Child Bitten By Adder in New Forest
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I remember in my old house, I was fitting a loft ladder and the wife for some reason had the bath panel off cleaning, she jumped up ran right into the loft ladder, knocked to the ground and commando crawling through the hall into the bedroom she was shouting snake snake, anyways it was abit of wall fitting bracket, but how i laughed.
One week later we were fishing up north in the middle of no where, and she needed the call of nature, being in the middle of no where i convinced her she was ok to nip into the bushes, anyway about 20 minutes later she plucked up the courage. The next thing she comes tearing down the bank shouting snake snake. I of course was not buying it for one minute. I told her she would be only seeing one snake that weekend, and that was the jelly one in the pick and mix i bought her. So off she goes and comes back with a digital image of the biggest bloody adder I have ever seen!! She reconed it just about bit her right on the butt cheek!!!
I always wanted to ask someone more knowledgable about this, but in the same area of rannoch moor as the above about 7 years before, we had a huge fishing event, there was more booze than fishing, in fact i cant mind allot of fishing, but i ended up sleeping in the bushes somewhere, when i got up i couldnt bend my left knee. Once i was sobered up and ship shape i noticed the inside of my leg had a bright yellow line down it from the inside of my groin right down to my ankle. Beside my knee there were two little pin holes about 7mm apart. The yellow was there for about 3 days an after one day I could bend my knee again. I always wondered what bit me!!! anyone any ideas?
One week later we were fishing up north in the middle of no where, and she needed the call of nature, being in the middle of no where i convinced her she was ok to nip into the bushes, anyway about 20 minutes later she plucked up the courage. The next thing she comes tearing down the bank shouting snake snake. I of course was not buying it for one minute. I told her she would be only seeing one snake that weekend, and that was the jelly one in the pick and mix i bought her. So off she goes and comes back with a digital image of the biggest bloody adder I have ever seen!! She reconed it just about bit her right on the butt cheek!!!
I always wanted to ask someone more knowledgable about this, but in the same area of rannoch moor as the above about 7 years before, we had a huge fishing event, there was more booze than fishing, in fact i cant mind allot of fishing, but i ended up sleeping in the bushes somewhere, when i got up i couldnt bend my left knee. Once i was sobered up and ship shape i noticed the inside of my leg had a bright yellow line down it from the inside of my groin right down to my ankle. Beside my knee there were two little pin holes about 7mm apart. The yellow was there for about 3 days an after one day I could bend my knee again. I always wondered what bit me!!! anyone any ideas?
A full dose of juvenile venom won't be a quarter of an adults, if that. But a juveniles venom is known to be more concentrated due to their size. It's a difficult one to answer. It was a juvenile at around two years old that hospitalised me with just one fang penetrating my thumb. I was bitten full on by an adult in late January which didn't have the same effects, but so many other factors need to be considered that you have to be a mathematical genius.... Emma!, to fulyl work it out.
Definately not an adder. Symptoms nothing like snake envenomation and the bite mark way too small. Sounds more like a larger spider species to me. Tegenaria possibly? Harvestman is the bloke to answer that question.
Johnathan I have no idea what it was, given the previous night i though it was just the way i fell or something, but i did read about spiders and snakes giving different colours of poision on the skin but i have no idea as the article was very specific!!
I've only seen a few Adders, mostly juvenile and although the bite isn't too potent, I still wouldn't want to try it out. I am fairly sure that there have only ever been a few deaths form Adder bites.
I usually do a long walk in the New Forest once or twice each week, living nearby, and have seen a lot more snakes and lizards in the last few weeks. There are at least 2 very distinct types of lizard and I saw a small snake about 1 foot long gold in colour with no markings. My favourite was a beautiful jet black adder whose back markings were barely visible, so almost completely velvety black. I heard on local radio this morning that the young girl is on the mend. I guess if I get bitten I'll nip off to Salisbury A&E about 20 mins away.
My biggest concern in the New Forest at the moment is that of cows and young calves. While walking on a remote path last Spring I unknowingly got between a tiny calf hidden in long grass and it's mother which was about 100 yards away on the other side of the path. I've never seen a cow exhibit body language before. This one was bellowing and made a bee line for me, though it wasn't running. I walked slowly backwards from the pair and got out of its 'territory'. I then walked in a wide arc around it and even when I was 300 or so yards away it was still focussed on me.
My biggest concern in the New Forest at the moment is that of cows and young calves. While walking on a remote path last Spring I unknowingly got between a tiny calf hidden in long grass and it's mother which was about 100 yards away on the other side of the path. I've never seen a cow exhibit body language before. This one was bellowing and made a bee line for me, though it wasn't running. I walked slowly backwards from the pair and got out of its 'territory'. I then walked in a wide arc around it and even when I was 300 or so yards away it was still focussed on me.
I hope this doesn't spur on any chav-types to carry out a kill-on-sight policy if they see any native reptiles :yikes: when they drive to the countryside as that would be very bad 
The BBC said it was a poisonous snake in their report. Well, poisonous and venomous were mentioned, don't think they could make their minds up.
I hope this doesn't spur on any chav-types to carry out a kill-on-sight policy if they see any native reptiles :yikes: when they drive to the countryside as that would be very bad
Happens a lot already. Bear Grylls really hasn't helped either. A colleague of mine found a grass snake grilled aroiund a stick earlier this year. That was in Wales.
I've still yet to find a poisonous snake. Plenty of frogs and toads, no snakes though.
Spider is possible. They crawl up inside clothes, get stuck when you move, and then bite because they are trapped. There are reports from the US of bites with similar symptoms from Tegenaria agrestis (known as the 'aggressive house spider' over there, but more because of a misunderstanding of its name than anything else), but no bites have ever been reported in the UK.
7mm is an enormous bite for most UK spiders - I might be inclined to guess at the woodlouse spider, Dysdera because it has such a big gape. The yellow is more likely to be pus than venon, since there is no way a spider could produce enough venom to leave a line that long. That and the fact that the venom is nowhere near potent enough to do any damage anyway unless you have an allergic reaction.
http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1609&bih=830&q=Dysdera+crocata&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq="]
The trouble with this sort of scenario is that spiders (and snakes) tend to get the blame for all sorts of mystery bites. In the US, there are hundreds of reports of bites from the dangerous Violin spider every year, most of which are from well outside the area where the spider occurs. Bugs, beetles, flies, mites, ants etc can all bite, and you can have an allergic reaction to any of them. Basically, unless you see what bites you doing it, there's no way to tell.
Worst bite I've ever had was from a big leafcutter ant that went up my trousers and got stuck at the top of the thigh. Those things will take chunks out of leather boots if you let them!
Could also have been two bites rather than one, which then made it look like double fang marks. I've had a couple of Tegenaria bites and they were about 4/5mm apart. Nasty irritating things they were too.
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