Poor mans gaiters.

[Bacchus]

Why not just wear the gumboots .....

Gum boots are ok for winter and not walking too far but in summer don't fancy a 5 to 10 klm hike to a good spot in heavy , loose fitting , blister rubbing , sweaty rubber boots with zero ankle support . That is what the Oliver's are for , anyway each to their own.

Reckon you are on a winner Vstrom great idea

Cheers

 

[vstrom]

Not hot not heavy without soles gone can't see inch thick gaitors being any cooler wore them all-day on Sat no blisters all good .

 

[goldengoose]

Well done ! Brings DYI to a new level

I see the start of a new foot wear product hitting the market. " Vstrom Gaiters"

 

[Bacchus]

Not hot not heavy without soles gone can't see inch thick gaitors being any cooler wore them all-day on Sat no blisters all good .

Reckon you may have misunderstood my post , my comment was in reply to wearing full rubber boots not your gaitors

Cheers

 

[Tathradj]

Only snake that would go through these are Death Adders.
Brilliant Thinking bloke.

If 'Most' snakes can't bite through Gumboots, Do you know witch ones can ?.... :/ Probably the ones in my area ... Nice idea

LoneWolf...

 

[user 4386]

Not hot not heavy without soles gone can't see inch thick gaitors being any cooler wore them all-day on Sat no blisters all good .

Reckon you may have misunderstood my post , my comment was in reply to wearing full rubber boots not your gaitors

Cheers

Might have been my comment re the smell on taking them off on hot days. It depends a bit what you do - they certainly would do the job well, and I wouldn't think they would be too hot most days in eastern Australia. I am a geo and don't like gumboots because I work a lot in hot desert (where the brown snakes are deadly). Also, I find them inflexible because I am often on steep mountainsides - they give blisters, rub, your toes slide down into them walking downhill. I suspect that this design would be fine if not on the hills all day (they would still be a bit inflexible and warm in extreme conditions) - you can get leather and canvas gaiters only a couple of mm thick with straps, that will stop snake fangs and particularly their contained poison penetrating with the relatively small-fanged and often groove-fanged Australian snakes - they are a bit more flexible because of the join in them. Horses for courses - it is a bit different if it is your job every day - it is the same with everything else - best compass, best GPS, best gold detector, best vehicle you can afford to buy. The good tradesperson wants good tools,

Otherwise, such as walking bushy streams all day long, this design is cheap as chips and excellent and a great idea - wish I had known it when younger and poorer in snake-infested swamps etc. (I used nothing and trod heavily - saw more than 40 one morning and was a nervous wreck - snakes to the left of me, snakes to the right of me.... once looked down and a huge venomous adder was between my feet but could not strike because he had the tail of some small critter hanging out of his mouth). Only ever had two guys bitten when working with me, both survived, one did not realise until next morning when his ankle was like a football and the two puncture marks were seen - probably just thought it was a thistle or bull-ant the day before. A bit scarey though, that you can be bitten and never see the snake or be aware of it.....

 

[Heatho]

Most Aussie venomous snakes have hollow fangs, my herpetologist mate who works at Taronga Zoo told me they are hollow like a syringe needle, also showed me his fang collection, they were all hollow. I mentioned grooved fangs to him and he said it's generally a myth.

 

[Smoky bandit]

Only snake that would go through these are Death Adders.
Brilliant Thinking bloke.

If 'Most' snakes can't bite through Gumboots, Do you know witch ones can ?.... :/ Probably the ones in my area ... Nice idea

LoneWolf...

 

[user 4386]

Most Aussie venomous snakes have hollow fangs, my herpetologist mate who works at Taronga Zoo told me they are hollow like a syringe needle, also showed me his fang collection, they were all hollow. I mentioned grooved fangs to him and he said it's generally a myth.

Not strictly correct - there is so much mythology on this and other sites that I will explain, as I did so on this site previously.

types are a normal or a large tooth (non-venomous), grooved tooth (venomous, but generally smaller and rear-fanged, which means unable to get a good penetration on humans in many cases) and hollow tooth (venomous, large and front-fanged - very efficient delivery system)

Many Australian snakes are back-fanged and most are grooved (eg mulga snake) - the tooth wraps around the groove to a high degree, so if a direct bite into flesh only a tiny bit will spill, if biting through clothing etc perhaos a litle more - but still pretty efficient

However even hollow fangs, typical of many overseas snakes like cobras and mambas and adders with large, hollow front fangs, have an entry and exit vent - it is not in the tip (unfortunately in some of our groove-fanged snakes it is fairly close), so if a snake has trouble penetrating (eg gaiters) by no more than the tip, little or none will get into you. And I don't think any snake would bite through my leather gaiters (don't buy fabric hiking gaiters). The fact that we average three deaths per year and India 50,000 despite ours having some of the most toxic venom, is telling you something (obviously population density, urban population etc are factors as well).

However gaiters and stomping hard on the ground to warn the snake with vibration beats getting bitten and wondering about toxicity and delivery efficiency - and being able to collect the culprit (dangerous), photograph it (improbable) or treat the wound properly will reduce the chances of death to near-negligible. The last consists of NOT washing the bite site, and winding a tight roller bandage wound firmly around the bite and up the limb away from it (but not enough to completely prevent circulation, just to prevent rapid distribution through tissues, capillaries and snmall veins into major veins). The site and the bandage can then be tested at the hospital to determine the type of venom and determine the best treatment.

 

[user 4485]

Some reading on myths:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~bush/onfangs.html
http://members.iinet.net.au/~bush/myth.html

 

[user 4386]

Some reading on myths:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~bush/onfangs.html
http://members.iinet.net.au/~bush/myth.html

One of these says:

Venom is generally harmless if ingested but toxic when it comes in contact with the underlying tissue normally protected by the skin. Venomous animals have to break the skin with body-spines, stings or teeth (includes fangs in spiders and centipedes). The only venomous reptiles found in Australia are snakes. The only poisonous reptiles known in Australia are the Green Turtle (possibly) and the Hawksbill Turtle (definitely). The poison, named chelonitoxin, causes similar symptoms to ciguatera poisoning. More people have probably died on this earth as a result of consuming turtle flesh than ever has been the case from snakebite in Australia

True, but to add to that, fish, algae and dead animals (food in your fridge) can be poisonous, overseas some snakes spit into your eye very efficiently (no, not a myth - cobras, mambas) and this is quite dangerous (but you get time to wash your eyes out completely). And yes, the only venomous reptiles in Australia are snakes but not the only venomous critters - keep in mind lots of insects, sea-dwellers (puffers, cone fish, box jelly, blue-ring octopus), and your friendly male platypus.

"Geez mate, I thought you were bringing the roller bandage" - you can cut up a shirt, but time matters....

I didn't know this about roughies, so thought I would include it.

Poisonous fishes

Poisons in fishes have been acquired in the course of evolution and are therefore a characteristic of the species or, as with ciguatera, are produced by a micro-organism and accumulated through the food chain. Probably best known among poisonous fishes are the puffers or toadfishes, which have their own tetradotoxin, a powerful neurotoxin that regularly causes fatalities in countries where these fishes are consumed. In other groups, like the Dragonettes or Stinkfishes (Callionymidae), the poison contained in the flesh is less potent and acts more as a poor tasting deterrent. In the Roughies (Trachichthyidae), the poison is in the skin or mucous so the fish is not seriously harmed before the deterrent has had its effect. Still others, like the Prowfishes (Pataecidae) and Boxfishes (Ostraciidae), can release a poison to the water to ward off attackers. Ciguatera, also known as tropical fish poisoning, is first produced by the dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus. The toxin is then concentrated as fishes feeding on the single celled organisms are eaten and they are in turn eaten by ever larger predators, right up the food chain. Only when the amount of poison in a fish reaches a critical concentration does it have the devastating effect on humans who may consume affected fishes.

 

[vstrom]

Glad you all like them and thank you for all the great comments and I thought everyone was going to laugh at me.

 

[BigWave]

We did initially Vstrom, till we realised the practicalities. I don't know why these aren't already on sale at bushie stores.

 

[Bjay]

Love em so simple yet effective.

 

[MikeB05]

Coastal taipans apparently have the longest fangs at ave of 13MM.

Still, Vstrom has done a great job...very inventive, well done mate.

 

[vstrom]

Hi all tried some experiments with the gaitors with some decent needles and because of room around your leg I can't get a needle through the boot and I mean trying to bang it in fast they just flex out the way the only way I can get it through is to hold it tightly against my leg oouuch which won't happen when wearing them so in the interest of science my pain is your gain.

 

[7.62marksman]

that does it the all the testing has been done gonna get me a pair oops sorry make me a pair
anyone want a shop bought pair (out doors and beyond) lol

 

[RedDirtDigger]

The original gumboot top snake gaiters (with air holes punched in them) were proposed by a queensland prospector I think, and posted on the other forum in 2008 & 2011.

(Not to say vstrom did not come up with idea himself)

Some blokes tried them but they do get hot. I would never use them because when I was 16, I was stalking a rabbit with a rifle and trod on a big brown snake. It bit into the gumboot and its fangs got caught in the boot for a few seconds with venom running down the inside of the boot down my leg. It was still attached for a while even after I kicked the boot off, and it was obvious by its thrashing that it was stuck on the boot.

The other factor that added to the shock of the incident was the amazing strong force that hit my leg when the snake struck
cheers RDD

 

[vstrom]

And yet you didn't get bit imagine if you weren't wearing them.? :thanks for making my point.

 

[RedDirtDigger]

And yet you didn't get bit imagine if you weren't wearing them.? :thanks for making my point.

Your right mate, without the boots, 3km from home, and skinny and lite weight, I probably would have died if that giant brown did get me good. I do think how lucky I was occasionally....its one of those memories that become hard wired.