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staying safe
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by bush_viper17 on May 29, 2005
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Hi everyone. I know that we have all had our close calls.(sometimes we have been bitten.) What do you do to stay safe/safer? How did you have your close call?(walking through the woods and didnt see the snake etc.) What have you done to insure that you dont make the same mistakes? I know that this is a stupid question but when Im out looking for venomous snakes, I feel that there are ways that I could be safer. Thank you.....Jeremy.
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RE: staying safe
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by Phobos on May 29, 2005
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Hi Jeremy:
Good question! All of my close calls & bites have been when I'm handling a snake for a Vet. proceedure or force-feeding a snake that is not willing to eat on it's own. The way to stay safe(R)is not to handle hot snakes unless you really have a good reason to like the ones I've given above. Even then, carefully plan your proceedure and have everything you need ready. Kristen at Kentucky Reptile Zoo gave me a great tip that I use now when force-feeding is required. She said to use a "Foam" paint brush to hold the snakes head down while the food is being pushed into their mouth. If the head gets free they bite the foam and not the fingers like has happened to me in January while force-feeding a juv Mangrove Viper. I was very lucky, it was a "dry bite" when she twisted her head around and stuck me good on my index finger before I could react.
Make sure you enter the snakes enclosure often without food being present. This will help them not get too accustomed to linking you with food. I will water, clean, or move substrate around with a hook, just to have a presence without food being offered. It makes for a safer relationship with your animals since they do not become agressive feeders.
Just my two cents
Cheers,
Al
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RE: staying safe
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by bush_viper17 on May 29, 2005
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Thanks Al. I would hate to make a bad mistake and get bitten. I also hate to hear about other getting bitten. I dont have any snakes in my collection right now. Im thinking about starting over and getting good cages and all of the tools first and then investing in some snakes. Thanks.
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RE: staying safe
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by LarryDFishel on May 29, 2005
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I guess this is as good a time as any to start writing up a list of simple safety tips I've been meaning to put together for my web site. I'm sure many of these have been listed elsewhere. I'm not going to put too much effort into organizing the list right now.
Most of these apply to working in your hot room as I have little experience with field herping.
Make sure you have GOOD lighting, not the minimum you think you can get by with. This makes it much easier to deal with a snake under a rock, or a snake that gets off the hook.
Whenever possible, make sure you know where ALL the snakes in a cage are before you open it, but still assume that you might be wrong, and there could be one in a corner where you can't see. After removing the snakes from a cage, make sure you can see under every hide and in every corner of the cage before putting your hands in the cage. Use a hook to lift hides that you can't see under. This is especially important if you're one of several handlers that have access to snake room. Someone could have added a new snakes since the last time you were there.
Longer hooks are usually better than shorter hooks (within reason), unless they are simply too big to get into a particular spot or the snake is just to small to deal with on a larger hook. I sometimes use a 24 inch mini hook for snakes under 18 inches, but I use 40 inch hooks for almost everything else.
Make sure the snake room floor is not cluttered when you are working. Especially make sure that you didn't leave anything, like your trash can or a roll of paper towels on the floor behind where you will be standing when you hook the next snake. It would really suck to trip and fall backwards with a venomous snake on your hook.
Before you open a cage to take a snake out (or put it back), take a second to think through what you're about to do:
If the cage has a sliding door, which way should you slide it to get the easiest access to the snake?
Is the holding container where you can reach it easily?
If there is more than one snake in the cage, will you have to get too close to the cage to put the first snake in the container?
Is the lid to the holding container sitting behind it where you'll have to reach over the container to get it?
Are you opening the door in such a way as to expose one hand or the other?
For wooden snake boxes, I like to put an eye-hook an the front edge of the lid so I can open and close it with a hook.
When using plastic storage boxes as holding containers, I like to attach a loop of chord to one end of the lid so I can open it with my hands clear of the opening. Also make sure you don't get ones where the lid is too floppy or leaves a gap around the edge.
It never hurts to have an extra hook sitting nearby, but not too close to the cage you're about to open, especially when yourking with certain elapids that may crawl up your hook and force you to drop it.
I use two hooks for almost any snake. Not only does it give you an extra tool if you need to dislodge a tail wrapped around something, but you can catch a snake that's crawling off the hook or up it, and it ties up your other hand so you can't forget for a splt second and reach out to grab a snake that is falling. Furthermore, it helps build dextarity with your weak hande for when you really need two hooks.
When opening a holding container, always assume that you might have frogotten what's in there!
Before opening a holding container or a cage, make sure your hooks are nearby, preferably already in your hands, and not sitting where you won't be able to safely reach them.
Make sure you know exactly where you're moving a snake to before you pick it up, so you don't have to take your eyes off it.
I'll try to add more as I think of them...
As far as close calls, so far I've only had one instance where a hot snake even touched me during a strike. Luckily that was an egyptian cobra that was bluffing and aimed about three inches too high, hitting my wrist with his neck. I spent a good bit of time trying to figure out how I let that happen, but I'm still not sure. I was hook-and-tailing him, and must have taken my eyes off him for a second to see where the container was.
However, I have had several occasions where I've underestimated a strike range but by less than the extra margin I factored in, meaning that, for instance, I might have estimated that a snake could strike 2 feet from the position it was in so I kept my hands 3 feet away and he surprised me by striking 2 and a half feet, missing me by 6 inches.
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RE: staying safe
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by spongebobnopants on May 30, 2005
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This is a good question Jermey. I started wearing long pants instead of high cut shorts when I herp. You know, a girl has to look good no matter where she goes. And I wear boots instead of sandels. I have never been bit, so I consider myself lucky.
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RE: staying safe
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by spongebobnopants on May 30, 2005
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Phobos, I must say those are pretty socks you have on in that picture. The landscape looks like my homeland. I love a man in tube socks. (Wink) (Wink)
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RE: staying safe
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by bush_viper17 on May 30, 2005
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Thanks for all of the advice. Another thing I am wanting to hear about is your close calls while in the field looking. Ive been flipping tin,rocks and other debris a few times and have put my hand down right beside copperheads.
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RE: staying safe
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by Cro on May 30, 2005
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Jeremy: You were asking about close calls while field collecting. I can think of a couple from years past. Once time we captured a very large Canebrake Rattlesnake near Fargo, GA. The snake was opaque. We dumped it out of the bag at camp, to get a better look and to take some photos. We were around the snake taking photos, at what should have been a safe distance, when it made this lunging strike toward my friend. The strike was much further than normal. The snake actually kind of "launched" itself, and covered a distance as long, or longer than its length. It landed hard on the ground, all stretched out, instead of making a normal strike and recoil. It brushed against my friends arm, but fortunately, did not bite. It was a very close call, with a very big Canebrake, that I have to attribute to the snake being opaque, and misjudging its striking distance. So, I guess we learned that the old saying that snakes can strike 2/3 of their length at the most is not allways true!
Another close call was when we took a 14 year old friend along on a hunting trip to Fargo. He had kept some harmless snakes, but never venomous ones. We were flipping tin, and heard him say, "hey, what kind of snake is this?", and looked up to see him holding a huge Coral Snake in mid-body ! It was the largest Coral I have ever seen in the wild, probably over 45 inches long. Well, we started running toward him, and holloring, saying "Its A Coral Snake! Drop It!". He eventually heard us, and dropped the snake. The snake went into a hole under a huge stump and dissappeared before we could get to him to catch it correctly. We were very fortunate that the snake did not decide to bite him. He had absolutely no idea what kind of snake it was, only that it was pretty ! A bite from a Coral Snake that large, in extreme South Georgia, would have been very bad. So, I guess we learned that when you take inexperienced herpers along, you need to watch them carefully, and to not assume that they will be able to identify venomous snakes! Best Regards JohnZ
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