Hi All,
A couple of years ago I was preparing a safety topic for a safety meeting at work, and decided to study snake bites.
We kill a lot of rattlesnakes in the plant every year. Some years we may average nearly one a day in the early or late summer, and I am thinking that at times we have killed up to 20 or so in a week. Usually they are juveniles, but adults too, and one day a few years ago they killed a 3 foot prarie rattler and a 5 foot (or so) western diamond back in one spot. At any rate I thought it was a good topic for a safety meeting.
What I found from a few hours reading is that about 3/4ths of poisonous snake bites each year are to young men between 18 and 35. The bites in the vast majority of those cases are on the hands and forearms, and yes "alcohol was involved."
Makes me think that they ignored that advise to leave them alone and they will leave you alone. I would think that if you were attempting to leave the rattle snake alone that you would be unlikely to be bitten on the hands.
Regards,
Gandolf