On of my kids is running a booth for identification of venomous and nonvenomous snakes in Texas for his cubscout pack tomorrow. Does anyone have any good ideas?

We can print pictures of common snakes and put name and info on the back, but I was trying to think of something else to interest the scouts. Last minute planning because we've been gone. I have the back end of a rattlesnake I killed when I was a kid, but that's all I could think of.

Rat snakes are epic climbers. You can probably find pics of them in some crazy places

Many snakes eat other snakes on a regular basis. Typical boys would be interested in seeing pics/ videos of this

Maybe mention Triangle head vs oval head is not a good way to ID venomous vs nonvenomous. Same with round pupil vs slit pupils.

brs4688 said:

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The color rhyme is not always accurate. Would also be a good idea to mention first aid for snake bites. To make it hands on, you could have each scout that walks by practice first aid techniques. Focus on types of snakes in area, majority of bites occur on extremities (especially upper), any person that receives a bite must be taken to hospital etc.

Links below.


https://blog.nols.edu/2015/06/19/snake-bites-heres-what-to-do-video



http://thevenominterviews.com/2016/06/02/mythbusting-coral-snakes/


Sidenote, learning hands only CPR and how to apply tourniquets is a quick hands on activity.

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That myth busting article was a great read, thanks for posting!

Honestly, focusing on correct venomous i.d. is probably your best bet. Go into great detail - and then show how some non-venomous look similar, but are actually vastly different.

As mentioned, all above information is also helpful. Get them doing something active and off of their phones.

Or, use their phones as a tool for apps such as iNature, etc.

ursusguy said:

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If you do the first aid (love the idea), make sure you are teaching the current recommendations (above). They have changed some the last few years, and generally pretty simple. I run my cubs through snakebite scenarios on a semi regular basis.

We do first aid at the beginning of the year. Throughout the year, once a month, one of our adults/parents will have a prearragned emergency that the kids have to work through. Snakebite, stroke, cuts, heat exhaustion vs heat stroke, heart attacks, etc. Makes for a lot of fun, and gets other parents involved. Pretty much everyone is excited waiting for their month to put on a show.

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Ursus,
What has changed in the last few years? Is there a link for the latest info maybe?

My mother was an MD and I remember visiting her snakebite patients back in the 60's..... stuff has changed tremendously since then. But the last I heard was just get victim to the hospital pronto, and if possible clean up the bite area to fight possible infecftion.

I have had no training for about 50 years, so seriously wonder what is taught today.

My understanding is to remove anything that is a constrictive danger due to swelling, elevate the wound if possible, minimize exertion, and seek immediate medical attention.

I like the idea for your Scouts. Hognose snakes are often confused with poisonous snakes. Also good, if you could work it in, show how to tell difference between timber and diamondback. Timber rattlers are a protected species.

Page 25 has a short paragraph regarding snake bites. I encourage anyone who has the time to take entire course wilderness first aid course. Scouting now requires it for leaders as well as good info for scouts.


https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/680-008.pdf

Thanks brs..... copy and pasted from your link...

Quote:

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Venomous snakes of the United States include pit vipers and coral snakes. The risk of death from a bite is low. With all snake bites, keep the patient physically and emotionally calm, and gently wash the bite site. Splint any bitten extremities and keep the bite site at approximately the level of the patient's heart. Do not cut, suck, apply a constricting band, or apply cold. Go for help. The patient should not walk unless it is unavoidable for evacuation. The treatment of choice for snake bite is your car keyswhich means you need to evacuate the patient swiftly. Snake bites need to be evaluated by a physician. Snake bites are puncture wounds that might cause infections, including tetanus.

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The hard part for me is that if I was ever snakebit, it would probably be somewhere where I would have to walk to get back to the house or truck.

The rhyme is pretty good for the vast majority of coral snakes encountered in the U.S. It will include a few nonvenomous species in the west erroneously in the venomous category.

For me the easiest way to ID corals has always been the fact you can barely distinguish the eyes from the black on the front of the head and they always have a yellow band right behind the eyes on the back of the head. The eyes are "masked" to make the head and tail hard to distinguish from one another for predators.

Make sure to note that Texas and Arizona coral snakes have never been documented to deliver a fatal bite even before antivenin and eastern coral snakes have not killed anyone since antivenin was developed in the 1960's.

In the ER it is not considered necessary to give antivenin to people who are bitten by Texas coral snakes. However, it is often still done as a precaution.

If you gotta walk to make up for the time factor, get walking.

Main change is the idea of flat out not using a constriction band. They found with the hematoxic snakes that confining it tended to cause greater long term damage near the site of the constriction.

Why don't you make it a game and have them sort venomous vs non pictures.

The key is being able to activate the 911 system. Have a plan in place before you go. When I worked a scout camp in the middle of nowhere wyoming, I contacted local EMS to determine time from dispatch to arrival on scene. Also made contact with local search and rescue to let them know in case we had a lost scout or parent, Forest fire or some other type of disaster.

Maybe large size flip books mounted to the booth with the name of the snake and venom/nonvenom printed on the back of each picture page. You could make a contest, see who gets the most venom/nonvenom correct, or something like that.

If it was least year I could have gotten you a bunch of free samples to give out.

Double check this, but I am pretty sure that I am remembering correctly....

Any snake with a stripe DOWN it's length is non-venemous in Texas.

If on Fb, check out the group What kind of snake is this? North Texas

excellent resource and you may be able to find some awareness / educational material there as well.

This is mostly true, but both timber rattlesnakes and pygmy rattlesnakes have a light rust-colored stripe down the center of their backs.

Any snake with an Australian accent will kill you dead.

Thanks for all of the ideas. We had our boys focus on identification of local snakes and first aid if bitten. They also each added a few facts about particular snakes. It went really well and we had lots of good conversations and questions from the scouts and parents that came to our table. The boys had fun, learned something about snakes, and the more they are forced to present information the better off they'll be later in school and in their careers.

I still never found my rattle snake head and rattle from > 30 years ago. I'm filing this with the list of things from my college days that slowly disappeared after I got married.