have alot more activity this year than any time we've been here (+17 years on one acre in pine forest)
neighbor got bit by copperhead, recovered ok without anti-venom.
other neighbor killed similar copperhead a few days ago.

i killed TWO coral snakes within 10' of each other just outside my workshop.
question is, one started to try & go back under the shed; 1/2 body with head; caught it & finished it off.
could it have covered w/o it's ass end & come back to fight again?

this whole thing had me scrambling to check my .410 stock; sadly low, but got lucky & found 4 boxes
of AA #8's at Bass Pro.

If it each chopped in front of the vent it wouldn’t have made it, if it was chopped behind it might have made it but it wouldn’t be very effective and probably starve.  

A Coral snake basically has to chew you to get you in trouble.  They are shy snakes and are unlikely to bite in the first place.

Just remember, the overwhelming majority of snake bite victims are bitten when messing with the snake.  You pretty much have to be an idiot to get bitten.

my son got bitten by what was most likely some type of rat or corn snake years ago;
i keep our property (where we interact the most) snake free as much as i can so he &
my wife aren't shy about being outside; keep grass cut & try & not have piles of debris.

i's cautious and have seen evidence (shed skin) of very large snakes living around our garden & other
work areas, so i'm always on the lookout

Be careful about saying stuff like that. I know of a family a couple of towns over that would probably take you to task, given that their little boy was killed by a timber rattler a few years ago who was gardening with his father. The little boy not didn't see the snake until the he strayed within striking distance of it. At the point the boy started to cry out "snake" it had done popped him. The snake killed the boy simply for being too close, and you can't blame a 4 year old for not seeing a still, camouflaged, rattlesnake. The boy was not an idiot.  

Venomous snakes often expect you to get out of their way instead of them getting out of yours. Its best to think of them as biological landmines that will blow up on you if you get within their strike zone. Land minds that change locations.

I have a buddy that is a big snake conservationist and used to be a professional rattlesnake milker for one of our local attractions. The only snake he fears is a coral snake because of their slinking ways. He said its very realistic for one to crawl into a sleeping bag and the person not know it, and that's the way a person is likely to be bit by one. Because their venom is so toxic and because anti-venom is no longer produced for them, a bite from one is going to be fatal.

Once a big coral snake tried to get into my backpack while I sat in a hunting blind. I looked down and saw him smelling of my open backpack. We made eye contact and we both jumped. He then moved on out of the blind.

Not an expert here, but I've heard that all they have to do is put you on life support for like 24 hours untill the venom wears off. I've also heard that antivenin has its own bad side effects and costs about $80,000.

I'm glad I don't have poisonous snakes where I live, that I know of. I used to live in rattle snake country, we had them in our house all the time. It's weird where I live, just on the other side of the hill they have rattlers. When there's a wildfire they say the biggest threat to the firefighters is the snakes, but 20 miles away I've never seen one. Somebody who knew the area said it's because of the arsenic in the water. I don't know, I've had my water tested and it doesn't have arsenic. We have tons of little water snakes. I think they're called racers? They have lengthwise stripes. I see a half dozen of them every time I mow the lawn. Can't imagine living in a place where venemious snakes are that thick!

A funny snake story: I recently was in my bedroom and dropped something and it went under my dresser. I got a flashlight and got on my hands and knees to look under the dresser... I found a shed snake skin under there. apparently a snake has been in my room long enough to grow up and shed his skin. Nice!

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I found this crispy critter in a house I was doing a bit of electoral work on. I left it right where it was, sealed the conduit it came in with expanding foam and didn't let the home owner know anything about it

We had another snake in the house yesterday. I heard my mother screaming at me to get in there. I was like what is it? By the time I got in there it was mostly gone. She said it was the biggest snake she'd ever seen. She said it was still alive, I guess the dog drug it in? She said the dog grabbed it and drug it under the bed when she screamed. I could still see like a foot of it's rear end so I grabbed it with a pick up tool, but the dog was pulling it to hard and I lost it. That's not the first snake the dog has taken under the bed.

Doubtful.

Most home owners don't remove the cover to access the wiring and change breakers. These people definitely won't.

Coral snake antivenin is again being produced.  It was not produced from 2010 to 2019, but supplies of the antivenin never ran out completely.  

Do you know when the last fatal coral snake bite occurred in the USA?  It was in 2009 and it was due to someone not seeking any medical attention at all.  Besides that one, there hasn't been a fatality in over half a century, despite plenty of bites.

And it's false that they need to "chew" on you.  They can bite and envenomate in a heartbeat.  Their fangs are shorter than the other venomous snakes in the US (all pit vipers), so protecting against coral snakes is easier, but they absolutely do not have to chew on you to envenomate you.

I think my old military survival manual said they had to chew on you. That thing was probably written in the '40s or '50s. I've heard of a guy who tried to kill a coral snake with a beer bottle. He hit it several times. He didn't even realize the snake was striking him every time. The guy died.

Was that the guy that died back in 1967?

Coral snake envenomation is extremely rare. They are not aggressive and have very small fangs. Bites are so rare that almost no hospitals stock the antivenom and it usually has to be flown in when it is used, which is rarely. It is VERY expensive. I don't know the price, but by comparison, Crofab...... which is an antivenom used for crotalids (Copperheads, Cottonmouths, Timber Rattlers, et al) runs in excess of $10,000 per vial (with 4 vials being the initial dose). Most patients do recover fully from Coral snake bites with only supportive care but sometimes there may be lingering or even permanent neurological effects.

Death from snake bite from any species of snake in this country is exceedingly rare and although I certainly would not want to be bitten, the risk of death/disability from snake bite is greatly exaggerated.

I've checked and my insurance covers the majority of antivenin costs.

It is expensive, but it's important to realize that there's nothing else that really helps with snake venom.  I mean, you can elevate the bite to spread the venom throughout your body and minimize tissue damage (never a tourniquet, that does the opposite of what you want!), but the only thing that counteracts it is antivenin.  Don't listen to old wives tales and old doctors/vets: Benadryl and antibiotics do NOTHING to antivenin.  Unless there's an allergic reaction or secondary infection, those meds are useless.   Also beware of surgeons that want to cut on you to avoid compartment syndrome.  They often overdiagnose snakebite victims and do more harm than good.  I think everyone knows not to cut and suck on snakebites by now, but if not, that's also useless.  

I know there's a lot of anti-Facebook sentiment here, but if you're are on Facebook, there's a great group called National Snakebite Support with some of the nation's leading toxicologists (and some other doctors, paramedics, and veterinarians) that assist people in dealing with snake bites.  I've learned an tremendous amount from them.  If you join, make sure you follow the group rules very carefully, as they treat messages like 911 calls and have zero tolerance for people commenting on other people's posts (which is very different from virtually all other social media groups).

At CWSE this year I have was in full run and had to hurdle a timber. I had a choice, leap over it or try to stop. I jumped the outstretched snake knowing it could not pop me in that position and with my speed. Other Attached File
Warriors whacked it because it was on the run course.

Photo was taken by others prior to them killing it.