By Chris Bennett
Ag Web
When Ron Gollobin disappeared into snake hell and descended into the expansive tangle of a veritable cottonmouth nest on a four-month hunt, he undertook the most outrageous summer job ever performed by an American teen and unleashed one of the most hair-raising entrepreneurial efforts in pit viper history.
Working alone in remote ponds, 15-year-old Gollobin, with the prayers of a pagan and patience of a stone, caught and milked hundreds of 3’-5’ cottonmouths by hand, all in a chilling effort to obtain venom via a glory-and-riches scheme for the ages.
His cottonmouth account is an absolute jaw-dropper with few parallels—high adventure at its toe-curling best. Welcome to Gollobin’s addicting madness and a tale too insane for fiction: a cottonmouth farmer seeking a venom crop for harvest.