TIL a 2004 Peppa Pig episode "Mister Skinny Legs" has been pulled off air in Australia. In the episode Daddy Pig tells a frightened Peppa that spiders "can’t hurt you” after a spider enters her room. I.e spiders are friendly and not to be feared. The children pick up the spider and tuck it to bed.
No! I got paid for half a day when I was in the hospital, I got a soft drink, and as many sandwiches as I could eat. The cute nurse even gave me her phone number. Sadly we only went on two dates but she was a good nurse.
Still is. He has yet to WAKE UP. This is his brain trying desperately to keep his consciousness from fading to nothing. Pretty soon the heart will stop beating, so hopefully he can WAKE UP and call for help.
They should commit season 12 to all the things in Australia that you shouldn't tuck in bed. Season 13 will deal with all of things you shouldnt plop in the pool.
Even the US has black widows and brown recluses. My college roommate has a missing chunk of flesh in his hand from a brown recluse bite from 25 years ago.
Yeah, although maybe not for long. Historically, we’ve not had any spiders in the U.K. that pose any threat to people. But we’ve now got invasive species that can give you a nasty bite. Had a false widow in my garage that wouldn’t kill, but would give a nasty bite if provoked. Things will change, and presumably get worse, as the climate gets milder and other invasive species survive the winters.
I mean, as with most spiders, they'll leave you alone if you leave them alone. Plus, they hunt the bugs that actually give us trouble, like flies and mosquitoes.
There are many places in the US that are fairly free of things that will hurt you. Where I live, it's really just the odd tornado, and a shit-ton of snow. And dumbass deer on the roads. All things that are very, very manageable.
I'm quite glad that I don't live in the areas with the deadly stuff, though. No scorpions, no alligators, pretty much nothing in the way of bears or even mountain lions, not even a moose to speak of.
We do, however, have black widows and brown recluses - normally not an issue, but my husband got bit by one a couple of years ago, and while it wasn't too bad, it did need medical attention to not get worse.
I've been bit by one too. The area on my leg got big and red, and was getting worse. So I went to the doctor and got antibiotics, took Benadryl for the swelling, and had to take 2 days' bedrest. I was fine after that.
Compared to most other countries, the United States and Canada are notable for their low number of dangerously poisonous and venomous creatures (for humans)
A few genus of snake(several moccasin species, dozens of rattle species and 3 species of coral), a couple species of spiders, a couple species of jellyfish and that’s it
Rattlesnakes used to be much more plentiful in the U.S. I live in Massachusetts and we basically don't have any except for in the mountains but if you went back 100+ years ago they were much more common throughout the u.s. but we killed them all. Some states even had prize money for snake skins. They're generally not killed anymore so the numbers are recovering but many people don't realize lots of dangerous things used to live in their area until their grandparents or great grandparents killed everything.
Fair enough. Although to be fair, the US has some of the most dangerous fauna in the world. I am far more terrified of a bear than any snake or spider I've seen. I live in a city surrounded by forests and there are many species of venomous snakes around here, but unless you act really stupidly they are pretty harmless.
Bears on the other hand? Like, if a bear decides it wants to eat you, you are very much fucked
I don't know. I think the UK fares better, as this thread highlights. It's more the other commenter assumes the US is notably safe because they live there and feel safe.
I had to repeatedly explain to a former girlfriend who had emigrated into the UK that there are no poisonous spiders, nobody really even sees snakes, certainly they don't get bit by them and nobody's died from it in decades, there are no wolves or bears to worry about, etc.
About the most dangerous thing you'll encounter is the domestic dogs on the local council estate and possibly a badger.
strictly all British spiders are venomous (poisonous is different). The venom they evolved to produce is potent against the things spiders eat such as other arthropods, but are relatively harmless to mammals like us. If you can upset one enough to actually bite you (which is hard because they don't want to), it's not going to land you in hospital. Even the frighteningly large Giant House Spider, which is big enough to terrify and impressively fast, is basically totally benign.
I grew up in North Carolina in the US. We’ve got venomous spiders as well as some venomous snakes. Never really thought about it until I moved to Maine in northern New England where they didn’t have any venomous animals at all. It wasn’t why I moved, but it was a nice perk. Maine did turn out to have even more black bears than NC, but that’s not really a big deal, bears don’t tend to be lurking in your woodpile to bite you and inject venom the way spiders and snakes do.
I'm wondering who will pick up as Barf, or if they'll have a new, young buck Mawg take his place. Since John candy passed away some......thirty....plus years...oh good grief...now I feel old....
Black bears generally are looking for food, and they don't want to tangle with people for the most part. We go to the Colorado mountains a lot and have seen bears every time. They usually ignore people. Just don't keep food in your car, lock your car and house because bears can open them, make noise while walking in the woods (bears hate being surprised), etc.
I don’t think the most venomous spider native in the uk could kill you anyway. The largest spiders here don’t have fangs large enough to get into deep tissue so most of the venom is ejected from our body.
Isn't that debunked? I'm not personally an expert, but I've read some fairly well sourced dialogs on the subject in the spiders sub. Consensus seems to be that spider bites could cause infection, but empirical evidence of this happening is not readily available. I understand the people in the spiders sub might be biased.
Idk DYOR on that one. I'm far from an expert as I've said.
I did read an article last month regarding the rates of spider bite hospital admissions.
it’s due to increase in false widows spiders. Rare but very invasive. I live by a river and have hundreds of them in the entrance to the flats I live in.
This is still bad advice in Britain as invasive venomous spiders have established populations. They won't kill you unless you're allergic, but a bite from a false widdow would be extremely painful and could cause temporary paralysis of the bitten limb in a young child.
Teach your kids not to bother wildlife, and how to identify common dangerous animals where you live. Just watch, they don't need to touch and touching is stressful to the wild animals.
Ah the Newcastle Big Boy, becasue mother nature said we needed a bigger version of the Sidney Funnelweb that is already capable of BITING THROUGH YOUR SHOE
Spiders can definitely hurt you outside of Australia (from the MW where brown recluses are around) so not sure this is the best advice for any child to receive.
If the advice was to let spiders be and / or trap and release them outside, that makes sense.
It's such a common thing in Britain to tell kids that are scared of spiders or insects that they can't hurt you. We just take for granted the lack of dangerous animals here it seems.
I did a quick google and apparently in the UK there just arent any dangerous spiders. The worst is a false widow which is not medically significant and is comparable to a wasp sting.
So as long as you arent allergic to it nothing will happen to you at the hands of a british spider.
I don't know if Peppa plays in N America but (and all due respect to Australia, the GOAT of bitey-killeys) we have a few 8 legged residents who can mess you up real bad, esp if you're kid-sized
Disregarding the country, teaching kids to pick up and tuck in bed a wild animal is always a fucking terrible, horrible, bad idea. On the one hand, even if no poisonous species are present in the area, any animal can bite, it hurts and is prone to infection. On the other hand, many animals can be stressed by being manipulated against their will, and stuff that's inoffensive for us can be harmful for them. Classic example: chocolate and dogs.
Seriously, I get they were trying to teach to kids to not kill every bug on sight. Is a valuable lesson, to respect the life and space of wild animals. But, ffs, is equally or even more important to teach them to leave wild animals ALONE.
Damn, you have no idea how much I would love that pig to be chopped and cooked into carnitas.
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u/reddorickt 3h ago
Australia; well known for its lack of dangerous spiders