Duvernoy's gland (thought this was a good read)

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Garters were long thought to be nonvenomous, but recent discoveries have revealed that they do in fact produce a mild neurotoxic venom. Garter snakes are nevertheless harmless to humans due to the very low amounts of venom they produce, which is comparatively mild, and the fact that they lack an effective means of delivering it. They do have enlarged teeth in the back of their mouth, but unlike many rear fanged colubrid snakes, garter snakes do not have a groove running down the length of the teeth that would allow it to inject venom into its prey. The venom is delivered via a duvernoy's gland, secreted between their lips and gums. Whereas most venomous snakes have anterior or forward venom glands, the Duvernoy's gland of garters are posterior (to the rear) of the snake's eyes. The mild poison is spread into wounds through a chewing action. The properties of the venom are not well known, but it appears to contain 3FXT, commonly known as three-finger toxin, which is a neurotoxin commonly found in the venom of colobrids and elapids. A bite may result in mild swelling and an itching sensation. There are no known cases of serious injury and extremely few with symptoms of envenomation.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Funny article and funny thread http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/gene...y-gland-5.html

[gregmonsta]

Some papers listed on this ol' thread - http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/gart...ning-zone.html several links are down but the majority still bear fruit.

[Stefan-A]

Garters were long thought to be nonvenomous, but recent discoveries have revealed that they do in fact produce a mild neurotoxic venom. Garter snakes are nevertheless harmless to humans due to the very low amounts of venom they produce, which is comparatively mild, and the fact that they lack an effective means of delivering it. They do have enlarged teeth in the back of their mouth, but unlike many rear fanged colubrid snakes, garter snakes do not have a groove running down the length of the teeth that would allow it to inject venom into its prey. The venom is delivered via a duvernoy's gland, secreted between their lips and gums. Whereas most venomous snakes have anterior or forward venom glands, the Duvernoy's gland of garters are posterior (to the rear) of the snake's eyes. The mild poison is spread into wounds through a chewing action. The properties of the venom are not well known, but it appears to contain 3FXT, commonly known as three-finger toxin, which is a neurotoxin commonly found in the venom of colobrids and elapids. A bite may result in mild swelling and an itching sensation. There are no known cases of serious injury and extremely few with symptoms of envenomation.

Funny thing is, I wrote most of that in the early days of Wikipedia. Some of it is false. Well, probably false.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

The part about the duvernoy's gland and them having to chew to work mild venom in to the bite wound is true. I don't know about the rest, but i still found it worth sharing no matter who wrote it. I have been bitten by garters plenty of times with no issues at all, but i got bit by one of my fl. Blue easterns and didn't want to injure her teeth so i just let her chew thinking she would let go, but i had pinky scent on my hand and she couldn't tell the difference so i had to run her under water to get her to let go. It was a painful bite once she got her rear teeth in and then it started swelling and bruising real bad. The swelling started with my finger and moved to my hand and up my arm and caused my lymph nodes to swell. The swelling and bruising lasted for about 4 days. It was painful and i thought i was going to have to go to a doctor, but after about 3 days the swelling and pressure started decreasing and i knew it was getting better. A little nip to warn off predators is different than a feeding response bite.

[ConcinusMan]

A little nip to warn off predators is different than a feeding response bite.

Exactly. The only time I've ever had a reaction (rash-like redness, itchy burning sensation) is when my hand was mistake for food and the snake refused to let go. I think it's the struggling and the snake's determination to swallow that which is struggling to get free, that the Duvernoy's gland secretions come into play. Simply washing the bite area thoroughly and using an antiseptic on the wound was enough to stop the symptoms. One should do that anyway if the skin is broken.

[d_virginiana]

Any time I've been bitten by garter or water snakes the area always bleeds far more than seems normal for such a small wound. Don't know if that has anything to do with the venom or the way their teeth are formed.

[ConcinusMan]

Just their regular saliva has anticoagulant properties. Getting saliva in the wound greatly increases bleeding and the amount of time required for it to clot. It's not the "venom" doing it. Just saliva.

[Stefan-A]

Just their regular saliva has anticoagulant properties. Getting saliva in the wound greatly increases bleeding and the amount of time required for it to clot. It's not the "venom" doing it. Just saliva.

Actually it is the venom. Venom without quotation marks, not "saliva".

[-MARWOLAETH-]

They don't have notched teeth like rear fanged snakes who use the teeth to channel the proteins into the wound.Instead the venom is released into the mouth and mixes with the saliva,by chewing the saliva/venom enter the wound.

please correct me if i'm talking rubbish