Article: Are Hognose Snakes Venomous?
thevenominterviews.com/2017/10/18/are-hognose...
thevenominterviews.comPosted Oct 19, 2018, 6:32 PM UTC
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thevenominterviews.comLove these snakes. Lucky to have caught two at my house; one little and one big.
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yes. they are.
so are Thamnophis (garter/ribbon snakes) too .
But in both cases unless you are like a frog or toad or salamander you probably dont have to worry about their bite.
Or you let them chew on you or you have an allergic reaction. I’m studying snake venoms for my PhD and it’s amazing how toxic some common rear-fanged snakes’ venoms are. The difference in how you extract it from how we extract our vipers and elapids is a good demonstration of why they’re usually less of a threat. Smaller fangs (often but not always) set far back so a grazing bite won’t involve a fang most likely and venom that is less dense and is secreted more like saliva (extractions take 30-40 minutes) as the venom leaks out of the fangs. But check out Rhabdophis tigrinum, Dispholydus typus, twig snakes, or even some Philodryas species to see fatalities or seriously medically significant bites from rear-fanged snakes. Their venoms also tend to have a lot of taxon specific proteins depending on the species. Brown-tree snakes have a three fingered toxin that makes up a major part of their venom that is nearly as potent to lizards as alpha cobra-toxin is to mice (and us). But that same toxin from brown-tree snakes is completely non toxic to mammals.
wow. okay i stand corrected.
You weren’t wrong in almost all cases. We have no reason to fear hognoses. We should just be aware of what can happen in case the unlikely ever does.
I got bitten by my tricolor hognose and it took me a couple minutes to get him off me (rubbing alcohol didn't work). I didn't go to the doctor because I didn't how to even start explaining it, but in retrospect I probably should have 😭. Not a fun experience.
Exactly, if you wanted to be envenomated you'd have to force a bite and then the snake would have to "chew" on you to try and swallow your finger/toe for a bit before you reached the rear fangs.
Not quite that far, especially with the short rostrum of hognoses. I extract venom from them and while it would be unlikely to get any significant bites from a hog nose it can and has happened. Not fatal of course... but still envenomations have occurred far from the swallowing of a toe. But hognoses are safe enough, just don’t let them chew on you... and get medical attention if you show signs of an allergic reactions.
Pretty interesting!
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