Reviewing some of the past threads about snakes caused me to wonder how many of our Africa hands here on AR have actually seen a snake bite victim--in the field. Fairgame, Ganyanna, Jonathan, Steve, et, al? Anybody actually witness a snake bite or come across someone recently bitten?

Not me..... I've killed a few snakes that have been in/around camp but prefer not to unless I don't have any choice and most staff have the sense to keep well away from them anyway.

Going slightly off topic for a moment. I did almost have to treat someone for a snake related heart attack once though.

A few here might know the Zulu lady named M'thlorpi who works for Ian Goss...... she'd been playing jokes one day and shut me in the cool room for a few minutes.... so I waited a few days and then walked into the lounge when she was doing some housework and started looking hard into a corner.

Eventually she simply had to come and see what I was staring at and I pointed and said, I think there's an m'fezi (cobra) there but I'm not sure.

She leant forward to look and I dropped a rubber snake onto the back of the neck.

I honestly thought she was going to croak on me for a minute or two!

That's not funny, Steve. Had it been me or many I know, you'd have come away with great bodily injury. Many of us have zero sense of humor where snakes are concerned. Really.

Trust me. It was hysterically funny at the time!

She's a good sport with an immense sense of humour and we often play jokes on each other.

Haven't seen her for a few years now but must try to find time to drop in on her.

I have seen several bites and been bitten twice. Non of these in africa or on safari. Me, being bitten was stupidity on my part but have seen a few people bitten, one big eastern diamondback, one russells viper and one 14 ft king cobra. Very scary stuff the big king cobra bit bill haast from miami serpentarium while i was there and it was really something to see.The rattlesnake bite was by far the scariest though. I had handled many but I did not know it would do that to anyone. the guy was a friend who I hunted snakes with, lost his thumb but suffered something awful.

i reckon most snakebites here in Africa are probably the result of stupidity and those silly snake programmes on TV seem to have made it a lot worse.

Suddenly every young man thinks he's an expert and wants to play silly buggers to impress someone.

I havent seen any snake bites but three stories come to mind:

1 - me waking up at 06h00 after a ritual rum and coke night on the farm in Limpopo not feeling well at all, made myself a cup of coffee and walked outside to try and enjoy the early morning, i stepped over the garden hose pipe and carried on walking to the bench. sat down and then watched the garden hose pipe slither away - Moz Spitting Cobra.....

2 - two friends go hunting in Limpopo, one night whilst braaing the one guy kept walking in and out of the chalet to fetch drinks, etc, etc and after the 3rd or 4th time he pipes up to his mate "i think the water is running somewhere or i can hear an aircon, but my hair is wet", strange says the friend and they go and investigate. they find the source of the noise and moisture - a spitting cobra of some sorts (if i am correct) was lying curled up behind the Decoder and everytime the chap walked past it would send a jet of venom his direction....

3 - changing the tire on my Landy at a friends tyre shop, he pulls out a rubber snake and walks over to the vehicle where said employee who had given him a lot of grief of late was underneath the rear right wheel. he then proceeded to throw the snake through the rear spring to land neatly next to the chaps head..... needless to say he made a short exit from underneath the truck nearly scalping himself in the process and ran a couple of hundred meters....

Eish snakes, i dont play with things i know nothing about or with things i pretend to know about.

I visited a snake park in Hazyview some weeks ago. It's a nice place but one thing was scary. They keep two Black Mamba and I noticed that the door hasn't got a lock, in other words everybody can pull the door open! I spoke to the person in charge, he said "don't worry, nobody wants to play with a Black Mamba"....

seen lots of poisonous snakes in Africa- never a problem or real threat. did manage to get rattlesnake bit in my own garage while going outside at night for a smoke(bastard had crawled up 4 steps and was coiled up on the welcome mat). people say smoking is bad for your health- they aren't kidding! spent 2 days in ICU, 2 more days in hospital, and 10 days at home in bed. damn expensive snake bite and trust me on this- cytotoxic snake venom is painful beyond belief

The first PH I hunted with (Zayne van der Merwe)was bitten by a Cobra in Zimbabwe. He had no sense of humor about snakes.

2 years ago when I got to the hunting camp in NE Moz, the tracker was still limping around from a Mozambique cobra bite on the foot from 2weeks previously..
It was still red and swollen, but he could still walk as fast as I cared to walk. I treated him with the last supply of real red-merthiolate that I had saved for many years, plus a few doses of doxycycline. He improved rapidly.
Got a good picture of this puff adder a few days later:

quote:

Originally posted by Mike70560:
The first PH I hunted with (Zayne van der Merwe)was bitten by a Cobra in Zimbabwe. He had no sense of humor about snakes.

actually, he was bitten by a spitting cobra in Tz.-I hunted with him about 5-6 months after he was bitten and he was still pretty pissed off about the whole ordeal!

Jeez do we have to talk about snakes, every Kiwis nightmare.
When in Africa it won't be one soft up and 3 solids down in my 404 but one shot capsule up and 3 more down. Total trophies, 10 snakes and maybe a buff if I get time to get a solid in the chamber.

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
i reckon most snakebites here in Africa are probably the result of stupidity and those silly snake programmes on TV seem to have made it a lot worse.

Suddenly every young man thinks he's an expert and wants to play silly buggers to impress someone.

That kind of stupidity isn't limited to Africa Steve, there's a fair amount of it here as well.

I figure if I don't interfere with snakes they might adopt the same attitude. I just walk away.....very warily..

Dear TWL

Have not seen a snake in Africa.
From what I have seen in the field, there is a danger zone.
Be out side it they will run.
Be in side it and they have 2 options. Fight or fright. Usually fright and will take off.

Have only had 3 try to attack.

1. A king brown we walked up on in the middle of a 100 ach dust bowl. Why he was there is a mystery. That is what we were try to figure out.

2. A copper head that was walked on in the bush.
Struck out but missed and took of in the direction it struck out. A lucky escape.
I can still remember seeing it on the ground when I was in the air.

3. A brown snake that was in knee high grass.
Was walking along a well worn game trail.
Had my rifle pointed at the ground. As I went past a y junction in the track, the brown struck at the barrel. More than 1 good reason to point a gun in a safe direction.
I jumped and ran, have no idea where it went.
I think it was going to strike at any thing.
By the way we sore about a dozen snake's that trip. They were every were that year.

I do not even give it a thought when hunting is Africa.

You are more likley to get injured or food poising at the air port.

If you are really scared just play follow the leader and look at the ground every now and then.

I have a friend who picks them up in the wild. He would be happy to get you over your fear.

To all the Dg hunters it dose not need to have legs to get your hart in the mouth.
You can also keep you wallet in the pocket.

Regards Mark

Snakes and Spiders are a bit of a speciality of mine. I qualified as a Paramedic in South Africa many years ago and had the pleasure of working with some well known Snake and spider experts over the years that I worked on ambulances and aerovacs. I also had the misfortune of being bitten by a puffadder several years ago. I suppose having been bitten and having seen a fair number of snake bites, that you could say I have a little experience.

The first thing, is despite having seen over a hundred bites of various types, I have never witnessed a fatality. This includes 3 full envenomations from adult black mambas. All three survived, although I cant say their experiences were pleasant in any way. All three have lasting effects directly related to their bites.

Whilst snakes are fairly common in Zim, you have to be unlucky, or quite frankly stupid to get bitten. I say stupid, because as mentioned above, there are a number of bites every year which are the result of idiotic behaviour. One of the three mamba bites I mention above was a young appy PH showing off. He has never hunted again.

Despite all my interest, I still dont see any bloody reason to handle the things and whilst I wont rush to kill snakes in the wild, I am certainly not one to take a closer look .....no thank you sir!!

Most PHs will have a healthy respect for snakes and your camp staff certainly will.

I've been real close to getting bitten several times. Stepped on a prairie rattlers head one cold windy day. Just happened to look down & was standing on it. After jumping a good distance, looked hard for it & saw my heel print on it's head. Never coiled, too cold.

I married a 17y.o girl many yrs ago that had been bitten twice within 9months of each other. When we first met she still had the bandaid on her toe.
First 3-4yrs I wake up in the middle of the night with her just beating the living hell out of me with her fists: Claimed to have had a nightmare about snakes. Still don't know whether I believe that or not.

Have lot's of snake stories, all true. Too many for this space.
Just be careful out there is all I can say mates.
George

In 2009 in RSA, we didn't see any snakes but one morning did see the track of a big snake, probably some kind of constrictor, that had crossed the dirt road.

When we lived in Tasmania, Australia, we had 3 Tiger snakes (very poisonous and aggressive)in the yard of our house. Having three small kids at the time, I saw the need to deal with them using a sawed-off .410 that I had obtained for the purpose.

Hugh

In Global Rescue's latest news letter they have a testimonial about a hunter, a SCI member who was bitten by a cobra in Namiba and flown out. He was bitten while getting into bed. It does happen even if very rare. Snakes scare the crap out of me in any country, I seem to run into them often, fortunately most I have steped on or come into very close contact have been non-poisonous. I kill a good number of rattlesnakes here in texas hunting and copperheads on my farm and land. I may get jumped on here but if I run into a poisonous snake at home,, I kill it,, the chicken/rat snakes etc. I usually leave them alone unless they insist on getting in the house.

and as far as spiders,, so far two recluse spider bites that I thought would rot off my leg each time,, don't like them either

My friend in RSA and I got to talking about snake bites one day when we saw a black mamba. He has never had to deal with any snake bites but said if I was ever to get bitten by one of those to just go lie under a tree and cross my arms. That way it would be easier to get me in the coffin.

aND ALSO UNDER A TREE, IN THE SHADOW YOU WILL NOT SMELL SO BADLY AS A CORPSE UNDER BRIGHT SUN

I have seen only five snakes in all my trips to Africa, and the only one that threatened me was a yellow cobra me in Zululand. I turned and ran!

We see a lot more rattlesnakes per day afield in Arizona. The worst time of year is mid October, when our quail hunting seasons open and again in April, but I've seen them in every month. Killed one at our back door last November.

Bill Quimby

On an active leopard bait in Tanz, the boys would never get out of the back of the truck in the early am when we parked near a termite mound on which we had seen a big mamba.