A common scene in western movies is when a pioneer gets bit by a rattle snake or stung by a scorpion — venomous desert dwellers that don’t like surprises. The hero in the movie then whips out a knife, cuts at the bite/sting and starts sucking the venom out.
Bad idea, said Tod Schimelpfenig of the Wilderness Medicine Institute.
“People want to do something,” he said, “like the John Wayne character in ‘True Grit.’ It isn’t necessary to cut and suck the venom out.”
For one thing, venom is not a given with rattlesnakes, he said. A third to half of the time, there’s no injection of venom. And even if there was an injection, Schimelpfenig said, sucking at the bite won’t remove the venom.
The best treatment is to stay calm and get to a hospital for anti-venom — an antidote to snake venom , he said.
Schimelpfenig said small children should always be taken to the ER for anti-venom.
Prevention of bites and stings is fairly straightforward — know where you’re sticking your hand or foot, and what might be hiding in a hole or sunning itself on a ledge. Snakes and scorpions are smart enough to know you’re too big to eat, but they will defend themselves.
