Sssnakes!

Dr. Steve Johnson lives in a state with more than 1,000 golf courses yet he has dabbled in the sport just once. Instead of being skilled with a 9 iron, the associate professor in the University of Florida’s Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation studies a key component of the ecosystem capable of inciting misguided fear among players and maintenance crews alike.

Johnson is a snake guru and he’ll tell anybody who works outdoors, including superintendents and their crews, dangerous snakes are part of the office landscape.

“Golf courses are places where you are going to encounter venomous snakes,” he says. “If they are in high and dry areas, you have potential for Eastern Diamondbacks. If you live out West, there are a whole bunch of pit vipers that people are likely to encounter. In the Southeast, you have cottonmouths that are potentially around water features.”

Shaking yet?

“But it’s not something people need to be worried about,” Johnson adds. “I would be more worried if I pull up my smartphone and there is a cell of nasty weather coming my way, and I need to get off the golf course so I don’t get hit by lightning. That’s a much bigger threat than any snake.”

The number of snake species residing in North America varies slightly over time because of changing taxonomy. Johnson lists the total at 156 species, with 23 being venomous. Rattlesnakes lead the venomous pack with 18 species, followed by coral snakes at three and cottonmouth and copperhead at one each. Rattlesnakes, cottonmouths and copperheads are part of the pit viper family.

The annual number of people sustaining venomous snake bites in the U.S. is between 7,000 and 8,000, according to The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The organization claims “about five” of those people die.

Experts insist the majority of problems caused by venomous snakes stem from human ignorance. The biggest rattlesnake in Arizona, for example, has a strike distance of only 30 inches, says Phoenix Herpetological Society President Russ Johnson. “The No. 1 bites in our state are males 17 to 27 years old, large amounts of alcohol involved,” he says. “People get stupid when they drink.”

Still, even in a state such as Arizona, where snakes are etched in local lore (the state’s Major League Baseball received the Diamondbacks moniker following a fan vote), misconceptions surrounding the critters exist. We contacted reptile experts to establish a few realities about snakes and how superintendents should manage them at their respective courses.

“Everybody thinks every snake is a rattlesnake, and it’s not. The other thing they think is, ‘Rattlesnakes are mean.’ And they are not. They don’t want to bite you at all, because that’s the only way they can secure prey.” —Russ Johnson, Phoenix Herpetological Society

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Most snakes are non-venomous

Arizona has 13 species of rattlesnakes. The state also has 61 species of non-venomous snakes. Snowbirds are often unaware of the second fact.

“Everybody thinks every snake is a rattlesnake, and it’s not,” Russ Johnson says. “The other thing they think is, ‘Rattlesnakes are mean.’ And they are not. They don’t want to bite you at all, because that’s the only way they can secure prey.” Humans, by the way, are not rattlesnake prey.

Arkansas, a crossroads state with distinct ecosystems, is a home to around 30 snake species and only five are “dangerous in any way,” says Dr. J.D. Willson, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Arkansas.

Most snakes found in Texas are “really, really small snakes that are really common and completely innocuous,” says Dr. Lee Fitzgerald, a professor and curator of reptiles and amphibians at Texas A&M Brown snakes, earth snakes, rat snakes, and plain- and yellow-belied water snakes fit into this category. “They are just part of the nature on the golf course,” Fitzgerald says.

Florida must be infested with venomous snakes, right? Nope. Only six of the state’s 46 native species are venomous, according to a University of Florida Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences report co-authored by Steve Johnson and Monica McGarrity.

Don’t guess on identification

When in doubt, consult the regional reptile and amphibian guidebook. And if one isn’t sitting on your office desk or bookshelf, invest in one.

Cottonmouths, also known as water moccasins, are a venomous snake found throughout the Southeast that are confused with other species of water snakes.

“Of all of your venomous snakes, to anyone who has familiarized themselves with the species and have looked at enough photographs and has had enough on-the-ground experience with them, cottonmouths are immediately identifiable,” Willson says. “But they don’t have great characteristics where you can say, ‘Here’s what you can look for that defines a cottonmouth.’ They do have large triangular-shaped heads, but most of the common water snakes do have large heads, and they will actually spread their head out into a triangular shape to essentially look scary. I just can’t tell someone that a snake with a triangular-shaped head is venomous, because that’s certainly not the case.”

Fortunately, most state wildlife agencies have established websites to aid reptile and amphibian identification. Superintendents unsure of what they are seeing can post pictures on the public “Snake Identification” Facebook group (http://on.fb.me/1O4MlO5) to receive quick identifications from trained herpetologists.

Enlighten others

Once you possess knowledge about a course’s ecosystem, there’s no sense keeping it to yourself. Steve Johnson recommends refreshing your crew every spring or fall, when snake activity is at its peak in most parts of the country, about the species they might encounter. View it as part of your normal safety training.

The education can even extend to curious members/customers. A consistent message should be emphasized during these sessions. “It’s important to let people know that the greatest risk for a snake bite comes from handling a venomous snake,” Fitzgerald says. “Trying to pick up a snake or dealing with a snake is a lot more dangerous than just letting it go.”

In the Southwest, it’s common for resorts to train staff members on how to properly handle snakes, Russ Johnson says. Signs on a golf course alerting customers of snake activity might be an extreme measure, but he adds a clubhouse or pro shop poster explaining the region’s snakes and other misunderstood critters can eliminate fears. “It can be done in a very positive way and not to a point where you scare people away,” he says.

Where are they?

Large birds such as falcons, hawks, herons, owls and raptors prey on snakes, so it’s unlikely a rattlesnake or copperhead will crawl across a green or fairway at sunrise.

Snakes are “ambush” hunters, which means they spend most of their time in hiding places, Willson says. Of all the potential places to find a snake on a golf course, near water features top many experts’ lists because of the thick vegetation often lining creeks, ponds, lakes and marshes. McGarrity recommends leather gloves when working in these areas.

Rocks offer cover from predators and protection from the heat in the desert. Tree lines and leaf piles are other areas that must be approached with caution. A copperhead is “essentially invisible” when laying near brown leaves, Steve Johnson says. Wearing boots when working in wooded areas decreases the risk of a bite, McGarrity says.

Human activity can also create places for snakes to temporarily reside, and Russ Johnson warns against allowing debris to linger.

“The biggest thing I have seen when I have been called out to golf courses is that they are clearing out a group of trees and they will have slash piles off to the side and they will leave them there for an ungodly amount of time,” he says. “Golf courses bring out a lot of rodents, rabbits, small birds and everything else like that. What They will get in these slash piles and, of course, snakes will gravitate to them because it’s a food source. The sooner the course clears the piles out, the fewer hiding places snakes have. To them, that’s a haven. It’s not only a great place to find food, but it’s cover in the summer. When it’s miserably hot, it gives them a place to get shade.”

Garbage bags sitting on the ground outside and inside the maintenance shop or clubhouse are another potential hiding place.

Handle bites right

Developing a multi-step protocol for handling snake bites can limit the amount of damage inflicted by one while decreasing the odds of a repeat incident.

First, McGarrity says, don’t try to identify, chase or capture a snake following a bite. “That will result in someone else getting bitten and that’s not going to be helpful,” she says. “Doctors will be able to diagnose what type of snake that bit someone from the symptoms. Keep the person calm, try to limit their activity and get them to a hospital. Call 911. You can call the poison control center, and let them know where they are going so they can consult with the doctors.”

Most bites, according to McGarrity, occur on hands and feet. She adds other helpful post-bite measures include removing jewelry and restrictive clothing and using a Sharpie to circle the swollen area and record the time of the bite on the patient.

If venomous snakes are widespread in your area, Steve Johnson says you should keep a list of nearby hospitals stocked with anti-venom. He recommends seeking medical care when unsure of the species that bit somebody or whether venom was delivered during a bite.

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Snakes police your ecosystem

Eradicating snakes would rob a golf course of perhaps its best and cheapest form of critter control. Snakes eat rats, mice, rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, frogs, insects, lizards and even each other. And, yes, some species eat gophers, moles and voles.

“Many of the rodent-eating snakes play an important role in keeping rodent populations down, especially in places where the wild predators have been eliminated because of development,” Willson says. “That’s one thing about snakes. They don’t take a lot of space. A large rodent-eating snake like a rat snake or a rattlesnake can survive in a pretty small piece of habitat, whereas something like a bobcat or mountain lion needs tens or hundreds of square miles to live successfully.”

And that snake you found in a valve box…

Ever open an irrigation box and see a snake chilling inside it? There’s a good chance that snake can hurt your irrigation system more than your body.

“Black racers, which are very widespread and non-venomous, will commonly get into utility boxes and things like that and lay their eggs,” McGarrity says. “That’s one tip: Recognize that none of the pit vipers that we have lay eggs. Because the pigmy rattlesnakes and young black racers look very, very similar, learning to identify those two and learning that you’re not going to have pigmy rattlesnakes hatching can help reduce some concerns.”

Rat snakes are another non-venomous species you might find in a manmade object – including your shop.