Snake

Snake

I sometimes have trouble with rattle snakes. This year is terrible. I have seen more snakes than I can count. The problem is (other than the normal problem of getting bit) The weather has been much wetter than normal and the snakes rattles haven't hardened. So sometimes the rattle is barely audible (Normal for a very young snake, not for a grown snake). I wear boots ALL the time. The higher the shank the better. I literally stepped on a young snake on the driveway...Never did hear it rattle. Now he is the headless snake, and will probably haunt me come Halloween. The swollen part in the middle, is where I think I stepped on it. I stepped down it felt funny, I looked down, saw the snake under my boot and I jumped.

Here are some tips I will pass on: Walk cautiously and listen carefully. Give the snake a chance to warn you. Never reach down quickly to grab something or to pick something up, from the ground. If possible step on  the area that you are going to reach to (better to get bit on the boot shank, than the hand). Even if you were just there,  a snake can appear in an area it wasn't a moment before. I was fencing and walked fifty feet down the line, I walked back to put on a clip I had forgotten, and there was a rattler waiting at the post. Remember, rattlers are in the open in the mornings and a afternoons, getting sun. In the heat of the day they are under sage or other shrubs and things providing shade.

If you get bit,Use a tourniquet and calmly seek medical attention.


Don't use a snake bite kit. You are likely to cause more harm than good..You may even bleed to death.

If you get bit post-collapse, I dont know what to tell you........But, people rarely die from a prairie rattler.