Venomous snake bites nearly double in South Florida. Here’s what to do if you’re ever bitten.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Two months ago, 21-year-old Amazon driver Mone’t Robinson delivered a package to the front porch of a Palm City home. But instead of leaving in her truck, she left in an ambulance.
A large eastern diamondback rattlesnake — the most venomous snake in North America — was coiled on the porch and struck her on the back of the leg, just above the knee.
By the time medics loaded her into the ambulance, she could “hardly breathe,” and would spend three weeks in the hospital recovering.
This year there have been nearly twice as many emergency snake bites than in the previous two years, according to Lt. Chris Pecori of the Miami-Dade Venom Response Team, which responds to snake bites in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties and oversees antivenom procurement for the region.
“We actually had a significant increase,” Pecori said. “We usually average two bites a month. In 2020, there were a total of 27 bites. In 2021, it was 27. In 2022, it was 25, and this year I’ve had 42 bites. So I am up.”
It’s hard to say why there may be more bites this year, but Pecori suspects it could be related to the recent population boom in Florida. “We’re expanding so far west, into our Everglades,” he said.
He collected his statistics after South Florida’s “snake season,” which runs from April to October, ended.
His statistics include three categories of bites:
— Native venomous snakes such as the eastern diamondback rattlesnake that bit Robinson, as well as cottonmouths and coral snakes.
— Exotic venomous snakes held in captivity, such as cobras.
— Bites from non-venomous snakes such as invasive pythons.
From 2020-2022, he averaged two eastern diamondback bites annually, and this year he’s treated five.
Cottonmouths,...