In Africa, Danger Slithers Through Homes and Fields

Snakes like these are giants. Black mambas can stretch to 14 feet, and the longest king cobra ever recorded was 19 feet.

Puff adders are petite by contrast, as short as six inches and no longer than six feet, but very thick. They have long, retractable fangs that can deliver poison into muscle.

Their venom destroys blood-clotting factors, and victims die slow, gruesome deaths, bleeding in the brain, eyes and mouth.

Identifying the attacker can help tailor treatment. But many people never see the snake that bites them or, if they do, cannot identify it. To the untrained eye, venomous snakes may look indistinguishable from harmless ones.

The names don’t make it any easier. Green mambas are green, but black mambas are pale gray to dark brown; they are so-named because the inside of the mouth is black. They are better recognized by their coffin-shaped head and unnerving smile.

Some scientists are building A.I. models to identify snakes, so that anyone with a smartphone might be able to distinguish them.

About a third of snakebites are in children. They occur less often among pregnant women, but the outcomes — which include spontaneous abortion, ruptured placentas, abruption, fetal malformations and death to both mother and fetus — can be catastrophic.

Often the victims are farmers. The loss of a breadwinner devastates families.

Ruth Munuve’s husband worked as a driver in Nairobi and came home to the family farm every other weekend. He was bitten on a Saturday in April 2020, at age 42, while walking through the brush on his way home from a night out.

Two hospitals scrambling to treat Covid patients turned him away. By the time he died two days later, his body had swelled to double its size, a hallmark of a puff adder bite, said his sister, Esther Nziu.

Ms. Munuve now grows maize and cowpeas, mostly for food, and sells green grams. Ms. Nziu has five children of her own, but she is doing her best to help raise her brother’s four children.

Money is tight, but the women still paid to fortify the house. “I don’t want anybody else to be bitten by snakes,” Ms. Nziu said.