The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

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muskiemagnet
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by muskiemagnet »

ok, thinking about it i do, but they are minor compared to all the others. maybe that's why they are not coming to me. i'll recap quickly.

created a DOR corn in florida. never did get a live one.

fire ants suck. need i say more.

got lucky with LE in florida. long story. could have ended badly, but didn't.

it all seems insignificant compared to almost dying like all the other stories. that's all.

-ben
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by hellihooks »

muskiemagnet wrote:Really?
-ben
Ben... these are the kind of posts, (and the proper season) where half the fun ARE the derailments, and tangents... you know... good ole story-telling... :D

Not like there's many herps out right now... :roll: Heck... I might re-post my X-country trip post, that was lost in the crash, or even a 'blast from the past' thread... lost a couple of those in the crash... :( :crazyeyes: :D jim
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M Wolverton
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by M Wolverton »

Mike Pingleton wrote:I think it was that night in the tent after we had Ray's Chili for supper.

:o
Whoa! Sorry guys, couldn't hold that one in any longer.

Image
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muskiemagnet
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by muskiemagnet »

hellihooks wrote:
muskiemagnet wrote:Really?
-ben
Ben... these are the kind of posts, (and the proper season) where half the fun ARE the derailments, and tangents... you know... good ole story-telling... :D
that's fine and all. i'm not mad, but i think it is disrespectful to the author of the thread. off-topic comments can be made, but when it consumes the original intention, it should be addressed. that is the reason the admins split threads, but how can they in this case? the tangent topics are not herp related. i like this thread, and i do not want to see it die out. that is surely what will happen when people get tired of reading unrelated posts.
hellihooks wrote:Not like there's many herps out right now... :roll: Heck... I might re-post my X-country trip post, that was lost in the crash, or even a 'blast from the past' thread... lost a couple of those in the crash... :( :crazyeyes: :D jim

that's great. i'd like to read them.

keep the stories coming.

-ben
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by hellihooks »

Ben,
have you read the 'Answer and Ask' thread on the board... it's a hoot! :D jim
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MaartenSFS
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by MaartenSFS »

muskiemagnet wrote:Really?

i was enjoying all the good stories about "the topic at hand", but got side-tracked by a bunch of crap. i wasted a lot of time.

-Maarten, you apologized earlier for hijacking. you lied. you keep doing it, but others keep you going, so i will not blame you entirely. take it to private messages, please.

also, if post traumatic stress bothers you after herping, i suggest stop herping.

i do have to say that i got a good laugh from the "jack in the box" misunderstanding.

as far as bad herping experiences go, i'm sorry to say that i don't have any. sorry.

-ben
UH - Fair enough.. I've just about had my fill.. :? It's hard to believe that you haven't had a single bad (or, as I like to call them; interesting) herping experience, though..
Paul White
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Paul White »

another one from last night:
Get 300 miles lost and not realize it until midnight ish.
Give up, decide to find the interstate again.
At 1am, try to go into a hotel and check in; hotel clerk not there, ring bell for service...while you're waiting 10-12 cops (in a town of 1,000--some of these had to be county or state troopers) run in shoving people down.

If anyone knows WTF happened in Nocana TX last night around 1 I'd like to know! WTH were that many cops doig in a podunk town like that?
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Gyri
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Gyri »

My professor crushed my hand under large boulder in south Texas. I should not blame him entirely, we did it together. The rock was too heavy for either of us to lift on our own so we both grabbed one side and pulled it up. I usually let rocks down gently and he planned to just let it go. We did not discuss how we were going to put it back down and defaulted to our habits. The rock pulled me forward then rolled over my hand. It could have been a lot worse, I just split a fingernail from side to side and broke a finger. To this day I cannot open a can of beer with my right index finger without pain. This past fall I got a real thick callus on that fingertip after making 100 bog turtle traps and for the first time in three years I could crack open a can of beer without pain. That lasted about a month and came to an end when I jammed my finger inside the mouth of a Yellow-bellied Slider and it bit off the callus.
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sjfriend
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by sjfriend »

I'd have to say for me 2 come to mind:

getting lost in AZ for 5 hrs then finding ourselves within feet of getting out only to find a dry canal and a huge private farm in the way. Took a while to get through the canal and sneek through the farm.

The other has actually happend a few time: spot herp, forget to look at where same is, then chase same into poison oak
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Daryl Eby
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Daryl Eby »

Gyri wrote:To this day I cannot open a can of beer with my right index finger without pain.
Option one: Upgrade to bottles. Seriously, beer from a can? Why?
Option two: Drink more beer. I'm betting the pain will decrease with each consecutive beer.

:beer:
Ecto Hunter
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Ecto Hunter »

the infamous red-velvet ant (cow killer)...and also a rock slide...and cacti...
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Marty Whalin
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Marty Whalin »

I so glad to find out that other herpers get poison ivy. I'm so sensitive I generally have a rash or the remnants of one from April to November every year. This usually includes a few bed ridden cases. Try explaining to your boss that you can't work because of poison ivy. I lost a job a few years back in that way. He couldn't understand why I couldn't work because I was a little itchy. I tried to explain to him that it was painful to put on my boxers let alone get dressed completely. Also, my feet were swollen too big for my shoes and standing for more than a minute or two was also painful. My dad always wants to know why I got into it when I can ID it at 100 yds. In most areas of the midwest, its unavoidable if you leave the trail. Easily the most common understory plant. No one else I herp with gets it so I just figured I was the only sensitive person stupid enough to keep going to the woods.

Other than that, my herping experiences have always been good.
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MaartenSFS
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by MaartenSFS »

I am so sensitive to it that it has ruined my experience in North America. I can't wait to get out of here and go back to litterally crawling rolling around on the forest floor, if I so please. :mrgreen:
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DaneConley
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by DaneConley »

Ecto Hunter wrote:the infamous red-velvet ant (cow killer)
I remember I tried petting one...ohhhhhh the pain!!!
ElliotH
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by ElliotH »

This one time my friend drove 6+ hours to find some water dogs here. The first trip we got skunked. The second trip (again 6+ hours) we drove almost 3 hours in the wrong direction. Turns out NC likes to have multiple towns with the same name. I think we spent more time in the car than the time actually herping. No names were given to hide the shame. That was a bummer. Also, a while ago I was flipping some rocks on the mountain behind my old house in NY looking for manders. I wasn't paying attention and a particularly sharp rock fell on my wrist slicing it pretty nicely over at least an inch. Didn't need stitches and luckily it wasn't deep enough to do any real damage, but now when people see my right wrist I appear emotionally unstable. I think all in all getting skunked is probably the worst that has happened to me. In NY Kari and Kiley came to visit once to do some early herping over the weekend. The temps had been nice and a few snakes were actually out. We decided to look for some hognose and drove 3 hours to what turned out to be a landfill. As soon as we got there the weather turned and it started raining with some really heavy winds. That night it snowed. Nuff said.
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Jeremy Westerman »

There was the time I was certain I was bitten by a hot, but it turned out I just flipped a cactus with my heel as I stepped over it and flung it up straight into my calf. I immediately unconsciously brushed the injured leg with my hand and the huge spined cactus lodged into my leg painfully transferred to my hand. I jumped straight into the air to avoid an imaginary snake, then landed weird and rolled my ankle and was forced to catch myself with my impaled hand out getting a palm full of deep spines as well, all in the same self mutilating stunt.

Had an epic last fall, I was on a cliff ledge roughly 5 feet wide looking for croats. Had a 60 foot cliff up and a 80 foot cliff down when I encountered two rattlesnakes resting on the ledge. Took a picture or two but during the process I managed to do-si-do them like square dancing and was now on the far side of them. The cliff beyond was impassable after 15 feet so I had to return and cross the snakes. Zero room on the ledge to safely move the hots and I wasn't able to get past them without flying off the cliff, maneuvering through a thick thornbush next to the wall, tip toe the cliff edge, or risk taking a bite. I opted for thornbush (after checking it good for a lurking snake) and got thrashed good from head to toe severely. Wish I hadn't have worn shorts that day, I looked like I had been flogged.

Worst punishment I have ever self-inflicted was when after a long trip we stopped at a gas station. I stepped up on the bumper to reach the water jug in the back of the truck but my boots were muddy and I slipped off and chest slammed the tailgate which catapulted me in the opposite direction onto the pavement double knocking the wind out of me and I head slammed hard. I was sure I busted all my ribs as I struggled to breathe. My brother and dad erupted into laughter and the three of us were crying for different reasons. My brother cracked, "Your technique is flawless but you have to work on sticking the landing." I said some choice words to them when I recovered enough to stand, and went into the store to buy a candy bar. The attendant said, "I have that on camera you know," as I paid for my purchase. I had a 6 inch bruise from armpit to armpit for a week but have yet to break a bone.
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Gluesenkamp
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Gluesenkamp »

Jeremy wins the "most hilarious" title.
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Gluesenkamp wrote:Jeremy wins the "most hilarious" title.
Yep. 10 and 9.5 from the German judge!
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Mike Pingleton
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Mike Pingleton »

It was all that, and we cried too :mrgreen:
M Wolverton wrote:
Mike Pingleton wrote:I think it was that night in the tent after we had Ray's Chili for supper.

:o
Whoa! Sorry guys, couldn't hold that one in any longer.

Image
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Mike Pingleton
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Mike Pingleton »

If you should slip off your log and fall in the Peruvian rainforest, don't grab one of these by accident:

Image

I still have three spines embedded in my hand that may not come out.

-Mike
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Mike...what is that tree????
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Mike Pingleton
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Mike Pingleton »

Hans Breuer (twoton) wrote:Mike...what is that tree????
It's a type of spiny palm - Cryosophila perhaps? I haven't researched it much as of yet.
-Mike
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Mike Pingleton wrote:It's a type of spiny palm - Cryosophila perhaps?
Thanks! Well, a spiny palm is certainly what you got out of the encounter :-)

I've seen rattans in Borneo that looked like that. Medieval, to say the least.
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justinm
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by justinm »

Mike Pingleton wrote:
Hans Breuer (twoton) wrote:Mike...what is that tree????
It's a type of spiny palm - Cryosophila perhaps? I haven't researched it much as of yet.
-Mike
Mike,

I did a little detective work. Looks like you're going to die... So can I have your collection? I'll take good care of it. :D

Worst thing for me, getting a nail through the top and bottom of my foot. I mean through a hiking boot sole and out the top of the boot. It required someone standing on the piece of wood so that I could get my foot off of it. Since it was pretty early in the day I hiked on it until about 3, then had to call it a day.

I've hiked with a broken foot but didn't do it herping.
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Nature Nate
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Nature Nate »

my herping experiences have mostly been dotted with less than lethal moments that could have gone much worse. I have learned several lessons from them and several more just from reading this thread. thanks for sharing folks.

Personally my worst envenomation was an AZ bark scorpion. It literally took me a year to get all the feeling back to my finger the nerve damage was so extensive.

Probably my closest call yet was when I almost sent my truck off a 300' cliff with my closest herping buddy in the passenger seat when I swerved to miss an alligator lizard right in line with my tire. I forgot that I had a load of boards in the back of the truck which added weight and I was going too fast downhill in a truck without off-road tires and this being my first time offroading almost killed us. When we came to a stop I ran back for the Elgaria and found that I had still clipped his nose even through my efforts. I think he's fine though since he ran off and looked to be in good shape after I got the data.

(sorry Chris, I'll be more careful next time)

Thankfully I don't think I'm allergic to ivy/oak. I've had several accidental run-ins with never an effect. My bee sting alergy more than makes up for it though. I usually carry two epi-pens with me on hikes and run in the opposite direction if I so much as see/hear a bee hive and then mark it in google earth as a hazardous zone to never hike in again. Yeah, it limits my horizons more than I wish.
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by FunkyRes »

I didn't start reacting to Poison Oak until I was 15 or 16 and even now I don't react badly, but I still avoid it because it is possible for reaction to worsen as exposure increases.

My scariest moment was last year when I tried to take a short cut through chaparral. It got thicker and thicker and thicker and became very difficult for me to move through it. I was scratched up like no ones business. Fortunately no infections.
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Nigel Smith
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Nigel Smith »

MaartenSFS wrote:Not to mention POISON IVY.. I seem to be hyper allergic to it. That's why I need to leave North America (or anywhere else with those evil plants). Thorns are one thing, but they heal soon enough. Poison ivy last me weeks, sometimes.

By the way, the photo at the top just loaded. Is that your knee in a very un-knee-like shape?? I've dislocated my shoulder in martial arts, but Jebus. :beer:

I was about to bring this up. Here in east TN the Poison Ivy can be downright beastly. By mid summer the ground on some of the clearings and powerline cuts is covered in the stuff. I seem to get exposed every herping trip. My ankles still itch from last year. :?
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Mike Waters
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Mike Waters »

Worst thing that has happened to me is traffic citations. Speeding tickets, seat belt tickets and my most recent was a cell phone ticket (CA).
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FunkyRes
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by FunkyRes »

Mike Waters wrote:Worst thing that has happened to me is traffic citations. Speeding tickets, seat belt tickets and my most recent was a cell phone ticket (CA).
The danger will cell phones is primarily for people under 22.

The brain hasn't quite finished developing yet, so the multitasking skills just aren't there. Experience behind the wheel also just isn't there, and mis-judgements are still common.

But - it's hard to make age related laws, and there are a lot of accidents from cell phone use while driving (mostly people under 22 but still).

There's a link out there showing the accident rate dropping off radically past that age, but I can't seem to find it at the moment.
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Ben »

Watching my friend almost get taken out by a rockslide in some talus while hiking for leps. Easily could have been the worst thing, but luckily it stopped.

Having a big piece of cholla on the heel of my boot, kneeling down to take a photo of an atrox and putting enough weight on the cholla to allow it to seat itself an inch or so into my backside.

Pretty much any experience I have with lechuguilla. I wear shin (snake) guards when I go out hiking wherever that stuff is, not for the snakes, but for wading through the forests of lechuguilla. It's been a good plan so far. ;)
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gbin
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by gbin »

Having the drive shaft of my 4x4 Jeep fall apart in the middle of the night in the middle of the road in the middle of nowhere in west TX, many years ago. But the experience gave me much more confidence in my ability to deal with calamity when it strikes, anyway. Who'd have thought a guy with virtually no training or experience in automotive repair could manage to disassemble a portion of his drive shaft, get the parts to a shop quite some ways away in El Paso to have them machined, and then put his drive shaft back together so he could resume herp hunting? I did have the very helpful direction of a cranky old mechanic I managed to contact in Alpine, though.

Gerry
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by jimoo742 »

Broken tie rod in the middle of rural western KY, and that was after my car got AAA service (3 hour wait) to jump it after leaving my lights on. Ugh.
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gbin
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by gbin »

If we want to expand this to "the worst thing that's happened to you while herping due to your own stupidity," jimoo, I should bring up the time I went herp hunting in southeastern AZ's Sky Islands very soon after buying a vehicle (my next 4x4, a Dodge Raider).

It was a fairly new vehicle and in fine shape, but I nonetheless checked it out carefully and loaded up on things such as extra spark plugs, fan belts, etc. as well as tools (the experience with my Jeep having taught me their importance ;) ), as well as making sure it had a spare tire in good condition and a complete jack, before I drove to AZ from my home in MN. So once I reached the Huachucas I drove off of the paved road onto a dirt road, then off of that onto a smaller dirt road, then off of that up into a dry creek bed. Mostly I was just having fun exploring and getting to know my new car before I settled down to do some serious herping. I was bouncing along pretty good when I hit a rock hard enough to knock a tire off of its rim. "No big deal," I thought, "I'll just creep back out onto relatively level, stable ground and change the tire."

Then I discovered that I'd bought a car with a locking lug nut on each installed tire, but no key for them. I tried every tool I had that seemed to offer me even the slightest chance of getting the dang locking lug nut off of the flat tire, but no luck. And there was no way I was going to try to make the difficult drive the rest of the way back down the creek bed and then the long drive down out of the mountains while riding on the rim. Already dirty and sweaty from hours of fruitless effort on the tire, I started on what I believed was going to be a very long hike out to find help, wondering whether I'd even manage to make it to the nearest town before nightfall.

Fortunately I'd been walking less than a half hour when a Forest Service truck came along - though I hadn't seen them or anyone else on my way in, they told me they had "been informed" that I was there and were wondering what I was up to (even though this, too, was many years ago) - and I was able to talk them into going back to my vehicle with me to see if they could help me get that locking lug nut off. Probably they wanted to see for themselves whether I was truly as stupid as I was telling them was the case. It took them yet another half hour and a good deal of swearing even with their considerably larger set of tools, but thankfully they were indeed able to get that thing off.

All these years later I can still hear them laughing about my having gotten myself into such a predicament. :oops:

Gerry
rtdunham
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by rtdunham »


Witnessing a bad man get chopped and commiting an atrocity are two very different things...
I had wondered BEFORE you posted this that maybe identifying the victim as a "bad" man helped you process the horrible thing you'd seen. You described the victim that way initially, and again here. That need to characterize him that way may help you compartmentalize what you saw....OR maybe you had some material reason to believe he was bad?

But to be honest, even the presence of such evidence would still leave me wary of your reaction. What about stoning as punishment? In remote Indian villages recently "authorities" or village elders have ordered and participated in gang rapes of women accused of wrongdoing. Declaring them "bad" may give them psychic permission for their behavior. It's similar to the way enemies are dehumanized in war after war, and it's akin to Ted Nugent's "mongrel" remarks and resulting controversy. I didn't even see Nugent's comments as racist at first, just stupid and offensive, to call someone a "subhuman mongrel" over political differences. Anyway, "bad"? And does that matter? (I'm posing the question for all of us, not just you).

Don't forget in one of your earlier posts you said your friends describe you as not normal, I think is the way you put it. It's neat we can have a thread like this juggling emotions, humorous herping experiences, and poison ivy. It's not a bad thing to be in a spot where others will give you candid reactions to your thinking or actions (again, not just for you, but for all of us--take the rattler-tossing incident that didn't go unnoticed!) We all need sounding boards.

Cheers.
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azatrox
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by azatrox »

This thread's still around? Ok...

Since I last posted, I'll add roadside hotdogs in Mexico to the list of horrible herping experiences....

Montezuma's revenge is a real beotch and most unpleasant.

- Kris
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Mike Pingleton
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Mike Pingleton »

¡Era la mayonesa del diablo!
azatrox wrote:
Since I last posted, I'll add roadside hotdogs in Mexico to the list of horrible herping experiences....

Montezuma's revenge is a real beotch and most unpleasant.

- Kris
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BillMcGighan
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by BillMcGighan »

Montezuma's revenge is a real beotch and most unpleasant.
On the positive side, it often gives you a thorough weight loss experience!


~ Douglas Silver Porter's New Water Diet - south: ~
Order a case of our special water with farm raised amoebae and step back for a moving experience.The pounds with fall off at the end.
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The Jake-Man
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by The Jake-Man »

I dropped a large rock on my right middle finger this fall while trying to grab a particularly large slimy salamander. Though not badly broken, the fracture was still enough to bug me for months.

Also, I sprained my left shoulder during the very first high school wrestling practice I went to this past year. I sat out for weeks, and had recovered almost fully, until I tore most of my AC ligament after a bike crash 2 1/2 miles into a 3 mile one-way trip to a salamander spot. The ride out sucked, and it was sort of tough to explain to my coaches. :?
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Coluber Constrictor »

had the usual run ins with ticks, yellowjackets, fire ants, and poison ivy, although mostly when doing activities other than herping. I'm pretty good at avoiding all that stuff these days. I also found out that I am allergic to Chinese Privet pollen, and I am not allergic to much.

Scariest thing that happened to me while herping was when I was chased off a property (there was a for sale sign so I figured it was ok to look) by a mean and very rough-looking dog. Also had a cottonmouth slither over my boot, (not really that scary), and tore my jeans up pretty bad on a rusty nail at an abandoned house while flipping a huge corn snake. I have yet to sustain any real injuries while herping.
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by soulsurvivor »

Daryl Eby wrote:
muskiemagnet wrote:as far as bad herping experiences go, i'm sorry to say that i don't have any. sorry.
You mean you've never been bitten, stung, stuck, sliced. beaten, threatened, assaulted, shot, abandoned, left for dead, nearly died, or been struck with severe diarrhea when the only available wipes were poison ivy and bull nettle? Dang. That is sad. Here's to wishing you an eventful year in the field. :beer:
I had to use my snake bag as toilet paper once, and then leave it behind so I could get back in the car without offending my trip companion. That was a long time ago, back in my collecting days. These days I would just be sh*t out of luck......no pun intended.
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Josh Holbrook
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Josh Holbrook »

Shot at while walking a public road with 10 or so other people.


Breaking down in the middle of the Paraguayan Chaco was nerve wracking too, but those kind of things build character.
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sjfriend
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by sjfriend »

azatrox wrote:
Down by the border I was asked to show papers...So I handed the BP officer an old Wendy's wrapper and a gum wrapper....I doubt that was what he had in mind, but he should have been more specific.

-Kris
Ok Kris that is priceless!!!! Hope you didn't have to endure too many cavity searches :lol:
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Jeff Lemm
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Jeff Lemm »

Some great stories here. I have quite a few myself and don't know where to begin:

-12 years old, lifting some heavy a/c, dropping it and having it cut my thumb off
-blown regulator at 100 ft in Saipan (diving into open ocean thru a cave at 60 ft called the Grotto); emergency ascent with massive swells, 100' cliffs to safety, and a bunch of sharks
-20 ft in a tree at night in Cuba chasing a giant anole and having wasps just destroy me
-being shot at in Riverside (among other places)
-going after a Natal python in Africa, having it launch of the ground at my face, falling backwards into an aardvark hole, getting stuck in said hole as python comes after me with open mouth while getting wailed on by ground-nesting hornets at mouth of aardvark hole
-chased by bulls in 3 countries, as well as camels, crocs, dogs, a psycho raccoon, and various other fun creatures

Just some of the fun ones!
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sjfriend
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by sjfriend »

Ticks, yuck. After looking for C. oreganus I get in car headed home. It starts to get uncomfortable, you know, like your undies are pinching parts you would rather not have pinched. Can't get it to stop so I get home and head to bathroom to check. And what do I find... a *#&#/+%@/-& TICK! Holding onto parts that are better left alone :twisted:
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Antonsrkn
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Antonsrkn »

I see I participated in this thread 3 years ago and talked about getting stung by a small scorpion and stung by wasps. Well 3 years down the road I'm still in one piece with many more wasp stings to report but nothing too bad except that. Well with one exception, while in South east Asia I learned what it feels like to have a terrestrial leech try to make its way up my urethra.... There's not much to be said besides that its extremely unpleasant and not as uncommon as you might think. Luckily I caught all the ones before they could really get in there but its still just a disgusting ordeal. Lesson learned, no shorts in the jungle, that helps but sometimes they still find their way up.

I have had a few dick ticks while doing fieldwork in Panama and while at the time I was horrified, the experience pales in comparison to the leech invasion. Atleast for me.
blown regulator at 100 ft in Saipan (diving into open ocean thru a cave at 60 ft called the Grotto); emergency ascent with massive swells, 100' cliffs to safety, and a bunch of sharks
Whoooo that sounds terrifying. The idea of something going wrong while diving unnerves me.
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BillMcGighan
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by BillMcGighan »

These stories are great!
I like them because after also experiencing the usual gamut of stinging insects, leeches, badge heavy law enforcement, car troubles and accidents, gas shortages, red neck encounters, equipment failure while wrangling a hot, etc., etc. that comes with herping in time, after reading this, I feel like I have had no troubles what so ever!!!
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Gluesenkamp
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Gluesenkamp »

Gbin mentioned having locking lugnuts and no key. This is a common occurrence so I figured I'd offer a solution. Take a large socket and drive it over the offending locker. Works every time. Of course, you need a set of sockets...
jimoo742
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by jimoo742 »

Jeff Lemm wrote:
-going after a Natal python in Africa, having it launch of the ground at my face, falling backwards into an aardvark hole, getting stuck in said hole as python comes after me with open mouth while getting wailed on by ground-nesting hornets at mouth of aardvark hole

Would watch on TV
rtdunham
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by rtdunham »

Bitten by a pygmy rattler in FL while a mile into the woods--yeah, by myself. Dumb. Turned out to be a dry bite, but a very frustrating, somewhat funny hour or so at the hospital waiting to be seen and, finally, sent on my way.

The funny finger: Fell on rocks climbing a hill from a (successful) water snake/turtle hunt with my daughter Jenna in a creek in N KY. Another hospital trip. But now I know how to put the finger back in place without a doctor's help (the X-ray did confirm nothing was broken.

The worst was merely a near-miss, but reminded me of what can happen: We (Lindsay Pike and Mark Kenderdine, I think) had lifted a large and heavy metal garage door in the Florida cane fields, found nothing under it, and on signal dropped it. All nicely coordinated. What I failed to see was was an inexplicable blade-like piece of sharp metal sticking out at the corner of this otherwise neatly-proportioned rectangle. So I misjudged the safe fall zone by about six inches. It swiped past my face-- just close enough to put a little scratch on my cheek. If I'd leaned in even half an inch it would have ripped my face from top to bottom. That experience still makes me cringe; the first two don't. Random good fortune. No hospital trip. Sometimes it happens.

Image

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Lizardman1988
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Re: The worst thing thats happend to you while herping

Post by Lizardman1988 »

Good God, that x-ray made me cringe.
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