Texas

[TammyTX]

Hope not!
Checked out Coral Snakes on Google. Oh my god don`t want ever get near one. The bites looks horrible.They are the most poison snakes in Texas?
I got bite once from a spider on my knee (don`t know what kind). My knee was red and swollen for over two weeks that was already pretty bad.

I think Coral snakes prefer a rocky or sandy soil. We are on black clay and have never had one

but we have plenty of rattlesnakes.

You are probably on sand in your area...? YIKES!

 

[Melissa Rose]

Hi

I have read a few articles on Coral Snakes that say they do not and can't really strike to bite like a rattler can. They have to be really close and bite down with a chewing motion

. Our dog Jezabelle that just passed away a few months back got a hold of a rattler when she was about 6 years old and she suffered three bites to the head. One next to her mouth and one under her chin near her throat and one closer down by the front of her chest. I walked outside and she was laying down in her favorite morning sun spot by the deck and her head was literally swollen into a round ball bigger than a basket ball. I had let her out of the house about an hour earlier while I mixed up the morning bird seed to fill the bird feeders. I knew what it was at first glance because we have a 9 foot fence around our house and that was what we called her compound and there was no way for anything to hurt her but a snake. I had to drive her to the vet and I don't see well enough to drive but we did arrive both still alive. I did not see the snake but I knew it was a snake bite. The vet agreed and said he could not give her any anti- venom because we did not know what type of poisonous snake it was so he gave her steroids and antibiotic shots and told me that if the flesh started to rot it was a rattler but if it did not it probably was a copperhead. I took her home and by that night every where the venom had traveled had turned a sickly black. When I woke up about three in the morning to check on her there was no flesh left any where that had been black hours earlier. It was the most horrifying animal wound I ever had to deal with and I had been exposed to some pretty gruesome animal wounds due to some violent physco neighbors. Her whole throat rotted out. I could not leave her at the vet clinic because she was pretty vicious toward anybody but me and she was a 60 pound Staffordshire terrier so she had to go to the vet every morning and night for steroids and antibiotics. She almost died of the original venom strike then it was organ damage and failure then a disease called hemolytic anemia . It seemed we would get her passed one stage then there was something else. It was heartbreaking. She survived but her face and throat were seriously scarred really bad. At one point you could almost see into her neck cavity. We now use a product called Snake away around our fence line. It is made of the same stuff that moth balls are but it is chunky granules. It eventually evaporates into carbon dioxide and you have to re-apply it if it rains but it does seem to help and it is not toxic to the environment. It has that mothball smell and supposedly the snakes senses can't handle it and they won't cross over a barrier of it. We don't apply it where the poultry or dog has access to it though to be safe and I wouldn't use it if children had access to it either but I don't think I would survive caring for another dog with that bad of a wound. About 5 days ago before the rain set in we let our big communal breeding run out to free range and my English Doubled barred Lemon Cuckoo roo - Limon - took a bite to his throat. I was awful! I culled him the second we found him. I could not stand the thought of him suffering so...

 

[TammyTX]

Melissa that sounds so very horrific!

 

[RachaelS]

Hi

I have read a few articles on Coral Snakes that say they do not and can't really strike to bite like a rattler can. They have to be really close and bite down with a chewing motion

.

How awful I am so sorry you had to deal with that

!!!
Yes, they seem to be less aggressive, with small fangs, but at the same time, if bit it is considered deadly. The kittens (well they are 10 months now) are the ones I really worry about. I also read that even though their fangs are short, if bit in an exposed spot (foot with flip flop), even one bite can be deadly. On the other hand they can not bite through leather shoes.

 

[RachaelS]

Everyone says good morning Texas, before I even get on line, so I am starting "GOOD NIGHT TEXAS"! Everyone sweet dreams!!!

 

[mylittlechicken]

I think Coral snakes prefer a rocky or sandy soil. We are on black clay and have never had one

but we have plenty of rattlesnakes.

You are probably on sand in your area...? YIKES!

Yes we have sand here

.
I never saw a snake here before but that doesn`t mean they are not there. One of our neighbors told me she had once a rattlesnake in one of her plant pots. We seem to have a lot of black widows here, that is already bad enough.

 

[wlhtx]

We have tons of black widows too. So much so that, if you flip something over outside and there ISN'T one there, it is a little surprising. It is starting to get better since we've had to fight them so hard with pesticides. (Which I would rather not do, but you gotta do what you gotta do - and my chickens seem to not find them very appetizing since I've watched them walk right past a black widow without a second glance.) Anyways, I learned that they really exploded in numbers two summers ago when Texas had that 100 year drought. Apparently those suckers really thrive in the super hot and dry climate, so that drought made for perfect breeding for them. I absolutely hate them.

Oh, and good morning, everybody!

 

[WildWorks]

Quote: Red and Yellow...kills a fellow Red and Black....venom lack

 

[TammyTX]

Does anyone remember someone from Smithville who sells gourds, ever on the Texas thread? It is Rising Dawn Lodge Gourd Farm.

I need several birdhouse gourds and thought I'd contact her but her website hasn't been updated in a long time.

 

[WildWorks]

Since we are on the subject of snakes, I thought I would post a video of the largest snake I have ever encountered in Texas. I have caught many snakes, but this bull snake was so large, I would estimate close to 8 feet, that I could not get a handle on him and he got up a tree, but it is a good video to show people a bull snake and how they can sound and look much like a rattlesnake and maybe help some of them not be killed by mistake, they are great to have around your place to keep the rodent population in check.