Safety of sleeping on the ground with no critter protection

A snake is a cold blooded reptile, like a fish.

It has no concept of hot or cold. Its body is the same temperature as its environment.

It is more active in warmer conditions, and moves slower in colder conditions.

If a snake finds its way into your sleeping bag, its not because its looking for a nice warm spot. They may be able to detect heat as a way to find small prey, but I doubt would see a human form as prey, they couldnt swallow it.

Although anecdotes exist about snakes in sleeping bags, I dont think Ive ever read of a documented case where someone was bitten. But then, I really havent looked.

Ants and ticks would scare me more.

Pretty sure I heard somewhere the old stories of snakes crawling into sleeping bags were just myths.

At any rate if snakes are out chances are bugs are too what keeps bugs out will keep snakes out too. I'd suggest a bug proof bivy or bug net for bugs.

MB – unless you are a reptile expert I'm going to disagree just a bit.
from my observations, rattle snakes do seek out warmth, and can often be seen sunning themselves in morning light. I have only heard rumors of them crawling into peoples sleeping bags, no first hand experience.

I am not a reptile expert.

No concept of hot or cold? Hardly.

Snakes cannot thermoregulate on their own, so they seek parts of the natural environment to help them out. For example, on a cold day they will crawl out into a sunny place where it might be warmer. On a hot day they will crawl into the shade to cool down.

–B.G.–

Rattlesnakes can crawl into sleeping bags when you aren't in them. This happened to my father, it was quite a surprise. So if you are in heavy critter country it's worth shaking out your bag before you sleep (for scorpions and spiders as well).

However, I really don't think a snake is going to try and crawl into your sleeping bag while you are asleep. You are a huge animal that could easily kill it. By the time you go to sleep, all of the snakes will be in their dens and too sluggish to move.

Don't worry about it :)

Never mind. It's christmas. Sorry Matt, Fred and other attorney friends.

I woke up in my sleeping bag in California 40 years ago and felt an impossibly sharp sting. Sharper than any needle could feel, some kind of chemical was my thought – a nettle or something. I got up, peed, started breakfast. Later when I shook out my bag, a scorpion flew out. Then I looked at my arm and the area had puffed up a but like a bee sting.

We always shake out our boots in the morning. Mostly for inanimate objects like dirt and sand, but also just in case. Out of hundreds of times of doing that, once a scorpion fell out of my wife's boot while we camped on the south shore of the big island of Hawaii.

> It has no concept of hot or cold. Its body is the same temperature as its environment.

This isn't true. While reptiles can operate at colder temperatures… they have an ideal temperature.

They self-regulate by exposing themselves to the sun.

That's why you see snakes/reptiles on the tops of rocks while you hike.

The BBC has a great documentary (I can't find the link) where they show infrared footage of marine iguanas sunning themselves and then diving back into the water once they reach the ideal temperature.

There's an awesome desert lizard (I can't remember the name) that has chromatophores which allow them to change their skin color from black to white to regulate their temperature.

Yeah I've come to the conclusion it highly unlikely to happen. But you are right I always shake out my boots/shoes bag and what have you before putting them on.

Not sure why that whole snake thing crept into my mind. Maybe I was traumatized in my childhood with some long forgotten memory. :-)

John,
at this time of year you will encounter no snakes, too cold, they will be holed up somewhere. Feel free to roll out the bag and enjoy the night sky.

Some helpful information here: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/snakes/

Only about 5 people a year die of snake bites, and there are about 7-8K bites a year. For a nation that is full of several kinds of venomous snakes, and a population of over 300 million, it's a fairly rare occurrence to get a snakebite. So I would not (and don't) worry about snakes so much. The whole sleeping bag thing, think about it like this. Assuming you are in a fully zipped up sleeping bag, the snake would first have to locate someplace to actually get into the bag, and *then* try and crawl in. This just seems like a crazy event that, while plausible, I'd say was next to impossible.

Also, snakes hunt mostly at night, according to this source: http://www.defenders.org/snakes/basic-facts

Which means that while you are sleeping, they have little reason to look for a place to sleep or get warm, as they are most likely hunting, and don't hunt or seek out humans at all.

What I would look out for is stepping on them while hiking. I have been backpacking and day hiking for about two decades now, and like to consider myself a careful hiker, but have almost stepped right on a venomous snake on two occasions (and regularly see snakes several times each year). The first time was on the PA AT, and had it not been for my friend hiking with me saying, "Look out!" I might have stepped right on a big rattlesnake. I get a small shiver just thinking about it now. My foot got about 5cm away from it. It was curled up on rock sunning itself and seemed to be asleep. Second time was here in Sweden going off trail through a marsh. I was bounding from tufts of grass when I could to avoid getting muddy, when mid-stride, I look down and see a big Huggorm (common European viper) all curled up on the grass tuft I'm aiming for. I was able to adjust/mini-freak out and step about 20cm away from it.

Mostly it's just staying away from them and watching where you step. Sleep at peace.

"Asps Indy, very dangerous…you go first." :)

My only comment is about the snakes liking areas of warmth. Growing up we had a couple garter snakes, a green tree snake, and a rosy boa. When we opened the lid of the Rosy Boa's terrarium it would make its way out of the bedroom, down the hall, and into the living room where we sat on the couch watching TV. It would then come up onto the couch and sit on our laps and fall asleep, or curl up around our necks and do the same. It did this all the time, not once or twice as a fluke.

I have a much easier time believing that the snake wanted the warmth of our body temperature than that it was an affectionate snake. ;-) I am convinced that they like the warmth of human body heat. Having said this, I can't speak to snakes on the hiking trail liking sleeping bags. Like others have said, I'd be more concerned with scorpions, spiders, ants and ticks. I only wanted to point out that they do indeed have a preference for warmth.

Doug, from what I understand, rosy boas are particularly docile and also non-venomous. I don't doubt the warmth thing, but your snake I would speculate had learned that not only were you and you family not a threat, but a source of warmth.

I am no snake expert, but I would guess that wild snakes would view humans as threats (with the exception, perhaps, of released snakes that were formerly domesticated). And while a human in a sleeping bag is warm, sure, it's also wrapped up in a sleeping bag. Even if someone has a hood-less bag, like a Zpacks bag, the snake would have to crawl over/around a person's neck/face to get inside the bag. And unless you are a very heavy sleeper (or drunk?), you're going to react, and this would probably be enough to scare the snake off. While I suppose in this very rare situation that a snake wanted to get inside a sleeping bag, it could get spooked and bite, but looking at the following list makes this seem very, very unlikely:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_snake_bites_in_the_United_States

Most people are handling a snake or step on/swim by one by mistake. I did a quick ctrl+f search for sleep and only found one hit in the 1910s, and it's unclear if the children were also asleep or not: "while family was sleeping" (could mean either whole family including children were asleep, nor family was asleep but children were awake).

I wonder if anyone on BPL is an actual snake expert and could chime in. You'd think someone on here has a degree in umm… snakes and stuff.

Cesar, I'm sure you are right. There is a big difference between a docile domesticated animal and a wild one. I wouldn't encourage cuddling up with a rattler. ;-)

Here in North America, when we think of venomous snakes, we think mostly of rattlesnakes. Another one to watch out for is a coral snake. Coral snakes do not have fangs on the front of their mouth. Instead, the venom fangs are at the back of their mouth, so they need to find a thin piece of skin, like the skin between two fingers, and then they have to latch on for a few minutes in order to invenomate the victim. No normal adult human is going to put up with that, which is why the typical victim is either an unconscious drunk or a baby in an outdoor setting. Unfortunately, once coral snake venom gets into the system of the victim, you will have a fatality. Coral snake venom is a neurotoxin, and it is lethal. Due to the method, coral snake fatalities are rare.

–B.G.–

is it a real concern or just a fear that should be overcome?

The latter.

Is this a pretty normal way to sleep?

Sleeping on the ground sans enclosed shelter is very common and has been done hundreds of millions of times. I've never heard of a documented case of someone getting bit by a snake in their sleeping bag.

The venomous snakes around here, rattlesnakes, want nothing to do with humans and will avoid you.
The question is, if a snake senses a heat source, will it know that it's a human in a sleeping bag (a threat) or just see it as a heat source?

From what I have read and seen, most snake bites are inflicted on males between the ages of 18 and 25. Alcohol is frequently involved and often the last words uttered by the victim before the bite are "hey guys, watch this".

As Cesar's stats indicate, getting killed by a venomous snake in the USA is incredibly low. Rattlesnakes have evolved to kill rats, ground squirrels and maybe something as big as a rabbit. Weighing 50-90 kgs instead of 0.5 to 1 kg means it is only the exceptional incident (multiple bites, small child, the elderly, a bite in a vunerable location, great distance from help, and typically 2 or 3 of those factors) that kills a human. So snake bite is down in the weeds of the statistics with bear and shark attacks. Front page news when it happens, but an insignificant risk. Well below lightening (23 so far this year), small-plane crashes (a few dozen this year in my state alone) much less risks that actually add up – exposure for hikers, slips/trips/falls around the house, and motor-vehicle accidents for everyone.

That doesn't mean those thousands of non-fatal bites don't hurt A LOT. A park ranger / naturist / snake handler I'd bring in for Wilderness First Aid classes recounted his experience getting bit. He'd reached into a cage to get something, quickly enough he thought, and got bit. He said he had about 1-2 seconds of thinking "Damn, that was stupid of me!" before his over-riding thought was of the intense pain. (They don't inject just poison, but also digestive enzymes to break-down the rabbit from the inside.)

The take-home message (other than "don't reach into cages containing rattle snakes) is, "If you're bit and poison was injected you WILL know." That is lacking in most first aid books which try to describe the bite patterns of poisonous and non-poisonous snakes. So what?, it might have struck at you and not hung on long enough to inject. But if you have poison in you, you WILL know it.

Every time I've approached a rattle snake (while on staff at a Scout Camp, I'd relocate any that were seen to outside of the camp), they take every opportunity to escape and avoid the humans.

Anyone who worries about snakes in sleeping bags or what caliber gun to carry for grizzlies without first getting the very best tires, brakes and airbags on their car needs to have a better grasp of statistics and basic math.

Both my husband and I have had rattlers approach us while we were napping in the shade. Once we moved they took a different direction. They really do not want a confrontation, and rarely have I seen livestock, which sleeps on the ground here all the time, bitten by mistake. Scorpions are another thing. Being a night time foraging creature we have adopted the hexamid netting as a godsend….especially since we have the bark scorpion here. Hubby had a centipede walk across his forehead once in bed…..that's when I started bombing the house. We live on an Arizona wash so the encounters used to be a common thing for us until the dogs activity scared most of them off. We have killed about 540 scorpions in 30 years here. One in my husbands pants after he put them on. And through all this time we have never been stung or bitten. One coral snake caught here too, it never offered to bite, they are kind of shy and nocturnal. I am a herpetologist.

"Anyone who worries about snakes in sleeping bags or what caliber gun to carry for grizzlies without first getting the very best tires, brakes and airbags on their car needs to have a better grasp of statistics and basic math."

+1

I spent several years in Tucson, AZ doing volunteer SAR – something more than 400 operations. I never dealt with a snakebite victim. I inquired of another member if there was ever a instance of the organization dealing with a snakebite victim – None, nada, zilch.

I attended a presentation by a Tucson physician who had treated about 50 snakebite victims. One half of the population were very young children, typically bitten while at home -the snake was around the front porch or under the house. The other half were young males out collecting snakes or otherwise deliberately seeking them out.

The ones I have encountered in the wild went one way while I went the other. (and on of these encounters was a very close call.)

Snakes are an insignificant hazard for anyone with even a smidgen of awareness. It is a good idea to check your shoes, etc.

OTOH, I have lost count of the fatalities we handled – primarily from falls – typically with an elevated blood alcohol level.

Similar experience here Don, 15 years and counting on a wilderness SAR team (and deputy sheriff/ coroner) and not one call involving a snake bite victim, or any in the history of our team that I am aware of. Most of our fatalities in the mountains involve falls (and alcohol), exposure during bad weather, and by far the most prevalent is self-inflicted (and intentional) gunshot wounds (followed by hangings). The mountains are evidently a great place to go off yourself. I'd wager a guess that most hikers/ backpackers have absolutely no idea how often people go out into the wilderness to commit suicide…"common" would be the most appropriate word to describe it.

That said, statistics are great unless you're "that guy". I try to have a balance of carefree attitude, but with a minor dose of reality and caution. Bad crap does happen to people, we see it daily. Most of us will live happy lives without being victim of the worst of it, but the rest of the world around you preaching about statistics doesn't help if you're the guy who gets struck by lightning. ;-)

"At any rate if snakes are out chances are bugs are too what keeps bugs out will keep snakes out too. I'd suggest a bug proof bivy or bug net for bugs."

+1 on that. I would opt for a bivy with bug net or a bug bivy. That's a nice accessory if you tarp camp anyway.

Camping in established campgrounds may find you more pestered by rodents. I guess your could make a case for snakes being drawn to an area with a good rodent population. That should make you sleep better ;)

For that matter, if a snake was going to join you for warmth, a tarp wouldn't change the scenario and you haven't heard any stories about that here, right?

Cold blooded animals do need warmth to keep the chemistry working. Pit vipers have temperature sensitive sensors for hunting, let alone feeling warmth or cold (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_sensing_in_snakes). Reptiles will seek shade once they are too hot, so keep that in mind.

If you are scrambling in snake country, it's a good habit to check your hand holds for critters sunning themselves on top of a rock, log, ledge, etc. Losing your handhold could be as exciting as being bitten.