101 SHOP safety in N Georgia

[Dawai]

101st reason to pay attention to everything all around the shop.

Was cutting grass this morning, 5 1/2 hours later still not major swelling, punctures now are "yellow" in centers and red around like spider bites. Snake must have recently "fed" and used up poison. Looking on Youtube, a Norwegian spent $143,000 in a hospital stay for a snake bite here in the USA.

I guess the good Lord has still got my back covered.. this week..

NOW about some of you guys not wearing Saftey glasses... on shop pictures posted..

[3 Chiefs]

David I hope you are OK from this. It could have been a lot worse! I have to say you sure do post some interesting stuff.

[Hotrod1932]

Well buddy I can't really tell much about the head in that picture to tell ya much of anything

Nother good reason ya ware long pants and boots in snake country!!! We get 20 - 30 bites a year at the body shop that never closes so keep an eye on it!

[Dawai]

I'm very lucky. Again (and I know it)

Spots are near gone, they went to nasty looking yellow centers, slight swelling, low grade fever, Wife put some green stuff she uses to "draw" pimples and it pulled the yellow junk out. Now.. just two pale red spots. I am concerned for a bacterial infection since it is a reptile. I never went to the doctor, I had anxiety and adrenalin till about 2am or so.

Ray, it's a large copperhead. 2 1/2-3 feet. Very Hot weather makes them active, aggressive. Soon it will be "dog days" and as they shed the skin they go blind and bite much more. I have no clue if I stepped on it, or what I did to piss him off. OR why it didn't swell up as big as my waist. To say he "surprised me" is to minimize it. I was scared.

I've seen them in the project cars, under parts left outside, wound up in motorcycles and parts here. Two in the potatoes in the kitchen about 7 years ago. 11 under one stump while I was doing grade work for the shop. I gave Porky a 71 chevy SWB truck, as it was being hauled up the interstate snakes were falling out the back of the roll-back. He sold it instead of building it. Butch, my psychotic pitt bulldog had a snake under a 54 ford as big as my upper leg. I never got to see it up close. (no clue) He went about it smarter than this dog I have now. He just barked and called me to bring a gun. There was a snake large enough to "stand up" and crawl between the ceiling rafters on the shop. It showed up right after the tornadoes destroyed a neighboring town, so I expect it to be a Boa- or?? I only saw it on a surveillance camera at night. The power hammer ran it off, not seen it since I did several days in a row of metal-shaping. Big vibrations.. they hate.

Here in the south, it is just another hazard. I used to catch them and sell the hides, I became too nervous to handle them in the 80s. NOW I am more so. I sure can't understand the churches handling them by taking up the serpent.

before this skin dried it was much bigger, they loop around things and crawl out of the old skin. (shop roof about two years back)

[peter d]

Hi david It might pay to keep a close eye on your bite it looks a lot like a white tail spider bite . I dont know if you have them in the states but there very common in australia .When they bite you your skin and flesh start disolving and if left untreated a skin graft can be needed .

[Dawai]

Peter, your country has more poisonous things than anywhere else on earth I think. The snakes "there" don't mess around, a different type of viper. Some "brown" snakes there I remember have no anti-venom available?? Causes hemmoraging, not swelling. 10 minutes for treatment is too long.

+$100,000 for anti-venom?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvRqpqi5hEA
That kinda charge, even with my insurance would close my accounts.

A recluse spider, striped spide, violin spider, wolf spider, trap spider, jumping spider.. they do the same thing, rot the skin.. My granny had a black place in her leg near the end of her life, she got bit as a child. There are 1000x spiders to snakes here.

[cagedruss]

Pretty wild, fortunately snakes do not always use venom when they bite. I had a lot of contact with snakes at Ft Benning and at Ft Irwin and we use to find them everywhere.

This past year at my Shop I am getting a large number of Brown Recluse Spiders. Been bitten twice already. Little buggers like to hide in cars and then when I start working they pounce on me. I am using the compressed air now a lot more as security in all the dark spaces trying to get them to evacuate.

[AndersK]

Hope you stay well David....
It never gets boring around you, does it?

we're lucky over here, just two snakes and only one that has poison, but not dangerous for most people.
One spider can give a bite that will ache a little bit.

Aussies got all nasty things, you got that right for sure

take care
/Anders

[Dawai]

Anders..

Porky, a old friend, he said.. (get this)..

so you got snakebit and the snake died?? Poor lil fella probably died with a bad taste in his mouth. Nobody ever said greasy old bikers had good taste.

Okay, I've been taught now to wear ear protection (huh?) and eye protection (blink blink). and Ray has been after me to ditch the summer flip-flops in the shop.. I am trying to reduce the drama and excitement.. but just going to the mailbox today I get accosted. Must have been the "slow way" I was walking??
(or the expensive toys I work on at times?) Perhaps the big metal chicken says something??

[AndersK]

Well, I had in mind to ask if the snake survived but tried to be a little serious

Know you would have taken it right buddy, but not all people appreciates my sense of humour when it comes to serious matters