You can't suck the venom out of a snakebite.

If anything, doing this makes everything worse! The original thought behind this sort of remedy was that a person could suck much of the venom out of the bite area before it had a chance to enter the victim’s bloodstream. However, a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine back in 2002 disproved this claim, saying that snake venom enters the bloodstream far too quickly to be sucked out effectively. Also, since our mouths are teeming with bacteria, placing your mouth on a wound is just asking for some sort of infection! Even suction devices that are often found in snakebite kits rarely do more than remove blood and other vital fluids.

The best treatment is to keep venom from moving quickly through the bloodstream until medical help arrives. This can be accomplished by keeping the victim’s wound below their heart and avoiding any physical activity that could increase their heart rate. It is also no longer advisable to chill or tourniquet the affected area because restricting blood flow in this manner causes more severe tissue damage in that one place. If the bite area starts to swell and/or change color, the snake was probably venomous. Therefore, if you have already killed the offending snake, it is advisable to bring its carcass to the hospital to hasten the process of finding the appropriate antivenom.

Read more snakebite tips.