Venomous Creatures
Mississippi Venomous Snakes
Venomous snakes are common and can be found across the entire state of Mississippi. Mississippi is home to six venomous snakes. In human encounters, snake envenomation is a defensive mechanism used to deter a potential predator. Snake bites occur when a snake is startled or assesses a threat. These often occur when individuals attempt to handle or kill a snake. Snakes can strike up to several feet at speeds close to 3 meters per second! Avoid handling dead, including decapitated, snakes as they are capable of reflexively striking. Approximately 20% of snake bites can be "dry," meaning no venom was delivered.
All venomous snakebites should be evaluated at your nearest emergency department or health care facility.
Stay calm and seek medical attention.
Call 911 if any symptoms of shortness of breath, chest pain, confusion, or loss of consciousness develop.
DO immobilize the bitten extremity at the level of the heart.
DO NOT apply a tourniquet or ice.
DO NOT attempt to lance the wound and suction out the venom.
DO NOT electrocute the bitten extremity.
- Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix)
- Average length 2-3 feet
- Copper or tan coloring, sometimes light gray with darker brown hourglass-shaped crossbands, with a pinkish or orange wash
- Juveniles may have a bright green or yellow tail.
- They can be found in a wide range of habitats. They typically live near heavily wooded or rocky areas. They will often seek shelter under boards, sheet metal, logs or flat rocks.
- Water moccasin (Agkistrodon piscivorus)
- Also known as the cottonmouth
- Average length is 2.5 to 4 feet
- Dark brown, gray, khaki-green to black with indistinct wavy, dark crossbands.
- Juvenile cottonmouths have reddish crossbands on a pink or rusty ground color. They are commonly mistaken as a copperhead. They can be differentiated from copperheads by a jagged crossband pattern. Crossbands often begin to disappear as moccasins age.
- Water moccasins can live in virtually all aquatic habitats: creeks, swamps, bayous, brackish coastal marshes, drainage ditches, and ponds.
- Pygmy Rattlesnake (Sistrurus miliarus)
- Also known as the ground rattler.
- Average length is 18-20 inches.
- Dark spots run down the back of the snake with 1-2 alternating rows down each side. Coloring varies from black to brownish-red, gray, tan or lavender.
- They typically live in leaf litter near pine or hardwood forests.
- Rattles may not always be present.
- Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus)
- Average length is 4 - 5.5 feet. The greatest length recorded was almost 8 feet
- Medium brown or tan with dark diamond-shaped markings. Each diamond is bordered by a single row of light colored scales.
- They are located throughout the southern or coastal portions of Mississippi and often make their home in logs or uprooted tree stumps.
- Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus)
- Also known as canebrake rattlers
- Average length is 3-4.5 feet
- The coloring varies from gray to tan, often with a distinct pinkish wash and wavy black bands cross the body.
- They typically live near forest and river bottoms throughout Mississippi.
- Some species may contain a neurotoxin that produces painful muscle fasciculation.
- Coral Snake (Micrurus fulvius)
- Average length is 2-3 feet.
- Brightly ringed with wide black and red bands separated by narrow, yellow bands.
- Remember the common phrase, "Red and yellow kill a fellow; red and black, friend of Jack." The phrase is NOT always accurate as coloring anomalies exist.
- They are elusive snakes that avoid human contact. Envenomation occurs almost exclusively from handling.
- Coral snakes contain a potent neurotoxin capable of causing paralysis.