'Tis the season for sneaky snakes

Warmer weather brings out a lot of color on the Wasatch Front, but it also brings out the snakes that are indigenous to the desert state.

"They're all over this state, they're in the canyons, in the foothills, all over in the back yards of the homes on the east side and they're in the desert," said Dr. Richard Ingebretsen, a professor in the University of Utah's Wilderness Medicine Program. "The problem is, they like to be where it's cool, and so do people."

The venomous pit vipers, which include rattlesnakes, the water moccasin and the copperhead, can be identified by their triangular-shaped heads, cat-like eyes and the pits under their eyes used by the snake to smell. Ingebretsen said the snakes "hate people as much as people hate them," but in cases where they feel threatened or angry, a bite can cause a lot of problems.

Salt Lake resident Aprill Carver spent three days in the hospital because of the tiny snap of a 4-inch-long baby rattler that found her while she was taking pictures at Red Butte Garden last weekend. She was testing out a new camera and leaned into some bushes to capture an image of a pretty flower just off the pathway.

"It gave me no warning," she said. "I didn't even know it was there and it was like, 'die.'"

In the case of snake bites, Ingebretsen advises a trip to an emergency room as soon as possible.

Carver wasn't sure it was a bite until she saw the snake slither quickly away, but the associated and immediate pain in her hand led her to drive herself to the hospital, where the bite nearly doubled the size of her hand and required seven intravenous bags of antivenin. She'll have to visit her regular doctor in a couple weeks for some follow-up blood work to be sure the venom is out of her bloodstream, but Carver knows the bite could have been worse.

Of nearly 40,000 snake bites reported in the United States each year, Ingebretsen said, three to five are fatal, usually because the victim did not pursue professional help. Although rattlesnake bites in Utah are rare, he said "an ounce of prevention is worth far more than a pound of the cure."

The Utah Division of Wildlife Services reported in 2003 that there had been four known rattlesnake fatalities in Utah, to that time, three during the 1930s and one in the 80s. A Layton man died from a bite received in his yard later in 2003.

The antivenin, which used to be derived from actual snake bites to horses, is now manufactured artificially and can be very expensive. It neutralizes the venom and is the only way to combat any further damage to the body, Ingebretsen said.

"There is nothing you can do in the wilderness for a snake bite," he said, adding that any action taken by the victim could potentially worsen the injury.