Snakebite Survival
January 14, 2013 
8 Comments
Coral Snake
In a grid-down scenario, you will find yourself out in the woods a lot more frequently, gathering firewood, hunting, and foraging for edible wild plants. As such, we will likely encounter a snake or two. Most snakes aren’t poisonous, but even non-venomous snake bites have potential for infection.
Poison is, perhaps, the wrong word to use here; venoms and poisons are not the same thing. Poisons are absorbed by the skin or digestive system, but venoms must enter the tissues or blood directly. Therefore, it is usually not dangerous to drink snake venom unless you have, say, a cut in your mouth (don’t try it, though).
North America has two kinds of venomous snakes: The pit vipers (rattlesnakes, water moccasins) and Elapids (coral snakes). One or more of these snakes can be found almost everywhere in the continental U.S. A member of another viper family, the common adder, is the only venomous snake in Britain, but it and other adders are common throughout Europe (except for Ireland, thanks to St. Patrick).
Common Adder
These snakes generally have hollow fangs through which they deliver venom. Snakes are most active during the warmer months and, therefore, most bite injuries are seen then. Not every bite from a venomous snake transfers its poison to the victim; 25-30% of these bites will show no ill effects. This probably has to do with the duration of time the snake has its fangs in its victim.
An ounce of prevention, they say, is worth a pound of cure. Be sure to wear good solid high-top boots and long pants when hiking in the wilderness. Treading heavily creates ground vibrations and noise, which will often cause snakes to hit the road. Snakes have no outer ear, so they “hear” ground vibrations better than those in the air caused by, for instance, shouting.
Many snakes are active at night, especially in warm weather. Some activities of daily survival, such as gathering firewood, are inadvisable without a good light source. In the wilderness, it’s important to look where you’re putting your hands and feet. Be especially careful around areas where snakes might like to hide, such as hollow logs, under rocks, or in old shelters. Wearing heavy gloves would be a reasonable precaution.
A snake doesn’t always slither away after it bites you. It’s likely that it still has more venom that it can inject, so move out of its territory or abolish the threat in any way you can. Killing the snake, however, may not render it harmless: it can reflexively bite for a period of time, even if its head has been severed from its body.
Snake bites that cause a burning pain immediately are likely to have venom in them. Swelling at the site may begin as soon as five minutes afterwards, and may travel up the affected area. Pit viper bites tend to cause bruising and blisters at the site of the wound. Numbness may be noted in the area bitten, or perhaps on the lips or face. Some victims describe a metallic or other strange taste in their mouths.
With pit vipers, bruising is not uncommon and a serious bite might start to cause spontaneous bleeding from the nose or gums. Coral snake bites, however, will cause mental and nerve issues such as twitching, confusion and slurred speech. Later, nerve damage may cause difficulty with swallowing and breathing, followed by total paralysis.
Coral snakes appear very similar to their look-alike, the non-venomous king snake. They both have red, yellow and black bands and are commonly confused with each other. The old saying goes: ”red touches yellow, kill a fellow; red touches black, venom it lacks”. This adage only applies to coral snakes in North America, however.
Coral snakes are not as aggressive as pit vipers and will prefer fleeing to attacking. Once they bite you, however, they tend to hold on; Pit vipers prefer to bite and let go quickly. Unlike coral snakes, pit vipers may not relinquish their territory to you, so prepare to possibly be bitten again.
The treatment for a venomous snake bite is “Anti-venin”, an animal or human serum with antibodies capable of neutralizing a specific biological toxin. This product will probably be unavailable in a long-term survival situation.
The following strategy, therefore, will be useful:
- Keep the victim calm. Stress increases blood flow, thereby endangering the patient by speeding the venom into the system.
- Stop all movement of the injured extremity. Movement will move the venom into the circulation faster, so do your best to keep the limb still.
- Clean the wound thoroughly to remove any venom that isn’t deep in the wound, and
- Remove rings and bracelets from an affected extremity. Swelling is likely to occur.
- Position the extremity below the level of the heart; this also slows the transport of venom.
- Wrap with compression bandages as you would an orthopedic injury, but continue it further up the limb than usual. Bandaging begins two to four inches above the bite (towards the heart), winding around and moving up, then back down over the bite and past it towards the hand or foot.
- Keep the wrapping about as tight as when dressing a sprained ankle. If it is too tight, the patient will reflexively move the limb, and move the venom around.
- Do not use tourniquets, which will do more harm than good.
- Draw a circle, if possible, around the affected area. As time progresses, you will see improvement or worsening at the site more clearly. This is a useful strategy to follow any local reaction or infection.
The limb should then be rested, and perhaps immobilized with a splint or sling. The less movement there is, the better. Keep the patient on bed rest, with the bite site lower than the heart for 24-48 hours. This strategy also works for bites from venomous lizards, like Gila monsters.
It is no longer recommended to make an incision and try to suck out the venom with your mouth. If done more than 3 minutes after the actual bite, it would remove perhaps 1/1000 of the venom and could cause damage or infection to the bitten area. A Sawyer Extractor (a syringe with a suction cup) is more modern, but is also fairly ineffective in eliminating more than a small amount of the venom. These methods fail, mostly, due to the speed at which the venom is absorbed.
Interestingly, snake bites cause less infections than bites from, say, cats, dogs, or humans. As such, antibiotics are used less often in these cases.
Dr. Bones
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Would putting activated charcoal into the bites help absorb some of the venom?
snake venom enters the circulation so quickly that even Sawyer extractors are ineffective in removing more than a small percentage. I doubt that activated charcoal could be used fast enough to be much better…
Dr. Bones
Excellent, thanks for setting the record straight on that. I’ve read it multiple times and it always seemed a bit dodgy.
I’ve read that native Americans use plantain (Plantago major) leaves and root for snakebite. We use plantain leaves and I must say it is very effective for mosquito, bee, and other sting/bites but would have to be in the situation of nothing else to do for me to try it for poisonous snake bites! Would you know if it is a valid solution?
Plantain was used by various tribes for an assortment of maladies, and was called “life medicine” for its multiple benefits. I haven’t read of any scientific studies on the topic, but it would be important to recognize the variety of plantain that is native to your part of the country.
Dr. Bones
Being a prepper and a person very familiar with snakes (herpetology is one of my hobbies) this is much better advice than I expected from a blog I’ve never read, especially in a survival situation. Always respect venomous reptiles, they only act to defend themselves when they feel threatened. The only exception to this rule would be the Black Mamba, they seem to have an aggressive nature to them. Nice article!
FINALLY!!! Somebody got it right. As a very amateur armchair (now that Mortimer, my Red-tail Boa is gone) herpetologist I have so often read misleading, misinformed, and just plain dangerous advice. In Iowa we have Massagua, Timber, and Prairie Rattlesnakes, and some Copperheads in a very small area of SE Iowa. Rattlesnakes rattle less than 50% of the time, so step on the log and not over-my first step-father narrowly avoided being bitten by 3 Rattlers sunning on the south side of the log. If aroused they can deliver a fearsome bite. For some reason the Poison Control Center here in Iowa has no anti-venom.
Several years ago a numbskull here in Des Moines was playing with a Mojave Desert (the most deadly of all North American rattlers) he had caught and brought back. He got a very “wet” bite. He went down hill so fast they sent an F-16 fighter to Omaha and get the anti-venom. He did live, but it was touch and go for 2 days. My sister was a nurse in a hospital in Ft. Meyers, Fla. where they had recently treated a fellow who had been “playing with” a :pretty red, yellow and black snake” that wasn’t “very big”. The little snake bit him and it cost over $300,000 to keep him alive.
Thankfully. Black Mambas live Africa–at least until a hurricane in Florida destroys some “know it all’s” shanty he keeps his breeding pair in. Not only are they quick to anger, they maintain that high voltage attitude and strike repeatedly—so fast the victim often doesn’t even realize he’s been bitten in the initial attack. With the head bobbing up and down and the tail wiggling side to side….we’re in a very, very dangerous situation here. And they can move faster than an Olympic sprinter-10 to 11 miles an hour. And they will chase you – I’ve been fortunate enough to see several outstanding documentaries on various venomous reptiles, and I do not think they were play acting at all.
So let’s be glad they are over there and we are here. Black Mambas are so feared that, because of their highly unpredictable behavior and ferocious aggression,
that there are only three places in the US that they are on exhibit: Mt. Rushmore, Houston, and Atlanta. That was what I was told by the handlers at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, and Brookfield Zoo in a Chicago suburb. They just said “Nobody wants to work with them. They are too dangerous”. And these are people who work with King Cobras, cobras of many kinds, the Fer-de-Lance, and other very deadly snakes. To me, as an amateur, and most of you laymen, that means leave the things alone unless you have no choice. Leave the snakes alone unless they are a dangerous nuisance or you are really hungry.
We have to thankful that black mambas live thousands of miles away, but you are right about numbskulls and their pets. Burmese pythons have taken out
a majority of small mammals in the Everglades where we are, and it’s rare to see a raccoon or opossum these days…
all the best, Dr. Bones