Here in TX we have a very nice, wide variety of snakes but they don't mess with you unless you mess with them first. The only exception (that I know of) being water moccasins which can sometimes be a little territorial but they can only bite above water so if you're paying attention to your surroundings when swimming, wading, etc, you should be able to avoid them in most situations. I own a Sawyer Extractor but it always seems to sit at home. I guess having grown up "playing" in the woods in TX since age four I just don't worry about snakes any more than I do poisonous spiders, scorpions, mountain lion, bobcat, cyotes, javelina, aligators, mosquitos, rabid butterflies or any other wildlife we encounter out here with the potential to be dangerous or even fatal. I have encountered all of the above wildlife on numerous occasions (except the mtn lion which has only happened once and from a good distance of about 50-75 yards) and I find that the best way to deal with such wildlife is to avoid them and if you can't avoid them then try to respect them (i.e don't p#ss them off) and if that doesn't work then (regretfully) kill them if possible.

Back to the subject of snake bites... they are actually a lot more rare than you might think. I am a perfect example. I have been very close to litterally hundereds of snakes and never been bitten (knocking on wood) by a poisonous snake. I chalk that up to avoiding them when I can and not p#ssing them off when I cant. I have only ever actually had to kill one snake and that was because someone else was involved and in a major panic to the point that they could not avoid or keep from p#ssing off the snake. Had that person kept their wits about them and remained calm, that snake probably would have been able to die of old age instead of decapitation by shovel. I have been bitten by nonpoisonous snakes (mostly peoples' pets) a good number of times but that certainly could have been avoided if I hadt been handling them more carefully or not handling them at all.

I have done quite a bit of research on snakebite kits and I personally wouldn't recommend any snakebite kit other than the Extractor. I think somewhere on ATS I read either Doug or Chris saying basically the same thing. The other kits are worhtlless and can do more damage than good. Even the Extractor probably wouldnt help much but it also won't hurt so even if it only removes 5%-35% of the poison I suppose thats better than none. Realistically I probably should carry my Extractor more often even if for no other reason than to deal better with non-snake poisons like bees, wasps, spiders etc. The Extractor does take of a little more space then I would like but it doesn't weigh much at all.

P.S. Beware of the rabid butterflies. They are the reason all the city slickers carry 44 magnums and big rambo knives when they travel out in to the wilds. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />