You want snakes?

[geloge]

Australia, the land where every living thing wish to kill you and some not living things wish you are dead too.

 

[Drugstore Cowboy]

I'm too fucking afraid of snakes to want one. I can barely even look at one so I cant imagine wanting one.

 

[Alnitak]

We have very docile snakes here in Maryland thank you None have dangerous bites, but the copperhead might give you a bad day.

 

[star-warrior]

 

[just_mills]

Can't wait!

 

[sixthson]

Oz, we've seen that snake of yours. Put it away before someone gets hurt.

 

[seioussuction69]

The only snake I want is the one in my boyfriends undies, and I love milking it's venom daily. Growing up in Connecticut, I seldom saw snakes, but when I did it freaked me out since it was unexpected. As long as I see them first, instead of being surprised by one, I'm fine. I live in Santa Barbara, California, and rattlesnakes are supposedly common, and I've several...but never close enough where they posed a threat. I did unknowingly run over one while mowing my aunt's lawn, I pushed the mower under a hedge and heard a series of loud thumps, then parts of it went flying on the lawn. It was more gross than scary. Even if it had bit me, I live near enough hospitals to get treated in time. Give me a dangerous snake over a Connecticut winter (or it's super humid summers) anyday!
I did pet a python at a zoo once, it was not scary at all. There were 2 people holding it, it was well fed, and hardly moved. If I had stumbled over one somewhere, I would've ran like hell or vomited.
I've been to Australia to visit relatives, and several of them have had deadly snakes in their yard! I've seen the pictures and it freaked me out. But I've seen one from a distance. I did see some spiders, but again I was expecting it, and they seemed uninterested in me. Besides, medical care is never to far away in Australia. The box jellyfish are not something I want to encounter, but I can always opt to swim in a pool. The same applies to sharks. Crocodiles can be dangerous, but just look out for posted warning signs, and use your common sense. There are too many reason to go to Australia to let petty fears stop you. You won't get eaten crotch first by a great white shark strolling Sydney streets. If I didn't love where I live so much, I would love to move to Australia! The majority of people you meet are a delight, and there are an amazing amount of gorgeous guys. Now with Donald Chump poised to take office, Australia is looking better everyday.

 

[vulgar_newcomer]

We have very docile snakes here in Maryland thank you None have dangerous bites, but the copperhead might give you a bad day.

Actually the Timber back rattlesnake is native from Frederick County north and westward in Maryland, with a historic range northeast along the Susquehanna River and this would include the suburbs west, north and east of Baltimore to the Bay. Likely these populations are extinct but it is with in the natural range. Its truly a magnificent rattlesnake. This is the only coastal rattlesnake in the NE with declining populations into NJ Pine Barrens and the more favored upland areas of PA and western Jersey. All the way up into central NY and western MA. (inland)

Copper head is a venomous snake which will certainly give you more then a bad day, while the venom isn't lethal as its cousin , the water moccasin (cottonmouth) further southeast from Norfolk VA, its no yellow jacket sting.

Likely there are a couple other venomous snakes in Maryland too. It is being discovered that the tiny docile ringneck snake and the common garter snake could be venomous, but not at a level to bother people. More research is needed on this.

Snakes are not poisonous, you can eat them and not be poisoned. I would cook them of course and not mess with the head.
Envenomation is what happens when you are usually bitten by a venomous reptile. Because you can have venom enter other open areas that enter your blood stream without getting directly bitten, mainly the eyes, though rare. So reptiles for the most part are venomous and not poisonous.

2 Yrs ago I had the fortune to get bit on 3 fingers pulling ferns by a small nasty pygmy rattlesnake I didn't see in the plants. The snake didn't get a full on bite because I was lifting my hand up and the small snake couldn't reach that high. I thought I cut my fingers on sharp weeds. About 3 hrs later my fingers swelled up with incredible pain and the skin started busting apart like hot dogs left on the grill to long. At the ER they new it was a venomous snake bite but I never saw the snake. Based on what I was doing and the size of the bite they determined it was a pygmy, cause I never heard it either which is typical. I had found pygmy rattlesnakes in the past in my yard. No anti venom was needed but it took forever to heal with scars. I now wear thick gloves and no bare footin.

 

[Natello4]

No, thank you.

P.S. Still love Awestralia and Oceania.

 

[MrRochesterNY]

Those and the car sized spiders keep me away from Australia.

The creature that keeps me away from Australia has a name that begins with T.

 

[SaskGuy]

I like snakes, they're cool.

(and this isn't a double entendre)

 

[rareboy]

I would just note that I have been one of the few treated with Malaysian Pit Viper venom at the Toronto General Hospital in 1994, by a wonderful Haematologist in order to treat my co-agulopathy.

It was so virulent that it effectively fried out the veins in my left arm....but it probably helped save my life.

.....so a little snake bite doesn't faze me at all.

 

[star-warrior]

When I was a young, I stayed in my grandparent's village in the far east. The tall reed like grasses was a wonderful place for snakes to hide. You'd hear a russle, and the waving grasses that marked their passage. Then the fear that you'd meet them slithering about when you're on the paths around the village. Fun times.

A villager caught a huge twenty footer, and make a stew out of it, and invited everyone to have some.

The last time I had snake stew was about ten years ago. I think the closest meat it resembles is a true dover sole where the meat is quite firm.

 

[Vannie]

Who wants to pet my puff adder?

 

[johaninsc]

I live in the woods in upstate S.C.

I see Copperheads nearly every year in the Summer

...killed one once several years ago that was as long as a shovel handle; never saw one that big before or since

 

[Aron9000]

Almost got bit by a small copperhead(maybe 1 foot) when I was out hiking earlier this year near the Great Stone Door in the Savage Gulf State Park, in Grundy County Tennessee. Son of a bitch was right in the middle of the trail, but hiding behind a piece of wood they put on the slope to keep the trail from washing out. I didn't see him at all, struck right at me, my dad was walking behind me and almost had a heart attack seeing that SOB almost got me in the calf. If dad hadn't seen him, I'd have kept on walking on my merry way never knowing that I was about 1" from getting bit, a good 5 miles from the trail head, and another 2 hours to the nearest hospital.

 

[Kabluey]

I come from a country without any land snakes, and only extremely occasionally sea snakes.
If you want to see a New Zealander do a marionette dance, send them to the Australian bush for a weekend.

 

[teadrinker]

But in fact snakes and spiders aren't a problem in Australia: most of the snakes are unlikely to come into contact with humans, being shy, retiring and desert dwellers. For all the common ones there is effective anti-venom. Same for spiders. More people die from tick poisoning (Ixodes Holocyclus, the scrub or paralysis tick), or anaphylaxis following a sting from an ant, bee, or wasp.

Apparently about 2 people per year do die from snake bite (children, or people beyond the reach of antivenom); 10 die from bee stings, and 20 die from horse-riding accidents!

-T.

 

[Kabluey]

But in fact snakes and spiders aren't a problem in Australia: most of the snakes are unlikely to come into contact with humans, being shy, retiring and desert dwellers. For all the common ones there is effective anti-venom. Same for spiders. More people die from tick poisoning (Ixodes Holocyclus, the scrub or paralysis tick), or anaphylaxis following a sting from an ant, bee, or wasp.

Apparently about 2 people per year do die from snake bite (children, or people beyond the reach of antivenom); 10 die from bee stings, and 20 die from horse-riding accidents!

-T.

But those brown snakes. I know technically you won't die, but plenty of your lovely locals can leave you scarred and in pain.
Mind you, we have gigantic earthquakes, so there's that...