"What are you going to do with it ?" "Use it on whichever of us gets the first snake bite," said Linda.

"That is rattlesnake weed and if a poisonous snake bites you, score each side of the wound with the cleanest, sharpest knife you have and then bruise the plant and bind it on with your handkerchief, and forget it." "Is that what you do ?" inquired Donald.
"Why sure," said Linda, "that is what I would do if a snake were so ungallant as to bite me, but there doesn't seem to be much of the antagonistic element in my nature.

I don't go through the desert exhaling the odor of fright, and so snakes lie quiescent or slip away so silently that I never see them." "Now what on earth do you mean by that ?" inquired Donald.
"Why that is the very first lesson Daddy ever taught me when he took me to the mountains and the desert.

If you are afraid, your system throws off formic acid, and the animals need only the suspicion of a scent of it to make them ready to fight.

Any animal you encounter or even a bee, recognizes it.