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 A pregnant woman and her son had quite a scare when the young boy was bitten by a rattlesnake while walking along a bike trail in Folsom. 
 
 Jaclyn Caramazza, who is nine months pregnant, was anticipating a trip to the hospital sometime this month. But she was expecting the visit for the birth of her newborn, not for a snakebite. 
 
 On their way back from a walk, her 4-year-old son Vinny accidentally stepped on a baby rattlesnake. Knowing that something was wrong with her son, Jaclyn tended to the area, according to KTXL. 
 
 “I’m looking around, and took his shoes off, and lo-and-behold, there were two little puncture marks,” Jaclyn said. 
 
 Within minutes, Vinny’s ankle started to swell and turned purple. The venom quickly spread to his entire leg. 
 
 “Mama bear instinct in me decided to suck the venom because that’s what Bonanza does,” Jaclyn said. 
 
 But officials advise strongly against that. 
 
 “Misconception is lacerate between the two points and suck the venom out,” Chris Stoots, with California Fish and Wildlife, told KTXL. “Absolutely don’t do that. Use your basic wound type stuff, soap and water, wash the area, keep it clean and call 911 immediately.” 
 
 Luckily, the venom Jaclyn tried to suck out of Vinny’s leg didn’t spread to her or her unborn son. As for Vinny, he’s recovering well. 
 
 From now on, the family will be a little more cautious. 
 
 “Being more aware of our surroundings and putting up some things in our backyard to keep the snakes out and counting our blessings,” she said. ||||| BAY POINT -- A toddler was bit by a rattlesnake Tuesday night in a residential area off San Marco Boulevard, fire officials said. 
 
 Fire crews received a call about a 2-year-old girl who was bit by an unknown animal shortly before 8 p.m. at a home near Delta View Elementary, said Contra Costa Fire Marshal Robert Marshall. Upon arrival, crews learned that the girl was bit by a rattlesnake because they found it nearby. 
 
 The toddler was treated on scene and then transported by medical helicopter to UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital in Oakland, Marshall said. A status update on the child wasn't available Tuesday night. 
 
 People should be aware of their surroundings, particularly in residential areas near wildland, where there's a greater possibility of rattlesnakes, he said. 
 
 "The wildlife is exactly that; it's wild," Marshall said. "Be aware of that, keep an eye on children and try to keep them as safe as you possibly can." 
 
 Contact Katrina Cameron at 925-945-4782. Follow her at Twitter.com/KatCameron91. ||||| Girl, 2, bitten by rattlesnake in Bay Point 
 
 Photo: Katie Meek, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Image 1 of 1 A rattlesnake at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, Calif., on June 7, 2013. A rattlesnake at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, Calif., on June 7, 2013. Photo: Katie Meek, The Chronicle Girl, 2, bitten by rattlesnake in Bay Point 1 / 1 Back to Gallery 
 
 A Bay Point girl was being treated at a hospital Wednesday after she was bitten by a rattlesnake in her backyard, authorities said. 
 
 Ishneet Kaur was playing in her yard on the 2900 block of Rio Verde Circle when she was bitten about 7:45 p.m. Tuesday. Her family called 911 after seeing that her foot was swelling up, not realizing at first what had happened, authorities said. 
 
 Firefighters with the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District were then given an update by a dispatcher: “The child’s falling asleep now.” The dispatcher soon added, “Just for information, I think this may be a snake bite.” 
 
 A medical helicopter airlifted Ishneet to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. She was reported to be in stable condition Wednesday, said hospital spokeswoman Melinda Krigel. 
 
 The rattlesnake was located and removed in a jar, authorities said. 
 
 As the weather gets warmer, rattlesnakes come out to bask in the sun. But most snakes usually avoid people and will only bite as a last resort, experts say. 
 
 The California Poison Control System receives about 300 calls each year about rattlesnake bites, which can produce swelling, bruising, tissue damage and bleeding problems. The bites can be fatal, especially for children and pets because of their smaller size. 
 
 Most bites occur between April and October, with the greatest number of bites in May. 
 
 Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee ||||| Karen C. asks: True or false, you should suck the venom out of a snakebite after someone gets bitten? 
 
 There are a number of productive things you can do to help a snakebite victim; trying to suck out the venom isn’t one of them. Actually having a negative effect, potentially further damaging the tissue around the bite and thus helping to spread the venom, trying to suck the venom out of a snakebite victim is an act in futility that simply delays proper treatment. Once in the body, snake venom quickly spreads throughout the victim’s lymphatic system, and it is just not possible for a human to suck fast or hard enough to remove enough of it to have any real positive effect. 
 
 Likewise, experts say applying a tourniquet is equally pointless (it won’t stop the venom), can add to the victim’s pain, and if left on too long, the lack of fresh blood can damage (and even kill) the limb, among other serious health issues this can introduce. Ice is also a common home treatment, but recent studies have shown that it can also make the injury much worse. 
 
 Another common misconception is that snakebites are extraordinarily fatal. In fact, even during frontier times only 25% of bites from pit vipers (think copperheads, rattlesnakes and cottonmouths) resulted in death. One reason is that some of these snakebites are “dry,” meaning no venom is injected. 
 
 Today, the worldwide rate of deaths from a snakebite is around 0.5-1% of people bitten, due in no small part to the development and distribution of effective anti-venom. For further reference, approximately 8,000 people in the U.S. are bitten by venomous snakes each year, but only about 0.2% die from it (many more people die from allergic reactions to wasp, hornet or bee stings). This also means you are about nine times more likely to die from being struck by lightning than die from being bitten by a snake in the United States. Even in Australia where seemingly everything in nature seems capable of killing humans and where 7 out of the world’s 10 deadliest snakes live, there is only about 1 death by a snake bite per year on average. 
 
 So what should you do when you encounter a snakebite? Several things, depending on your circumstances. 
 
 Protect the person by carefully moving her away from the snake (and making sure not to get bitten yourself). At the same time, try to note the snake’s appearance (so emergency responders will know better how to treat the bite). 
 
 Call emergency responders or at the least get to a hospital. The former is preferred so that the victim can simply lay there and relax, to slow their heart rate and perform other helpful actions which we’ll get to presently. 
 
 If you’re transporting, or are, the victim, and the bite is to a limb, depending on circumstance, a splint to reduce muscle contractions can also be helpful. 
 
 If you are stuck in the wilderness and the victim will have to walk out, first have her sit quietly for a while until fully relaxed. This helps to keep the venom localized in one place. Then get walking, but at a calm, leisurely pace. 
 
 In the interim between getting the needed medical aid, try to keep the victim as still as possible to limit the spread of the venom. This includes avoiding stimulants and other products that either thin the blood or accelerate the heart, such as alcohol, aspirin, coffee and cigarettes. 
 
 If possible, it is also helpful to have the victim lie down, keeping the affected area (usually a limb) lower than the heart. Cover the victim with a blanket and loosen tight clothing. In particular, remove anything constricting from the effective area, like a shoe or jewelry (bracelets and rings, in particular). The bitten extremity will swell and such jewelry may then become a source of significant pain if not removed. 
 
 The bite area should also be washed with soap and water or otherwise disinfected, to help reduce the chance of infection. 
 
 It should also be noted that while bites from copperheads, rattlesnakes and cottonmouths are sufficiently painful from the start that the victim will ask for assistance, with coral snakes, some victims have made the mistake of thinking the bite caused little harm. According to the National Library of Medicine, it is common for symptoms from the venomous bite of a coral snake to take several hours to appear. 
 
 While you’ll usually be fine, so long as you receive proper medical care after being bitten, there is the notable exception of the Black Mamba. Residing in certain parts of Africa, you’ll want to avoid these at all costs. The Black Mamba’s kill rate after a strike is 100% unless very large amounts of anti-venom (typically 10-12 vials) are administered very shortly after being bitten. You don’t have a lot of time with this one. Given how quickly its venom can kill (as quickly as 10 minutes, though sometimes it takes a few hours, depending on how much is injected; the average time until death after a bite is around 30-60 minutes), around 95% of people still die from Black Mamba bites usually due to being unable to get the anti-venom administered in time. For reference, one single strike from a Black Mamba will deliver around 100-400 mg of venom and only 10-15 mg is needed to kill a human. 
 
 They also usually won’t just strike once, but will continually strike whatever is threatening them as much as they safely can before it stops moving. If it’s a large, dangerous animal they’re striking, they may only strike a few times in quick succession, then may or may not follow the animal until it dies. If they do follow, they usually will continue to strike only when they see safe opportunities. As you might expect from this, Black Mamba’s are near top of the food chain, outside of humans. 
 
 What’s particularly frightening about this snake, apart from being amazingly deadly and 8-14 feet long, is that the Black Mamba can also move as fast as 14 mph, with an average top speed in the range of 10 mph to 12 mph. In either case, this makes them the fastest snake in the world. They can also maintain speeds of around 6-7 mph for lengthy periods. 
 
 If all this wasn’t bad enough, the Black Mamba is considered to be the most aggressive snake in the world. However, it should be noted that even having the reputation of being extremely aggressive, it usually only attacks humans when it feels cornered or when a female is protecting her eggs. When it does feel like fighting, it’s incredibly fearsome. Because of its size, ground speed, and agility; how quickly it can strike; how fearless it can appear to be; and how deadly its venom is (I for one welcome our new Black Mamba overlords), it generally takes a group of people working together to kill one, and even then it’s a dangerous endeavor. So you’ll not want to encounter one of these alone, whether on land or in the water. In both cases, best to have someone with you that you can run faster than! 
 
 If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Feed), as well as: 
 
 Bonus Facts: 
 
 A simple way to determine if a snake that has bitten you is venomous or not is that usually venomous snakes will leave two fairly deep puncture wounds after they’ve struck. Nonvenomous snakes, on the other hand, will generally leave small, very shallow punctures in a horseshoe shape. 
 
 Another interesting kind of snake is the Chrysopelea, also known as the “flying snake”. This snake actually can fly, after a fashion. It has the ability to use scales on its belly to climb straight up trees. Once it’s high enough, it will dangle from a tree branch. It then selects a target and bends itself into a J. Finally, it flings itself away from the tree towards its target and sucks in its stomach and flares out its ribs, creating a sort of flying torpedo, with lateral undulation (not unlike the way snakes move through water). Combined with the way they shape their body, this lateral undulation actually creates lift, allowing them to glide. They are capable of making flights as long as 100 meters doing this. 
 
 Rattlesnakes are able to make a rattling noise because their tails are comprised of 6-10 layers of scales. When these layers of scales are shaken, they rattle. 
 
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– It's around that time of year in California when rattlesnake bites spike, and two stories are making headlines: Don't suck the venom: In Folsom, a 4-year-old got bit on the foot when he stepped on a baby rattler while walking on a trail. His mom—who is 9 months pregnant—tells KTLA that she found the puncture wounds and started trying to suck the venom out, as she had seen on Bonanza. Bad move, says a state wildlife official, because it could make the venom spread faster. "Absolutely don't do that," he warns. Fortunately, all ended well. The boy is recovering—after the venom spread through his leg—and mom is fine. Toddler bit: In Bay Point, a 2-year-old girl was bit by a rattlesnake while playing in her backyard, reports the San Jose Mercury News. The girl was airlifted to a children's hospital on Oakland, and her condition wasn't made available. Authorities caught the snake nearby. The state poison center gets about 300 calls a year about rattlesnake bites, notes the San Francisco Chronicle, but they are particularly dangerous for kids because of their smaller size.