Copperhead run-in (not really in the ADKs)

[Beeblesticks]

I'm currently living in a state of heightened snake awarness.

Just this past weekend I was clearing some trail on our back property (very overgrown old farmland in the Saratoga area). I only had about a half hour to squeeze out some work so rather than putting on some jeans and my boots I grabbed some handtools and went at it in my shorts and Chacos. Bad idea. As I was thrashing away at some sapplings and deep grass I felt a whack and a sting on my ankle. I figured something of the pricker variety had snapped back and hit me. I turned and looked down to see what I think was a medium size copperhead making a getaway. I'm no herpatologist, but I have seen them before in the wild and I'm pretty sure that's what I saw.

My internal monolouge went something like this:

"You just got bit by a copperhead. This is new."

"That wasn't a copperhead"

"Yes it was, you've seen them before"

"This is going to hurt very, very badly"

"Yes it is. Jackass."

I whiped away some foamy, muscousy fluid from around the area to see at least one small wound underneath. I then figured I should probably vacate the area mucho pronto. I got half way to the house when my foot and lower leg went kind of numb and began to tingle and the bite area began to smart pretty good. I walked up to the yard, pretty wigged out by my anticipation of the pain to come and sat down next to my wife who was reading in a lawn chair. I asked her to look at my ankle because I was still not convinced that I had just been bitten and she confirmed I had two very slight bite marks right on my maleolus (ankle bone). But as we looked at them we discovered that they were barely scratches. He had hit me right on the bone and barely penetrated the skin at all. I think what happened is that I was barely grazed and got almost no venom. Just enough for me to have some localized throbbing and some weird tingling that persisted for about 12 hours (reducing over time from my whole foot and ankle to just the bite area). But any serious swelling and pain never developed.

Anyone know what else this could have been? They are pretty copmmon in the general area but considering how easy I got off I'm still sceptiacal that this was a copperhead, glancing blow or not. The symptoms are supposed to be pretty darnned bad no matter how you cut it. I'm just not aware of any other venemous snakes that I could have come across in that area/circumstances that would have effects similar to what I experienced.

[DRIFTER]

Found this!

.........The amount of venom actually delivered by a pit viper bite varies. "Some 20 to 30 percent of patients we see who have been bitten by a snake, who actually have fang marks, have not received any venom at all," says Edward L. Hall, M.D., a Thomasville, Ga., trauma surgeon who treats snakebites." He says one reason for this may be poor timing by the snake. "Pit vipers have a very sophisticated mechanism that allows them to deliver venom at the exact instant the teeth are sunk into the flesh. So it has to be precise timing. But what we often see is that the [snake's timing is off and] venom is squirted on the pants leg or released prematurely.

Link in it's entirety:http://www.fda.gov/Fdac/features/995_snakes.html

........I would have ran to the Hospitol, glad your allright. Watch out for that that tall grass.......

[Beeblesticks]

Good info Drifter. Thanks.

So....I'm now starting to appreciate just how lucky I am. The foamy fluid I whiped away from the site was probably ill timed venom. Not that I know anything about venom concentrations, but based on the amount of fluid I think this could have been a really, really bad experience.

If nothing else, this is good motivation to complete and maintain the trails and keep the line between people areas and snake areas a little more defined. Glad I dont have kids. I'd be totally freaked out right now.

[St.Regis]

You should let DEC know about copperheads in the Saratoga area - according to the Herp atlas data, they aren't confirmed any farther north tan northern Green/southern Albany counties.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/images/wildlife_images/nortcopp.gif

[colden46]

squirted on the pants leg or released prematurely.

Glad I'm not the only one with that problem...

And glad everything worked out all right beeble

[DRIFTER]

squirted on the pants leg ;


How do you think the name DRIFTER came about!

[wiselion]

This is the first of hearing there are Copperheads in NYS. Is this really true? I know about the Timber Rattlers, but Copperheads?

[colden46]

This is the first of hearing there are Copperheads in NYS. Is this really true? I know about the Timber Rattlers, but Copperheads?

Yup, they're here:

http://www.esf.edu/pubprog/brochure/snakes/snakes.htm

[Seeker]

"Some 20 to 30 percent of patients we see who have been bitten by a snake, who actually have fang marks, have not received any venom at all," says Edward L. Hall, M.D., a Thomasville, Ga., trauma surgeon who treats snakebites." He says one reason for this may be poor timing by the snake. "Pit vipers have a very sophisticated mechanism that allows them to deliver venom at the exact instant the teeth are sunk into the flesh. So it has to be precise timing. But what we often see is that the [snake's timing is off and] venom is squirted on the pants leg or released prematurely.

so, sounds like you got bit by a dork snake.

[Beeblesticks]

This is the first of hearing there are Copperheads in NYS. Is this really true? I know about the Timber Rattlers, but Copperheads?

I recognized it because I'm familiar with them from Northern Columbia county where I grew up. Saw them a handful of times as a kid. Also my father in law, who has a farm in Rensselear county, told me came across a nest under an old burn barrel a few years back.

[ADKHUNTER]

Harriman state park has a good number of copperheads. From what I hear there are rattlers too.

ED

[Judgeh]

Harriman state park has a good number of copperheads. From what I hear there are rattlers too.

ED

Just encountered a timber rattler about ten days ago in Harriman...just below Bald Mt. (within sight of the Bear Mountain Bridge)

[Lute Hawkins]

I've been lucky in that I've only encountered northern racers and water snakes in Harriman. The water snakes can be nasty...they will swim right towards you.

[Judgeh]

I've been lucky in that I've only encountered northern racers and water snakes in Harriman. The water snakes can be nasty...they will swim right towards you.

After 11 years of hiking at Dunderberg I assumed that with the exception of deer and small critters, Harriman was a "dead area". How wrong was I!!! Went back to the same area last weekend and every downed stick started looking like a snake to me. Amazing reptiles.

[doug]

Four years ago, my daughter and I came accross a newly-molted copperhead on the Giant Mtn. Wilderness trail just after Owl Head Lookout, immediately after crossing a little stream. Would have been easy to miss this snake as the trail was overgrown with chest high young maples. Luckily, my daughter was 8 and HER eyes were below the folliage! Having just shed it's skin the head was the color of a new penny, beautiful animal. I mentioned this to a ranger, noting that the literature says copperheads are mostly in the lower Hudson area. He said, "the snakes don't read the literature"