Which Snake Gear
Is Actually Rated

Where these grades come from. The CDC estimates 7,000–8,000 venomous snakebites a year in the US, with about five deaths. Grades below reflect native venomous species and their range — not a bite-count forecast. On a per-population basis the highest recorded rate is North Carolina at 157.8 bites per million people a year, then West Virginia (105.3), Arkansas (92.9), Oklahoma (61), Virginia (48.7) and Texas (44.2), against a national average near 30. Texas records the largest raw number of bites, but its rate is lower because its population is far bigger.

Alaska, Hawaii, Maine and Rhode Island have no native venomous snakes. Vermont has one — the timber rattlesnake, state-endangered and restricted to western Rutland County. Roughly half of all venomous bites are “dry” and inject no venom, per Texas DSHS.

Sources: CDC NIOSH; state poison-control rate data as reported in JAMA Network Open; Texas Department of State Health Services; Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department.