Stupid "How to tell if a Snake is Venomous" Trick

[Oxylepy]

There is a pretty simple way to know if a snake is venomous or not.

Be capable of identifying which family of snakes any snake is part of by memorizing the uniting characteristics of any family.

[deminon]

i think the whole verticle pupils thing is pretty stupid in itself. i mean seriuously, anyone who isnt a snake fan (and even some that are) arnt going to try to get close enough to look a snake in the eye.

[dr del]

Hi,

Does it make a difference if the snake in question rides a bus of less than regular length?




dr del

[piranhaking]

You know the "if the snake's pupil is vertical its venomous" trick? Well its crap. All of my snakes, none of them venomous by the way, have vertical pupils. I dont know who invented this "trick", but they sure were stupid. My BP's, Boa's, and Carpets ALL HAVE VERTICAL PUPILS!!!!!!!

Before you call someone stupid, you should atleast try to get your facts straight.

That "trick" is specifically for native species here. I dont know if it applies to coral snakes, my guess is that it doesn't, but where I'm from in Tennessee, we don't have coral snakes, so as far as I know it holds true for all NATIVE species here. Copperheads, cottonmouths, and rattlers all have the slit eyes, and I dont know of any native nonvenomous snakes that don't.

[Raptor]

The saying is in regard is NATIVE united states snakes. For the most part, it's true. There's only two exceptions to the rule. The coral snake (which has it's own little saying "Red on yellow kills a fellow, red on black, you're ok Jack) and the Texas Nightsnake which has verticle pupils (course, there may be more non-venomous USA snakes with slit pupils, this is just what I'm aware of).

[mommanessy247]

im gonna have to research the snakes that are found in my state/area. i rarely let my son out to play for fear that he'll see and pick up a snake...he's got absolutely NO concept of danger as do most "special needs" children...he likes snakes and makes their "sound" every time he sees one here. he knows we're getting a snake because i have a cage set up for the one im getting this year and ive told him im getting a snake. he always wants to look into the cage to "see" the snake...
anyways my bf's parents are planning to have a fence put up around our back yard so that my son will have a safe place to go out to play. but again,
i rarely let him out for fear he'll pick up a snake.

[kellysballs]

We did a year of weekends at the Daytona Flea Market selling reptile supplies, feeders and balls, and we heard this saying a lot. I just reminded people that while that is mostly true here in central Florida, if you go to other parts of the world it will not be true. (the exception here would be coral snakes they have round pupils and not "arrow shaped" heads)

I would then show them the head shape and eyes of our balls and explain that the elliptical pupil is mostly for night time vison. You then get into nocturnal animals vs diurnal animals and it ends up being a pretty in depth educational session.

While that saying may seem "stupid" to you it may be the sole piece of information that a common person has on venomous reptiles. So if you hear it in the future it can be a good ice breaker for a little education in snakes. No matter how many times we hear some thing if we take the time to educate and are good ambassadors for our pets it should help us as herp keepers in the long run.

[Bellabob]

Yea that is NOT a good way to tell if a snake is venomous. here are plenty of non venomous snakes with vertical pupils, like boas and pythons. And there are venomous snakes with round pupils, like boobslangs, black and green mambas, cobras, etc.

[Russ Lawson]

Yeah, that definitely arose as a rule for native snakes in the states. I tell people that for telling watersnakes from cottonmouths because people tend to be horrible about that (even though they look nothing alike imo). For coral snakes, I just tell them to see if the nose is black because that's less confusing than the red touching yellow vs red touching black rule if you have sight of the full snake. The only other venomous snakes we have here are a couple different types of rattlers, which are typically easy to pick out for most of the uninformed individuals I've encountered.

[Hilltop]

Yep north american trick only. LOL. the rest of you lot better get your own "trick" ours will get ya killed