Mississippi Venomous Snakes

Venomous snakes are common and can be found across the entire state of Mississippi. Mississippi is home to six venomous snakes. In human encounters, snake envenomation is a defensive mechanism used to deter a potential predator. Snake bites occur when a snake is startled or assesses a threat. These often occur when individuals attempt to handle or kill a snake. Snakes can strike up to several feet at speeds close to 3 meters per second! Avoid handling dead, including decapitated, snakes as they are capable of reflexively striking. Approximately 20% of snake bites can be "dry," meaning no venom was delivered.

All venomous snakebites should be evaluated at your nearest emergency department or health care facility.

• Stay calm and seek medical attention.

• Call 911 if any symptoms of shortness of breath, chest pain, confusion, or loss of consciousness develop.

• DO immobilize the bitten extremity at the level of the heart.

• DO NOT apply a tourniquet or ice.

• DO NOT attempt to lance the wound and suction out the venom.

• DO NOT electrocute the bitten extremity.

• Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix)
  • Average length 2-3 feet
  • Copper or tan coloring, sometimes light gray with darker brown hourglass-shaped crossbands, with a pinkish or orange wash
  • Juveniles may have a bright green or yellow tail.
  • They can be found in a wide range of habitats. They typically live near heavily wooded or rocky areas. They will often seek shelter under boards, sheet metal, logs or flat rocks.

• Water moccasin (Agkistrodon piscivorus)
  • Also known as the cottonmouth
  • Average length is 2.5 to 4 feet
  • Dark brown, gray, khaki-green to black with indistinct wavy, dark crossbands.
  • Juvenile cottonmouths have reddish crossbands on a pink or rusty ground color. They are commonly mistaken as a copperhead. They can be differentiated from copperheads by a jagged crossband pattern. Crossbands often begin to disappear as moccasins age.
  • Water moccasins can live in virtually all aquatic habitats: creeks, swamps, bayous, brackish coastal marshes, drainage ditches, and ponds.

• Pygmy Rattlesnake (Sistrurus miliarus)
  • Also known as the ground rattler.
  • Average length is 18-20 inches.
  • Dark spots run down the back of the snake with 1-2 alternating rows down each side. Coloring varies from black to brownish-red, gray, tan or lavender.
  • They typically live in leaf litter near pine or hardwood forests.
  • Rattles may not always be present.

• Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus)
  • Average length is 4 - 5.5 feet. The greatest length recorded was almost 8 feet
  • Medium brown or tan with dark diamond-shaped markings. Each diamond is bordered by a single row of light colored scales.
  • They are located throughout the southern or coastal portions of Mississippi and often make their home in logs or uprooted tree stumps.

• Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus)
  • Also known as canebrake rattlers
  • Average length is 3-4.5 feet
  • The coloring varies from gray to tan, often with a distinct pinkish wash and wavy black bands cross the body.
  • They typically live near forest and river bottoms throughout Mississippi.
  • Some species may contain a neurotoxin that produces painful muscle fasciculation.

• Coral Snake (Micrurus fulvius)
  • Average length is 2-3 feet.
  • Brightly ringed with wide black and red bands separated by narrow, yellow bands.
  • Remember the common phrase, "Red and yellow kill a fellow; red and black, friend of Jack." The phrase is NOT always accurate as coloring anomalies exist.
  • They are elusive snakes that avoid human contact. Envenomation occurs almost exclusively from handling.
  • Coral snakes contain a potent neurotoxin capable of causing paralysis.