Florida snakes together with the many turtles, lizards, alligators and other reptiles are part of a complex wildlife that plays an incredible role in Florida’s ecosystem maintenance. Florida snakes are classified in forty species with highly varied habitats, from salt marshes to fresh water mars and dry uplands or coastal mangroves and residential areas. Only six Florida snakes are poisonous, and they are coexisting with the non-poisonous, venturing in urban settings too. Knowledge about the morphology of the Florida snakes allows one to identify specimens and see which are dangerous and which harmless. Avoid snakes and they will avoid you!
The coral snake and pit vipers are the most dangerous Florida snakes, they can be identified by certain features that make them stand apart. Pit vipers include the rattlesnake, the cottonmouth and the copperhead, they all have vertical eye pupils, facial pits between the nostrils and the eyes as well as on the lateral of the V-shaped head. These Florida snakes are haemotoxic as their venom attacks the red blood cells, destroying the wall of the blood vessel and causing uncontrolled hemorrhage. Coral snakes on the other hand are neurotoxic, with the toxins in the venom acting on the body nerves and inducing paralysis.
Most of the snakebites reported in the United States every year are caused by Florida snakes, by rattlesnakes to be more precise. As their venom is very rapidly spreading in the body system, without immediate medical intervention, the victim will die within less than thirty minutes. A major exception in the group of Florida snakes is made by copperheads, the venom of which will hardly require antidotes. These gentler Florida snakes have less potent toxins and thus do not cause the same amount of harm as the rest of the pit vipers.
Even if poisonous snakes raise the biggest concern by the risk they pose, the most widespread of Florida snakes is the black racer, a non-venomous variety that relies on very sharp fangs to put down its prey. Although the main tendency of home owners is to remove snakes from their properties, specialists stress out the fact that without them, rodents would breed out of control pestering us even more. Snakes should be left alone, particularly if we are talking about the non-venomous species, as you will hardly ever see them around the house.