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Adder Bites Man

I shudder when I read an adder bites man story. The Daily Mail couldn't resist the temptation to sensationalise this extraordinary tale, although to be fair it did point out the last death from an adder bite in the UK was in 1975. It's an extremely rare event - rare enough that it gets plastered all over the National Press when it does happen. Adders aren't easily provoked and they're not "common throughout mainland Britain". Far from it. Finding one in London is extraordinary. They're pretty much restricted to some areas of southern England, Scotland and West Wales. Why? Loss of habitat but also persecution. I shudder about stories like this because they provoke hysterical reactions in people. We have a lovely big grass snake in the garden. They'reclearly not adders, but people cheerfully chop grass snakes' heads off because they're scared of them. I've even seen people take spades to slow-worms because they thought they were adders. Yuk.
For the record, it's illegal to kill slow-worms, grass snakes and adders. And people should think better of them. Slow-worms are fantastically helpful around the garden (and not snakes anyway). Adders kill small rodents, and with grass snakes are indicators of healthy ecosystems. I'm not thrilled by the idea of our grass snake eating our frogs and newts, but I am delighted we have so many it can.