Latin name: Micrurus tener
Size: Usually less than three feet long
Texas habitat: The state’s southeastern half
“Red touch yellow, kill a fellow. Red touch black, friend of Jack.” This mnemonic aims to distinguish the coral snake, one of fifteen venomous snakes in Texas, from harmless lookalikes. But use this mostly accurate phrase at your own risk, warns Spencer Greene, director of toxicology at HCA Houston Healthcare Kingwood. Greene once treated a Boy Scout whose troop leader thought the saying went “Red touch yellow, friend of a fellow.” Of all venomous Texas critters, Greene says, only the black widow spider boasts a more agonizing bite.
Now I’m terrified.
You shouldn’t be! “This is a shy snake,” says Clint “The Snake Man” Pustejovsky, who educates audiences about his favorite reptile through his Houston-based outfit, Texas Snakes & More. Unlike copperheads or rattlers, coral snakes strike only when someone is reckless enough to pick them up. Of the forty or so coral snake bites Greene has treated, he recalls just two exceptions to that rule: “One was a woman who stepped on it barefoot in the dark, and the other was a guy who reached into a bush.” About fifty Texans are bitten annually. While the venom causes an excruciating “electric sensation” that sends most victims to the hospital, it’s never fatal, he says.
How likely am I to see one?
Not very. These introverted critters, along with the other two coral snake species in the U.S., account for less than 1 percent of snake bites nationally. “Coral snakes get a bad rap for being venomous,” says Pustejovsky, “but they’re just trying to stay away from us.” They spend most of their lives hiding under leaves and rocks. Coral snakes eat smaller snakes, while their predators include birds, bobcats, and raccoons, says Toby Hibbitts, a herpetologist at Texas A&M University. “But all those animals are susceptible to its venom, so they tend not to mess with coral snakes much.”
That sounds like good advice for humans too.
Exactly. And the “red touch yellow” rhyme won’t help you in Central or South America, where coral snakes come in all kinds of colors, or if you encounter an albino or melanistic snake. A wiser mnemonic might be: “No matter its hue, that snake could bite you.”
What else is notable about this species?
It’s the only Texas member of the Elapidae family, which also includes cobras, mambas, and other scary serpents. All Elapidae have permanently erect front fangs, and most of them (including the Texas coral snake) lay eggs instead of giving birth. A common myth holds that coral snakes also have rear fangs, but that’s not true. Nor do they chew to inject venom into their prey, as some believe.
Correction: This story previously stated that Texas coral snake bites are “almost never fatal.” No one has ever died from a Texas coral snake bite (there was one fatality from an Eastern coral snake bite, in Florida). This version has been corrected.
An abbreviated version of this article originally appeared in the August 2024 issue of Texas Monthly with the headline “Texas Coral Snake.” Subscribe today.
