80 Scary Facts about Snakes

If a snake gets too hot then it may get so confused that it mistakes its tail for prey, and tries to eat itself until it dies.

52. When Biagio complained about the naked figures in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo in response, painted him as the judge of the underworld covering is a naked body with a snake and donkey ears.

53. The animal that kills the most humans each year is the Mosquito at 725,000 deaths, followed by Humans at 475,000, and then Snakes causing 50,000 deaths per year.

54. Due to a robust immune system, Opossums are immune to a variety of deadly snake venom

55. Snake Oil was a real product sold by the Clark Stanley company, and in 1917 the U.S. Govt. had a bottle of it tested, but discovered that it contained inert ingredients and no actual oils extracted from snakes. The government sued and won damages of $20.

The only plane allowed to fly on 9/11 after the attacks was a plane from San Diego to Miami delivering anti-venom to a man bitten by a highly poisonous snake it was accompanied by two jet fighters

57. Pigs are immune to snake venom, a trait shared with mongoose, honey badgers, and hedgehogs

58. Sea snakes are often thirsty and dehydrated; they are dependent on rainwater, which accumulates as a thin layer on the surface of the ocean.

59. Karl Patterson Schmidt, an herpetologist (amphibian expert) who was fatally bitten by a boomslang snake and, knowing he would die, created a scientific account of his own dying process by keeping track of his symptoms right until the very end of his life.

60. The Acanthophis snake is known as the Death Adder but that name is, somewhat ironically, a mishearing of the original name 'Deaf Adder' which comes from the fact that, unlike other snakes, they do not run away from human disturbance.

In 2011, Two farmers fed up with bribe demands dumped over 40 live snakes in a local tax office in India

62. There is a rare snake that has iridescent rainbow colored scales called a sunbeam snake.

63. The Burmese Python infestation in the Florida Everglades likely comes from the destruction of a 900 snake breeding facility during Hurricane Andrew in 1992

64. Snake charming has nothing to do with the music being played but instead, has to do with the instrument's movement.

65. The deadliest sea snake, the beaked sea snake, is actually two look-alike species. Both look identical and are equally deadly.

Scorpion venom is the most expensive liquid on earth at $38,858,507.46 per gallon far surpassing Thailand cobra venom which is $152,835.82 a gallon.

67. The "Cobra Effect" is where a solution for a problem actually makes the problem worse.

68. Nicolas Cage blew through a $150 million dollar fortune on things which included 15 personal homes, $ 67 million dollar dinosaur skull, and 2 extremely rare albino King Cobras.

69. A photographer who survived a black mamba bite without treatment. Only later did he discover that he captured the moment he was bitten on his camera.

70. Peng Fan, a Chinese chef, died after a severed cobra head bit him while he was chopping its body to make soup.

Kevin Buddin, an amateur herpetologist, captured a six-foot Taipan (the third most venomous land snake in the world) alive and, after being bitten, stopped locals from killing it. He died from the bite, but the snake was milked to provide the first Taipan anti-venom.

72. Cobras preserved in Asian medicinal 'snake wine' can hibernate in the bottle, awaken, bite, and even kill you after over 3 months.

73. The inland taipan is considered the most venomous snake in the world. It is estimated that one bite possesses enough venom to kill at least 100 full grown men.

74. The Indian cobra, Common Krait, Russell's viper and Saw-scaled viper are often referred to as the 'big four' because they are the four venomous snake species responsible for causing the most human snake bite cases in the Indian Subcontinent.

75. Carlos Hathcock, Marine sniper in Vietnam who crawled over 1500 yards to kill a high-ranking NVA officer. It took 4 days to complete because he could move only inches. He also said that he was almost stepped on while camouflaged in a meadow. As well as almost bitten by a Bamboo Viper.