Another question? If a Garter bites...

[RZL36]

Cold water will get a snake off and pushing (not pulling) forward works too.

[garterking]

A garter snakes bite is more suprising if anything. At most you might have 2 small pin pricks where the teeth sunk in and a speck of blood. Put it this way, pricking your finger for a blood test is 10 times worse, and that's pretty much nothing. If I were you I wouldn't worry about it.

[Charlet_2007]

yeah it was my garter that bit me lol i think it was hungry at that time lmao I got it out to show a friend that it was docile guess it had other things on its mind lmao..

[drache]

getting bitten is no big deal
you've done way worse to yourself in the kitchen, without even bothering to get a band-aid, I'm sure
don't let the snake chew on you though
it may seem cute to watch a little thing like that get a good grip on you, but their saliva can cause a big reaction - like emergency room big

[RZL36]

I've been on a forum with Dr. Brian Fry (big time venom researcher) and he claims that garter snake venom is remarkably similiar to copperhead venom. Pretty toxic stuff. They just don't have an effective way to deliver it and not much of it to deliver.

I've also read that marcianus has the most potent (I think someone here provided that information).

All in all, it can't do much to you unless you cut out the duvernoy's gland and put it directly into an artery.

I would certainly advise against that.

[Stefan-A]

Like I told James a long time ago, it took roughly 250 years from Carl von Linné (that's Carolus Linnaeus to the rest of you ) first describing a garter snake, to somebody actually figuring out that they were venomous. That should give a bit of a clue as to how dangerous their bite is.

Rich, has Dr. Fry given any sort of LD50 values for the venom they have?
Considering their diets, I wouldn't be incredibly surprised if copperhead and garter venoms were similar.

[RZL36]

Yeah, this probably isn't the right place to be talking about this. Gonna freak people out.

Garter snakes can't hurt you.

[RZL36]

Check this out for some more information. Couldn't find anything about the agkistrodon comparison, b/c i am at work and need to get some stuff done. THis is kinda cool though:

Venomdoc Forums :: View topic - Three Fingers?

[Stefan-A]

Yeah, I've read that before.

mmm.. neurotoxin.. much more fun than cytotoxins and hemotoxins.

[RZL36]

yeah, icky stuff. It explains why people go numb though. Right?