Snake bite tale reinforces the need for caution when working, walking or playing

When someone mentions a snake in the grass, I automatically reflect on a story my dad once told me when I was a kid. The tale made an ever-lasting impression. More than four decades later, I always stay on my toes any time I am walking around tall grass, weeds, brush and water.

My dad does, too. He learned the same lesson the hard way after a close brush with a stump-tail water moccasin that he recalls as being as long as his leg and thick as his forearm.

Contributed photo (enlarge photo) The water mocassin. Contributed photo (enlarge photo) A western diamondback rattlesnake. Contributed photo (enlarge photo) The copperhead.

The scene was a two-acre stock tank in Collin County. It was a sultry summer afternoon, and he had taken a break from his daily chores around the farm to do a little fishing.

One of his favorite spots was a narrow caliche point that jutted into the water on the tank's northeast side. I remember the spot well. I caught many a bass from the point when I was young, probably because of its close proximity to a big willow tree that grew wild on a shallow hump in the middle of the pond. Lofting a lure to the base of the willow was a piece of cake, even with a close-face Garcia.

Dad didn't own a rod and reel when he was a kid growing up just outside Plano. My grandparents were poor Tennessee migrants who farmed cotton and other crops for a living. To hear dad tell it, he grew up "scratching s!*# with the chickens."

His fishing arsenal of choice in those days was an old bamboo cane pole strung with a piece of thick line, a hook and a live grasshopper or cricket for bait.

He was standing next to some tall grass at the water's edge watching his bobber dance when he felt a rubbing sensation around his bare feet. Looking down, he saw a water moccasin slithering across the mud.

Most people would have panicked at such a sight. But not my dad. Somehow he stayed calm as the snake eased across his feet and slid into the water.

"If I had moved he probably would have bit me," he recalled. "Those cottonmouths don't like it much when you mess with them."

Now 85 years old, my father came by the words of wisdom honestly. No sooner had the moccasin reached a safe distance than the kid in him came out. He messed with the snake, and almost got bit.

"I reached out with the cane pole and snagged the snake in the side with the hook," he recalled. "When I dragged it onto the bank it was pretty teed off. That snake came at me like he was shot out of a gun. I dropped my cane pole and ran. I ended up killing the snake with a stick, just so I could get my pole back."

Jacob Goode of Nacogdoches has an equally good snake story that he will be able to share with his kids someday. Hopefully, they will learn as much from it as I did my dad's childhood tale.

Goode, 17, took my daughter, Taylor, fishing at a nearby stock pond last week. Unfortunately, neither of them got the opportunity to wet a hook. Instead, they spent most of the afternoon in the emergency room after he was bitten on the ankle by a snake.

The teenagers arrived at the pond about mid-morning. Goode discovered that the small aluminum boat he sometimes uses was partially filled with water from heavy rains earlier the week. When he raised the boat to drain the water, my daughter noticed there was a snake coiled on the ground beneath it.

"I yelled for Jacob to watch out — that there was snake under the boat," Taylor said. "When I yelled, he took a quick step backwards and stepped right on top of it. That's when it bit him."

Goode dropped the boat and scampered away. Closer examination of his ankle revealed a pair of puncture wounds and small traces of blood.

The teenagers did a good job of thinking on their feet. Goode immediately contacted his father, Mike, by cell phone and explained what had happened.

When Goode's father inquired what type of snake it was, the youth told him he wasn't sure.

"He told me it had red and yellow stripes," Mike Goode said. "When I heard that, my first inclination was to think it might be a coral snake."

The only way to be certain was to dispose of the snake and take it to the hospital for identification. However, with no sticks nearby or a firearm to do the job, killing the snake was not an option.

That's when my daughter produced her Sony digital camera. Goode raised the boat a second time, she took a few photos and away they went.

Doctors at the ER used the photos to positively identify the snake. Luckily, it was a broad-banded water snake and not a coral snake. Though they can be aggressive when threatened (or stepped on), the broad-banded water snake is nonvenomous and virtually harmless.

Just to be on the safe side, doctors prescribed some mild antibiotics to fend off the possibility of infection and sent Goode on his way. He attended football practice and jogged a mile the same afternoon.

Goode can consider himself lucky. Had he stepped on a water moccasin, he might still be laid up in a hospital bed or worse.

The motto, here? Watch your step!

Always be on the lookout any time you are working or walking in areas likely to inhabited by snakes. Depending on where you live, that could be just about anywhere. In most instances, snakes know no boundaries.

I have an aunt who lives in a rural area on the outskirts of Abilene. I call it rattlesnake central. She routinely finds rattlers coiled on the front porch, under the carport and on the sidewalk. On more than one occasion she has found western diamondbacks stretched across her kitchen floor.

"Living with rattlesnakes is a way of life out here," she often says. "You either live with them or leave."

Another good preventative measure against getting snake bit is to never reach into places that you cannot see. One of my brother-in-law's relatives learned that lesson the hard way when she reached beneath the her front porch steps to retrieve a house cat. She was subsequently bitten on the hand by a copperhead.

The woman made a full recovery, but it took some time and money. In most cases, the antivenin used on humans to neutralize snake venom is very expensive.

Like the water moccasin and rattlesnake, the copperhead is a "pit viper." The pit viper is named as such because it has distinctive facial pits between the eye and nostril on each side of its head. The pits are heat sensitive and used to help the snake detect prey such as mice, frogs, rats and rabbits.

Pit vipers pack a nasty venom that is dispensed through two needle-sharp fangs. The fangs are retractable, meaning they stay folded against the inside of the snake's mouth until the strike occurs. The venom debilitates small prey so the snake can swallow it whole.

Left untreated, the venom of a pit viper can be extremely harmful to humans. You should seek out medical attention as quickly as possible if bitten by a rattler, copperhead or cottonmouth.

The venom produced by pit vipers is hemotoxic. The poison attacks and destroys red blood cells and blood vessel walls, which can lead to deterioration of muscle tissue, full or partial loss of use of a limb, and even death in extreme cases.

Pit vipers, especially water moccasins, tend to be most active at night. For that reason you should try to avoid walking around brushy or grassy areas, or near water after dark. It is also a good idea to wear high top leather boots and long pants when venturing into territory where you might encounter a venomous snake.

Interestingly, one of the most poisonous snakes native to Texas is not a pit viper. The coral snake has short fangs incapable of penetrating thick shoe leather, but they can easily penetrate human skin.

Many victims of coral snake bites are children. Some experts theorize that children are lured close by the snake's colorful skin, which bears rings of red, yellow and black in that exact order.

Left untreated, a coral snake bite can cause serious health problems and even death. The venom contains powerful neurotoxins that attack the nervous system. It can paralyze breathing muscles in addition to causing euphoria, nausea and headaches. Many victims of coral snake bites require artificial respiration and large doses of antivenin to recover.

With hunting season approaching, the pitter pat of big and small feet traipsing through the woods is sure to gain steam in coming weeks. Watch your step out there. You never known when you might stumble across a snake in the grass.

Matt Williams is a free lance writer based in Nacogdoches.