Snakes alive! Antivenin supplies are low but experts say human-serpent confrontations are rare

Friday, May 17, 2002 | 10:23 a.m.

Las Vegas health and wildlife officials say they are not concerned that warmer weather is bringing rattlesnakes out at a time when antivenin supplies are low because so few people are bitten by the snakes.

Rattlesnakes normally attack humans only when they sense fear, the officials said.

"We get what amounts to about two snakebites a month," said Rick Plummer, spokesman at the University Medical Center, which has enough antivenin on tap to treat six to eight rattlesnake bite victims -- about half the normal supply.

"We are expecting more antivenin in about two weeks, which will return our supplies to normal," he said.

The Associated Press reported this week that warm Southwest weather is luring rattlesnakes from their holes and tourists into the wilderness, creating potentially deadly confrontations at a time when the drug used to treat bites is in short supply.

However, according to the Nevada Division of Wildlife and Clark County Animal Control, you practically have to go out of your way to get bitten by one of the four main varieties of rattlers found in Las Vegas -- the Mohave green, the southwest speckled rattler, the sidewinder and the Panamint, which is found primarily on Mount Charleston.

The Mohave green -- the only green-colored rattler -- carries venom that is 40 percent neurotoxic poison, which affects not only the victim's bloodstream but also his central nervous system.

"All I've ever seen over the years is about 15 to 20 rattlesnakes and I patrol for people who try to collect reptiles in the desert without a permit," said Fred Henson, a state game warden for the Nevada Division of Wildlife.

"Rattlesnakes won't hurt you if you are cautious. They are in a defensive posture protecting themselves. They hunt smaller prey like lizards and mice, not humans."

Henson said rattlers generally can strike only the distance of about half their body length. That means if you are six feet away when you hear the rattle of a four-foot snake, you have plenty of room. Slowly back off and it usually will slither away from you, he said.

Henson warned that desert hikers should always be on alert for sounds and sights that can present danger, because there are other reptiles whose bites can cause serious illness or death.

Joe Boteillo, chief of Clark County Animal Control, said his officers have responded to five snake calls this spring, none of them rattlers.

"All of our officers are trained in how to handle snakes," he said. "People should call the Division of Wildlife or us if they find a snake in a populated area, and not try to handle it themselves. We will capture them, bag them and relocate them. We don't kill them."

Jennifer Sizemore, spokeswoman for the Clark County Health District, said neither her agency nor the state health department keeps statistics on snakebites in Southern Nevada. Records, however, are kept by those agencies on bites from dogs, cats, bats, chipmunks, coyotes, ferrets, foxes, mice, raccoons, rats, ringtail cats, skunks and squirrels.

But those records only include bites as they relate to rabies testing. Through April of this year, cats in Clark County led the way with 23 bites, followed by dogs at 17 and bats at five. Only one bite, that of a bat, tested positive for rabies in April. In 2001, there were 64 cat bites, 49 dog bites and 17 bat bites in Clark County. Only four bites, all from bats, tested positive for rabies, Sizemore said.

Snake season in the West generally runs from April through October, with most of the activity in the spring. Snakes like to bask in the sun when temperatures are 80-90 degrees, but once the temperatures hit above that, they escape into their holes until nightfall.

Snakes also can be seen after breeding in the late fall, hunting and getting fat for winter hibernation. Plummer said there rarely are any snakebite cases at UMC during the winter months.

The shortage of sake antivenin was caused by production delays resulting from one manufacturer ceasing production of the drug last year.

National statistics indicate that about five to 15 people out of the 6,000 to 8,000 who are bitten by snakes in the United States each year die from those bites.