Venomous Snakes of Udon Thani

[polehawk]

3 large and 2 small in 8 yrs. all looking a bit lost and trying to figure out '----, now how do i get out of here', especially when spotted by me, as they seemed to know, oh sh*t, slither faster, i'm screwed.

If they're expecting a free ride from me then they're dead wrong. As of today, I got me a 7 foot bamboo pole with machete blade embedded. Found that trying to lift one with a bamboo pole and carrying it outside is not such a good idea.

Maybe can come up with some type of snare tool to remove them. Kind of hard to use anything at night, though.

[laphanphon]

wow, i have one of those, but not bamboo, 2 meter pole, with butcher knife blade screwed in the one end. saved my butt one time, 2 meter fat snake, obviously lost, because on the stone path, cornered him, and was wacking him, but because of the soft stones, nothing fatal, though he knew just a matter of time, last minute made the mistake of crossing red bricks, and a final leap at me, big mistake, the hard surface made the difference, slice and diced, damn thing almost got me. heavy sucker too, threw carcass over the wall.

[LoongLee]

Sounds like you gentlemen could use this tool:

http://www.thedisabledshop.com/category ... ng-Reacher

[LoongLee]

Maybe you would prefer a professional tool instead:

http://tongs.com/

Gooood Luck!!!!

[Farang1]

Looking at the bite photo gallary on the Tongs.com site...those are some nasty looking bites. :-&

[Aardvark]

I'd rather use a Shot Gun

[Michael C]

For corresponding with one of the forum members, talking to a couple of Thais and one their of foreign husbands, it has come to my attention that there is possibly a deadly venomous snake in our area that has never been recorded. This might be a form of Daboia russelii (Russel's Viper). It is very important for me to obtain one of these snakes, not only for identification, but also to officially record its presence here in Udon Thani. A local hospital is not going to stock a very expensive antivenin with a limited shelf life for a snake that lives hundreds of kilometres away from this area. Once it is identified and recorded, steps can be taken to ensure the antivenin is on hand if anyone ever is bitten by this snake.

If it is Daboia russelii (Russel's Viper), it will look similar to this:

This picture is of one from Central Thailand, just north of Bangkok. From the descriptions that I have received, the snake here is grey in colour with an orange to red zig-zag or chain pattern.

I just came back a few days ago from field research and unfortunately I will be doing field research over the next 2 to over 3 weeks starting Wednesday. If anyone comes across one that is not mangled/damaged beyond recognition, please contact me via the email address stamped on the picture. I have limited connectivity even deep in the jungle and check my email. It is best not to touch it. Use tongs, put it in a plastic bag and throw it in the freezer. Freezing is actually a type of humane euthanasia (if it is still alive); once frozen stiff, it is dead and can do no harm.

[Billg]

Hi guys the Thai wife dispatched this little guy that was found in the house, can any one tell me what kind this is ???

lil snake.jpg (152.56 KiB) Viewed 2314 times

[Michael C]

That is a harmless little Oligodon fasciolatus (Banded Kukri Snake/งูปีแก้วลายแต้ม).

[jai yen yen]

Has anyone ever heard of a small green snake about 10 in.long and about 1/4 in. thick with 4 legs. I found one in my shed outside curled up in a ball looking a piece of rubber. I touched it wIth a long stick and it jumped about a foot into the air and stood there glaring at me. It looks just like a snake except for the legs, my gardener said it was very dangerous. Any ideas?

[beer monkey]

Has anyone ever heard of a small green snake about 10 in.long and about 1/4 in. thick with 4 legs. I found one in my shed outside curled up in a ball looking a piece of rubber. I touched it wIth a long stick and it jumped about a foot into the air and stood there glaring at me. It looks just like a snake except for the legs, my gardener said it was very dangerous. Any ideas?

Sounds more like a Lizard than a snake...
Although I read a story about a snake in China that had grown a leg and claws not so long ago...bit of a mutant snake.

[rick]

look here about 2/3rds way down, elongated skink.

http://www.mark-ju.net/wildlife/reptiles.htm

Very few lizards are poisionous, and only usually larger ones. But sure MichaelC knows best.

[jai yen yen]

It had a long slim body like a snake, did not resemble a lizard at all and was a very light green, almost a yellow color. My Thai gardener and others were very afraid of it. They also could run very fast. The snake that is, not the gardener.

[Michael C]

Pythons are the only snakes in Thailand that possess a vestigial pelvic girdle, along with vestiges of hind limbs, but they appear externally only as a nail sticking out of the body and one really has to look closely for these structures because they almost appear as scales. If the reptile you saw had visible legs, it had to be a lizard.

The description of small legs indicates a skink, but we do not have any species of skink close to us that is green and skinks are not very accomplished jumpers. This lizard might appear as green (more green than in the picture):

If it is this, it is Takydromus sexlineatus, belonging to the same family as the wall lizards in Europe- and equally dangerous . Until recently, the only lizards considered venomous were Heloderma spp. (Gila Monsters and Mexican Beaded Lizards) of the US and Mexico. Studies over the past 5 years have shown that many lizards have venom producing glands (Iguania and Varanoidea/Platynota), but only Varanoidea/Platynota produces venoms powerful enough to cause any possible life threatening effects (Gila Monsters and Mexican Beaded Lizards). Monitors also belong to this Infraorder; although their venom is much weaker, a bite from a 2.5+m Water Monitor or a Komodo Dragon could be dangerous, besides the damage done by the teeth (and not from the bacteria as suspected before). Our local Varanus bengalensis nebulosus (Clouded Monitor) could cause some damage with its teeth and maybe even take a finger, but no lizard in our area is dangerous.

Calotes versicolor, our common garden lizard can also turn a bit green, but neither Takydromus sexlineatus or Calotes versicolor usually would curl up into a ball (except in the egg).

Your most recent description, made while I was writing the reply, is of Chrysopelea ornata (Golden Tree Snake/Flying Snake งูเขียวดอกหมาก)- pictured at least a couple times in this thread already. It is rear-fanged snake with a very weak venom, that should be considered harmless. Many of our local ants carry a much more potent venom. This snake would also be able to spring up into the air; although, it usually only uses this motion when springing (flying) from tree to tree. Since many Thais mistakenly believe this snake to be dangerous, this also fits in with the fear exhibited by your gardener. You might have been seeing things, since this snake does not have any legs.

[jai yen yen]

It definately had legs and looked more like a snake than your picture with it's head being the same size as it's body. This was in Hua Hin and was as solid yellow green color.

[beer monkey]

Found this one...similar...?



http://www.californiaherps.com/identifi ... es.id.html

or..

[jai yen yen]

Yes, similar to those but slimmer and a very light solid green color. It also rolls itself into a small ball and looks like a piece of surgical rubber and almost the same color.

[fremmel]

I'm beginning to think we should call our place "Cobra Acres". We had another spitting cobra visit today but we managed to keep this one out of the house. Our dogs started carrying on about something in the front yard and when my wife went to look it was another cobra headed in the general direction of our house. This one was a little smaller than our first one, "only" 3 feet long. I took a Thai style hoe to it with the result you can see in the pictures. I would have just as soon chased it back to the field but we don't have a wall surrounding the yard and we go out in the fields too often to want too many of these guys roaming around. But it won't go to waste. My wife is going back home for a few days and they were excited to hear she'd be bringing them a treat tomorrow.

These guys keep on twitching for a while after you kill them. I didn't move the snake between the first and the second pictures. It moved itself. And this was about 5 minutes after I nearly severed its head.

Sorry, Micheal. I know you'd have liked to have this one alive but I have neither the equipment nor the expertise, or nerve for that matter, to try to catch and keep one of these things.

[Treeg]

Does anyone have any idea how you tell a snake that he/she is not welcome lying on your doorstep?

Day before yesterday our dog was barking a lot, so I went out to see what was happening. When stepping out of the door I heared a loud hissing, so expected a snake somewhere (often the reason why our dog is barking), however I couldn't find it, untill I took better notice where the dog was looking at, turned around, and noticed I had just stepped completely over the stupid thing. It was lying immediately below our doorstep, where you can't see it when you open the door. I was bare footed, and must have stepped straight over it..
I went back inside the house by the veranda-door, got my camera, but when I tried to come close enough to get a good picture the snake got frightened and took a run, finally disappearing over the top of the small wall surrounding our garden and into the garden of the neighbors (who are not at home).

As far as I could see, it was just an average ratsnake, grey with black spots, so non-poisonous I presume and harmless but it definitely is a big one, didn't see them this big, quick estimate is somewhere between 2 and 2.5 mtr in length and almost as thick as my arm. It was lying around and moving in bright daylight.

Anyway, so far so good, snake gone. But yesterday morning I returned home, finding the same animal lying again on exactly the same place right below our frontdoor. Once again, it ran away when I came closer. And just tonight, I open the frontdoor to feed the dog, hear the hissing, look down, and there's our snake again, right below the frontdoor step.
Nasty thing is that our dog now doesn't bark at it anymore, probably he has decided that this must be a friend of the house or something and nothing to be scared about. There are quite a lot of frogs, and I expect this is what is drawing the snake to our garden, however those frogs generally aren't under our frontdoor steps so why it has decided that our frontdoor should become his favourite spot?

Getting a bit irritating having that snake all the time right under our frontdoor and it scares visitors away (not always a bad thing, with some people, we now have a 'guard-snake' instead of a guard-dog). If it's just a ratsnake I see no reason to try to kill it, usually just chase them away, only somehow need to make our frontdoor an unwelcome place for a snake and not somewhere he/she feels at home..

Regards,

Geert



(note arrows mark head and tail of the snake, I liked to get a closer picture but the thing is really fast!)

[Aardvark]

That's a good size guard Snake you got there treeg maybe you can get some one to help you bag it and drive it half an hour up the road, then hope it's not a homing Snake