General Question

ducky_dnl's avatar

Is there a way to tell if a snake bite is venomous or non-venomous just by looking at the bite marks?

Asked by ducky_dnl (5384points) August 21st, 2010
5 responses
“Great Question” (2points)

I was just wondering if you can tell just by looking at the bite marks from a snake. I wasn’t bit by a snake or anything, just merely curious. :P

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Answers

BarnacleBill's avatar

According to www.venomoussnakes.net I love the website name! the following are symptoms of a venomous snake bite:

You should probably know when a snake has injected its venom into your tissue. Here is however, a list of common symptoms often encountered from a poisonous snake bite.

Each individual will experience symptoms somehow differently. The following symptoms are the most often reported.

* Discharge of blood from the wound
* Marks in the skin and swelling at the site of the snake bite
* Severe pain around the bite site
* Diarrhea
* Convulsion of varying severity
* Blurred vision, weakness, dizziness and fainting

Lightlyseared's avatar

Non venomus snakes have different dentition to venomous snakes so will leave a different looking bite mark. However if the snake is very small or the area that has been bitten has become inflamed (even if a snake is non venomous the bite may still get infected) it might not be that easy to tell the difference even to a someone who knows what they are looking for.

Brian1946's avatar

Generally speaking, constricting snakes such as the python, have many teeth along the roofs of their mouths.
If one bites you, it’ll probably leave many shallow puncture wounds in the bite area.

Venomous snakes usually just have the two fangs that are used for venom injection, and will usually leave just the two deeper wounds.

ducky_dnl's avatar

@Brian1946 That’s neat! :)

delirium's avatar

If you get a good bite, a constrictor bite will leave four rows of marks across the top and two on the bottom with all teeth of fairly equal depth.
Most venomous bites are fang punctures like two little syringes. You can, however, be envenomated by a monitor lizard or a rear-fanged-venomous snake. The RFV snake will usually chew much more to get it’s rear fangs in to you and there will be an odd bite pattern with lots of twisting and longer teeth at the back of the bite.

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