Being fairly new to herping, I was frankly a bit surprised to read in the other thread that many of us have - up to this point - been relatively unconcerned about the possibility of getting tagged by a helleri (or other crote). We know it exists, but we don't do all that much about it other than trying to stay vigilant. That impression was reinforced when I went to Tejon Ranch with Nicholas. Yes, most everyone wore some sort of hiking boot and pants, but that was about the extent of it. That is not to say that Nicholas and I came any more prepared. We didn't. In fact, both of us wore shorts that day.
So, what I would like to suggest is that we all take Kent's ordeal as an opportunity to try to come up with some specific guidelines about protection from rattlesnake bites. Yes, vigilance is highly important, but as Kent's case shows, vigilance is sometimes not enough.
The basic question is: What is the proper amount of protection?
The answer, once you think about it, is not that simple. It depends, for example, on where you are herping (on or off trail, type of habitat, season, time of day, etc.), how you are herping (flipping, looking into cracks, getting on your hands and knees, etc.), and, to a lesser extent also what you are looking for. In other words, what's proper protection in one scenario may be too much or little protection in another. You may say "one can never have too much protection," but unfortunately protection from snake bites is not all that comfortable -- not comfortable enough for the average herper to wear it 100% of the time out.
Which brings me to a second, related question: What form of protection exactly should we wear?
Brian (Fundad) mentioned that he wears snake bite-proof boots at all times, which obviously offers some of the best protection. But, as he also said, they look a bit dorky and are, I presume, not very comfortable, especially on hot days. The reason they look dorky is that, much of the time, they are a bit overkill, i.e., they would look perfectly apppropriate when hiking at night through the the Venezualan rainforest with lance heads lurking every step of the way
. And because of the "dorkiness factor", I suspect, most of us don't wear them. Even if we did, snake boots are not available for younger children (like Nicholas), who we should be most concerned about for obvious reasons.Gloves raise similar issues. They are not comfortable on warm/hot days, interfere with dexterity (photography), and, even if worn, don't protect against crote bites unless you wear a pair of those specialized crote jhandling gloves that I saw Jim (actually Noah, his assistant) use at Grassy Hollow. And I don't think that's really a viable option out in the field.
So, what does a reasonable herper in California wear and under what circumstance?
Let's hear your ideas! Maybe, at the end, we can draw up a little document with our conclusions and post it for future reference by others, especially newbies like myself.
And I apologize for taking the initiative here, although there are others who are of course much more qualified and experienced to weigh in on this issue. I'll be happy to get out of the way from here and let the experts do their thing
.Robert
jim
jim
