Not sure about super glue. I don't believe it is recommended in any first aid manual that I am aware of. For that matter, a suitably tight bandage has always stopped the bleeding, in my experience. So, why use it?

Superglue has been used to close a wound; in a wilderness setting, it's best not to close a wound since an open would is less likely to get infected.

Jeanette Isabelle

Emphasis added.

Butterfly strips are fairly easy to apply and remove, and they don't seal the wound so that infection can set in. Clean/flush the wound, apply butterfly strips, apply bandage as appropriate and then make a decision as to evacuating. IMO if a wound is serious enough that you're applying butterfly strips and are concerned about infection, odds are better than even that the hike is over. You need to find an ER/hospital/medical clinic as appropriate.

Plastic bags for wound irrigation. Fill the bag, poke a little hole and squeeze. It gives the force you need to clean out a wound.

True enough. The question is whether it is an advisable procedure, even in an improvisational setting . I doubt that it is a good idea. Staunch the blood flow with something less permanent,like a pressure dressing.

By the same token, whiskey has been consumed for snakebite. The victim survived, but that doesn't mean that "booze for bites" is a good idea....Very likely, survival occurred in spite of the treatment, not because of it.

It´s not a good idea especially in an improvised setting. It´s an even worse idea if you could reach a doctor within a couple of hours.
Done right it may increase the risk of infection. Not done right it may impede healing by itself. Either way if the wound needed sutures, the doctor wont do it after the superglue treatment.
Many of the successful applications I heard didn´t need closing the wound in the first place.
Technical grade superglue may also contain toxic traces and iritate the tissue.


Probably it was an experienced snake which saved the venom for something meal-sized. In that case treatment for the venom might not have been neccessary anyway.

What is the effect of alcohol on blood that would make it beneficial following a snakebite? I see no direct or indirect benefit at all. It's great in old movies where the hero drinks and smokes to excess as part of his character, but in real life?

It does not have any benefit, and that was the point. Somewhere in the past someone took a drink after they were bitten, and they didn't die. As Max stated, many snakes will not waste the precious resource of their venom on something they do not plan to eat and are just trying to scare you away. So many snake bites are not injected with venom. Correlation is causation in the minds of most, so they determined that alcohol is good for snake bite. At the very least, it may calm someone down and slow down their heart rate, which may slow the spread of some of the venoms.

Quite a few "remedies" for snakebite, especially are actually detrimental, rather than beneficial. this included the traditional "cut and suck" procedure which was recommended in my youth - not so today.

Since a good proportion of bites are not loaded with venom, it can be worthwhile to see if there is evidence of envenomation (swelling, discoloration, etc). Mr. Snake may have realized he had better uses for his juice than wasting it on something non-edible. This probably accounts for the prevalence of so many bogus snake bite remedies.

Alcohol helps to dilate periphal blood vessels and increases the blood flow there. It also increases lymph flow a little. That helps to distribute the venom faster. I´d consider that to be a direct benefit to the snake if it actually injected venom.
A real life snakebite victim should neither smoke nor drink alcohol.