Probably age and poor health contributed to his death.
I pretty much stay out of the woods during the Summer months here in NW Florida.
I get Pacific Rattlers here in my neck of the woods. I use the snake shot on those puppies. Killed two so far this year. Some years its more. Saw a six footer slither by but held my shot as it was a Bull Snake. Like those guys. I had two curled up at the sink in the Barn one late Spring. Big boys and girls obviously digesting. They didn’t care about me and in a day they left.
Lately I have had little frogs hanging out at the sink in the barn, Today I had eight little guys hanging out in my funnel and pitcher. Told everyone out of the pool cause I had to work. They jumped up on the pitcher with three or four stacked atop each other and watched as I worked.
I get the frogs in the late spring and in the Winter. I look forward to my little amphibian buddies.
> Probably age and poor health contributed to his death. I pretty much stay out of the woods during the Summer months here in NW Florida.
What makes this especially unexpected isn’t just that only about half a dozen persons are killed nationally yearly. It’s that a grown man bitten by a rattlesnake on the lower leg died within fifteen minutes (and apparently collapsed earlier). The bite caused stress, and perhaps the venom contributed to the death, but almost certainly something else was the primary cause.
I’m in South Carolina and often take walks in the woods in the summer. I’m careful where I step, of course, but sometimes it’s hard to avoid stepping near underbrush in which a poisonous snake could be lying. I consider the risk low, though.
Maybe where you are there are more rattlesnakes, but in decades I’ve only encountered two. One rattled before I saw it, then slithered away. The other was crossing a trail. I kept my distance, but managed to get it to stop and coil, so that I could get a better look. Then I let it go on its way. I wouldn’t want one near my house, but out in the woods I don’t think they pose much of a risk.