{"id":258951,"date":"2026-04-09T07:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T07:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/258951\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T07:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T07:27:09","slug":"california-surge-in-rattlesnake-bites-how-to-protect-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/258951\/","title":{"rendered":"California surge in rattlesnake bites: How to protect yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"

(NewsNation<\/a>) \u2014 Southern California has seen a surge in rattlesnake<\/a> bites, and unseasonably warm weather is believed to be behind the trend.<\/p>\n

Officials in Ventura County have reported six<\/a> snake-bite incidents \u2014 two of them fatal \u2014 so far this year. This number is already approaching the total for 2025.<\/p>\n

The most recent emergency occurred Sunday at California State University in Camarillo. A man was near a vehicle when he was bitten in an accidental encounter. Paramedics rushed the victim to the hospital, where he was stabilized.<\/p>\n

Orange County man dies after being bitten by venomous rattlesnake <\/a><\/p>\n

Wildlife experts<\/a> say unusually warm temperatures have triggered an exodus of snakes that were recently in a state of dormancy, or \u201cbrumation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jay Brewer of California\u2019s Reptile Zoo said snake bites typically occur when someone accidentally touches a snake or tries to kill one that they\u2019ve encountered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not out to get you. They\u2019re not going to chase you down,\u201d Brewer said of the species. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a mistake, more than likely, of you stepping on them and not even just walking by one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brewer said people should be aware of their surroundings and avoid walking through brush this time of year. He said anyone who is bitten by a rattlesnake should stay calm and get to the hospital quickly for antivenom.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(NewsNation) \u2014 Southern California has seen a surge in rattlesnake bites, and unseasonably warm weather is believed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,5529,84394,113419,1009],"class_list":{"0":"post-258951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-california-state-university","12":"tag-rattlesnake","13":"tag-snake-bite","14":"tag-southern-california"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}