Bluegrass Adventures: A little knowledge can ease the anxiety caused by encounter with snake

By Daniel Leathers
Special to NKyTribune

Phil and Thomas were hiking along their favorite section of trail one sunny day in late spring when Phil suddenly stopped. Thomas had been following so close to him that he almost ran Phil over.

“What in the world are you doing?” asked Thomas. “Snake,” Phil stuttered in a whispered response as though the snake had no idea he was there.

They looked ahead and determined that it was a rather long, smooth looking brown and black snake with a pretty design on it.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a rat snake”, said Phil. The two made their way around the snake and continued their hike as Phil’s heart rate began to slow again.

Snakes are a fact of life in the outdoors and should not cause any anxiety. However, let’s face it – they do. Most of the reason that people fear snakes is their lack of ability to recognize the type of snakes they encounter.

One important thing to point out here is that most people, including sources that should know better, wrongly refer to snakes as ether poisonous or non-poisonous.

Snakes are actually either venomous or non-venomous and yes, there is a difference. Venom is injected while poison is ingested or absorbed. Both venom and poison act similarly once in the body.

How Can I Tell The Difference?

There are a few ways to tell the difference between types of snakes including length, head size, scale types, anal plate and color/pattern. We will concentrate on the ones that help to distinguish venomous from non-venomous.

‣ Pupils and Eyes: Why would someone get this close? Well, you don’t have to be that close in order to see the types of eyes a snake has. Non-venomous snakes have rounded pupils in the center of the eye. Venomous snakes have a cat-like eye with a vertical pupil.

Additionally, a pit viper will have a small round hole or pit between their nose and their eye. Pit vipers include rattlesnakes.

‣ Head Shape: While head shape is not a definite method to identify all venomous snakes, it does help with some. The cottonmouth and rattlesnake both have larger heads that look like an arrowhead, but so do many other snakes which are not harmful. Some snakes will flatten their heads out when feeling threatened so take this into consideration.

‣ Know Area Natives: You don’t have to be able to tell the difference between every snake. You only need to be able to know what the native venomous snakes look like. Although, it is important to note that even then it’s best to just let a snake go about its business unless it’s a threat.

There are only three venomous snakes native to Kentucky and only two in the majority of the state. The copperhead and rattlesnake are in all areas of Kentucky while the cottonmouth or water moccasin lives mainly in the western part of Kentucky.