Pit Vipers (Dangerous Bite)

Some of the pit vipers featured below are also found in other countries in Asia. All of them are capable of medically significant bites that can lead to hospital treatment and extended stay. If you reach a hospital quickly after a bite, you should be fine with good treatment.

Pit Viper Fangs

Pit vipers have 2 fangs in the front of the top jaw that act as syringes to inject toxic venom during a bite. Some vipers are capable of intramuscular injections with deep bites.

Pit viper fangs are generally over a half-inch long and curved. When the snake’s mouth is closed the fangs fold at an angle inside the mouth. When the snake strikes, the fangs extend and are roughly at a 90° angle to the top jawbone.

Pit Viper Venom

Venom in pit vipers in Thailand is usually primarily necrotic. This means it can destroy cellular tissue, including blood. The body’s response to a pit viper bite is to flood the area with clotting agents in many cases. This can lead to an inability to clot everywhere it is needed, and a victim may bleed from any orifice. This is especially true with Malayan Pit Viper bites.

Thailand’s Pit Vipers

• Banded Pit Viper – Popeia fucatus
• Brown-spotted Pit Viper (Beautiful Viper) – Cryptelytrops venustus
• Clouded Pit Viper – Popeia nebularis
• Gumprecht’s Green Pit Viper – Viridovipera gumprechti
• Hagen’s Pit Viper – Parias hageni
• Kanburi Pit Viper – Cryptelytrops kanburiensis
• Large-eyed Pit Viper – Cryptelytrops macrops
• Malayan Pit Viper – Calloselasma rhodostoma
• Mangrove Pit Viper – Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus
• Mountain Pit Viper – Ovophis convictus
• Pope’s Green Pit Viper – Popeia popeiorum
• Siamese Viper – Daboia russelii siamensis
• Vogel’s Pit Viper – Viridovipera vogeli
• Wirot’s Pit Viper – Trimeresurus wiroti
• Sumatran Pit Viper – Parias sumatranus
• Wagler’s Pit Viper – Tropidolaemus wagleri
• White-lipped Green Pit Viper – Cryptelytrops albolabris

If you get our “Is That Snake in Your House Dangerous?” book, we have all of these covered in detail and tell you the antivenin you’ll need after a bite.