Texas only has four poisonous snakes (rattlesnake, copperhead, coral snake, water moccasin) and at least two spiders (black widow, brown recluse). And scorpions. And the usual bevy of stinging insects like bees, wasps, and hornets. And fire ants. It's a great place to live! :)
The thing that continues to surprise me is the size of the bugs here. I never saw mosquitoes this big in the pacific northwest.
We have two deadly spiders (Brown Recluse and Black Widow) and the four snakes you mentioned. As far as poisonous that don't kill, I dunno. But I had a spider bite my arm once and make the whole thing numb...
What I was always told in my many, many science classes was the animal's poison was considered deadly if an untreated bite was likely to kill. Untreated Brown Recluse bites can kill. The flesh disintegrates over time and eventually starts to rot. The infection spreads to other areas, and you die.
Even Black Widow bites are survivable if you're anywhere remotely near a hospital. Rattlesnake bites aren't a big deal if you have the antidote. Bite, inject, o look, that wasn't so bad after all. What do you think they do at the rattlesnake rodeos? :-P All they have to do is inject you with an antidote quickly enough. Still, I'd much rather be bitten by a Brown Recluse than a Black Widow, even with the chances of nasty scaring the Brown Recluse has.
Pain, even extremes of pain, aren't so bad compared to dying. That was my reference for "not so bad." Sure, it hurts, but at the end of the day, you're still breathing.
I actually have a brown recluse bite on my knee right now (still recovering). I haven't gotten this one treated... Its been like a week. The bite has no more swelling, and I drained all the fluids. Does this still present a threat to me?
BTW This is my 5th time being bitten and up until a year ago I spent my entire life in California. What a great welcoming gift.
Ick. Yuck. I think I've only been bitten by spiders a few times. Once, my right arm went numb from my elbow down. It was like nothing I had felt before, and there was a tiny bite visible. I've always assumed that was a spider bite, because insects don't cause numbness in me and it happened in a house with many spiders.
BTW, can I ask who you are (if I should know you)? Your IP address wasn't enough to tell me (but I didn't dig very deeply).
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