West Central Virginia-- a few miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway.
We kill, or attempt to kill, a copperhead or two in the yard every year. I feel like they can have the woods on the back of our property, but when they come into the yard then they break the peaceful coexistence pact we have. The neighbor’s golden retriever was bitten a few years ago and its (the dog’s) head swelled up like a bizarre balloon. Yet after a trip to the vet Biscuit was OK a day or two later. The neighbors said it was not the first time this had happened. Biscuit was a friendly dog, but she did not like snakes of any kind.
Last year we found a good-sized copperhead in my wife’s flower bed and I decided to try and get at it with the lawn mower. But the snake was too fast and unlike some of my wife’s flowers, it survived the ordeal. It slithered below the back deck so I crept under with the shovel expecting it to attack or drop down from a beam… but somehow the two foot long devil got away.
We have been told that we should leave wet burlap sacks outside and that the copperhead snakes will crawl in and then we can attack the bags with an ax safely from the outside. I like the plan but my wife just rolls her eyes every time I bring it up.
There are timber rattlesnakes in the taller mountains just a few miles nearby, but they supposedly do not come down this low. I have encountered them a few times out hiking, but I leave them alone and the rattlers do the same. My dogs roused one up once on the trail as well, but other than a bit of angry rattling, nobody upped the ante and we each went our way.
Bees, wasps, hornets
Fire ants, scorpions, stinging caterpillars
Brown recluse, black widow spiders
Rattle, coral, water moccasin snakes
Alligators with oozing dental abscesses
I’ve been bitten or stung by a few of them. Meh—is that all you got?
The only indigenous creature I truly fear is exspousica psychopathicus
Yes, I’m *lucky *(lucky, in the most frickin’ *unlucky *sense of the word) in that my ex-spouse and her boytoyfriend (assholio pseudotonysopranocus) recently moved right next door to me and my kids. Most critters have barks that are worse than their bites—it’s just the opposite in this case.
Florida Keys here. Mosquito— Zika and Dengue fever. Rattlesnakes. Scorpions.
Non venomous far outnumbers the venomous!! Endangered Key Deer, Endangered Silver Rice Rat, Endangered Butterfly aka as the Miami Blue,the Endangered Heffernini Bunny aka the Lower Keys Marsh Rabbit,named for Hugh Heffner, the Stock Island Tree Snail, the Great White Herons, The Blue Herons, Green morphs, The Cuban White Crown Pigeon, and the American Saltwater Crocidile. And many more. Let’s not forget the Skinks and Iguanas. None of this includes the native chickens and multiple species of insects, birds, and sea life. I live in Paradise.
More Florida. Diamond Backed Rattler, Dusky Pygmy Rattler, Water Moccasin, Eastern Coral Snake here in SE’rn coastal FL. I’ve had all of them turn up in my yard numerous times. North FL adds Canebrake Rattler and Copperhead.
Lots of venomous spiders including Black Widow. There’s a great population of the later on the barn. The experts say the Brown Recluse doesn’t range into our part of the state, but lots of people suffer bites that seem to implicate this arachnid. We also have a number of species of stinging caterpillars. Wasps of many species, ditto bees, plus recently we’ve gotten Africanized Honey Bees. Several scorpions live – and sting – here, but they’re merely horribly painful. The Imported Fire Ant is another import. It doesn’t just bite venomously, it demonstrates that ants are just flightless wasps, and it stings repeatedly. To make it worse, when disturbed these nasty critters swarm swiftly and in huge numbers. Accidentally stand on a nest for a few seconds and you’ll have a thousand stinging you up to your crotch before you can say “Oh shit!”
In the ocean we have native toad- and stone-fishes capable of inflicting painful stings. And recently we’ve been invaded by huge numbers of Lionfish, capable of serious, potentially even life threatening, stings. Speaking of life threatening, as a kid I saw a tourist dive into the surf and come up wearing the siphonophore Portugese Man O War like a hat. He went into convulsions and died on the beach where the lifeguards laid him. “Paramedics” wasn’t a thing back then, and the ambulance that arrived twenty minutes too late probably couldn’t have saved him if it had been closer. Fire Coral and lots of other aquatic things can sting, but most are not life threatening to normal, healthy people.
Shrews (did someone mention them up thread?) have anesthetic and anticoagulant saliva. I once had one chew a hole in my arm as I slept, large enough to ‘disappear’ the first joint of my index finger. Didn’t feel a thing! Until the next day, anyway.
Miami ( I grew up and lived there for 35 years but since 1993 I live a hundred miles farther from the Arctic Circle ), has been a major import - export portal for huge numbers of all sorts of creatures for several decades. This includes virtually every species of venomous snake known to mankind. Some are destined for dealers and breeders, which Florida’s climate supports in numbers, or pass through on their way to other destinations. Inevitably, by accident or sometimes by design, some of these end up in the wild. I/we get ‘snake ID calls’ virtually every day. Most can easily be assigned to one or another of the forty-odd native species found in this area. But I learned years ago that when someone says “I’ve got a big cobra in my pool” I had better not just blow them off.
Though Australia is renowned for its deadly creatures, many of which have already been listed, none of them have bothered me. I get more unwanted attention from wasps than I ever do a dangerous spider, shark, or snake.
I live in the UK, where our only venomous snake is the adder, which I don’t believe I’ve ever seen outside a zoo.
We have the usual bees and wasps, but the worst thing now is the False Widow spider which found it’s way here and is apparently causing some nasty bites.
This year, we just started seeing garter snakes in the yard. That is NOT a sight I can get use to! But honestly, I’d rather come across a garter snake than a spider.
Can we count mosquitoes??? Literally the worse insect on the planet. What is their whole point of existence? What are they contributing to society other than a rise in cortisone sells??
Coral snakes are the commonest automatic pool skimmer snakes. These are rather secretive, fossorial snakes and so the first few times someone called and asked me for help getting the coral snake out of their pool skimmer, I was doubtful. No more! The really scary ones are the do it yourself homeowners whose handling techniques are distinctly amateurish. But I’ve had quite a few hand me a plastic milk bottle with the snake inside. Now, I’ve been handling venomous snakes for almost 50 years, and I’ve never tried to poke a coral snake’s head into a narrow necked milk bottle. Scares me to death! But I’ve seen evidence that people get away with it. Something about protection for fools and idiots, I guess.
Florida has so many, and such diverse, venomous snakes that some years ago the Miami Dade Fire Rescue service organized a department they call Venom One. This unit has officers specially trained in identification and treatment of envenomations, especially but not exclusively snake bites. And they maintain a ready stock of anti-venins that I believe is the largest and most diverse in the world. They’re available for telephone consult anywhere, and will fly trained staff with antivenins to you at need. I have their number on speed dial.
Middle Georgia:
3 species of rattlesnake (Eastern Diamondback, Timber, Pygmy)
Coral snake
Cottonmouth moccasin
scorpion
wasp/hornet/bee
fire ant
Black Widow
Brown Recluse
Assassin bug
several beetles that secrete a caustic, blister causing chemical (not venomous, but poisonous)
If the OP really meant, “The degree of toxicity doesn’t matter,” the list gets a lot bigger.
Every bee and wasp sting leaves venom in the victim, rarely fatal to humans.
Nearly every spider’s bite is venomous, but nearly all of them are harmless, except to its usual prey.
A mosquito’s bite may not be technically venomous, the tiny dose of anticoagulant/anesthetic she injects is exactly the stuff that gives us the terribly itchy welts.
Hummingbirds, by the way, eat enormous numbers of mosquitoes, in addition to the sweet stuff in your feeders.
Small terriers are not venomous. Don’t let the doggies tell you any different!
In CT it’s probably the northern widow, not black. They’re native to New England, and somewhat less dangerous.
Here in NH, I think the only other thing that’s poisonous is the timber rattlesnake…which I didn’t know was poisonous until this year. Oh well, at least that ignorance amused my mother.
I’ve killed scorpions and tarantulas in the house; in fact, I squashed a tarantula just last week.
Let me tell you about the time my wife was sitting on the toilet when a tarantula came up through the drain in the floor, neatly unfolding itself as it got through the slats . . . nah, maybe I shouldn’t.:eek:
Right. A very small number of people do develop deadly allergic reactions to bee venom, though, so that’s why I said toxicity doesn’t matter. A sting won’t harm most people, but some people’s immune systems ramp up into overdrive.
