Mojave Green Rattlesnake Bite

Captive Mojave Rattlesnake from my collection in the 1990's. The Mojave rattlesnake is considered one of the world's most venomous snakes. A subspecies of Mojave rattlesnake has a neurotoxic venom that is considered to be the most debilitating and potentially deadly of all rattlesnakes, and even matching several elapids (Cobra family).

“Have you ever been bit?” is the question I frequently receive when people find out about the collection of 18 rattlesnakes I had in my apartment in the 1990’s. “Well yes, and no.” I reply. The truth is, I was bitten by a rattlesnake, but I wasn’t envenomated.

​The craziest snake in my collection was a Mojave Rattlesnake, Crotalus scutulatus. It was crazy in the fact that I dared to keep it! All the time I had this snake, it never calmed down. This rattler was always ready! Whenever you walked in the room, day or night, it was immediately up in arms, rattling away and striking at the glass. It was also crazy in how deadly this snake could be. Websites state:

Crotalus scutulatus (common names: Mojave rattlesnake, Mojave green) is a highly venomous pit viper species found in the deserts of the southwestern United States and central Mexico. It is perhaps best known for its potent neurotoxic-hemotoxic venom, which is considered the world's most potent rattlesnake venom.

A bite can produce vision abnormalities and difficulty swallowing and speaking. In severe cases, skeletal muscle weakness can lead to difficulty breathing and even respiratory failure.

And of all places, his glass cage was right above my bed!

Most of the rattlesnakes in my collection were fairly docile and their cages could be spot cleaned while they lay in one corner. Not the Mojave! It was always a production to feed, move and clean him. I usually took him out of his cage using snake tongs, all the while he would rattle and strike, and placed him in a large plastic Rubbermaid box.

One day I placed him in the box and threw in a mouse for him to eat while I cleaned his cage. As I lowered the plastic lid, he pin-point struck right at my hand and hit my pinky finger that was along the lip of the lid! I slammed the lid and looked at my finger. There was a small cut with a drop of blood. I knew I had been hit.

I ran to the bathroom and began squeezing it, running it under water, sucking it and waited… and waited… and waited. After about five or ten minutes I called my friend. “If I had been envenomated, don’t you think I’d be feeling something by now?”

As I calmed, I began to think more clearly about what had happened. Most of my hand was safely above the lid as I lowered it. Only my pinky was alongside the lip of the box lid and must have protruded just a tad below the lip. I believe that when the snake struck, his fangs hit the lip of the lid. It was his bottom teeth, which don’t inject venom, that grazed my pinky, causing the small slice as he recoiled back.

​All that saved me from a bite from one of the potentially most deadly rattlesnakes was a lip of plastic about a centimeter wide! Thank you, Jesus!