I think that the best tack for the community to take is to stop the misinformation. Educate people on the difference so that the conflicting information goes away.

1. Yes heterodon are venomous.

2. They are not dangerous to people.

3. The symptoms of an envenomation are mild and are not attributable to being "allergic" to the bite.

4. Their fangs are not used for deflating toads, they are used for introducing venom.

5. Eating toads does not make them more venomous.

6. Hognose snakes do not use their venom for defense. It is used on prey. The risk for envenomation is due to feeding confusion.

Venomous colubrids should be ranked by risk. Hognoses pose none. Rufous beaked snakes pose a moderate risk. Philodryas pose a high risk as do rhabdophis, macropisthodon, oligodon and thelatornis.

People have a tendency to either overhype or underhype the risks associated with rear fanged snakes. Getting the right information out is crucial.

The recent Reptiles magazine article on Rhamphiophis was a prefect example. Yes rufous beaked snakes make wonderful captives, but they are considered to be a "warm" opistoglyph and their venom is quite formidable. Can they kill a human? Probably not - a good envenomation will result in definite symptoms on an adult - what happens if a child gets a serious dose of their neurotoxic venom? How will the species be looked at then?

Writing an article without discussing the proper risks involved with keeping this species may hurt the hobby down the road. The problem is that we tend to lump all rear-fanged colubrids into one pot.......it's a matter of time before that bites us in the you-know-what.