the hospital. He said he didn't even feel sick.

This old guy in Nitro got to feeling sick and went to his doctor. His doctor said he thought he had ingested some sort of insecticide because he had been working in the garden. Next day his calf swole all to hell turned out it was a copperhead.

Then a friend of a girl I work with that lives in town got bit by a copperhead that was on her porch and she got real sick despite going right to the hospital.

I was shooting a pellet gun once and looked down and a copperhead was crawling between my feet. That was wild. Then another time we were in the same area a big rock formation we used to get stoned at in High School and my friend was reaching under a rock where we had left a lighter. "Oh! " he said "that snake struck at me" sure enough it was a big old copperhead. He was hyper anyway and faster than the snake! That place was full of them. We killed a lot of them but there were plenty.

For some reason nobody really knows the number of rattlers in WV is drastically reduced. We used to see them a LOT in Pocahontas Co and Nicholas Co and I bet it's been 20 years since I saw one. See copperheads a lot here in the creek but we have guineas and they pretty much keep the snakes and the ticks out of the yard.:thumbup:
 
Never bit by anything really. I have had a few wasp stings. My God, if there is one animal i hate, and I mean hate with irrational fear it's wasps.
Never have been scared of snakes. As a kid I used to find them and catch them. It didn't matter what type. Big ol' black chicken snakes, little green snakes, garder snakes, even a few copperheads. Most of them didn't try to bite at all. Some snapped a bit, but generally they didn't bother me as I was just looking them over and let them go.
I have one really weird memory stuck in my noodle. Just a weird little thing that happened when I was 4 years old. It had to be mid March and I was running along the side my gravle driveway where my dad had stacked landscape timbers to keep the rock from sliding down the slope into the grass. The drive was about 6" higher than the grass. I was toddling along and stubbed my toe one of the posts. Down i went face first into the rocks. No biggie. I fell down a lot as a kid...still do;) However before I could get up I caught something moving out of the corner on my eye. I looked over. There peeking up over the landscape timber and swaying to keep his balance was a perfect little green vine snake lookin right at me. It felt like 5 mins, but i'm sure it was less than 10 seconds. Just looking at the snake and having him look right back at me. Then POOF he was back down his hole at the base of the drive.
Not a tramatic experience, but one that was burned into my brain over 20 years ago. I can still remember my navy blue coat and my Thundercat velcro shoes. Snakes and I go way back;):):thumbup: ...my wife HATES them:(

Jake
 
Steeley,

I used to have an irrational fear of wasps till I moved into this old house. It is crawling with them int he summer. Too many cracks for them to get in. Overall very docile creatures. Only been stung maybe 5 times in almost 20 years by wasps.

On the other hand yellow jackets suck. Although I have been stung many many times by my own honeybees. I had this one hive that was so cross I had to give up working them. I was glad when that hive died out. They had such a protective instinct they attacked my dog half hour after I had closed up the hive. The ones I got now are docile. Mostly Italians some Caucasians in there too though.
 
Nope, but Sweet can tell you there's a bunch of them out here in the old Fort Ord grounds. I had a 4' one under my car last summer.

Norm
 
My Dad's old boss, a member of the Tohono O'odahm tribe, was bitten on the little finger by a rattlesnake when he was a little boy. The finger was normally shaped but remained the size it was when he was little.
 
hollowdweller said:
On the other hand yellow jackets suck.
Click to expand...

Ditto on the yellowjackets. Got hit many times as a kid and learned I'm allergic. Climbing a tree once and got into a nest; resulted in getting stung on both sides of my head. Head got so big I couldn't get my glasses on. Another time got stung between my third finger and pinkie; the swelling went up my arm, into my shoulder and chest and I had to wear my arm in a sling.

No rattlesnake bites but some close calls on my hikes. Worst situation happened as I was nearing the top of a canyon i had hiked down into earlier. I was very tired and concentrating on maintaining my pace on the climb out when I heard a shrill noise. It was so shrill I dismissed it as a jay and kept walking. But the sound continued without break. My foggy brain realized that a jay has to take a breath. I turned and looked back just in time to see a six foot Western Diamondback enter the trail and slither across. Had to have been coiled right beside the trail and ready to strike when I walked by in a fog. Don't know why he didn't hit me, but I no longer ignor ANY sound in the woods.:o
 
I have had some very close calls with rattle snakes (almost walked on 2 in the same day..) then there are the black widows and recluse spiders that seem to really like my room. No bits..yet..:)
 
Nope. Never even seen one in the wild.

My wife was bit by a large Hawaiian centipede in bed one night. I woke up standing next to the bed--that's when you know you're on alert. I skipped all the waking up steps in between!

That would be funnier if I left out "centipede" I suppose....
 
One of these things is not like the other one .

One of these things is not the same .

One of these things is not like the other one.

Lets all play the comparison game !


Right wrist . Tendons ., Pit bulls mouth .

If it wasn,t for a good quality bike jacket I don,t think I could type quite as fast ! The pit pulled me for about three feet . Only one puncture and it didn,t leave a scar . It was the second most eery feeling in my life .
 
One of these things is not like the other one .

One of these things is not the same .

One of these things is not like the other one.

Lets all play the comparison game !


Right wrist . Tendons ., Pit bulls mouth . >>>>>>>>>



Kevin, I really enjoyed reading that post. Funny.
If you wanted the number one reason to carry a edged weapon upon your person, it would probably be because of dogs.


munk
 
Kevin, I really enjoyed reading that post. Funny.
If you wanted the number one reason to carry a edged weapon upon your person, it would probably be because of dogs.


munk[/QUOTE]

Thanks Munk , honestly though. Pit bulls give me the willies . I have fast hands . I don,t see me swinging anything fast enough to get past a real fighting pit . Maybe a 16 ounce Siru to to the top of the head .
Not that I have ever seen one but I think I,d rather face a rattler .
 
As a young fellow, I got bit by a cottonmouth once while walking along a creekbed, well, not really bit, just mostly bit. For some reason known only to my guardian angel, when that big moccasin struck he hit a slack spot in my blue jeans leg. Instead of connecting with flesh he came up with nothing but denim and air. It was truly amazing, I guess I'll never really know what happened at that exact second, but I do know a mind warping amount of energy was violently and spontaneously released. The writhing water moccasin went flying in one direction, and the writhing teenage boy went flying in another. Had the encounter been filmed and played in slow motion, it would have looked dang near like a mortar round had impacted on us, just minus the flash and shrapnel.

Sarge
 
Had a close call on the Morongo Rez in Banning once. Big ol' female tried to bite me, I bit her first with my .22. It's the pits trying to aim with a scope when you're only five feet away from your target.
First shot went on one side of her head, next went to the other side, third went dead center. The skin is on my Walking Stick/Flute.:thumbup: :D

We have the Cottonmouth Water Moccasins here and they can be dayumed aggressive. One day an ex threw a dirt clod at one swimming and connected. The snake came outta the water and chased her and her mom back to the car.
My uncle tapped one on top of the head when it went swimming by one day when he was fishing in his boat.
He gave the snake his boat and never bothered another Moccasin!!!!
 
Great story, Sylvrfalcn.
Yvsa, you mean a female rattlesnake? I wonder if that was a Southern Pacific. They're finding neuro toxins and hemo toxins in Southern Pacifics now, just like Mojaves.

munk
 
my sister-in-law in alabama was bit by a rattler out pickin' okra in the garden, she was a christian fundamentalist back then. she said she heard somethin rattling but didn't think nuthin of it & kept on pickin. it struck her right on the hand between thumb and fore-finger. she came into granny's trailer completely unconcerned - god will look out for her. after we talked to her about the two holes in her hand, tried to get her to go to the hospital, she wouldn't go. turned out it was a dry strike, no venom. guess god did look out for her afterall.
 
I used to collect them for sale and had a couple of scares, but no bites. I was young but not *that* stupid...
 
Never bit, but I am told that there was one coiled under my crib when I was an infant.

A couple of years back I was on my way to a Rock and Mineral Show in Trona, my birthplace. My grandson was sleeping in the passenger seat and I felt the call of nature so I pulled off the pavement in the dark in the middle of nowhere to empty my bladder beside the car. About halfway through I heard the rattle. My spincter slammed shut like the gates of The Bastille and I held the rest all the way to my destination. :eek:
 
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