[06/07/02]Angela Marcus and her housekeeper, Carol Bryan, know firsthand the fear of a snake encounter.

Marcus said Tucker, her border collie, began barking furiously near a flower bed. She went outside to see what the problem was, and Bryan, watching from inside the Acadia Hills residence, spotted a snake moving alongside the chimney.

“I screamed and pointed,” Bryan said. And when she went outside to better keep an eye on the serpent, she turned around and discovered a second snake on the ground behind her.

The snakes were later identified as king snakes, a nonpoisonous breed common to the area, but for Marcus, a precautionary call for help was worth it.

Vicksburg Animal Control Supervisor Eldridge Skinner, who responded to her call, said it appears snake activity in the area is on the increase.

“This year looks like it’s going to be plentiful for them,” he said. Skinner said his department has picked up about a dozen snakes so far this year none poisonous. He said most are rat snakes and garter snakes.

“There was an increase in snake activity last summer and we anticipate the same amount of activity this year,” said Dr. Randy Easterling, a physician at River Region Medical Center. So far in 2002, there has been only one snakebite case in River Region’s Medical Center emergency room. That involved a child with a small bite from a garter snake, said Diane Gawronski, hospital spokesman.

Easterling said nonpoisonous snake bites can still cause problems and call for medical attention.

“You don’t need to assume the bite isn’t poisonous,” he said, adding that many people are unable to recognize the difference in venomous and nonvenomous snakes. He said if someone is bitten by a nonpoisonous snake, a tetanus shot is a minimum. Also, to prevent infection, the wound area should he kept clean with soap and water, he said.

The poisonous snakes common to the area, Easterling said, are water mocassins, copperheads and rattlesnakes.

“Spring is a very busy time for snakes,” said Dr. Bob Galli, professor and chairman of emergency medicine at University Medical Center. Because snakes are coldblooded, “warm months are more problematic,” he said. The physician said more than 20 bites by poisonous snakes have been reported in Mississippi this year. He added it’s estimated there are nearly 8,000 poisonous bites in the United States a year and 10 to 15 result in death.

“A person is far more likely to die from an ant, wasp or bee sting,” he said.

For precaution against a poisonous snakebite, Easterling advises wearing thick shoes and socks and long pants, and avoiding walking through marshy, wooded areas without wearing boots.

Easterling said if bitten by a poisonous snake, the victim should “stay calm” and get to a medical center quickly. Old suggestions such as tourniquets or cutting and bleeding the bite location are no longer advised.

The doctors said snakes are not dangerous, really, and should just be avoided. “Snakes are very helpful and fulfill an important role” by killing rodents and other pests that carry disease, Galli said. “They really aren’t that dangerous if you let them be.”

Skinner said if a snake is spotted around a home or any public area, a resident may call Animal Control.

“We’re not snake catchers,’ but if there’s a snake in someone’s yard, we’ll come out and do the best we can to remove it,” he said.