Dangerous Animals vs Growing Outdoors

[PaganRich]

Okay, to be honest the only danger for me would the family cat eating the girls. However, talking to some of the folks on this site, it sounds like Tiddles may be the least of the problems. I`ve heard outdoor growers talk of Cottonmouths, Cougars, Grizzlies. Even gators ffs. I mean spider mites would be pushing it for me. Some even carry some form of weaponry to protect themselves from these creatures.. My imagination has naturally gone slightly over the top on this I grant you, especially when stoned and the attached pics show what I thinks out there ready to have a go and my thoughts on a suitable counter. What I am wondering is whether anyone has any creature/ growing stories to share regarding the perils of growing outdoors?

[alltatup]

I never go to tend my outdoor plants without full armour, lance, shield and a piece of the holy grail that I broke off when I was on crusade.


Oh, and: who would be cruel enough to name a cat Tiddles?????

[PaganRich]

If you can`t name a cat Tiddles, you have no right to call yourself a Pagan...hard, granted....I have something a tad special for you.......https://www.facebook.com/normanaware.../?type=3&ifg=1

[PaganRich]

They came. They saw. They `acquired`. My type of lads

[alltatup]

PaganRich The Normans: so named because they were quite normal. They did normal things all day.

I'm now keenly aware of the Normans.

[D.A.A.S.69]

PaganRich, good morning mate.
I've got several, horror tales involving coyotes, during harvest season, and bow season, it's the same time for both, October.
In other words, after I tracked the deer down, from the blood trail, damn coyotes wanted to keep the whole deer, and not share. A pack of 5-6 coyotes 10 yards away, from you, eating the deer you shot, is kind of nerve racking, to say the least, especially right at dark, and all you have is a bow and a few arrows. .
I learned my lesson, I carry a pistol ,as backup ,whenever I'm in the woods now.
coyotes,are mean as hell, when in a pack, I once saw a coyote, kill and eat, a very pretty Ladies, poodle dog, one time, Her screaming, is what got me unnerved, not the coyotes, lol
She loved that poodle dog, lol.

[PaganRich]

D.A.A.S.69 Puts my Stag beatle story into perspective

[D.A.A.S.69]

Well, trust me, it's the honest truth, and that's just one story, we live in the woods come bow season, its a thrill a minute in those swamps, no sh-t. Mostly snakes an gators, but hungry coyotes, will get your attention quickly, the coyotes followed, me out of the woods, while I was dragging that deer out, they were very close too, with snarling ass, teeth showing too..

[GreenhouseEffect]

Man, that's just some creepy sounding shit, a pack of coyotes at a kill. remember the first time I heard it when I was a kid, gave me the chills, didn't know what it was!!
Kinda like watching the things when the're hunting mice though, pretty cool little ( slightly evil) critters.

[PaganRich]

D.A.A.S.69 Regarding those coyotes. May I suggest the following

[D.A.A.S.69]

PaganRich, that looks like that would work nicely, but it would scare every deer in the woods away.

[PaganRich]

Certainly scare the daylights out of any campers. Do people go camping in the woods. We used to go roaming all over the land, especially the Black Mountains and near Dartmoor way without thinking about coyote or snakes or much else really.

[oldjarhead100]

Pagan I carry my 45 just to be safe my girls are close to berry patches and I really don't want to surprise one while hes eating thats a good way to get mauled and or eaten lol, other than that scenario I dont worry about it .I had a moose lay on one of the girls last year I stood her up dusted her off and told no laying down on the job she recovered fully lol , Coyotes are a little unnerving Daas is right about that , hey Daas I bet the yotes had one of there pack go into her yard and play with the dog then leave ,the dog naturally follows and hes lunch at least thats how they do it up here

But to be honest Pagan the Horse flys are the worst thing i'm concerned with them f ers will carry you off lol Oh and now tics

[BillBates]

Well, Pagen, what I did the one time I encountered a bear, was stand up on a picnic table to try to make myself appear bigger and made a lot of noise .... yelling & screaming like a madman is apparently as unappealing a display to bears as it is to humans. That's what I did .... right after I crapped my drawers.

[BillBates]

Ojh - yeah we have cougars & bears here too. No moose, though. My grandfather used to hunt moose in Canada. He once told me, "Boy, the best place to kill a moose is within a hundred feet of a pickup truck."

[GreenhouseEffect]

Got lot's of moose where I live, black bears to, but I'd much rather deal with a black bear than a moose. Our bears will usually run away, but the moose hear will stomp the $h!t out of ya! We have a moose fatality every year or two.
If we had ol' Griz hear, I expect it would be different though....

[desertdan]

Here are a few of the things I see on a regular basis. I have never seen an aggressive coyote.

[D.A.A.S.69]

PaganRich, yeah, I'm kinda proud of my jewels, lol, even if they don't hang down, past my knees, like I heard they would, when I was about 14 years old, Lol
But they still get the job, done, ok.
Have a nice Sunday, mate.

[alltatup]

desertdan your pictures are STUNNING!! You're a great photographer!!! That lizard is amazing, and I love the tarantula: he's flicked all the urticating hairs off his back (I used to raise tarantulas). That pic of the lynx (?) in B&W is especially great composition.

[oldjarhead100]

DAAS my dad had to have surgery because his kept hitting the water when he sat down lol , when I was a kid in Maine we had an indoor outhouse and we had to check for bees all the time lol

[Redwasp]

Yes coyotes are pretty bad animals. They are moving into the city here now. Saw one running across a 6 lane highway carrying a cat.

We also have started having an issue with wild hogs. They may not sound scary but if you corner one or injure it they can be one dangerous animal.

And yes people camp all the time. Honestly when I go out in the woods I am more concerned with the bugs. If you dont use repellant you will get completely eaten up in minutes. I think most people here are more concerned with bugs than all of the other things out there.

[oldjarhead100]

isn't it funny what you can get used to in an area some great stories in there

[alltatup]

PaganRich Insect hell no way!! I'm not in the tropics, the jungle!! I'm in the forest; it's not too bad.

[PaganRich]

oldjarhead100 For me what is most apparent is just how many animals we have killed into oblivion on these Isles to find ourselves with so few predators. I mean, at present in the news is the dangers cows pose if they become pissed off with you...and that`s about it. But compared to the stories on here we really don`t have much to contend with. We do have wild cats that have escaped but they stay very off radar. Still seen though..... https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-new...solved-4812877

[BillBates]

As mundane as it seems (& we, in Virginia, have many of the critters mentioned here, so far, plus) the one that everyone needs to watch out for is the tick. You'll never even know he's bitten you (they have a local anaesthetic in their saliva -- also people, by the time symptoms appear, often don't even remember having been bitten)Then, you see him when you go to get in the shower & you pick him off & kill him, which can be quite a chore in itself. Then you take your shower & aside from the itching afterward, don't give him another thought. Then one day, a week or a month or even A YEAR later, you feel like you're coming down with something. You feel a little listless, maybe a little nauseous. Then you get sick one day from eating a hamburger or a pork chop (alpha gal). Then, in a few weeks or months or years, you can't eat mammal meat at all without puking or diarrhea. Or maybe you feel dizzy or a little disoriented. Or you get a rash or a fever. Any of these symptoms could mean any of a number of things but, if it is erlichiosis (transmitted by the Lone Star tick) & if it's left untreated it can be fatal. Ticks carry a host of infectious diseases (most of which are listed on the CDC website) which, if left improperly diagnosed & untreated can be fatal. Ticks kill humans & animals all across this country every day but they're not exotic or exciting or spectacular in any way, therefore, not newsworthy. Educate yourself about ticks & the diseases they carry. It could save your life or someone else's or your dog's. I have personally watched two dogs die from tick borne disease & lemme tell you, I don't ever want to see it again. They were horrible, painful & agonizingly protracted deaths.

[Redwasp]

Yes we talked about ticks in another thread. They are truly a horrible thing. You have to use alot of bug spray to keep them off of you as compared to mosquitoes.

[BillBates]

Also, yellow jackets. I stepped on a yellow jacket nest once when I was about 12 or 13. Got stung 21 times and by the time I got home (15 minute walk) I had a 103° fever & my grandmother said I looked "like death warmed over". She took me to the emergency room where I was administered either epinephrine or its predecessor (I'm not sure epinephrine had been developed yet). Anyway, I very nearly died from it & it turned into a 3 day hospital stay for me. The lesson here : be aware of your surroundings & watch where you step. Make sure you have a quickly accessible escape route & if possible, carry an Epipen at all times in the woods.

[Redwasp]

Yep Yellow Jackets sent me to the hospital once when i was a kid.

And chiggers are a bitch. Never tried the clorox bath. My mom would always put nail polish on them. Worked really well. Other than the fact that you were covered in nail polish. Lol

[oldjarhead100]

I got introduced to chiggers in NC we dont have a problem with them up here but I have gotten them or something like them a couple of times nasty little things

[D.A.A.S.69]

Chiggers are called Redbugs, where I live,

[oldjarhead100]

so how many got the creepy crawlers after reading this post ,I did lol

[oldjarhead100]

Hey Pagan while I was out watering yesterday I remembered I have a couple of bear pictures from a trail camera that were taken within 50 yards of my grow area, I know they are there so I bring my 45 just in case but I always make some noise on the way in ,as soon as I can figure out how to get them off of a external drive lol

[PaganRich]

oldjarhead100 Mate, I `ve been talking to some folk here and up North about this. We don`t get to hear this kinda thing over here you see. We don`t do things like that too well. My mate`s landlord blew a queen hornet to pieces yesterday with a 12" bore (Farmer so allowed to have a gun). Blasted it first time, stunned, vapourised with the second shot as well as putting a hole in the wood shed. Now, that was a hornet, think what he`d do if he had a problem with say snakes. Nope, not set over here for that. I`m actually thinking of going to Alaska to watch bears in the wild within the next couple of years. You have this as normal. Not envious though

[D.A.A.S.69]

PaganRich, Yeah, ,we even had a hunting stand that we call the bear tree, where alot of big
whitetail big bucks have been harvested before, over the years.
It's a gigantic old, old hollow cypress, tree, that's got to e at least 100years old.
It's got claw marks all over it, but it's from mostly small black bears, we even saw one that had a transmitter, around his neck, for tracking purposes.

[PaganRich]

D.A.A.S.69 I`d loved to see a moose. Well, most of the above except the ticks (nope), spiders (maybe), snakes (yeah..ok) and anything that injects rotting venon into your nuts (I`m defo outta there). Also, I was talking to a couple of mates over the outfit OJH wears. Been a good blog this one as I`ve learnt a hell of a lot...never appreciated aspects of your countryside as such

[D.A.A.S.69]

PaganRich, yes ,we do have a beautiful and very diverse country, and I know that you would love it over here.
We got the beautiful RockyMountains, to beautiful beaches, most everwhere, to even the delta ,flat as a football fields, that are so fertile, that corn and cotton ,grow so tall, you could hide your truck in it and never be seen again, until winter.
But I would really like to see your Country, it's got so much history over there, and you can get in your car and in an hour or two ,be in another beautiful country, or two.
Yes it's beautiful over here , but where you live is probably even prettier.
But we do have plenty of animals, and bugs, and spiders. But most won't kill you ,not very many people die from animals each year, maybe 4-5.More people die from wasp stings than anything else, even snakes. But you do teach your children at a young age what to look out for.
Yes, you did good starting this topic ,can you think of another ?

[PaganRich]

D.A.A.S.69 I learnt more from watching you lads natter about day to day creatures you meet that you don`t just get watching travel programmes...well, not with the content I like It`s true, this place is chocker history wise. Sometimes I see stuff people over there call something old/ ancient...nope. You can wander around flint quarries and find semi sharpened flint arrow heads and if you go nighthawking then the world`s your oyster. Lot of that goes on over here. Big prob with battle field sites. Easily make a decent castle, fortified manor house or something battle wise of interest within a half hour - hour by car, if that. Around me, I`ve got battlefields from recorded history say Romans onwards but also shed loads of pre-history stuff, place names, castles, old ports, old towns, manors and mansions and ye ole pub. If you like history we live surrounded by the stuff. With all these antique programmes now though, everyone`s flogging stuff on line. We are certainly spoilt mate for stuff like that. Check out this though https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YU3Qh2VHSA

[oldjarhead100]

I've always thought that all wars could be avoided by each side sitting down with a good bottle of scotch and plenty of beer and shoot the shit for a couple of hours, we are all people .we just live in different places

This forum has a common bond we all like to grow weed lol

[PaganRich]

oldjarhead100 Sorry mate...I don`t have such optimism. Think after 2 hours you`d have a massive dust up on your hands, sadly

[fwril]

The beer would be good, but the scotch would be a issue. I enjoy a good beer, I drink scotch and I'm ready to declare war on my own brother.

[PaganRich]

fwril Guinness with whiskey chasers are a right ole fighting brew there I can tell you

[Redwasp]

Here this is how casual we can be about living amongst them, if you have facebook. No this isnt me

https://www.facebook.com/100008291118041/posts/2212821912337491/

[Redwasp]

We argue with the gators over our fish. Lol Never had a gator steal one but have had a water snake swallow one while on the stringer. Pull up my fish and this fat ass snake had swallowed one and was stuck on the striger.

[oldjarhead100]

bet that was a WTF moment lol would of loved to see the expression on your face

[oldjarhead100]

I had a doe run past me yesterday if I wasn't paying attention she would of knocked me over I figured something was chasing her so I sat quite and waited whatever it was didn't come close ,to bad I would of liked to reduce the coyote population by one

[BillBates]

You waaaay more country than me, Hoss.

[Redwasp]

Lol. Every time i go hunting, hiking, farming, cutting the grass, and playing outside and i see a coyote it becomes a coyote hunt. I know thats a stupid facebook saying but its true. Only thing I hate worse are wild hogs.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Yeah, we don't tolerate feral hogs or those huge Russian boars, on our huntin land.
A coy dog, ain't got a chance in hell, in our woods, I'll kill a coy dog, or hog ,anytime I see one !! If it's in our woods, even if a big buck is standing there, I'm killing the coy dogs,or hogs.
Can't stand them bast-rds.