What snake will kill you the fastest?

Adam Khor

Here's a simple but apparently not so easily answered question for reptile experts.
What snake bite will kill you the fastest? I've heard that a Gaboon viper can kill you in 15 minutes, a black mamba in 15-30 minutes, and I think the Malaysian coral snake in as little as 10 minutes. I know it would depend on a lot of factors like the snake's size and venom yield and the placement of the bite, but, on average, what would you say/have you heard are the snakes with the fastest killing venom?

PS- This is for a work of fiction so I would appreciate your answers even if at the end of the day there is no exact answer. Im more like looking for snakes notorious for their fast acting bite. :pac:

Black Swan

The Black Mamba was listed in the top 10 most venomous snakes, and reading through this list, mortality was nearly 100% (without antivenin), "death can result at any time between 15 minutes and 3 hours," which appeared the quickest at 15 minutes.

Adam Khor

Thanks for replying :>

The more I dig the more it seems that 15 minutes is sort of the average for some of the most infamous snakes, including the King Cobra and the Russell's Viper.

Interestingly, there are a number of websites stating that constrictor snakes would only need 3 minutes to squeeze the life out of you... :eek:

dodderangler

Was about to mention the constrictors
I would say an anaconda would do you in under a minute if wrapped around neck
Venom wise is the taipan not the most deadliest
I had experience with 2 Philippine cobras last year in Philippines
And I must say my heart was in my throat the whole time
The sound of them Hissing at me from 4 foot away was really intimidating

Adam Khor

dodderangler wrote: »

Was about to mention the constrictors
I would say an anaconda would do you in under a minute if wrapped around neck
Venom wise is the taipan not the most deadliest
I had experience with 2 Philippine cobras last year in Philippines
And I must say my heart was in my throat the whole time
The sound of them Hissing at me from 4 foot away was really intimidating

Yeah, the taipan and several different sea snakes are thought to have the most potent venom but that doesn´t necessarily mean its the fastest to act- coral snakes, I've heard, have a painless bite that doesn´t cause symptoms until hours later, yet the venom is more potent than say, that of a rattlesnake (which acts much faster...)

Think Philippine cobras are scary? Try stepping into a large terrarium filled with at least ten angry green rattlesnakes, all in attack posture and rattling at the same time

And I've never been in the same space as king cobras (not without a glass between us) but it must be terrifying as they can almost rear to face-level and are known to growl...

recedite

As its for a work of fiction, Black Mamba has the coolest sounding name. But a constrictor would be more terrifying. I had a retic python tighten up around my neck once (someones pet), it was quite alarming.
BTW you need a second person to find the tail end and unwind it, as calmly as possible, so as not to upset the snake useful tip!

Adam Khor

recedite wrote: »

As its for a work of fiction, Black Mamba has the coolest sounding name. But a constrictor would be more terrifying. I had a retic python tighten up around my neck once (someones pet), it was quite alarming.
BTW you need a second person to find the tail end and unwind it, as calmly as possible, so as not to upset the snake useful tip!

Not cool (the python around your neck thing) Back when I worked in a zoo my job basically consisted on carrying a huge Burmese on my shoulders-- it did seem to have an unsettling interest on little children (not that kind you sickos) but it never tried to squeeze my neck... Then again, retics are a completely different story...

I think I'm going for either the mamba or the lancehead. :>

Nino Brown

Inland taipan I thought

dodderangler

The retics do have much more aggression compared to a burm
Never came across a bad tempered burm
Been bitten by more boas and one rat snake. Just little nips
Was more terrified of a Bosc monitor I had than any snake

Adam Khor

dodderangler wrote: »

The retics do have much more aggression compared to a burm
Never came across a bad tempered burm
Been bitten by more boas and one rat snake. Just little nips
Was more terrified of a Bosc monitor I had than any snake

With good reason... I've seen some pretty serious green iguana bite cases, don´t want to be on the receiving end of a monitor thats for sure..

dodderangler

Adam Khor wrote: »

With good reason... I've seen some pretty serious green iguana bite cases, don´t want to be on the receiving end of a monitor thats for sure..

The bite is pretty bad and worst part about getting them is you have to handle them a lot to avoid them biting in the future and can be very bitey in first year
And the tail whips (holy mother of Christ )are painfull
Feared them more than the bite
Bet way to avoid it is show him the fist and he won't bite as they've feck all to grab on a closed fist but will still whip you
Thank my stars it wasn't a Nile monitor
They are pretty emm what's the word I'm looking for ........vicious as fcuk

Adam Khor

dodderangler wrote: »

The bite is pretty bad and worst part about getting them is you have to handle them a lot to avoid them biting in the future and can be very bitey in first year
And the tail whips (holy mother of Christ )are painfull
Feared them more than the bite
Bet way to avoid it is show him the fist and he won't bite as they've feck all to grab on a closed fist but will still whip you
Thank my stars it wasn't a Nile monitor
They are pretty emm what's the word I'm looking for ........vicious as fcuk

I remember talking to a former Komodo dragon keeper, and she said they were definitely NOT as tame as some books will tell you. She said everyone prefered to work with crocodiles rather than the Komodos (which is a frightening thought...)

locum-motion

dodderangler wrote: »

...Was more terrified of a Bosc monitor I had than any snake

Whassat?

Adam Khor

locum-motion wrote: »

Whassat?

Same as a Savannah Monitor:

Nino Brown

I've heard Gila monster bites are up there with the most painful of any animal.

dodderangler

Adam Khor wrote: »

Same as a Savannah Monitor:

Yup
I was told they are sold in Europe as boscs and as savs rest if the world
Some lads to eat
None of this twenty minute sh1t eatin a mouse like a snake
Weiner rat pups down the hatch in two gulps

Black throat monitors are cobra killers
They love the taste of snake

Adam Khor

dodderangler wrote: »

Yup
I was told they are sold in Europe as boscs and as savs rest if the world
Some lads to eat
None of this twenty minute sh1t eatin a mouse like a snake
Weiner rat pups down the hatch in two gulps

Black throat monitors are cobra killers
They love the taste of snake

There was a report not long ago- it was even on an Animal Planet show about animal attacks- of a guy who kept several monitors and was found half eaten by them after seemingly dying of a spider bite... (he was keeping black widows as well).

These guys will eat anything, really.

dodderangler

As long as its flesh it won't matter to them
They are just a mini Komodo at end end of the day
I watched a vid on YouTube of a woman who lived with Komodos and she never been bitten
She always handled them or approached them with blue gloves on
But when it was feeding time she wore a yellow glove and when the dragons seen the yellow glove they got all excited and knew it was feeding time

Adam Khor

dodderangler wrote: »

As long as its flesh it won't matter to them
They are just a mini Komodo at end end of the day
I watched a vid on YouTube of a woman who lived with Komodos and she never been bitten
She always handled them or approached them with blue gloves on
But when it was feeding time she wore a yellow glove and when the dragons seen the yellow glove they got all excited and knew it was feeding time

Why did she live with Komodos, tho? Aren´t they supossed to be illegal to keep?

dodderangler

Nino Brown wrote: »

I've heard Gila monster bites are up there with the most painful of any animal.

Gila monsters have a venom gland for
Perhaps as protection from predators though not many will attack them. their prey is so small that they don't need it and usually kill the prey there and then and swallow
They raid birds bests for chicks and mice nests for the pups and swallow them but adult mice are also eaten and they bite them and follow the scent much like a cobra will
Not many attacks or deaths from them but it is a nasty bite and can lead to infection and amputation of the infected area which is mainly fingers and toes
Very slow animals so bites are rare and mainly people who keep them get nipped

Adam Khor

dodderangler wrote: »

Gila monsters have a venom gland for
Perhaps as protection from predators though not many will attack them. their prey is so small that they don't need it and usually kill the prey there and then and swallow
They raid birds bests for chicks and mice nests for the pups and swallow them but adult mice are also eaten and they bite them and follow the scent much like a cobra will
Not many attacks or deaths from them but it is a nasty bite and can lead to infection and amputation of the infected area which is mainly fingers and toes
Very slow animals so bites are rare and mainly people who keep them get nipped

There's a reason why Gila monsters were once thought to be the only venomous lizards (along with Mexican beaded lizards, their close relatives)... but to my knowledge no one has ever died from a Gila monster bite, at least not in recent times (everything's possible, tho; a lot of bites may occur in places where they never get reported, like parts of Mexico and Central America, where both lizards exist)...

Then again, in Australia the aborigins used to say that a goanna bite never heals- maybe they already suspected the lizard was venomous before scientists found out...

dodderangler

Adam Khor wrote: »

Why did she live with Komodos, tho? Aren´t they supossed to be illegal to keep?

Afaik Adam she was living on the island and these where injured animals some missing limbs and wouldn't survive in the wild
She did have one big lad that was perfectly healthy that she reared from an egg and lived with her in the house in a cage and she walked him
There is a centre over there were people can see up to twenty of them in an enclosure and can feed them chickens and such from a balcony above them
Their numbers are dropping though with been hunted and loss of habitat and food source from over hunting and attacks are becoming more common as they are heading into villages and can often be seen digging up fresh graves of local villagers
Il find video when I get home from work and post it up

Adam Khor

That would be cool :>

There was a curious situation going on in Komodo some time ago, don´t know if its still happening; the villagers revered the lizards as their ancestors (I think) and would offer goats as sacrifice to them. Then the government banned this practice because they felt the Komodos would become used to humans and become dangerous (like when you feed the dingoes in Australia or the bears in North America).
Problem is, people had hunted deer and boar and other animals almost to extinction, so without the sacrificial goats, the Komodos could only turn to eating humans...

Maybe they should return to the old ways. There may have been a practical reason to offer sacrifices to the lizard ancestors

dodderangler

My ancestor was a titanaboa but can't offer anything to them
They all gone :P

In all seriousness though I'd well believe the dragons would soon associate them with food and would become even more dangerous as most animals
Video on YouTube of a lad who's family fed a coyote regulary and the coyote followed him Home and tried biting the lads feet and sussing him out trying to find his weak point
Meanwhile the lad recording it laughing about it
Coyote is an animal I wouldn't fcuk with
Same goes for all animals.
Especially a fooking Komodo.
I believe some other islands around now have more population of dragons than Komodo which is no suprise as they great swimmers

feargale

I have a vague memory of a programme years ago on radio or tv about a snake in Africa which the locals in their own language called " three step," because after a bite three steps was the most you took before dying,

Adam Khor

feargale wrote: »

I have a vague memory of a programme years ago on radio or tv about a snake in Africa which the locals in their own language called " three step," because after a bite three steps was the most you took before dying,

There are actually plenty of snakes with similar nicks; in Asia during the Vietnam war the soldiers feared the three step snake (also called five step snake or, maybe more realistically, hundred-pacer) which is a kind of pitviper (Deinagkistrodon). In Central America and Australia, the lancehead and some elapids receive similar names.

dodderangler

Jesus this was only last month
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/indonesia/9982056/Indonesian-woman-83-fights-off-Komodo-dragon-attack-with-a-broom.html
Still trying to find the video

steddyeddy

It really depends on the circumstances involved and thevictim's tolerance to various types of neurotransmitters, nueroblockers and selective re-uptake inhibitors which the snakemay have in its arsenal. Snake venom is not a homogenous set of chemicals but aseries of various neurotoxins which have a common ancestor or serve toillustrate convergent evolution. The black mamba for instance destroys theenzyme acetylcholine esterase which breaks down the neurotransmitter acetylcholine(Ach) after it is released and finished binding to the receptor. Ach is a neurotransmitterwhich excites muscles This causes Ach to bind repeatedly to receptor and preventsmuscular contraction in the peripheral nervous system and the autonomic (breathingect) nervous system. Other types of Mambas can prevent the crossing of ionsacross the membrane thus preventing the nerve from working properly.

Snakes also release cardio blockers which stop the heart andPhospholipases which break down thecell wall completely destroying cells (also found in bees).

Different peoplehave varying degrees of tolerance to each of these toxins or neuromuscularblockers. Anesthetic for example can be a neuromuscular blocker and different peoplerequire different amounts to put them under.

Reptiles alsocontain a higher than average amount of certain bacteria which are opportunisticallypathogenic ie they attack when the host is weakened. This makes perfect senseif the reptile were to bite someone. The resultant wound would break downseveral barriers against infection and might not heal. This mechanism of actionwas found in Komodo dragons (along with a venom candidate) and it wouldn’tsurprise me if a lot more reptiles took advantage of it (even dinosaurs).

Adam Khor

steddyeddy wrote: »

This mechanism of actionwas found in Komodo dragons (along with a venom candidate) and it wouldn’tsurprise me if a lot more reptiles took advantage of it (even dinosaurs).[/FONT]

I tend to imagine Ceratosaurus as a venomous dinosaur... not that there is any solid evidence for it, but the long fang-like middle teeth (complete with grooves, even if these are also found on other dinos) make it at least a cool-looking candidate :pac:

I would be more surprised if no dinosaurs had ever been venomous, considering for how long they existed and how diverse they obviously were...

DR SAURON

the bamboo pit viper can kill you within 3 seconds

DR SAURON

Adam Khor wrote: »

Here's a simple but apparently not so easily answered question for reptile experts.
What snake bite will kill you the fastest? I've heard that a Gaboon viper can kill you in 15 minutes, a black mamba in 15-30 minutes, and I think the Malaysian coral snake in as little as 10 minutes. I know it would depend on a lot of factors like the snake's size and venom yield and the placement of the bite, but, on average, what would you say/have you heard are the snakes with the fastest killing venom?

PS- This is for a work of fiction so I would appreciate your answers even if at the end of the day there is no exact answer. Im more like looking for snakes notorious for their fast acting bite. :pac:

the bamboo pit viper can kill you within 3 seconds, unless you cut the limb off instantley