[wisconsin_cur]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'D')o you have chiggers in Wisconsin?

They are possibly the worst thing about being an outdoors person in the South.

[Heineken]

It's funny; the locals tell me that copperheads are common here in my county, but I've never seen one despite being constantly outdoors. (I might have seen one without knowing it, though, since they're so beautifully camouflaged.)

The good news, as you know so well, SPG, is that copperhead bites are virtually never fatal. Just painful.

[Heineken]

Agree about cottonmouths; they're vicious. Nasty. Aggressive. I used to turn over logs and boards on streambanks and taunt them with sticks.

My dad was hospitalized once with a hypersensitivity reaction to multiple chigger bites.

In the chigger season I now wear pants to which permethrin has been bonded (they can go through 25 washings and still retain the repellant effect, supposedly). I forget the brand name.

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wisconsin_cur', 'T')o SPG: I don't mind copperheads, caught plenty of them as a kid. Rattlesnakes at least let you know they are around so you can blow their head off. Cottonmouths how ever freak me out... I refuse to go into the water if there is a chance of their being present.

[anarky321]

i remember walking in secondary rain forest, which is basically hmm how should i describe it...imagine a really wet muddy soccer field covered with grass...now imagine your 1" tall walking on that field, thats secondary rain forest, oh and lets not forget the insects, the unending stream of insects all around you at all times while your sweating your b*lls off cursing the rainforest sinking in mud up to your calf every time you take a step while pushing vines out of your face, and if your lucky its not raining in that hour, but most likely it is

yea....good times

on the other hand, primary old rainforest is quite nice; i was impressed with how huge the trees were

cutting down primary forest results in secondary forest, and secondary forest SUCKS

you want to know how to save the rainforests? kill the people thats how, the more people you kill the more rainforest you save...go ahead and flame me but you know im right

trying to save the rainforest in the face of strong demand for the lumber and the land is a battle you cannot win any other way

[kjmclark]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'I') just had a bad run in with a copperhead as a kid that left me a bit phobic. As a five year old, I was walking through the yard one day in flip flops. A copperhead was sunning itself lazily on the path. I didn't see it until I felt something cold between my toes and the flip-flop. Admittedly, I escaped unscathed and the snake paid with it's life, but I've had a deathly fear of them ever since.

[kjmclark]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wisconsin_cur', 'I') grew up on the border between 5 and 6 so I guess it wouldn't be too bad... I wonder how long before the rattle snakes make their way up...

[jlw61]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'D')o you have chiggers in Wisconsin?

They are possibly the worst thing about being an outdoors person in the South.

[wisconsin_cur]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kjmclark', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wisconsin_cur', 'I') grew up on the border between 5 and 6 so I guess it wouldn't be too bad... I wonder how long before the rattle snakes make their way up...

[wisconsin_cur]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kjmclark', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'I') just had a bad run in with a copperhead as a kid that left me a bit phobic. As a five year old, I was walking through the yard one day in flip flops. A copperhead was sunning itself lazily on the path. I didn't see it until I felt something cold between my toes and the flip-flop. Admittedly, I escaped unscathed and the snake paid with it's life, but I've had a deathly fear of them ever since.

[Heineken]

Somehow I escaped the unfortunate fear of snakes. I just find them interesting---not to mention essential in controlling rats and mice. (That's not to say I care to step on a poisonous snake, though.)

We have some workmen here renovating parts of the house, and one of them came across a harmless (although large) blacksnake yesterday and flipped out like it was a black mamba or something. The foreman promptly killed it with a shovel. As a landowner who considers his place a sanctuary for critters, I felt anger on hearing this, but decided it was diplomatic not to show it.

[Ludi]

I adore snakes. We have many of them around here, including rattlers.


We also have many frogs and toads, which is amazing considering the fact we have no "live" water on the place, just seasonal ponding and run-off. We have 5 or 6 different species of frogs and toads, something I see as a very good sign of the relative health of our little ecosystem.

[wisconsin_cur]

For some reason it helped me when dad showed me how to catch them. Waving one hand out in front to distract and then grabbing them from behind. They might be scary, but they are mortal and fallible. Thankfully, as reptiles, they are amazingly predictable.

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'D')o you have chiggers in Wisconsin?

They are possibly the worst thing about being an outdoors person in the South.

[FourOfSwords]

The rainforests are doomed ~ I think, of all the man made calamities that are hurdling at us, this one bothers me the most.
The endless biodiversity erased, the never to be discovered medicines to help the human condition, gone.
But the destruction of the peoples who live within the rainforests, especially the uncontacted tribes that don't even realize that we are raping the rest of the earth...the destruction of their lifeways, likely thousands of years in a symbiotic relationship with the rainforest, this saddens me the most.

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'S')omehow I escaped the unfortunate fear of snakes. I just find them interesting---not to mention essential in controlling rats and mice. (That's not to say I care to step on a poisonous snake, though.)

[wisconsin_cur]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FourOfSwords', 'T')he rainforests are doomed ~ I think, of all the man made calamities that are hurdling at us, this one bothers me the most.
The endless biodiversity erased, the never to be discovered medicines to help the human condition, gone.
But the destruction of the peoples who live within the rainforests, especially the uncontacted tribes that don't even realize that we are raping the rest of the earth...the destruction of their lifeways, likely thousands of years in a symbiotic relationship with the rainforest, this saddens me the most.

[billg]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'I')t's funny; the locals tell me that copperheads are common here in my county, but I've never seen one despite being constantly outdoors. (I might have seen one without knowing it, though, since they're so beautifully camouflaged.)

The good news, as you know so well, SPG, is that copperhead bites are virtually never fatal. Just painful.

[FourOfSwords]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wisconsin_cur', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FourOfSwords', 'T')he rainforests are doomed ~ I think, of all the man made calamities that are hurdling at us, this one bothers me the most.
The endless biodiversity erased, the never to be discovered medicines to help the human condition, gone.
But the destruction of the peoples who live within the rainforests, especially the uncontacted tribes that don't even realize that we are raping the rest of the earth...the destruction of their lifeways, likely thousands of years in a symbiotic relationship with the rainforest, this saddens me the most.

[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'D')o you have chiggers in Wisconsin?

They are possibly the worst thing about being an outdoors person in the South.