How to avoid being bitten by a snake – and what to do if you are

Summer is the peak season for attacks by the UK's only venomous snake, the common European adder. We asked a toxicology expert for the dos and don'ts

As any six-year-old will tell you, there is only one venomous snake native to Britain: Vipera berus, AKA the common European adder. Still, it can give you a nasty bite, and doctors have warned that bite victims are walking into a world of pain by not getting help soon enough.

"I'm astonished by the number of people who know they've been bitten but just go home," says Michael Eddleston, a professor of clinical toxicology at the University of Edinburgh and a snake expert. "Then they wake up with massive swelling, when treatment is far less effective."