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florida keeps dropping "scarlet kingsnakes" in everybody's mug and wonders why people aren't laughing

snake psa below the break

Fun fact: Coral snakes (a member of elapidae, meaning they're closely related to taipans/cobras/kraits etc) are actually very chill! They're SO chill, in fact, that it's rare for hospitals to have the proper antivenom in stock, because people don't tend to get bitten by them. As a general rule, try to be hesitant about handling what you think is some kind of coral mimic.

Also, the red/black/jack, red/yellow/kill-a-fellow rhyme only works in the US & northern mexico, generally speaking- elapids and mimics in Southern Mexico and beyond (M. diastema in Mexico, M. isozonus in Venezuela, etc) follow different patterns. Be aware of what venomous sp. look like in your area!

In any case, corals don't want to bite you. In fact, because you- presuming you are in fact a human and not a sentient mouse or frog that has learned to use the Internet- are so huge, no venomous snake wants to bite you, as you would be too large to fit in their stomach. Snakes bite when they feel threatened. Sometimes, this threatening is on accident (stuck hand in wrong place while hiking, picking up firewood, accidentally stuck foot somewhere, etc). However, a number of snake bites are because someone was being stupid and harassing the animal.

Just. Don't mess with snakes, y'all. They don't want to mess with you, either. I promise.