Snakes and their behavior

[expat71NL]

How often do snake bites occur in Hua Hin? Is it a daily ocuurrance or a few times per year?

[STEVE G]

Pretty rare I should imagine. I've never seen a snake in Hua Hin itself (except for the guy who takes one around the bars for photos), although I've heard of people meeting them on golf courses and in large gardens.
I have a paved yard and I don't play golf!

[BaaBaa.]

I've only ever seen one myself and it didn't look like a dangerous one.

It's the Centipedes I'm bothered about and I've seen a few of them.

[hhfarang]

I've encountered somewhere around 50 snakes in six years living here but I don't ever recall a person being bitten by one (at least no one that I know). Most of them try to avoid humans. My dog was bitten but the snake paid for that with his/her life and the dog survived to kill many more snakes...

[lomuamart]

I've seen plenty on golf courses and around scrub land. As said, they're normally more scared of you than the other way round and will do their best to keep clear of humans.
The dangerous times are when you inadvertently step on one, threaten it or it's young or corner it and don't give it an escape route. Then they'll get angry.
The exception to this is with pit vipers. I know hhfarang's mentioned them before and I believe they're the most dangerous snakes in Thailand. Not through the strength of their venom, although they are very poisonous and often fatally so, but through their agressivness. They don't give ground and can strike without much warning.
Centipedes are bad. Mildly poisonous, but the pain and probable infections afterwards can be serious. I got bitten by a fairly small one a number of years ago and still have the scars around my ankle. It wasn't a pleasant experience and the blighters move really quickly.

[dahobbit]

[quote="STEVE G"][quote]you have to watch out for those thin bright green snakes that dangle down from them quote]

The thin bright green snakes are nay problem.

The thick ones are another matter, being basically arborial pit vipers

[pharvey]

Seems to be a fairly useful site: -

http://www.thailandsnakes.com/

[dahobbit]

The exception to this is with pit vipers...they're the most dangerous snakes in Thailand...through their agressivness. They don't give ground and can strike without much warning.

Actually the pit vipers are not aggressive, just stupid really. They are ambush predators that rely on camouflage. They are convinced that as long as they stay still, you can't see them. So they don't budge, even if they're in plain view on a tile floor.

The corollary of this that they will lie nicely still while you chop their heads off with a long-handled hoe.

[hhfarang]

^ All true, but as they are somewhat camouflaged, and outside tend to sit coiled under the edge of shrubs, it is easy to step on one or walk within their strike zone without knowing it.

I read that they are responsible for more bites in South Asia (They range throughout SE Asia and all the way to India) than any other poisonous snake.

[lomuamart]

The exception to this is with pit vipers...they're the most dangerous snakes in Thailand...through their agressivness. They don't give ground and can strike without much warning.

Actually the pit vipers are not aggressive, just stupid really. They are ambush predators that rely on camouflage. They are convinced that as long as they stay still, you can't see them. So they don't budge, even if they're in plain view on a tile floor.

The corollary of this that they will lie nicely still while you chop their heads off with a long-handled hoe.

Ahhh. Next time I come across one, I'll tell it to go back to school - only joking.
I thought they were aggressive, but stand corrected.