What Local Animal Are You Most Afraid Of?

[Norachan]

Hey, folks, how did this get hijacked into a carnivore vs. herbivore argument? Peace!

This brought to mind something even more frightening. Maybe we need to fear zealots, no matter what their stance, most of all. And no, I'm not NOT NOT calling you zealots but we all know there are a lot of them out there espousing radical and terrifying causes. They are each dangerous in their own way, far more dangerous than any animal. They scare me most of all.

Now, back to local creatures that scare you.

Someone said mosquitoes and I'm all for the eradication of those. The person who said small things don't matter never spent the night in a dark room with a buzzing mosquito.

Fire ants are high on my list of nasty critters. On the other hand, they seem to be the only thing that eats fleas. I HATE fleas!

I'm not too fond of bats, either. Yes, I know they eat mosquitoes, but once you have one in your bedroom and have to have rabies shots for you and boosters for your cats, they lose a lot of appeal.

Interesting point! I remember reading an article a few years back about genetically modified mosquitoes. They were sterile and the idea was that if you released them into the wild the mosquito population would decrease because they would try to breed with these sterile mosquitoes and eventually die out. Scientists suggested releasing the mosquitoes into a few areas first to see how it worked out.

One area they were released was Brazil....then a few years later a mosquito born disease, Zika virus, starts causing birth defects that have never been seen from this disease before. Could there be a connection? Maybe our plans to eradicate the mosquito have back-fired?

I understand that we need mosquitoes to stop us humans from thinking we're the top of the food chain, but I can't stand the little bleeders either.

 

[kashmir64]

Interesting point! I remember reading an article a few years back about genetically modified mosquitoes. They were sterile and the idea was that if you released them into the wild the mosquito population would decrease because they would try to breed with these sterile mosquitoes and eventually die out. Scientists suggested releasing the mosquitoes into a few areas first to see how it worked out.

One area they were released was Brazil....then a few years later a mosquito born disease, Zika virus, starts causing birth defects that have never been seen from this disease before. Could there be a connection? Maybe our plans to eradicate the mosquito have back-fired?

I understand that we need mosquitoes to stop us humans from thinking we're the top of the food chain, but I can't stand the little bleeders either.

I only hate the females. Which makes me wonder....how do the males eat?

 

[denice]

I remember watching a show, I think it was on NatGeo Wild about which animal causes the most human deaths. They started at the bottom of the list and went up. They did a spot on each of those animals as they went up the list. The list was the usual animals and they included the number of deaths the previous year. They got to the top and the one at the top was the mosquito. I don't remember the numbers but it wasn't even close. The deaths attributed to mosquitoes was many many times the deaths from the 2nd animal on the list.

 

[kittens mom]

Interesting point! I remember reading an article a few years back about genetically modified mosquitoes. They were sterile and the idea was that if you released them into the wild the mosquito population would decrease because they would try to breed with these sterile mosquitoes and eventually die out. Scientists suggested releasing the mosquitoes into a few areas first to see how it worked out.

One area they were released was Brazil....then a few years later a mosquito born disease, Zika virus, starts causing birth defects that have never been seen from this disease before. Could there be a connection? Maybe our plans to eradicate the mosquito have back-fired?

I understand that we need mosquitoes to stop us humans from thinking we're the top of the food chain, but I can't stand the little bleeders either.

Interesting connection with those flying bloodsuckers.
Meat has become unhealthy because of the way it's raised and the amount consumed.
With large predators being removed from the wild humans are stuck with finding a way to deal with overbreeding and a surging population of prey animals. I lived in one state where the deer were like swarms of mosquitoes.

 

[deidrahall]

WASPS!!!!! Their EVIL!!!!!!!!!

 

[Mother Dragon]

WASPS!!!!! Their EVIL!!!!!!!!!

You said a mouthful! Several times a year our house has a plague of red wasps in it. It's nothing to kill 15 of them in the house in one day. They're huge, too, almost the size of a tiny hummingbird. This goes on for about a month and then tapers off, only to recur. We think they're in the flue pipe, but building a fire only helps a little bit. We tried a smoky fire with no improvement. I finally called an exterminator, carefully explaining the problem and where it was. They said they could handle it. When the guy got here he said that wasn't something he did and that I owed him $75 for the service call. I told him I'd explained the problem to the receptionist and she said they could take care of it. I was not going to pay $75 for no service when I'd advised them of the problem. He was most unhappy but gave in.

We still battle the wasps. The cats avoid them but will alert us to them by staring at them. I've managed to safely kill a couple of them that were crawling on me. Ugh!

 

[arouetta]

WASPS!!!!! Their EVIL!!!!!!!!!

You said a mouthful! Several times a year our house has a plague of red wasps in it. It's nothing to kill 15 of them in the house in one day. They're huge, too, almost the size of a tiny hummingbird. This goes on for about a month and then tapers off, only to recur. We think they're in the flue pipe, but building a fire only helps a little bit. We tried a smoky fire with no improvement. I finally called an exterminator, carefully explaining the problem and where it was. They said they could handle it. When the guy got here he said that wasn't something he did and that I owed him $75 for the service call. I told him I'd explained the problem to the receptionist and she said they could take care of it. I was not going to pay $75 for no service when I'd advised them of the problem. He was most unhappy but gave in.

We still battle the wasps. The cats avoid them but will alert us to them by staring at them. I've managed to safely kill a couple of them that were crawling on me. Ugh!

When we were living in the in-laws old house we had a bad problem with wasps.

The worst was that there was a broken window we couldn't get the in-laws to replace and we couldn't afford to replace (the panes were fine but the wooden structure was falling apart so the entire window would need to be replaced, a few hundred dollars). We put some heavy cloth up to keep out rain and the wasps got in through the gap where the panes had slid down an inch due to the broken frame and built a nest inside the house. Because of how securely we had attached the cloth we didn't know until it was a sizeable nest. Eek! Getting that destroyed was scary.

The second worst was when we were adding cable outlets. We opted to run the lines on the outside of the house instead of inside the walls because of the extreme difference in price. The cable guy spotted a tiny nest and explained that he was allergic to wasps, so I sprayed it pretty good with Raid. A single wasp got away from the spray and flew straight up and into one of the non-working chimneys and about 60 came out, ticked off. The cable guy said he was willing to go up to the second floor and run the exterior wires but I told him no he wasn't, called customer service, and told them why I was sending him away. That one we did have to get an exterminator to deal with.

 

[AbbysMom]

After discussion, the moderators felt it best to move the Hunting/do humans need meat? topic to its own IMO thread. It can be found here -

Do Humans Need Meat In Their Diet?/hunting

Please continue that discussion there and not in this thread.

Thanks.

 

[destinyz12]

The most dangerous creature around my area to worry about is probably the deer tick. If you go into any wooded or tall grassy areas, it's wise to wear long socks and pants. I know someone who contracted Lyme disease from one and her life hasn't been that easy. It's scary because they are so tiny you won't notice one on you unless you do a thorough body check. There are raccoons and Possums around as well but they won't bother you unless provoked usually...although they have been known to stake out garbage cans. Possums are especially creepy when you suddenly come across one while driving or walking in the dark and they lock eyes with you and just stare. It's also wise to avoid the flying stinging insects like Yellow Jackets, bumblebees and wasps as well which always seem to be around in hot weather, especially when we have food outside!

 

[deidrahall]

You said a mouthful! Several times a year our house has a plague of red wasps in it. It's nothing to kill 15 of them in the house in one day. They're huge, too, almost the size of a tiny hummingbird. This goes on for about a month and then tapers off, only to recur. We think they're in the flue pipe, but building a fire only helps a little bit. We tried a smoky fire with no improvement. I finally called an exterminator, carefully explaining the problem and where it was. They said they could handle it. When the guy got here he said that wasn't something he did and that I owed him $75 for the service call. I told him I'd explained the problem to the receptionist and she said they could take care of it. I was not going to pay $75 for no service when I'd advised them of the problem. He was most unhappy but gave in.

We still battle the wasps. The cats avoid them but will alert us to them by staring at them. I've managed to safely kill a couple of them that were crawling on me. Ugh!

Oh my Mother Dragon! Yours is a horror story come to life ! I can't imagine having them in the house like that. You said "Humming Bird" SIZE YIKES! Mine are the typical yellow wasps that just attack me in my backyard, although I do believe their packing MK47's lol. I read somewhere that there's like over a 100 different wasp species and that only 1/3 of them bite or sting, really, in my book they all are very dangerous lol. When you were describing them it made me think of the giant wasps they have in Japan. Gives me the goose bumps

 

[deidrahall]

When we were living in the in-laws old house we had a bad problem with wasps.

The worst was that there was a broken window we couldn't get the in-laws to replace and we couldn't afford to replace (the panes were fine but the wooden structure was falling apart so the entire window would need to be replaced, a few hundred dollars). We put some heavy cloth up to keep out rain and the wasps got in through the gap where the panes had slid down an inch due to the broken frame and built a nest inside the house. Because of how securely we had attached the cloth we didn't know until it was a sizeable nest. Eek! Getting that destroyed was scary.

The second worst was when we were adding cable outlets. We opted to run the lines on the outside of the house instead of inside the walls because of the extreme difference in price. The cable guy spotted a tiny nest and explained that he was allergic to wasps, so I sprayed it pretty good with Raid. A single wasp got away from the spray and flew straight up and into one of the non-working chimneys and about 60 came out, ticked off. The cable guy said he was willing to go up to the second floor and run the exterior wires but I told him no he wasn't, called customer service, and told them why I was sending him away. That one we did have to get an exterminator to deal with.

Yup, their just evil. See how the one brought back 60, their bullies

 

[IndyJones]

Yellow jacket wasps are nasty. We had them in the roof of the carport so every time you drove in all you'd hear is BZZZ BUZZ BZZZ you could even hear it while inside the car. We had pest control come to get rid of them.

 

[deidrahall]

Yellow jacket wasps are nasty. We had them in the roof of the carport so every time you drove in all you'd hear is BZZZ BUZZ BZZZ you could even hear it while inside the car. We had pest control come to get rid of them.

Yup, we have the yellow jackets here too. They nest under our eaves of the house. Have to take the water hose and spray them down, ugh

 

[arouetta]

Ugh, I hate yellow jackets. Unlike bees, when they sting they don't die so nothing keeps them from stinging repeatedly. My cousin and my sister were playing outdoors when they were little, my cousin screamed bloody murder when she got stung by one. My sister is far more stoic, even as a little girl, and it wasn't until her shirt was removed that they found she had been stung five times right when my cousin was stung. It looked like a single yellow jacket had gotten under her shirt and stung repeatedly instead of 5 getting under there.

Funny story about her stoicism. 25 years ago in Oregon you could buy CS tear gas for defense. The pepper spray at the local gun store was the same manufacturer and it was red while the tear gas was black. Right before I left for college my parents insisted I buy a keychain tear gas canister and a huge canister that was too big for travel for my dorm room. My father said tear gas was more effective than pepper spray which is why it was chosen over the pepper spray. (I don't see why they no longer offer tear spray for defense, it's annoying since pepper spray is so easily ignored by a determined criminal.) My bed's headboard had shelving and a few years after I left for the military my sister was in my old room and moved my bed. The big canister fell off the shelving, hit just wrong and she got sprayed in the face. She didn't yelp or anything, just ran to the bathroom to wash her face, and no one knew about it until she asked our mom if her face was still swollen. Apparently she looked like someone battered her, the swelling was so bad.

 

[Mother Dragon]

We worked a lot with out local constable's office. One of the things we did was help with the pepper spray training. Each officer got a good spray in the face and then had to perform a gauntlet of situations, including hitting a target three times with a stick, and disarming or shooting a suspect, depending on whether he pulled a gun or not. Sometimes he did and sometimes he didn't. Imagine making that life or death decision in an instant when you really couldn't see.

Most of the officers made it through on the first try but if they failed a segment they were sprayed again and had to go through the entire exercise satisfactorily. When the officers were done we guided them to an eye bath made out of perforated PCV pipe. After they rinsed their eyes (never touching them!) for a few minutes, we gave them baby shampoo to help remove the rest of the spray. Those with fair skin suffered the most for some reason. One officer was so fair he was still suffering and bright red after about 20 minutes in the eye bath and four rounds of shampoo. I really felt sorry for them.

I found a stray piece of plastic in the car one very hot summer day. I picked it up, examined it carefully, and couldn't figure out what it was, so I tossed it in the trash. My eyes are constantly itching, so I reached up and rubbed them. I was instantly on fire. I couldn't see. The pain was intense. My eyes poured water but it didn't help. Our pepper spray canister had flown apart in the heat. Fortunately, the spray itself didn't leak out. This was just the regular over-the-counter strength. You can buy much stronger spray that will stop a charging rhino.

You have to bear in mind that it deteriorates with age. My husband carries it when he goes walking to defend against dogs. When one came after him and wouldn't back down, he sprayed it. It barely fizzed out and the dog thought it was steak sauce. Fortunately it halted its charge. Then the owner tried to threaten him for spraying the dog. Now he carries a little boat horn that has deterred every dog he's had to use it against. They just don't like that unexpected loud sound. He has fresh ultra-strength pepper spray that works as the second line of defense. The next level is a very sturdy stick he first places in front of him vertically. He can then use it as a weapon to strike the dog's legs. So far the boat horn has been enough.

 

[Mother Dragon]

We have yellow jackets, too. Nasty things, those, but not as bad as the bigger red wasps. Other major stingers are Africanized bees. We have had several people killed as well as large animals when a nest was accidentally disturbed. They nest in the ground so farmers who are plowing sometimes stir them up. They're tremendously aggressive and the nests are huge. They will chase a quarry a lot farther than other bees or wasps.

We also have cute fuzzy little football-shaped caterpillars called asps that like to drop out of trees onto people. They tickle when they're crawling and people tend to try to wipe whatever it is off. They also sometimes fall into clothing. Still other people find them so cute they attempt to stroke them. Any way they're contacted is bad because all of that fuzziness contains a very painful poison that hurts like hellfire. Most people wind up going to the emergency room. Fortunately they're seasonal.

We're not even going to discuss scorpions except to say they glow under blacklight.

 

[arouetta]

We're not even going to discuss scorpions except to say they glow under blacklight.

Talk about a trip down memory lane. I guess the memory was traumatic because I couldn't have been older than 4. My mother and I were staying with my grandparents, we were either visiting or moving ahead of my father. My mother opened our luggage and there was a peach colored scorpion in the luggage. I remember telling my grandfather, I remember trying to convince him there was a scorpion in the house in central Oregon. Scorpions don't exist in central Oregon. Years later my mom told me that eventually she had to go up there before he believed us, he thought I was playing a trick. I remember that he killed it by putting it in a jar of mayonnaise. The things one remembers from childhood, lol.

 

[deidrahall]

Ugh, I hate yellow jackets. Unlike bees, when they sting they don't die so nothing keeps them from stinging repeatedly. My cousin and my sister were playing outdoors when they were little, my cousin screamed bloody murder when she got stung by one. My sister is far more stoic, even as a little girl, and it wasn't until her shirt was removed that they found she had been stung five times right when my cousin was stung. It looked like a single yellow jacket had gotten under her shirt and stung repeatedly instead of 5 getting under there.

Funny story about her stoicism. 25 years ago in Oregon you could buy CS tear gas for defense. The pepper spray at the local gun store was the same manufacturer and it was red while the tear gas was black. Right before I left for college my parents insisted I buy a keychain tear gas canister and a huge canister that was too big for travel for my dorm room. My father said tear gas was more effective than pepper spray which is why it was chosen over the pepper spray. (I don't see why they no longer offer tear spray for defense, it's annoying since pepper spray is so easily ignored by a determined criminal.) My bed's headboard had shelving and a few years after I left for the military my sister was in my old room and moved my bed. The big canister fell off the shelving, hit just wrong and she got sprayed in the face. She didn't yelp or anything, just ran to the bathroom to wash her face, and no one knew about it until she asked our mom if her face was still swollen. Apparently she looked like someone battered her, the swelling was so bad.

That's right! The little buggers sting over and OVER! Ugh! Reminds me also... I was at a fair and on a ride with my friend when I was 7yrs old. I sat on the wasp and it stung me then flew over to my friend and STUNG HER ! Their vengeful ahahahaha.

 

[IndyJones]

Other thing is yellow jackets will sting for simply being near a nest and they swarm and give chase unlike bees who just sting if provoked badly. Bees tend to fly away before stinging.

 

[MeganLLB]

Has anyone mentioned hawks? I'm pretty scared of hawks. Walking along the beach with my dog in the open and here comes a hawk circling above us...I've known of people who have had their dogs and cats picked up by hawks in their back yards. They just swoop down and grab them and then they are gone. I'm always afraid of that. My dog is small, but he's 24 lbs. Is that too much for a hawk to carry off? It could def get my cat but she's always on a leash.

Also afraid of all the loose dogs around. I have seen so many pictures on Facebook of dogs that have been killed by pitbulls and their owners post pictures of their clothes covered in their dogs blood. My dog has been attacked twice, and everytime I see a big dog, I fear Bosco could be attacked. and there would be nothing I could do to save him.