http://invasiveplantnews.com/2012/05/22/society-for-ecological-restoration-ser-midwest-and-great-lakes-chapter-meeting-at-the-university-of-michigan-connecting-people-with-nature-and-we-got-to-see-the-eastern-massasauga-rattlesnake/ A blog about invasive plants and how to control them Tue, 25 Sep 2012 21:01:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://invasiveplantnews.com/2012/05/22/society-for-ecological-restoration-ser-midwest-and-great-lakes-chapter-meeting-at-the-university-of-michigan-connecting-people-with-nature-and-we-got-to-see-the-eastern-massasauga-rattlesnake/#comment-175 Fri, 15 Jun 2012 04:46:46 +0000 http://invasiveplantnews.com/?p=675#comment-175 In general, adult veonuoms snakes, with their longer fangs and larger amounts of venom to inject are going to deliver more dangerous bites than their young. There have been studies [I know of one involving Crotalus atrox] that have suggested that neonates may have slightly more potent venom, mg for mg. Some young pit vipers begin life feeding on reptile and amphibian prey, and have neurotoxic components in their venom, which becomes more haemotoxic as the snake matures to prey upon homeothermic animals. It has been determined, however, that some 20% of snakebites to humans are dry bites, thus suggesting that snakes do selectively inject venom. For people who work with veonuoms snakes, I would say that the primary reason smaller snakes can be more dangerous is that they are often seriously underestimated. In some 40 years of working with snakes, I can say that young snakes are often much more defensive, nervous and quicker to strike than adults. Ultimately though, if it had to happen, I’d rather take a nip from a neonate eastern diamondback than a large adult!

]]> http://invasiveplantnews.com/2012/05/22/society-for-ecological-restoration-ser-midwest-and-great-lakes-chapter-meeting-at-the-university-of-michigan-connecting-people-with-nature-and-we-got-to-see-the-eastern-massasauga-rattlesnake/#comment-155 Tue, 22 May 2012 13:57:31 +0000 http://invasiveplantnews.com/?p=675#comment-155 Very good report on the SER chapter.

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