Talk about kicking a guy when he's down!

Anecdotal, no cite, as I just now saw it on my local (OKC, OK) news.

A Tecumseh, OK man was cleaning his garage/shed when he felt a pain in his ankle. He reached down and was bitten (again) in the hand by a pygmy rattlesnake. He falls over backward onto an old barrel where a copperhead bites him.

He is currently in the county hospital and is expected to be fine.

Damn, what a great way to get out of cleaning a messy garage! (jk, I’m glad he’s okay)

Holy crap! Aren’t those two of the deadliest snakes around? Or has poison control nowadays made it possible to prevent death most of the time?

Pygmies can be quite poisonous if you get a big enough envenomation (which is not always likely given their size). Copperheads aren’t so bad though, some local swelling and some CroFab Antivenom and you’ll be fine.

CroFab actually works for most North American pit vipers (Crotalids). It is the Fab antibody fragment from sheep that have been inocculated with multiple types of snakes. The rate of allergic reaction to CroFab is very low compared to the old horse serum antidotes.

Oops, this is MPSIMS! Um, sucks for that guy! On a related note, I got called into the emergency department last night for a snakebite, but it was clearly not a poisonous snake. Round eyes, no fangs, no pits, oval head, double anal plates… I was non-plussed.

I don’t blame you, I’d be non-plussed by double anal plates too.

Nothing would plus me less than double anal plates.

Yeah! What gives with all that factual answer stuff, man? You’re supposed to to take your brain off when entering here. :stuck_out_tongue:
Copperheads are quite common here, see them even mowing the grass*. Rattlers, not so much, but I have seen some myself. It’s not unusual to see all sorts of our slithering frieds on new construction job sites or even around (and in) existing structures that haven’t had much maintainance or recent habitation.
*Snakes on riding mowers or weilding a weedeater is not the meaning of that part of the semtence.