Snake hunter has close call with rattlerBy Nadine Parks (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
It wasn't the first time snake hunter Ted Clamp had been bitten. It was, however, his first strike by an Eastern diamondback rattlesnake and his first time getting a dose of an improved antivenin that he helps produce. 
Ted Clamp Brothers Ted and Heyward Clamp are co-owners of Edisto Island Serpentarium. Ted Clamp took a hit from a four-footer Sunday afternoon while hunting the venomous snakes along the Georgia coast. The brothers were having a good day and had bagged seven of the rattlers by about noon. As Ted Clamp tried to place one of them in his bag, the snake was hung up on a fold in the bag, turned his head and struck Clamp in the left hand. "At first, we didn't know if he had gotten a severe bite or even any venom at all," Heyward Clamp said. "Sometimes it's a dry bite." They went on to bag a six-foot rattler. Then Ted Clamp started to feel the effects of the bite. He had trouble breathing, his arm swelled from the poison and his legs felt numb, his brother said. They drove to a Beaufort hospital, where Ted Clamp was recovering Monday and not available for comment. His brother said he was responding well to antivenin and that his condition was not life-threatening. Doctors planned to release him today. The Clamps hunt rattlesnakes and take them to their serpentarium, where they collect venom and sell it for about $20 to a laboratory that makes the antivenin. Heyward Clamp said his brother now has a new experience to impart to visitors at the serpentarium. He's been bitten by a water moccasin and by a canebrake rattlesnake, but this was his first bite from an Eastern diamondback rattler. It's also his first time receiving antivenin made from sheep's blood, Heyward Clamp said. He said laboratories stopped making the snake serum from horse's blood about 10 years ago because many people, including Ted Clamp, have an allergic reaction to it. Victims tend to react less frequently to the serum when it's made from sheep's blood. Ted Clamp had no allergic reaction this time. Reach Nadine Parks at 937-5573 or nparks@postandcourier.com. |
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Comments
This article has 7 comment(s)
Posted by Early on May 6, 2008 at 8:38 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Uhhh, if you play with fire, you will get burnt.
Appreciate the efforts though on making the anti-venom.
Posted by RTC on May 6, 2008 at 9:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It's a dangerous job, but if someone didn't do it we would all be up a creek if ever bitten.
Get well soon, Mr. Clamp.
Posted by summerville_guy on May 6, 2008 at 9:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
$20 seems like not very much for the risk that he has to take in getting the venom.
Posted by combahee on May 6, 2008 at 10:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Eastern Diamondbacks are severely threatened in the wild. A captive breeding program and proper care should preclude the taking of these magnificent creatures from the wild. It's time to limit the taking from the wild.
Posted by majorjohnson on May 6, 2008 at 11:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Jeez, a tree-hugger complaining about too few diamondback rattlers. I don't have a shortage of them out here. I've already eaten a canebrake and a diamondback this year, and those were just the ones big enough for meat. I left a few I've seen to grow for later. They're all white meat and very good eating.
If you multiply $20 by the number of times they milk numerous snakes it adds up summerville_guy.
Posted by SCVOTER on May 6, 2008 at 12:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Maybe they can get venom from a snake more than once...that would add up quickly.
Posted by robbybobby on May 6, 2008 at 5:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
kill em all, along with poisonous spiders, big gators, great whites. There are plenty of other spiders, snakes, etc to eat varmits. It is a good thing that diamondback rattlers are severly threatened in the wild. If only we could say the same thing about tree huggers.