I got an interesting call from a family that had seen my show three years in a row. Having learned from me that most people who are bitten were trying kill the snake at the time, they had a Texas Coral snake (Micrurus tener) waiting for me in a trash can, and could I please remove it?

I knew when they said that, what part of Dallas they were calling from. In all my years herping Dallas County, the only other Micrurus I’ve personally encountered in the wild was only 500 yards away from this family’s home, in a now closed property called Camp El Har. It’s a little North of Duncanville (across I-20) and East of Spur 408. The area is called Cedar Vista. Very green and beautiful, with cedar brakes and higher elevations than most of the county.

As a kid, my church sent us there annually, and as an older kid I was also a counselor there. More recently I’ve performed there, but stopped hearing from them a couple of years ago. It’s really sad now to know why.

Anyway, the Coral snake in question had already been named “Freddie” by Mason, one of the five great kids in the family. Channel 5 ran a story about it, here’s the link, though I don’t know how long it will keep working:

http://www.nbc5i.com/news/16221757/detail.html

As usual, they interviewed me for 45 minutes and used 8 seconds or so of it, but the story was pretty well done. Of course, they played up the “deadly snakes in Dallas” angle, but failed to use the stinger – that all of the antivenom for this species was made three years ago, because production stopped in 2005. No money in it. Only 1% of venomous snakebites in the US annually are from this species. That’s no wonder – it’s a shy, reclusive animal that is rarely seen, and to get bitten by one, you basically have to pick it up.

Don’t pick it up.

Drop for drop, it’s very similar to a cobra bite, and with all the remaining antivenom on the shelves across the country expiring this October, the alternative may end up being left on a ventilator for days while the central nervous system recovers from the paralyzing effects of an envenomation. Very scary thought.

The story added that the bite, “left little time for survival” which they did not get from me. The onset of any symptoms at all can sometimes take hours or even days, which is one of the problems, as some victims tend to assume the bite failed to deliver any venom. Then later when they discover they’re in trouble, they find themselves unable to speak, and later to even breathe on their own. Not good.

In the D/FW Metroplex, none of the mimics range this far North (for the Mexican Milk snake) or West (for the Louisiana Milk snake) so EVERY red, yellow and black banded snake will be the Texas Coral snake – there’s no need to remember the little rhyme.

Just don’t pick it up.