Snake Pit

Envenomate Your Mind with Venom Savoir-Faire!

Table of Contents

1. What is Venom?
2. What Does Venom Look Like?
3. Venom isn't Poison!
4. Which Snakes Have Most Potent Venom
5. Which Snakes Carry the Most Venom
6. How Fangs Work
7. Spitting

1) What Is Venom?

Venom can be considered a modified type of saliva. Venom immobilizes prey when injected into its body. It can initiate the digestive process by beginning the breakdown of the prey’s tissues. In snakes, venom is an evolutionary adaptation to immobilize prey, and is used for self-defense. Venom is a highly toxic secretion produced in special oral glands.

2) What Does Venom Really Look Like? Take a look at the chemical compound and memorize!

3) Venom isn't exactly Poison, Stupid!

Poison is a broad term for any substance that not only kills, but simply irritates. The term is also used in a restricted sense for any harmful substance that enters the body by absorption through the skin or through eating or breathing. Poison ivy, for instance, irritates the skin. Such a plant is called poisonous.
Venom on the other hand is a poison that a spider, snake, or particularly clever and attractive bee - injects into another animal. So, you dummy, a snake or scorpion that deliberately injects a poison by biting or stinging is called venomous.

4) Which Snakes Have The Most Potent Venom?

The Hook-Nosed Seasnake has the most lethal venom tested so far. Only 1.5 milligrams of its venom will kill a human being. The Hook-Nosed Seasnake is found from the Persian Gulf and the waters of Southern Asia to the Northern coast of Australia. The Russel Viper of Southern Asia and the Inland Taipan of Australia are nearly as deadly.

5) Which snakes can deliver the MOST venom?

King cobras, Gaboon vipers, Eastern Diamondback rattlesnakes, and Bushmasters have the capacity to deliver the largest volume of venom in a single bite.
The toxicity of their venoms differ, but the bites of all four are highly dangerous even if they inject only one-quarter of their venom supply. Approximately 100 milligrams of venom from an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake kills an adult man, and large diamondbacks store as much as 850 milligrams in their venom glands! OO la la!

6) How Do Fangs Work?

Fangs work together with other structures to form a complete venom-delivery device, just like a hypodermic syringe and needle. Venom is produced by a pair of large venom glands. One gland is located on each side of the head. Within these glands, which are typically almond-shaped, the venom is produced by 4-5 lobes of secretory cells. Lovely venomous secretions drain through small tubules into a hollow space, which is called the lumen. The lumen in turn joins the venom duct. The Venom duct carries venom forward to the base of the fang. The venom duct is surrounded by small masses of glandular tissue which act as valves to regulate the flow of venom to the fang. Interestingly, the venom duct does not extend into the fang. It opens adjacent to the fang in a sheath of connective tissue surrounding the fang’s base. This sheath directs the flow of venom into the fang’s canal and outward into the prey. Fangs are wide at their bases and gradually taper to needlelike points. All snake fangs are curved.

7) Spitting: Do Snakes Spit Venom?

The only true venom-spitting snake is the cobra! Some cobras can spit their venom for a distance of up to 2.5 meters. Spitting, unlike the red-card offense in soccer, is a defensive behaviour that has nothing to do with killing prey. In fact, even a spitting cobra will usually bite and envenomate its prey just as other venomous snakes do.

Envenomate! It is a sexy word, isn't it?

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