Posted on 04/22/2015 5:08:38 PM PDT by Brother Cracker
WIMAUMA, Fla., A Florida man is recovering from a cottonmouth snake bite to his lip after he allegedly tried to smooch the serpent on the mouth.
Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies said Austin Hatfield, 18, captured the 4-foot cottonmouth, also known as a water moccasin, while swimming last week and kept it in a pillowcase at his girlfriend's house, where he was bitten on the lip.
Friends told investigators Hatfield was trying to kiss the snake when it struck him.
Hatfield was initially hospitalized in critical condition, but his status was upgraded to good condition and officials said he is expected to make a full recovery.
Investigators said Hatfield did not possess the proper permits required by the state to catch and keep cottonmouth snakes.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said it is investigating the incident.
My family has been in Florida since at least the 1700s.
I have never heard the term “water moccasin” use to describe anything other than a cottonmouth. There are some other water snakes which slightly resemble a cottonmouth but they are not called water moccasins.
A fellow that worked for us was sitting around a fire with his drinking buddies when a staggering, foaming raccoon walked up to them.
One of them went up to it..”Here kitty kitty, aww good kitty”
GNAR-AR-GNAR-GNAR and a trip to the ER next day to begin the tetanus shots.
As many of my friends did, I played with most kinds of snakes while growing up. In south Texas, diamondbacks were sometimes around seven feet long on my school playground.
It’s near the Sun City retirement community, north of Ruskin.
I have lived in Texas and love the state. I almost married a little cutie from Lake Jackson. As for rattlesnakes, sorry, we grow them bigger in Florida. In fact the Florida subspecies of the Eastern Diamondback is the largest snake in North America. That is by weight.
He was rushed to tampa general in critical condition. They had to ventilate him for a while, his airway swelled up to prevent breathing.
Maybe there was a regional difference in terms. What some Floridians may have called water snakes instead (sounds kind of generic), we called water moccasins. They don’t have the line in their eyes or such a pointy, triangular head. In south Texas, Arkansas and Missouri, though, their markings are otherwise very much like the poisonous ones. We did call the poisonous ones cottonmouths.
I guess the terminology doesn’t matter so much.
The poisonous ones usually swim more slowly when on the surface. Before biting, they most often lay in wait and aren’t seen in advance. Way back when, some old time noodlers gave the mistaken advice that cottonmouths could not bite when under water, and new noodlers were advised to duck under when seeing a cottonmouth. Bad advice, in my opinion.
The non-poisonous ones swim a little more quickly on the surface and are usually (but not always) seen swimming away.
Was referring to a place on the Gulf coast in TX, BTW. No need to apologize about having the largest diamondbacks! Keep them, and be proud! Seven-footers were more than big enough!
There are no snakes at all where I live now. Altitude is too high for them.
I have seen only 5 rattlesnakes in Colorado in 10 years, not many, but two of the five were massive, very much like the snake on the rake in the photo.
The only venomous snake in North America which has round eyes is the coral snake. I know they have them in East Texas as well as Florida. When I was in high school, a Ranger at Eglin was bitten by a coral snake. They literally used an F-104 to fly anti-venom from New Orleans. The Ranger lived.
I was always taught the rhyme: Red on yellow, kills a fellow. A coral snake had red lines surrounded by yellow. A king snake does not. I used to have an old momma cat who would kill coral snakes and feed them to her kits.
BTW, that is me holding the 7 footer with the rake.
What a moron.
What a moron.
I never saw a coral snake in the wild, although we were taught a similar rhyme. Did see one or two milk snakes, though. Surprised that anyone lived after being bitten by a coral snake.
Hatfield was initially hesitant to kiss the snake but his best friend Jim Beam talked him into it. :-)
I avoided playing with rattlers while growing up. They got the hoe or whatever else was handy. ;-)
“Hatfield?” “Beam?” LOL! Here’s a movie that you might like. It won’t keep suburban preppers away like the other movies, but it’s pretty funny. ;-)
“Tucker and Dale vs. Evil”
Sometimes there is just nothing to say.
Looks like he was bitten by the bottle.
Is the fishing still good around the Gulf? I’ve heard stories here and there about “red tides,” missing fish and the like over the past ten years or so. Some of our better times, by the way, were spent carrying lanterns and gigging flounder at night in shallows next to a ship channel. Also spent a day or two every now and then shelling oysters after picking them up (with good gloves) to fill big cans in a john boat. The good beds were distinguished from bad ones on a map.
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