Oddly enough

Oddly enough

Man bitten by severed snake head almost dies

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas

A South Texas man almost died after he was bitten by the head of a rattlesnake he’d just decapitated.

The incident occurred as Milo and Jennifer Sutcliffe were doing yard work at their home near Lake Corpus Christi. Jennifer Sutcliffe told KIII-TV in Corpus Christi that her husband found a 4-foot rattlesnake, took his shovel and hacked off its head. She said he bent down to pick up the remains to discard and was bitten by the severed head, injecting a super dose of venom with its dying twitch.

Sutcliffe said she called 911 and began driving her husband the 45 miles to Spohn Memorial Hospital in Corpus Christi, but she said he began having seizures, losing his vision and bleeding internally. So he was airlifted the rest of the way.

Sutcliffe said her husband needed 26 doses of antivenom, where a normal patient gets two to four doses. He’s now in stable condition at Spohn.

Snake slithers out while woman is driving

WARRENTON, Va.

A Virginia woman was rattled when a snake slithered out of her car vent and disappeared into the depths of her SUV.

It was actually just a harmless garter snake, but Lora Goff was startled when the 21/2-foot long serpent entangled itself in her phone cord. She pulled over and called animal control Monday. A Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office spokesman says a responding officer with his own snake phobia tried to catch it, but it slipped out of sight.

Goff returned to work and put sticky rodent traps under her seat, but they remained empty during her 10-minute commute home. The next morning, her husband discovered the snake alive and stuck to a trap.

Goff says he disposed of it in some fashion, she prefers not to know.

Wandering caterpillars make for slippery road

BLUE HILL, Maine

Drivers: Better watch out for caterpillars in one Maine town.

The Maine Department of Transportation posted an alert for two days that the insects were making things slippery along Route 15, or Mines Road, in Blue Hill. As of Thursday, the department said the incident “has been cleared.”

WMTW-TV reports the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry said the caterpillars are wandering as they eat oak tree leaves. Officials said the main culprit is the forest tent caterpillar. They should finish feeding toward the end of June.

Until then, people should expect to see them wandering.

The department says other caterpillar culprits are the Browntail moth and gypsy moth.

Associated Press