My advice to anyone living in centroamerica is learn to properly identify snakes, because you will find them sooner or later.. most times, they end up in your house, so prepare yourself.
This little gem (below) was found in the house. He had just sneaky snaked his way under the couch and past our Brayden's arm that was draped off the couch. It was day time, and corals like night, so he was short tempered. Later we found a small snake, and I believe he had been frightened away from his breaky by the dogs and was just in a bad mood and hungry. I opted for a net (hooks are very difficult with corals) and he bit it several times. Be careful, even when they're small. These are ELAPIDS, the same as cobras, kraits, sea snakes, etc. They cause cardiac arrest, as the venom spreads, blocking nerve endings from firing, causing muscle paralysis, resulting in the lungs shutting down and heart stopping. This is how Cleopatra went, rumoured to be an Egyptian Cobra that did her in. Of course, unlike the cobra and a simple raking of just one fang over skin injects enough venom to kill, our colourful little gems of the rainforest are not nearly as armed and dangerous, and their venom works in a little different way.
Micrurus nigrocinctus or Central American Coral Snake, notice the interlocking belly scale rings
This guy was relocated, unharmed, but pissssssssed about the ordeal
Micrurus or Corals
Coral snakes have interlocking belly scale rings (mimics do not wrap around the belly, stopping at belly scales)
Corals are Elapids
Corals have bright patterns and small, beady eyes useful in their subterranean lives. (mimics have large, diurnal eyes)
Yes, small snakes are not considered all that dangerous, if NOT being handled. Some exceptions are baby corals, the size of a Blind Snake. I have had many take refuge under my boots, when out herping, or try to crawl up my pant legs. This is why I always wear pant legs tucked in to boots when out in field. It's no big deal, not scary, and the poor snakes are more scared of us, than anyone has ever been of a tiny little coral snake. We do get very big corals here, as well.
Bite- Unless you're prepared to let this little guy grab on and chew his venom in to you, you're not in mortal danger. Corals have a rather poor delivery of their venom, toxic as it is, but they must take time and work their venom into their prey. Antivenin is rarely if at all used for coral snake bites.. good thing, too, as the world ran out of coral snake antivenin several years ago. They stopped making it, as it was bad business, treating less than 100 bites per year. From 2010 they extended the antivenin to 2011, with an extended extension to 2012. Evidently Pharma and government greed are unable to condone something with little demand as this= not much money.. I'd hate to see the several cases that did require vials and vials of antivenin, though.
Research of bite victims here- On all my snake-bite stories, there is one thing in common- a "healer" was able to save the victim. Now, after educating myself in all manners of snakes and venoms since '99, I have come to the conclusion that many a dry bite happened, otherwise, they'd look like our worker we had several years ago, who was tagged by a Bothrops asper, (Fer-de-lance pit viper) and had a massive scar going from his wrist to shoulder, after the doc at hospital had to resection his entire arm, due to massive swelling. My Micrurus (Coral snake) accounts recall that they were mostly petrified (spreading venom rapidly through system) and got sick, nearly died, then were OK. I tried many times to get more details, but that's as much detail as these campesinos want to go in to. One man was at the river, fishing at night, stepped down between rocks and felt a searing pain- looked down and saw a coral snake. He said that with the help of his friends they got him home, and slowly he was nursed back to health. None of these stories end like cobra, krait, tiger, blacks... in death. For any story I have heard of a Bothrops asper biting someone, if they did not receive medical attention and reach hospital, where they would receive at least 9 vials of antivenin (at least) I'd say that the snake only saw fit to dispense with just a wee bit of his venom, as he knows it takes him an entire week to replenish. I'd say many are a dry bite, where no venom is injected. I have only heard of several horror stories, resulting in actual death.. none from corals.
I do not find corals very dangerous, no matter what their size- unless they are stepped on. This does not mean that I handle them... oh no, only the hook and net for me, with these "hot" snakes. I have only had the above 1st coral angry and striking, (by striking, I mean lunging in a rather comical way, slow-mo like) all my other finds were very shy, reserved and scared. I came across one large gem that I wanted to keep. He was very sweet, and if corals made good pets, I would have kept it. They are very difficult to keep in captivity, due to their specialised diet of snakes, and their substrates they require. Every single one I have tried to keep, has died. I let my sweet one go, back in Gualaca... after keeping him several days.
Females are larger, males have longer tails, and for the more technical, you can count rings, (caudal ventral and body) females having more than males.
Quiz time- which one is a coral snake?
ANSWER- they all are.
Bienvenidos a centroamerica, compa! Red and yellow.. kill a fellow. Red and black.. kill a fellow.
Replies
The best thing would be to have you available instantly for identification when I encounter one of these in my yard. The second best thing is to have a flamethrower handy, although that is going to be hard on the landscaping....
I want to tell you here in CR we use the word R A N A (frog, in english) to recognize when a coral snake is real (poisones) or false (not poison), because this word has the exactly secuense of the first word of each color of the snake:
Here's an all Orange one with a black head we found dead by our container.
Hey Joe, gorgeous Pseudoboa.
Do you still have the picture of a yellow snake that was in a kitchen, crawling up the counter ? what was that ?
Until you mentioned it earlier, I had never heard of the Vitamin C remedy. Even if coral snake anti-venom became available locally, I'm skeptical if a small pet like a Shih-Tzu or domestic cat could survive long enough to make it for any extended period to get to it.
I wasn't aware of the poison caterpillars. Sheesh, maybe that's a whole different discussion thread....
Hi again, Doug. Oh yeah, that's the first thing we would do in the case of an envenomation of any kind- Vit C. It blocks the venom from binding, is an antibiotic, promotes healing of tissue and regrowth, etc. In fact, I need to get some distilled water and make up our own injections. We're talking high dose injectable. You can not overdo it with Vit C. With soon to be 12 horses and ponies, one never knows. Be prepared, as the creepies are emerging from being holed up all summer. I just saved a tarantula from the rescue kitty.
We had a 2000 lb horse in agony for 2 days, exhibiting only colic like symptoms (this is how horses show pain, many times misdiagnosed- rolling, thrashing, pawing) and refusing to eat or drink. The only thing that brought her out of it was Banamine, the wonder equine drug. Only because of observing the first drink did I put my finger on it- caterpillar got her when she was eating, in the mouth. Her tongue and lips were very sensitive and she'd take a sip and let the water just run on out of her mouth. Now, had the 6.5 lb Shih-Tzu been envenomated by this same thing, who knows what the outcome would have been. Fortunately she's a Fu Foo and thinks she's a human, and is not crazy for the outdoors.
You start the thread. I'll add my 2 envenomations by caterpillar experiences- symptoms. ;)
Remember, any Milk Snakes, call me! We've been looking for one for a long time.
Thanks Jess!
The only consistency I see in the above photos is that all the various coral snakes have black noses. Is that a form of identification, of, say, telling a coral from the similarly colored milk snake? I've read that all coral snakes in the U.S. have black noses, but I don't know if it holds true for the Central American corals? (David's photo of a milk snake doesn't clearly show its head, for purposes of comparison.)
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