NJ.com: Venomous snake spurs new warning from wildlife officials

Be careful out there!

Must be a slow news day, since it is not like copperheads and rattlesnakes are new there.

7 Likes

Here’s a map of the ranges of common venomous snakes. They are pretty much everywhere in the U.S. except the coldest, wettest (cold), and extremely hottest parts of the U.S.

2 Likes

Seriously a slow news day. H finds one in our yard every couple of years. They are everywhere in the neighborhood behind me, and I live in the middle of a city, albeit a small one

According to maine.gov:

Maine is home to nine different species of snakes. There are NO venomous snakes currently living in Maine. The Timber Rattlesnake used to live here, but was extirpated, or eliminated from the state.

Half the year we live among scorpions and the Western Diamondback. Another reason to love Maine.

5 Likes

Yep, I love that aspect of Maine, after growing up in Texas. Our neighbors killed a rattlesnake one time when I was a kid. And DH, having recently moved to Texas from Wisconsin, was a little shocked when he attended a men’s church retreat and a huge rattlesnake was killed right on the premises.

No scorpions, either. :slight_smile:

2 Likes

No venomous snakes in my part of the PNW. Garter snakes :snake: are fine by me.

1 Like

I seriously think 25% of the reason I still live here in the rain is the lack of venomous snakes! :joy:

1 Like

When I was in college, an eight week, eight credit, summer camp was required for my forestry degree. The year I went, it was held in SE Ohio.

One day out in the woods, I was leading my crew (that wasn’t common) and I saw a quick flash of movement right by my foot. I jumped a couple of feet in the air and then ran down the hill a little ways without knowing what I was reacting to. My crew looked at me like I was insane. I told them about seeing the flash of movement and one guy looks around and about 10 feet away finds a big copperhead curled up.

For the duration of camp, he’d walk behind me with a stick and tap my leg every now and then. :rofl:

4 Likes

But what about cottonmouths/water moccasins? We have them here in East Tennessee, and they are mean and aggressive.

Coral snakes are also poisonous, and are found in the SE and SW United States.

FWIW, I had never heard of a Massasauga; I googled it to discover that it is a type of rattlesnake.

Yeah, that was the best map I could find online. It’s got a lot of overlap already so maybe whoever made it thought that adding other species might muddy it up.

“The United States has about 30 species of venomous snakes, which include 23 species of rattlesnakes, three species of coral snakes, two species of cottonmouth, and two species of copperhead. At least one species of venomous snake is found in every state except Hawaii, Maine, Rhode Island, and Alaska.”

In comparison, Australia has 145 types of venomous snakes!

1 Like

145 types of venomous snakes in the Land of Oz?!? Yikes!

1 Like

I read further and got conflicting numbers from different sites but maybe some aren’t counting the marine species. I didn’t see any number less than 100 though, and that’s just the venomous ones.

Younger S had a favorite book about all of the deadly animals in the world. We joked they were all in Africa and Australia.

I can’t be the only parent who took their kids to the serpentarium (wilmington NC) to see all of the world’s most deadliest snakes, right? Right?

1 Like

Between the snakes and the saltwater crocodiles, I may have to remove Australia from my bucket list!

2 Likes

Amazingly, snakebite deaths average only about 2 a year in Australia. While India’s is around 50,000.

3 Likes

Did it taste like chicken?

1 Like

I went to a Boy Scouts convention once when my brother was participating in Scouts, and they had a fried rattlesnake booth. It did indeed taste like chicken. :blush:

1 Like

Yeah, it sucks. I just assume all snakes can kill me either with poison or by crushing.

1 Like

Not NJ but…