2021 Snake Spotting

[cygunner]

Haystack,

Actually we have FIVE poisonous snakes TX though one is rather UNCOMMON.

Rattler, Copperhead, Cottonmouth, Coral snake & the "new kid on the block", the TEXAS LYRE snake that came up from Mexico/Latin America.
(The Lyre, btw, is a PROTECTED species.)

yours, satx

Are those LYRE snakes the ones I see cutting non-existent grass on contract all winter when it isn't even growing? Some folks on our block let those thieves come year around. Maybe it's a status thing? Or another word that starts with st....?

 

[Haystack]

Haystack,

Actually we have FIVE poisonous snakes TX though one is rather UNCOMMON.

Rattler, Copperhead, Cottonmouth, Coral snake & the "new kid on the block", the TEXAS LYRE snake that came up from Mexico/Latin America.
(The Lyre, btw, is a PROTECTED species.)

yours, satx

I never heard of that one before. But what I just read about it says they are only down near the Rio Grande. Never heard anyone in East Texas talk about them. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[oldag]

Was on a deer lease that half the guys were from one family (father, sons, son-in-law). At one time the father worked at a compressor station in Louisiana and the sons loved to go duck hunting. They set out in the swamp early one morning in their john boat. Along the way, a water moccasin dropped out of a tree and landed in the middle of the boat. The son in the back yelled and the son in the front turned around and then said, "I'll get him!" The son in the back started to yell, "No!", but it was too late; the son in the front raised up and fired his shotgun at the snake. The snake wasn't killed and quickly slithered out into the water. The hole in the boat began shooting up water like a fountain, as the son in the back steadily cursed at his brother. They then had to wade back where they started through the snake infested waters dragging their mostly sunk boat.

Lesson learned.

 

[Sasquatch]

Haystack,

Actually we have FIVE poisonous snakes TX though one is rather UNCOMMON.

Rattler, Copperhead, Cottonmouth, Coral snake & the "new kid on the block", the TEXAS LYRE snake that came up from Mexico/Latin America.
(The Lyre, btw, is a PROTECTED species.)

yours, satx

Learn something new every day - I looked up pictures, its a pretty snake. Unfortunately it looks enough like a rat snake that I think a lot of people would confuse the two and may try to handle one.

 

[satx78247]

I never heard of that one before. But what I just read about it says they are only down near the Rio Grande. Never heard anyone in East Texas talk about them. Thanks for the heads up.

Haystack,

FYI, the vast majority of people have never even heard of the TX Lyre. = they are rare enough, that we still don't have one in our collection at the Center.
(ALL that we have so far is a photo.)

The BEST GUESS is that the only places where the Lyre is right now is quite near the Rio Grande & pretty much all over the BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK.

One reason that FEW people have ever seen a live one is that they are fairly SHY & almost 100% NOCTURNAL.

yours, satx

 

[Glenn B]

Learn something new every day - I looked up pictures, its a pretty snake. Unfortunately it looks enough like a rat snake that I think a lot of people would confuse the two and may try to handle one.

If people did handle them there would likely be little consequence. Merely because they are venomous does not mean they are very dangerous to humans. Most species of venomous colubrid snakes in the USA have only mildly toxic venom that usually does not cause medical problems for humans.

Three other species of venomous snakes in TX are:

Texas Night Snake
Northern Cat-eyed Snake
Southwestern Blackhead Snake

Many, if not most, herpetologists now also consider Hognose Snakes in the US to be venomous as well as those others already mentioned. There is a lot of debate about it but, in my opinion (and I have read up on it a lot over the years having been an avid herper for decades), it has been unequivocally proven that Hognose Snake species in the USA are indeed venomous and produce, what is considered a mild venom, in their Duvernoy's glands. Some good reading on that here: http://thevenominterviews.com/2017/10/18/are-hognose-snakes-venomous/. Some even believe that some species of Garter Snakes are mildly venomous.

Other articles on Hognose Snake & other colubrid snake venom here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/004101019290013U, https://www.unco.edu/nhs/biology/ab.../documents/2000-Toxicon-Hill-and-Mackessy.pdf,

 

[satx78247]

If people did handle them there would likely be little consequence. Merely because they are venomous does not mean they are very dangerous to humans. Most species of venomous colubrid snakes in the USA have only mildly toxic venom that usually does not cause medical problems for humans.

Three other species of venomous snakes in TX are:

Texas Night Snake
Northern Cat-eyed Snake
Southwestern Blackhead Snake

Many, if not most, herpetologists now also consider Hognose Snakes in the US to be venomous as well as those others already mentioned. There is a lot of debate about it but, in my opinion (and I have read up on it a lot over the years having been an avid herper for decades), it has been unequivocally proven that Hognose Snake species in the USA are indeed venomous and produce, what is considered a mild venom, in their Duvernoy's glands. Some good reading on that here: http://thevenominterviews.com/2017/10/18/are-hognose-snakes-venomous/. Some even believe that some species of Garter Snakes are mildly venomous.

Other articles on Hognose Snake & other colubrid snake venom here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/004101019290013U, https://www.unco.edu/nhs/biology/ab.../documents/2000-Toxicon-Hill-and-Mackessy.pdf,

Glenn B,

WOW. THREE MORE venomous snakes, which are resident in Texas, that I've never heard of.

That makes 8 or 9, IF you count the Hognose snake.

MORE reptiles to find/put on display at the Center!!!


yours, satx

 

[lonestardiver]

The venom in the hognose snake is prey specific as in it only really affects a specific prey item thus to humans it is essentially non-venomous.

 

[rotor]

At the house as long as they are not poisonous my wife would rather photograph them. Because of the dogs, poisonous ones are goners.
This guy can eat a lot of critters.

 

[popper]

As a kid, used to drag a dead bull snake from the creek to friend's yard, yea, fishing for snakes. His moma got real mad after killing several in the yard with a shovel & hoe.

 

[Hoji]

At the house as long as they are not poisonous my wife would rather photograph them. Because of the dogs, poisonous ones are goners.
This guy can eat a lot of critters.

Good sized rat snake there

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Good sized rat snake there

Good sized for any snake that's not a constrictor....

 

[Hoji]

Good sized for any snake that's not a constrictor....

Rat snake is a constrictor

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Rat snake is a constrictor

I didn't know that.

 

[gll]

I hate snakes. I REALLY hate snakes in trees!

I came here to say that... lol! Hated Arkansas!

 

[Axxe55]

Texas Lyre Snake was discovered by Edward Wilkinson and named after him in 1866.

Edward Wilkinson (naturalist) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Texas lyre snake - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Texas Lyre Snake

www.kingsnake.com

Are lyre snakes poisonous?
Life History. This mildly venomous, rear-fanged snake feeds primarily on lizards, but also eats birds and bats. Constriction may be used to subdue prey since the hemorrhagic venom is not very effective on birds and mammals.

Texas Lyre Snake | Trimorphodon biscutatus vilkinsonii | Reptile

Texas Lyre Snake : The Texas Lyre Snake is generally a brown, tan or grey in color with dark brown blotching down the back. They have large eyes with vertical pupils....

www.wildlifenorthamerica.com

 

[Reinz]

Here’s the thing about rear fanged snakes such as the Lyre and Hognose, you basically have to let them have some time to chew on you to activate their venom and get you fingers to the rear of their mouth.

Yes, I said fingers. Unless it’s a pretty large adult, it tough for them to ”strike” the hand and inject venom.

As mentioned by others, the venom is mild for most folks and you may have a bit of swelling like a bee or wasp sting. But basically it’s just not a big deal for MOST people.

Bonus info: The Coral snake, while highly neurotoxic, has a hard time biting a human. Their mouth is so small that you really have to almost try to get bit by poking it‘s mouth with your finger. It would be rare to get bit in the arm or leg, and probably the hand as well.

 

[Axxe55]

Here’s the thing about rear fanged snakes such as the Lyre and Hognose, you basically have to let them have some time to chew on you to activate their venom and get you fingers to the rear of their mouth.

Yes, I said fingers. Unless it’s a pretty large adult, it tough for them to ”strike” the hand and inject venom.

As mentioned by others, the venom is mild for most folks and you may have a bit of swelling like a bee or wasp sting. But basically it’s just not a big deal for MOST people.

Bonus info: The Coral snake, while highly neurotoxic, has a hard time biting a human. Their mouth is so small that you really have to almost try to get bit by poking it‘s mouth with your finger. It would be rare to get bit in the arm or leg, and probably the hand as well.

Exactly.
The Texas Lyre snake's venom is so mild that it has to resort to constriction on small birds and mammals to kill it's prey. So venom that won't kill a small bird, is probably not a danger to about 99% of humans.

We have coral snakes here in East Texas. I know they exist, but in over fifty years of living here on and off over the years, I have seen exactly two of them in that time span. One was about ten years ago, and the other about forty years ago.

 

[Hoji]

Bonus info: The Coral snake, while highly neurotoxic, has a hard time biting a human. Their mouth is so small that you really have to almost try to get bit by poking it‘s mouth with your finger. It would be rare to get bit in the arm or leg, and probably the hand as well.

Not entirely accurate. Maybe with the smaller western coral snakes y’all get here, but the eastern corals get big(3’-3-1/2’)
When I was 17 and working for a land surveyor in Florida our instrument man was a snake nerd like me. We had just found a ball of scarlet king snakes( I think there were 10-12 of them) and the the local pet store would pay $3 an inch for them. Almost a week’s pay each. The IM spotted a flash of red, yellow, and black in the same area we had just found the scarlets and he reached down and grabbed about 3’ of eastern coral snake, which immediately gave him a “ FU, let me go bite.”he let the snake go and noticed the blood on his hand. Within a minute he knew he had been envenomated. Spent 3 weeks in the hospital. Lesson learned. Alway be 100% sure of what you are grabbing, and the myth of “coral snakes have to chew” debunked.

 

[satx78247]

Not entirely accurate. Maybe with the smaller western coral snakes y’all get here, but the eastern corals get big(3’-3-1/2’)
When I was 17 and working for a land surveyor in Florida our instrument man was a snake nerd like me. We had just found a ball of scarlet king snakes( I think there were 10-12 of them) and the the local pet store would pay $3 an inch for them. Almost a week’s pay each. The IM spotted a flash of red, yellow, and black in the same area we had just found the scarlets and he reached down and grabbed about 3’ of eastern coral snake, which immediately gave him a “ FU, let me go bite.”he let the snake go and noticed the blood on his hand. Within a minute he knew he had been envenomated. Spent 3 weeks in the hospital. Lesson learned. Alway be 100% sure of what you are grabbing, and the myth of “coral snakes have to chew” debunked.

Hoji,

GOOD TO KNOW. = Around SATX the coral snakes while PRETTY are SMALL.
(The biggest one that the Nature Center has is about 14" & not any larger in diameter than my little finger.)
Further, she is quite SHY about being seen & spends most of each day "buried in the vegetable matter" in the floor of her enclosure.

yours, satx