Watch Your Step

By Tom Poland 

The news came as a shock and a reminder to exercise caution. A rattlesnake bit a Columbia-area conservationist recently at Santee National Wildlife Refuge. Wayne Grooms was at home in the natural world and was knowledgeable of nature’s ways. Within 15 minutes, he was gone. The official cause of death listed on an autopsy report from the Medical University of South Carolina was “toxic effects of a snake bite.”

Grooms’ death from the bite is highly unusual, according to officials with the state Department of Natural Resources. Only about six people are killed nationally each year after bites from venomous snakes, water moccasin bites especially.

Clarendon County Coroner Hayes Samuels couldn’t remember the last call his office received for a venomous snakebite. It is rare. The State newspaper interviewed my friend and one-time colleague, Steve Bennett, a biologist formerly with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. Steve said that during his more than three decades with the agency, he remembers only three instances in which people were killed in South Carolina by venomous snakes in the wild.

“It is so incredibly rare for someone to be bitten by a rattlesnake, but it is even rarer for them to die,’’ Bennett said, noting that the swiftness of Grooms’ death also is unusual.

Bennett said the area of the wildlife refuge where the snake strike occurred is in a scenic, but remote area. The 13,000-acre refuge’s Cuddo section is about seven miles south of Summerton and four miles north of Santee below Interstate 95. “You are very far away from anything,’’ Bennett said. “When you are on the Cuddo, you are out in the middle of nowhere.” (Read more about the Wayne Grooms story.)

I often end up in the middle of nowhere and so far I’ve never had a problem with snakes. I can’t say that’s true as wasps and other insect pests go. Last summer wasps attacked me in the Francis Marion National Forest. Over the Fourth of July weekend, a tic got me, a spider bit me, and a wasp stung me. It was one of the worst stings I’ve suffered. It still looks bad.

As civilized as we are, as much as we’ve pushed true wilderness away from us, wildlife species still kill people. We all heard about the alligators that killed the two-year-old down in Disney World. The world of wildlife remains a dangerous place. You have to watch your step. And where you swim. Last summer we had a spate of shark attacks along the coast. Mosquitoes carry diseases. People allergic to stings carry EpiPens. Approximately 130 people die a year when their cars collide with deer. Dogs kill approximately 32 people a year. And ants and jellyfish get in on the action. Bears, too. Most people worry about snakes, though. If a venomous snake bites you here’s some advice from the Mayo Clinic and Web MD. Some of it is well known but some of it is surprising such as drinking caffeine:

Move beyond the snake’s striking distance. Clean the wound, but do not flush with water. Cover the wound with a clean, dry dressing. Don’t drink caffeine or alcohol, which can speed up the rate at which the body absorbs venom. Seek medical attention as soon as possible. Take note of the type of snake so that a description can be provided to medical staff.

I read that 5.5 people die a year from rattlesnake bites. That sure makes Wayne Grooms a very unlucky man. You and I, however, are more likely to get killed by a deer. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that white-tailed deer kill around 130 Americans each year—car wrecks. About 1.5 million deer and vehicles collide each year, killing about 130 people injuring 29,000 people, and creating over $1 billion in insurance claims. Deer also carry ticks that transmit Lyme disease to about 13,000 people each year. Economic damage to agriculture, timber, and landscaping by deer totals more than $1.2 billion a year.

It’s a wonderful experience to visit a truly wild area and see nature at its finest. Take a Carolina bay, for instance. You won’t see signs of man in a Carolina bay. Oh, you may see charred trunks and burnt grasses where foresters’ prescribed burns duplicate lightning’s fire benefits. You won’t see roads or pavement or litter. You won’t see power lines or pipelines. You will see what in many ways are natural gardens. And birds. In our world, we can’t live without air conditioners, ambulance sirens, whining airplanes, horn-blasting trains, road rager horn honking, and revving engines. We know what it’s like to hear a giant garbage truck impersonate a dung beetle with its raised arms, groaning engine, and beep-beep backing, the finale of which is the dumpster being slammed repeatedly to empty refuse to be carted off to some landfill.

In true wilderness you hear nothing but the sounds of nature but you have to be careful. You enter the domain of wildlife. Next Wednesday Steve, Robert, and I will explore a Carolina bay, but we’ll be on high alert. Being a naturalist or a wildlife expert is no guarantee you’ll be okay. Remember how Steve Irwin died from the barb of a stingray?

Grooms, a self-taught naturalist, volunteered at the Peachtree Rock Heritage Preserve in Lexington County. Each year, he spoke at schools on Arbor Day and planted trees with children. Grooms leaves behind a wife and son.

I try to be vigilant in the wilds but I learned a lesson over the July Fourth weekend. Home can be dangerous, too. Watch your step at all times and watch for deer when driving. Meanwhile, my thoughts are with the family of Wayne Grooms.

Visit Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
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Tom Poland is the author of twelve books and more than 1,000 magazine features. A Southern writer, his work has appeared in magazines throughout the South. The University of South Carolina Press released his book, Georgialina, A Southland As We Knew It, in November 2015 and his and Robert Clark’s Reflections Of South Carolina, Vol. II in 2014. The History Press of Charleston published Classic Carolina Road Trips From Columbia in 2014. He writes a weekly column for newspapers in Georgia and South Carolina about the South, its people, traditions, lifestyle, and changing culture and speaks often to groups across South Carolina and Georgia, “Georgialina.”