I remember being told in boy scout camp, 22 years ago, that if you step on a snake, it dooms the snake to death, but it still gets a chance to bite you and poison you with it’s venom. This was at a camp in Texas, where poisonous snakes were common, and I remember encountering several.
After being told that, I felt sorry for the poor snakes and endeavored not to step on one. But now, all these years later, I wonder. A snake must be a fairly tough, robust animal, able to take the fairly diffuse pressure of a human foot briefly.
I’m not a herpetologist, but: if you have learned so far to not step on them, why start now? Also, regardless of whether a snake is poisiouns or not, even if the snake would not be harmed, stepping on it can easily startle it and bite you, which is unhealthy for you. So just continue to leave the poor snake alone for both of your sakes.
I can promise you from personal experience that you can certainly stomp one to death. It depends on the snake. You can kill a small garter snake by stepping on it.
Anything larger than that doesn’t have much to worry about. If you somehow managed to step on a large rat snake, King snake or, god forbid, a rattlesnake, the snake isn’t the one that is going to be traumatized. That very rarely happens though because most snakes are aware and very stealthy.
Most large animals are instinctively terrified of snakes and humans are no different. If you want to see horses, cows or monkeys lose their shit, throw a realistic fake snake near them. The same thing will work with your boss.
When I was 14 we lived in the countrynon a dirt road. Driving down it one day there was a HUGE diamond back rattlesnake laying across the road. This thing must have been 8ft long or more and very thick. Dad ran over it several times with his truck (F150). Didn’t seem to phase the thing! Ran over it several times and it finally coiled up the slithered away.
Snakes don’t stop moving just because they are fatally injured. You can chop a snake in half (which I’ve done accidentally while digging) and both halves will keep moving.
Whether or not a snake will be killed by being stepped on depends on a lot of things, including the size of the snake and how heavily you step on it. A small snake will very likely be killed by being stepped on. A large, robust snake might be able to survive a light tread.
However, stepping on a snake is certainly not going to do it any good. You could easily do it a severe injury, including breaking its back.
As engineer says, it can be difficult to kill a snake outright. Just because it manages to get away doesn’t mean it hasn’t been fatally injured.
It seems the story told in the OP was a way to get kids not to step on snakes. Seems to have worked.
I can’t figure snakes are easily to kill, given their bone structure. I remember seeing a huge one in a cottage in wisconsin
(gopher snake or something) that I deliberately stomped then ran over with an old allis-chalmers and it was still alive and well the next day. Should’ve put on the grass cutting rack and did it. I hate snakes and don’t feel bad for them. I don’t mind rats (city dweller) at all, so I have an Indiana Jones complex. Maybe it’s because I don’t see them often in the city but instinctively I either fight or flight with snakes. Snakes are predators, I’m the large predator.
When I was in 8th grade I accidentally stepped on a juvenile water moccasin and kept my foot on the back of its head and managed to catch it and kept it in an aquarium for about a week before letting it go, it tried like heck to bite me but I had its head securely in a position it couldn’t get me. Before that though I did step on it hard with all my weight without realizing it and it seemed completely unfazed.
Growing up in the irrigation areas of SE Australia there were a lot of snakes about, blacks, browns, tigers etc and, being Australia, all are potentially lethal.
The conventional wisdom is that simply driving over a snake in a vehicle will not kill it.
You need to skid over them.
Of course driving over them might well have fatally injured the animal but nobody gets out of their car and runs after it to check on it’s well being.
I once ran over a good sized Garter on a bicycle, on a dirt path, and it took off so fast I couldn’t even find it.
I think a lot depends on the ground and what your wearing. Deep grass and bare feet or flip flops aren’t going to do the same damage as boots and pavement.
Snakes are pretty flexible and very strong. I’ve handled snakes all my life and believe me, they are one big muscle! They do have one drawback, a single lung, so if you damage that, they’re done. They’re actually really prone to respiratory trouble.
The reason snakes bite large animals that they could never eat is purely defensive. Being stepped on could kill them. It might not, just like a ten-foot drop might not kill you.
A snake can be dead for a while before it realizes it. It’s not uncommon for a disembodied rattlesnake head to bite, if given the opportunity.
That is the only aggressive venomous snake in North America. They don’t make good pets. I spent many days in my youth killing them with shotguns and I had a large one that swam over to my canoe mouth open and seemed like it fully intended to come on board until I beat the hell out of it with a paddle.
I have done that several times myself except some of them weren’t accidents. John Deere doesn’t advertise their snake whacking feature on their lawn tractors but it works really well.
It crossed my mind, but I ate rattlesnake meat before and it tasted like fishy chicken. I can eat most things but I draw the line at Elk, Bear and I suppose snake, unless its ultimately for survival, they taste way too gamey for me.
