We operate a professional snake removal company operating in the San Diego CA area, including the towns of Oceanside, Vista, Carlsbad, Escondido,
San Marcos, Encinitas, Solana Beach, Ramona, Poway, Santee, Lakeside, El Cajon, Spring Valley,
Lemon Grove, and all of San Diego County.
We do NOT service areas south of San Diego
including National City, Chula Vista, or
Imperial Beach. We specialize in the humane removal of wild animals from buildings and property. We commonly remove animals from attics,
provide bat control and rat control, and also general wildlife trapping and repair and prevention services. We are fully licensed and insured, and operate
24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call us at
619-313-4122.
San Diego Snake Emails:
Hello there. I have two young boys, 7 & 4 years old. We love to hike in the woods, clean up natural areas and our house backs up to 15 acres of natural area with a large pond. We have seen a copperhead snake. In fact, my 7 year old was about six inches away from it before he spotted it and stopped. We made it out of that situation but have a few questions regarding "what if".
My first question: IF he had been bitten I would like to know what to do. I do not have a cell phone and we were about 1 mile away from our car. Is it O.K. for him to walk to the car? Should I attempt to carry his 64 pounds for the mile?
My second question: If it is a copperhead or cottonmouth, both are very well populated around here, do I need to put a tourniquet on it to stop it from spreading so quickly (again, it's 1 mile to the car)?
My third question: What IF I didn't actually see the snake but could tell there are fang marks in his leg? How will the hospital treat him without actually knowing which snake it was?
My fourth question: I've heard that cottonmouth's are aggressive. IF we ran into one of those should we just back up slowly, as we did with the copperhead, or try to hit it with a stick to distract it while we get away?
Thanks for your help. I liked your opening page but find it a little slanted towards the snakes side. We are not rednecks that would attempt some Jeff Foxworthy "look at this" move, however, we were right in harms way when my alert son spotted it....six inches closer and I guess I wouldn't be asking these questions. Thanks again for your help. I hope it never happens but we are huge nature lovers and this is a highly populated area for venomous snakes.
Cheryl
You could stand right next to a venomous snake without a problem. You might even be able to step on one. It takes special circumstances for them to strike and envenomate. Anyway, pit vipers like Copperheads (a very rare snake and by far the most commonly mis-identified snake in the United States) are non-lethal, even to children, and would be treated with CroFab antivenin. However, a Copperhead bite would be EXTREMELY painful. A Cottonmouth strike is much more serious, and a large Cottonmouth could kill a child. Anyway, had an extremely rare venomous strike happened, he could have walked to the car and driven to the hospital, even if it would have taken a long time. If he couldn't walk, then you would have had to had carried him. Hell, I don't know, common sense!