The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Dedicated exclusively to field herping.

Moderator: Scott Waters

User avatar
jonathan
Posts: 3689
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:39 am
Contact:

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by jonathan »

Brokenpast wrote:Being behind Frank Retes as he tossed a 4 foot Speckled Rattler over his shoulder as he stood above me on a slope. Same 250 pounds, no fence that time!!! The real trick was trying to get Retes to quit laughing!!!!!
What possible reason is there for someone to do that to the snake or the person?
User avatar
MaartenSFS
Posts: 466
Joined: February 6th, 2011, 9:09 pm
Location: Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by MaartenSFS »

jonathan wrote:
Brokenpast wrote:Being behind Frank Retes as he tossed a 4 foot Speckled Rattler over his shoulder as he stood above me on a slope. Same 250 pounds, no fence that time!!! The real trick was trying to get Retes to quit laughing!!!!!
What possible reason is there for someone to do that to the snake or the person?
Yes, elaborate.. :roll:
hellihooks
Posts: 8025
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 8:12 am
Location: Hesperia, California.
Contact:

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by hellihooks »

When I was 18 and 'teaching myself' to herp... I hadn't yet figured out that you work your way UP rockpiles... not down them. Someone had dumped big slabs of concrete over the side of a steep hill, and I was working my way DOWN the slabs, head first, looking between the slabs for snakes. I stuck my head over a slab... and touched noses with a 4 ft Helli... and FROZE... noses touching! His rattle went 'Chink Chink' and I LAUNCHED myself outward and down the slab-covered slope, bouncing several times before coming to rest in a big patch of prickly pear... took me like an hr just to get out of the catus... :shock:

2 yrs ago I was herping alone (DOH!!) WAY up Deep Creek, and while crossing the creek, slipped and landed flat on my back, apparently knocking myself out. When I came to, water was running over my head and face, and it took me awhile to realize that it REALLY hurt to even try to move. I had landed on a Pyramid-shaped boulder right between my left kidney and spine. It took me like 2 1/2 hrs to crawl on my knees (with my snakehook as a staff) the 1/4 mile back to my car. After the long drive home, it was all I could do to make it to my bed... where I spent the next several days. I was sore and limping for weeks. If I had landed 2 inches to the left, I probably would have broke my spine... and would be probably STILL be lying in that creek... :shock: DON"T Herp alone... Ummmm Kayyyyyyy? :lol: :lol: jim
Paul White
Posts: 2288
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:52 pm
Location: Amarillo, Texas

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Paul White »

DON"T Herp alone.
umm, hmm, ummm....
I've rarely herped any other way :oops: but now that you mention those...
User avatar
Dell Despain
Posts: 542
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:08 pm
Location: Montana

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Dell Despain »

MaartenSFS wrote:I don't know, you had to have been there. I suppose you have to be crazy like me. Having spent years training in martial arts and then seeing a real life sword attack was a privilege few foreigners (if any??) have.
Privilege? What's next a public stoning in Afghanistan?
Your lack of empathy is disturbing.

Look I'm going to drop this, but you should take a hard look at yourself sometime.

-Dell
hellihooks
Posts: 8025
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 8:12 am
Location: Hesperia, California.
Contact:

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by hellihooks »

Seeing a person die, by any means, is very disturbing and stays with you FOREVER. I've seen several people die by accident, and hope to never see it again. I also administered CPR for like 10 min. to a guy who suffered a massive heart attack once... he didn't make it. And while somewhat 'wrong'... I gotta say... dead people have REALLY bad breath... :roll: Something I'll never forget... :shock:

But getting back to the subject... getting tagged in the field was the worst... :( jim
Paul White
Posts: 2288
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:52 pm
Location: Amarillo, Texas

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Paul White »

I've seen several people die by accident, and hope to never see it again.
QFT. 2 fatal bike accidents (one in Denver, one in Yellowstone), 2 fatal car accidents, my Grandmother breathing her last after dealing with cancer for years...things I'd love to drink enough to totally forget.
User avatar
reptilist
Posts: 653
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 9:30 am
Location: Clifton, Arizona

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by reptilist »

Many years ago, I was tasked to survey some old mining claims that lay out in the nearby wild lands. It was August and I brought along my herping gear too... The morning started out cool and cloudy when I and my partner started the long downhill trek to our official destination.
The only thing I found was a baby gecko in a mine adit!

Nearing the bottom of the ravine, clearly one of us needed to return to the truck and drive around the mountain to pick up the other. Looking back up the mountain towards the truck, it was only a mile off at a gradual grade. Not a big deal I thought, so I left the remaining water with him and I headed back up to the truck.

I was wearing my Rocky snake proof boots for the first time. They have a narrow toe area and it was starting to hurt. I fact, it hurt so bad that I could not walk anymore. I limped upwards at a considerably slower rate and of course, the lovely monsoon cloud cover burned off, exposing me to the baking solar heat and high humidity. I was getting really, really thirsty! What I expected to be only an hour walk turned into a 3 hour crawl. I was literally crawling from shade bush to shade bush. I was way overdue but since I knew I was about to die anyway from heat exposure, the time no longer mattered... I was concerned with my partner's predicament too, but I was doing a real Clint Eastwood style death march here!

At one point I tried to drink some highly mineralized seepage in the ravine, but that just made me throw up. The water tasted like poison (it was).

I eventually made it to the top of the mountain crawling on my hands and knees, and very fortunately encountered a truckload of drillers heading home, so they drove me to my truck where I was able to rehydrate. That was close! I almost bought the farm that time and it was funny that I was kind of OK with that.... It was a way of dying that was appropriate for me. But, I survived and lessons learned.

My partner climbed to a spot where he could use his cell phone and managed to contact other surveyors who rescued him and then found me.
Pedter
Posts: 12
Joined: February 8th, 2011, 5:16 pm

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Pedter »

Suddenly getting a machete to my throat in the middle of f#¤¤ing nowhere Nicaragua, or possibly putting up with idiot guides who didn’t know what the hell they where talking about.
chad ks
Posts: 634
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 1:31 pm

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by chad ks »

...one time I went herping and didn't find anything.

Another time I went herping and saw someone commit suicide by jumping out of the hotel we were staying in and landing one parking space from my truck.

...but by far, the worst thing that ever happened was the time when we didn't find any graybands. I shutter when I think about that trip but the years of alterna therapy afterwords have helped me to recover...
User avatar
Daryl Eby
Posts: 963
Joined: June 27th, 2010, 1:27 pm
Location: Terlingua / Marfa, Texas
Contact:

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Daryl Eby »

chad ks wrote:....but by far, the worst thing that ever happened was the time when we didn't find any graybands. I shutter when I think about that trip
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Welcome to my never ending nightmare. Thank the herping god's for subocs. I can almost always count on finding a bug eyed consolation prize.
User avatar
Fundad
Posts: 5721
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:11 am
Location: Los Angeles County
Contact:

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Fundad »

I have never been skunked so I don't know how that feels..

So far I have been lucky, nothing too major.

Here is a few things,

A friend getting bit by a helleri right in front of me, My age 14 his 13.

Trying to untangle a stuck adult Helleri with a fang in stuck in my jeans, right at the top of the boot level. Oh I danced a dance that would make most proud, and laugh.. :shock: :shock: :lol: :shock: :shock: (I was pretty scared at the time 15 or 16 years old)

Hornets, seriously attacking my dad, with many many stings, chasing us a 1/2 mile. 50 + stings with hornets under his jacket and shirt stinging over and over.. I was 12 or so, and cried for him pretty hard.. )

Cholla stuck deep into my leg when I slipped down a slope into it.

16 penny nail puncturing completely through my feet (other nail punctures as well)

And last year a rock edge crumbled as I was trying to lift it which sent me A$$ over end, on the edge of a boulder face that dropped about 20 feet to a rock base, for the life of me I do not know how I was able to grab the edge of the rock as I hung over the edge, only my fingertips holding on. I was not able to pull myself up from just my fingertips without risking losing grip, Tony Ballinherper helped pulled me off the ledge. I was pretty sure I was going over at the time, not knowing if the injury would be broken legs or neck on the fall.. :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :lol:

Fundad
User avatar
jonathan
Posts: 3689
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:39 am
Contact:

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by jonathan »

Crap, fundad, I didn't know about that rock face incident last year. No wonder you like BallinHerper so much.
User avatar
Fundad
Posts: 5721
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:11 am
Location: Los Angeles County
Contact:

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Fundad »

Crap, fundad, I didn't know about that rock face incident last year. No wonder you like BallinHerper so much.
Kind of own him one, I think.. :thumb: :beer: It's one reason to be extra careful when herping alone... A lot can go wrong in a hurry.. :shock:

Fundad
hellihooks
Posts: 8025
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 8:12 am
Location: Hesperia, California.
Contact:

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by hellihooks »

Fundad wrote:
Crap, fundad, I didn't know about that rock face incident last year. No wonder you like BallinHerper so much.
Kind of own him one, I think.. :thumb: :beer: It's one reason to be extra careful when herping alone... A lot can go wrong in a hurry.. :shock:

Fundad
So... that's why you think he's like the strongest guy in the world... :crazyeyes: :lol: :lol: but yeah... that's a debt you don't forget... :D jim
chad ks
Posts: 634
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 1:31 pm

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by chad ks »

I'm reminded of this one by Fundad's story:

A few years back I was edging my way out onto a talus slide that sat between the base of a large cliff and just over the top of an even larger one. My huge ass should have never been there in the first place looking for klaubs and pyros, big fellas need to stick around the more sturdy ground.

Long story short, a huge section of the talus slid out from under me and started pouring over the edge of the bottom cliff and I went with it. Just at the edge of the cliff I started doing a backwards "run-in place" treadmill style with rocks and boulders pouring over the edge. I managed to catch myself on a piece of the cliff itself and slowly but surely make my way back to safety. I'll never forget the feeling as I slid toward the edge and saw the tops of pine trees down below me. I learned then that no herp is worth that kind of risk.
User avatar
DaneConley
Posts: 481
Joined: September 21st, 2010, 10:03 am
Location: SE Virginia/SW Illinois

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by DaneConley »

I hope I have learned all the possible mistakes I could do while herping...but haha thats not gonna happen.

I got bit by a cottonmouth when trying to pick it up...I was 14...not all that long ago but learned a lot since then like not to handle hots!!! I would punch my self if I could go back in time.

I fell about 3 ft into a creek with boulders...owww...my hip.

Fell out of a tree...who hasn't done that.

Snapping turtle bite was a nip though...didn't bleed much

(Not while herping)

Cut my finger to the bone with a tuna can...cut tendon, there goes my summer herping last year.

When I was five I punched a wasp nest that was the size of a balloon...I almost died on that one...probably my closest to dieing.

Immune to poison Ivy :)
Paul White
Posts: 2288
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:52 pm
Location: Amarillo, Texas

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Paul White »

I would punch my self if I could go back in time.
A near universal truth.
User avatar
lateralis
Posts: 320
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:56 pm
Location: SW USA

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by lateralis »

Reading this in the newspaper about Zoo Atlanta... "The zoo pays China a $500,000-per-year lease to display the pandas." Im sorry, did they say they lease the pandas, or the right to display them? No wonder this country is so screwed up LOL...
User avatar
Kent VanSooy
Posts: 1100
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:51 am
Location: Oceanside

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Kent VanSooy »

Ah, cholla...one time I slipped like Fundad described and drove about 25 spines from a segment deep into my ankle. Spines were everywhere, it needed to come out, and there was no way to grab it. I then had the bright idea of removing one of my shoelaces, and tying it tight around the base of the segment to give me something to pull on. I finished the knot, and figured one mighty pull would be better than slow torture. OMG !!!! The pain was indescribable, unbearable, unspeakable. My ankle was sore for months afterwards.
User avatar
Daryl Eby
Posts: 963
Joined: June 27th, 2010, 1:27 pm
Location: Terlingua / Marfa, Texas
Contact:

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Daryl Eby »

DaneConley wrote:Immune to poison Ivy :)
Me too. Although I've been told to still avoid exposure. Supposedly, a sensitivity/allergy to the demon plant can develop over time.
hellihooks
Posts: 8025
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 8:12 am
Location: Hesperia, California.
Contact:

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by hellihooks »

Fundad's story and the one's that followed made me remember one I had completely forgotten about.
back in the late 80's, when I was very new to 'sobriety' and living in a halfway house in Berdoo, I took this other resident out to JT for a court date he had... after his court appearance he ditched me and 'fell off the wagon' so I was returning home alone. Coming down the 62 I saw this sign for Big Morongo Canyon, so took a sightseeing detour, and a walk up the canyon. Saw my first desert tort and a few other herps, which was cool, but then decided that if I climbed the ridge... I'd have a grear view of how far back this canyon went.

So I started following what seemed to be a trail up the ridge... and the higher I went, the more the 'trail' disappeared... it finally dawned on me... I was on a bighorn sheep trail... :shock: It got to the point where there was NO way I could go back down, without falling like 300 ft to a sure death... but I was only like 5 ft from the top. Unfortunantly, what had started out as granite had turned to loose shale, and Everything I tried to gain purchase with (rocks/plants) was just crumbing out from underneath me... screaming and scrabbeling I lunged upward to a softball-sized rock at the top, with one hand... and IT HELD!!! I managed to make it up to the ridgeline, which was like 6" wide and 300 ft straight down on either side. I walked along it for like 50 yrds where in between the rock sections going up to the top, were these huge sand valleys, starting at like 20 ft below the top. So I jumped down to the sand, and then sorta sand-surfed all the way down to the bottom... it was like I was in slow motion.
By the time I got down to the trail out, I was crying and blubbering and blowing snot-bubbles... not a pretty sight... :oops: I somehow ended up in this patch of wildflowers, where I entered an 'altered state' that closely resembled a massive magic mushroom trip, and I had my 1st one-on-one time with my 'Higher Power'...Call it a religious experiance... or a shroom flashback induced by stress.
It's funny... in the few months that I had been attending 12 step fellowships, I kinda just mouthed the prayers at the end of the meetings, and never prayed every morning and night (like I told everyone I did... :roll: ) but when I was up at the top of that ridge, about to fall to my death... you could hear my prayers ECHOING down the canyons... :lol: I resolved then and there to stop trying to take shortcuts in my 'program of recovery' and even more importantly... NOT to try to follow bighorn sheep trails... :lol: :lol:
I can't believe I forgot that experiance... but I still to this day don't do either of those things... and here I still am today... 23 yrs sober and still looking for herps... :thumb: :lol: :lol: jim

BTW... I just had my 1st reaction ever to poison Ivy/Oak? bout a month ago... it sucked, and I sure hope I don't start getting more sensitive to it. one more damn thing I gotta pay attention to... :(
User avatar
M.J.FRANETOVICH
Posts: 538
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 10:54 pm
Location: Deadhorse/California

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by M.J.FRANETOVICH »

Fundad wrote:I have never been skunked so I don't know how that feels

:lol: :lol: :lol:
User avatar
M.J.FRANETOVICH
Posts: 538
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 10:54 pm
Location: Deadhorse/California

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by M.J.FRANETOVICH »

Well can't really say on the forum!!! But we have all been there :lol: :lol: :lol:
User avatar
MaartenSFS
Posts: 466
Joined: February 6th, 2011, 9:09 pm
Location: Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by MaartenSFS »

Dell Despain wrote:
MaartenSFS wrote:I don't know, you had to have been there. I suppose you have to be crazy like me. Having spent years training in martial arts and then seeing a real life sword attack was a privilege few foreigners (if any??) have.
Privilege? What's next a public stoning in Afghanistan?
Your lack of empathy is disturbing.

Look I'm going to drop this, but you should take a hard look at yourself sometime.

-Dell
Like I said, you would have had to have been there. In my 25 years I have seen at least seven people die grizzly deaths (that I recall). One of those times it was three people at the same time in a traffic accident and it was impossible to tell where one person ended and another began. Call it a lack of empathy if you will, but, since then, I have a healthy respect for the life that has been given me and intend to take full advantage of every minute of it. If we don't see the humour in life, what's to stop us from crying?

The worst things I've seen don't even involve death, but terrible standards of "living". It's true that I have been somewhat de-sensitised by my experiences and by films, but that's also one of the reasons why when the sh*t hits the fan in a remote country my friends are glad to have me with them. Herp on! :mrgreen:
User avatar
reptilist
Posts: 653
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 9:30 am
Location: Clifton, Arizona

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by reptilist »

It's a Budo thang....
8-)
User avatar
DaneConley
Posts: 481
Joined: September 21st, 2010, 10:03 am
Location: SE Virginia/SW Illinois

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by DaneConley »

Really? I walk through poison Ivy all the time, and oak but niether affect me. However there is this one plant that affects me but its nothing like poison ivy or oak, it happens only in the summer and a bump will form randomly. And they are individual. They ooze and insect stuff doesn't work so Im guessing its a plant. Maybe sumac?
User avatar
Jason_Hood
Posts: 201
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 6:43 am
Location: Chicago

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Jason_Hood »

chad ks wrote:I'm reminded of this one by Fundad's story:

A few years back I was edging my way out onto a talus slide that sat between the base of a large cliff and just over the top of an even larger one. My huge ass should have never been there in the first place looking for klaubs and pyros, big fellas need to stick around the more sturdy ground.

Long story short, a huge section of the talus slid out from under me and started pouring over the edge of the bottom cliff and I went with it. Just at the edge of the cliff I started doing a backwards "run-in place" treadmill style with rocks and boulders pouring over the edge. I managed to catch myself on a piece of the cliff itself and slowly but surely make my way back to safety. I'll never forget the feeling as I slid toward the edge and saw the tops of pine trees down below me. I learned then that no herp is worth that kind of risk.

HAHA I did that in Az too. More than once in one trip actually. I went in with no fear of heights and ever since that trip I have become more and more sensitive to heights but in a weird way. I ended up on the cliff face that overlooks Huchuca (sp) by virtue of following a rock ledge around and up until I was in a place that the only option was up. Did the same on a different less traveled mountain that had just had a burn go through and ended up looking pretty much straight down at the desert floor 9k feet below with the rock ledge I was on turning to burned dirt that kept giving way because the roots were all gone. Ended up finding the road above me right as my buddy drove by, it took us almost half and hour to drive to the spot he dropped me off at an hour earlier. And finally on that same trip I was following a guy much smaller than me who weighed almost exactly half as much as me along a rock ledge and it started giving way as I followed him forcing us to move quickly forward and up or fall (I was gonna drag his little ass with me) and ended up doing a sheer rock climb to get to stable ground.

All of that was on one trip and none put me as close to death in my mind as a simple walk the 3rd day of the trip on a fairly safe mountain without enough water where I got to the point that I could not walk somewhat suddenly and basically lost all my energy and ability to do anything but sit and wave one arm at my buddy on the other side of the valley. Totally dehydrated and useless.

Jason
User avatar
Saunders
Posts: 433
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:42 am
Location: Boerne, Tx

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Saunders »

My worst was I was trying to get a pic of some animal, I can't even remember now, but I laid down to get the shot and accidentally put my chin and neck in Stinging Bull Nettle.
User avatar
MaartenSFS
Posts: 466
Joined: February 6th, 2011, 9:09 pm
Location: Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by MaartenSFS »

DaneConley wrote:Really? I walk through poison Ivy all the time, and oak but niether affect me. However there is this one plant that affects me but its nothing like poison ivy or oak, it happens only in the summer and a bump will form randomly. And they are individual. They ooze and insect stuff doesn't work so Im guessing its a plant. Maybe sumac?
As a previous poster mentioned, you can become allergic by continuous exposure. It has often really ruined my wilderness experience here, in North America. They really are plants from Hell. Poison Sumac contains the same oils as Poison Ivy and Poison Oak so if you were allergic to that you'd be allergic to them all. That being said, I have heard that Poison Sumac is the most potent (in North America).
User avatar
DaneConley
Posts: 481
Joined: September 21st, 2010, 10:03 am
Location: SE Virginia/SW Illinois

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by DaneConley »

I will just keep wearing jeans while herping.
User avatar
MaartenSFS
Posts: 466
Joined: February 6th, 2011, 9:09 pm
Location: Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by MaartenSFS »

DaneConley wrote:I will just keep wearing jeans while herping.
As long as it isn't too breathable you should be fine.
User avatar
DaneConley
Posts: 481
Joined: September 21st, 2010, 10:03 am
Location: SE Virginia/SW Illinois

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by DaneConley »

My jeans' lungs are in great shape. :lol:
User avatar
Antonsrkn
Posts: 971
Joined: June 10th, 2010, 2:38 pm
Contact:

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Antonsrkn »

As a previous poster mentioned, you can become allergic by continuous exposure.
Yeah, I learned that the hard way. I always casually walked through Poison Ivy and never had any problems, until one day I knelt in it to photograph something and thats when the reaction decided to appear. I'd never had a single problem with it before but that one time made up for all the previous times I had escaped unscathed I was EXTREMELY miserable for quite a while afterwards.

I was going to chime in with what I regard as my worst experiences but compared to most of these they are laughable but since I'm posting anyways here is the short version of them. I was once stung by a small scorpion while flipping a board in Guatemala and I was once trapped behind a slower person than myself on a narrow jungle trail as we ran from some angry wasps who were more than willing to express their displeasure that I had ventured too close to their nest.
User avatar
SnakeStick
Posts: 355
Joined: August 18th, 2010, 5:35 pm
Location: Hilton Head Island, South Cackalacky

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by SnakeStick »

Although it might not be painful, hundreds and hundreds of ticks smaller than the tip of a pen making their way up your thighs is something I hope too never experience again. I'm pretty sure I'm immune to poison oak / ivy. There have been many times where the people i'm with have contracted it and I went unaffected.
User avatar
Lizardman1988
Posts: 235
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 6:38 am
Location: Hays, KS
Contact:

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Lizardman1988 »

SnakeStick wrote:Although it might not be painful, hundreds and hundreds of ticks smaller than the tip of a pen making their way up your thighs is something I hope too never experience again.
Ah, the good old "tropical pinhead-size ticks invading the crotch" trick. Removing embedded ticks from my nether regions is something I hope to never repeat. I didn't find the last few until I made it back to the states, which made for a rather uncomfortable flight.
User avatar
venomdoc
Posts: 91
Joined: February 16th, 2011, 2:33 am
Location: University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Contact:

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by venomdoc »

Another fun one: stung by a scorpion while deep in the Amazon, 36 hours from the nearest antivenom. Since we were breaking camp, there was nothing to do but sling my pack onto my back and start the six hour walk to the first of many boats. Finger felt like it was in a flame, balance was shot, extreme photo sensitivity and most worrying was a heart rate that would beat about 90 beats in 30 seconds and then completely pause for 2-3 seconds, racing beat again for a half a minute, pause, repeat. Symptoms lasted four hours of the walk. Brutal experience. Scorpions truly suck.

Most painful envenomation was from a scorpion fish while doing sea snake field research, within 10 seconds I was in so much pain that I thought I was going to vomit.

Good times :p

Cheers
Bryan
User avatar
FunkyRes
Posts: 1994
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 6:19 am
Location: Redding, CA
Contact:

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by FunkyRes »

Natalie McNear wrote:Those who know me know that I hate, hate, HATE orb weavers! They freak the crap out of me.
I would have never guessed that, you're always posting cool picks of inverts.
mikez
Posts: 201
Joined: October 3rd, 2010, 6:43 am
Location: north central Ma

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by mikez »

Tugged too hard on a stuburn sheet of tin which popped free and I fell on my butt.
My son thought it was funny and his laughing got me going and sat there laughing like an idiot not noticing I landed on a fire ant nest.
Never felt a single one crawl on me until both legs of my jeans were filled to the crotch. Then on a signal, they all started stinging at once.
My son did an oral report about our trip at school and the story of me yelling, dancing and flinging my pants got him an A.
My legs were like hamburger and I lived on benydril and advil and barely slept for a week.
User avatar
Hans Breuer (twoton)
Posts: 3230
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
Contact:

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

You know, Bryan, at one point in my life I wanted to be you. Now I'm not so sure...
Brilliant! I'm sure a lot of people here would sign that one. But one needs to suffer for art and truth, so, keep on keeping on, Bryan!
hellihooks
Posts: 8025
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 8:12 am
Location: Hesperia, California.
Contact:

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by hellihooks »

mikez wrote:Tugged too hard on a stuburn sheet of tin which popped free and I fell on my butt.
My son thought it was funny and his laughing got me going and sat there laughing like an idiot not noticing I landed on a fire ant nest.
Never felt a single one crawl on me until both legs of my jeans were filled to the crotch. Then on a signal, they all started stinging at once.
My son did an oral report about our trip at school and the story of me yelling, dancing and flinging my pants got him an A.
My legs were like hamburger and I lived on benydril and advil and barely slept for a week.
My bonehead son Trevor, once decided to take his shoes off, while herping in Riverside (Ca) A 6" centipede crawled all the way up to his crotch before he figured out someting was amiss... and him dancing around frantically pulling his jeans and then longjohns off was one of the funniest things I ever saw. He didn't get bit, but was done for the day... sat on top of a big rock, in his longjohns and wouldn't even put his jeans back on. :lol: :lol: jim
User avatar
MaartenSFS
Posts: 466
Joined: February 6th, 2011, 9:09 pm
Location: Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by MaartenSFS »

DaneConley wrote:My jeans' lungs are in great shape. :lol:
Perhaps they need a smoke, then. :mrgreen:
User avatar
MaartenSFS
Posts: 466
Joined: February 6th, 2011, 9:09 pm
Location: Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by MaartenSFS »

mikez wrote:Tugged too hard on a stuburn sheet of tin which popped free and I fell on my butt.
My son thought it was funny and his laughing got me going and sat there laughing like an idiot not noticing I landed on a fire ant nest.
Never felt a single one crawl on me until both legs of my jeans were filled to the crotch. Then on a signal, they all started stinging at once.
My son did an oral report about our trip at school and the story of me yelling, dancing and flinging my pants got him an A.
My legs were like hamburger and I lived on benydril and advil and barely slept for a week.
That's one of those things that must be funny for you now that the pain is gone. :twisted:
User avatar
MaartenSFS
Posts: 466
Joined: February 6th, 2011, 9:09 pm
Location: Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by MaartenSFS »

venomdoc wrote:Another fun one: stung by a scorpion while deep in the Amazon, 36 hours from the nearest antivenom. Since we were breaking camp, there was nothing to do but sling my pack onto my back and start the six hour walk to the first of many boats. Finger felt like it was in a flame, balance was shot, extreme photo sensitivity and most worrying was a heart rate that would beat about 90 beats in 30 seconds and then completely pause for 2-3 seconds, racing beat again for a half a minute, pause, repeat. Symptoms lasted four hours of the walk. Brutal experience. Scorpions truly suck.

Most painful envenomation was from a scorpion fish while doing sea snake field research, within 10 seconds I was in so much pain that I thought I was going to vomit.

Good times :p

Cheers
Bryan
I thought you were done?? Your sense of a good time differs greatly from mine. If anything, though, it proves that you're being kept alive for some purpose (and not to harvest your kidneys).
User avatar
Warren
Posts: 351
Joined: June 9th, 2010, 7:17 am

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Warren »

Bryan, those are startling symptoms. What do you think was going on physiologically? Maybe some ion channels were progressively opening, and then the heart had to rest while they cleared. Scary stuff.
Hippiebrian
Posts: 3
Joined: February 15th, 2011, 2:40 am

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Hippiebrian »

MaartenSFS wrote:
Dell Despain wrote:
MaartenSFS wrote:I don't know, you had to have been there. I suppose you have to be crazy like me. Having spent years training in martial arts and then seeing a real life sword attack was a privilege few foreigners (if any??) have.
Privilege? What's next a public stoning in Afghanistan?
Your lack of empathy is disturbing.

Look I'm going to drop this, but you should take a hard look at yourself sometime.

-Dell
Like I said, you would have had to have been there. In my 25 years I have seen at least seven people die grizzly deaths (that I recall). One of those times it was three people at the same time in a traffic accident and it was impossible to tell where one person ended and another began. Call it a lack of empathy if you will, but, since then, I have a healthy respect for the life that has been given me and intend to take full advantage of every minute of it. If we don't see the humour in life, what's to stop us from crying?

The worst things I've seen don't even involve death, but terrible standards of "living". It's true that I have been somewhat de-sensitised by my experiences and by films, but that's also one of the reasons why when the sh*t hits the fan in a remote country my friends are glad to have me with them. Herp on! :mrgreen:
I'm sorry, I am seriously concerned with your appearant lack of empathy. I watched a lot of people, one American soldier and several Iraquis, die in the first Gulf War, and cried a little each time wether it was ours or theirs. I've watched people die onthe streets of Mombai (Bombay when I was there) and teared up a bit each time. My Dad died with his hand in mine after a long illnes, and obviously I cried like a little girl.

I could never get "de-sensitized" either through experience or anything else. At times these things still affect me, and trust me, I'm not what anyone would call a sensitive guy!

You may need to seek some therapy because, unless you are a true sociopath, these things WILL come back and haunt you. In fact, see a therapist if they don't...sociopathy is not something to be taken lightly!

I wasn't going to post here for a while, as currently I have no experience in herping but a profound interest and came here to explore and learn before starting in myself. Your post so disturbed me that I had to say something!

Sorry if I'm out of line, but really???
User avatar
venomdoc
Posts: 91
Joined: February 16th, 2011, 2:33 am
Location: University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Contact:

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by venomdoc »

>Bryan, those are startling symptoms. What do you think was going on physiologically? Maybe some ion channels were progressively opening, and then the heart had to rest while they cleared. Scary stuff.

Yeah, definitely affecting one (or more) ion channels. It was truly scary indeed!
Terry Vandeventer
Posts: 68
Joined: June 19th, 2010, 4:58 am

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Terry Vandeventer »

Not everyone react the same when witnessing or engaging in violent acts. Not every soldier comes home with post traumatic stress syndrome. The majority don't. Many do their jobs well and suffer little if any afterwards. Some heros get PTS, others don't. They are still incredibly brave. They are just affected differently.

After a F-18 fighter pilot engages a Libyan jet at mach whatever, and blasts him out of the sky, he is required to undergo a phsych evaluation. During his examination he talks about his feelings and how sad he feels that he had to take a human life. But once outide the door, he can't wait to get back up there and do it again, because it was the greatest %$*@$* rush he's ever had! He loved it! People are different and have different threshholds for dealing with such things. Doesn't make them bad people AT ALL. I didn't cry at my parent's funeral almost 20 years ago. It never entered my mind and the urge never arose. To this day I have not wept over them and they were my mom & dad. Death is a part of life. Yet I cried over my dog (still get misty-eyed from time to time), and stories of police & military canines taking a bullet for their human partners always brings tears.

These are, to a large extent, uncontolable reactions and everybody is different. Don't put someone down when they don't respond to a bad situation the way you think they should. That might be the guy you want at your side when the chips are down.

Cheers,

TV
User avatar
MaartenSFS
Posts: 466
Joined: February 6th, 2011, 9:09 pm
Location: Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by MaartenSFS »

Hippiebrian wrote: I'm sorry, I am seriously concerned with your appearant lack of empathy. I watched a lot of people, one American soldier and several Iraquis, die in the first Gulf War, and cried a little each time wether it was ours or theirs. I've watched people die onthe streets of Mombai (Bombay when I was there) and teared up a bit each time. My Dad died with his hand in mine after a long illnes, and obviously I cried like a little girl.

I could never get "de-sensitized" either through experience or anything else. At times these things still affect me, and trust me, I'm not what anyone would call a sensitive guy!

You may need to seek some therapy because, unless you are a true sociopath, these things WILL come back and haunt you. In fact, see a therapist if they don't...sociopathy is not something to be taken lightly!

I wasn't going to post here for a while, as currently I have no experience in herping but a profound interest and came here to explore and learn before starting in myself. Your post so disturbed me that I had to say something!

Sorry if I'm out of line, but really???
Sorry, that's just how I am and no amount of therapy (if I wanted any) could change me. I must be a sociopath, though my friends may disagree with me there. They wouldn't disagree that I'm not normal, though. 8-) If my parents died infront of me I don't know how much I'd feel, but I got misty when my wife threatened to leave after a [verbal] fight. I also feel angry, frustrated, sad, and hopeless when I see how much of this planet has been destroyed by man.

I had a goal to track a South Chinese tiger until it was declared extinct in the wild in early 2007. That saddened me much more than a bad man getting fillé-ed by other bad men. I felt like crying when I told local acquaintances and they said "So what?".

I would also have no problem killing someone bad that posed a threat to innocent people, especially if I knew them (the innocents). I doubt I'd feel any guilt or remorse over it. In fact, I'd feel proud to have saved lives and removed a threat to society. I'd probably even tell that story at parties using a suspenseful story-telling style, like I do the sword story and the citizen's arrest story, etc. My biggest regret is being stuck in the 21st century without much to explore. Thank God for caves. My second biggest regret is not being able to cave more.

When I see chilren starving on the street I often buy something for them to eat. What do I get, sometimes? Complaints that they don't like what I bought and that I'm a good-for-nothing rich foreign devil. %^*#@ that. They are there on the street because society lets them be there. This is the world. It's not always pretty but it's out there. Feeling sorry for every little thing isn't going to help anything. The world is the way it is because people, including you and me, keep it that way, directly or indirectly. I am a product of this flawed society. If you want to change me, work on society first - starting with yourself. It's alright for you to be sensitive, but also for me not to be.

Also, if you've never done any herping, perhaps you should do some before critisizing others on a herping forum. :mrgreen:
User avatar
MaartenSFS
Posts: 466
Joined: February 6th, 2011, 9:09 pm
Location: Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by MaartenSFS »

Terry Vandeventer wrote:Not everyone react the same when witnessing or engaging in violent acts. Not every soldier comes home with post traumatic stress syndrome. The majority don't. Many do their jobs well and suffer little if any afterwards. Some heros get PTS, others don't. They are still incredibly brave. They are just affected differently.

After a F-18 fighter pilot engages a Libyan jet at mach whatever, and blasts him out of the sky, he is required to undergo a phsych evaluation. During his examination he talks about his feelings and how sad he feels that he had to take a human life. But once outide the door, he can't wait to get back up there and do it again, because it was the greatest %$*@$* rush he's ever had! He loved it! People are different and have different threshholds for dealing with such things. Doesn't make them bad people AT ALL. I didn't cry at my parent's funeral almost 20 years ago. It never entered my mind and the urge never arose. To this day I have not wept over them and they were my mom & dad. Death is a part of life. Yet I cried over my dog (still get misty-eyed from time to time), and stories of police & military canines taking a bullet for their human partners always brings tears.

These are, to a large extent, uncontolable reactions and everybody is different. Don't put someone down when they don't respond to a bad situation the way you think they should. That might be the guy you want at your side when the chips are down.

Cheers,

TV
Thank you, it's not like I moved down a town of women and children in Vietnam. I was just unaffected [negatively] by a man being killed with swords. In fact, it is one of many crazy, but positive, experiences that shaped me into the person I am today.
Post Reply