The rhyme goes, ‘red touching black, safe for Jack. Red touching yellow, kill a fellow’. This is the only rhyme that will identify a coral snake, one of the deadly serpents in North America. As for the yellow touching white rhyme, there are no snakes in North America that are identified with this song.

Coral snakes once lived as far north as the North Carolina Sandhills, a region of gently rolling, sand-covered hills covering about 1,500 square miles (3,900 square kilometers). However, no specimens of this serpent have been collected there since 1960 — scientists are unsure why they apparently went extinct there.

In the United States, although coral snake (Micrurus species) mortality is rare, the definitive treatment with Wyeth North American coral snake antivenom is no longer available. Since initial production in 1967, there have been no reported deaths from coral snake bites until an untreated victim in 2006 [3] .

Scarlet Kingsnake
Coral snakes are very similar in coloration to the harmless shovel-nose snake and Scarlet Kingsnake, not to mention a few other species, like the Pueblan Milk Snake or the Florida Scarlet Snake.

As I mentioned in my original article, Wyeth stopped making the antivenom because, with fewer than 100 bites per year, treating coral snake bites just wasn’t a good business, but before the company shut down its factory, they made a five year supply. That supply was supposed to last through 2008.

Birds of prey, larger snakes, and mammals.

According to National Geographic, though their venom is highly toxic, no deaths from coral snake bites have been reported in North America since the late 1960s, when antivenin was developed. No deaths from a Western coral snake have been reported at all. Humans are mostly bitten when trying to pick up a coral snake.

red touch yellow, kill a fellow
The coloration on the left is that of the Eastern coral snake, a small venomous snake that inhabits the drier habitats of Florida. The little mnemonic we learned as kids about the coral snake is “red touch yellow, kill a fellow.”

Rattlesnake and coral snake envenomization involve treatment for shock and administering appropriate antivenin. Rattlesnake envenomization is an immediately life-threatening situation and prompt medical assistance must be sought.

Coral snake bites are also life-threatening and require immediate administration of appropriate antivenin. Cottonmouth envenomization may also require antivenin treatment in severe cases. Treatment to counter shock, low blood pressure, infection and respiratory distress is necessary in most cases of venomous snakebites.

The location of the bite is important. Swelling from bites around the muzzle and face can lead to breathing difficulties due to obstruction of the airway. Copperhead, cottonmouth, and coral snake envenomization cases have a better prognosis for complete recovery than rattlesnake bites.