Mojave Green snakes or why to always wear gloves and boots when working in the desert

We’ve been doing a lot of cleaning up already, but there’s still more to do. And I rarely wear gloves or boots …

We already had two mojave green rattlesnakes this year and last week we found two more, although one wasn’t that green and maybe it was a diamondback. They got comfortable in an old drainhole behind the house and we just decided to fill it in. It’s right next to the bird feeder and it was a nice shady hole.

We’d been walking over the board several times a day and the dogs always chase squirrels at the feeder, so we’re lucky nobody got hurt.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotalus_scutulatus

Venom

Rattlesnake venoms are complex cocktails of enzymes and other proteins that vary greatly in composition and effects, not only between species, but also between geographic populations within the same species. C. scutulatus is widely regarded as producing one of the most toxic snake venoms in the New World, based on LD₅₀ studies in laboratory mice.^[12] Their potent venom is the result of a presynaptic neurotoxin composed of two distinct peptide subunits.^[

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