# When nature grosses you out **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 12, 2007, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612 "2007-03-12T15:48:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/81 "2007-03-14T17:35:31Z")
Why did I enter this thread? WHY? ---
**Author:** ![Tupug\_Anachi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@Tupug\_Anachi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tupug_Anachi)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/82 "2007-03-14T18:06:14Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] I could swear they sell a dried version of that for floral arrangements. [/QUOTE] Yes, they do. I actually have some potpourris with one or two of them in my guest bath. I have turned them over so I can’t see the seed pod part. 😛 BTW, the worm lady is definitely puke-worthy. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/83 "2007-03-14T18:36:28Z")
[QUOTE=Kyla] OH. And silverfish. How could I have forgotten silverfish? Why do they have so many legs? Is it really necessary? They freak me out so much that I can’t even bring myself to get close enough to kill them. Plus, then I’d have dead silverfish! Ugh! [/QUOTE] I’m pretty easily grossed out by bugs and such. On the occasions that I fished it took a major act of will for me to hold a worm and put it on the hook, and grab a fish and take it off. Pretty impressive when your toddlers laugh at you for being such a baby. And dead animals. I don’t know why, but I always kinda feel like if I go to pick it up it will jump at me or something. When we get mice, my wife usually places and removes the traps. But you mention silverfish. Just this morning at the breakfast table one fell out of the paper and ran across the table. Boy, did I kill that sucker dead. Probably didn’t need that second pound with my fist. Then I went and got a kleenex to pick it up and throw it away… One “idea” in nature that always kinda gets me is that one about the fish that will swim up the urethra… I _AM_ 6-3", tho, and pretty good at reching that top shelf… ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/84 "2007-03-14T19:23:48Z")
My nomination: [Click](http://www.flickr.com/photos/saltation/206609173/). That happens to me, I walk away. Doesn’t matter how much it cost. Done. Oh, and add me to the list of guys who would have thrown rocks at that balloon-bloated cow. From a safe distance. When I was younger, I mean. Not now. Not at all. Nuh uh. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/85 "2007-03-14T19:37:07Z")
[QUOTE=Cervaise] My nomination: [Click](http://www.flickr.com/photos/saltation/206609173/). That happens to me, I walk away. Doesn’t matter how much it cost. Done. [/QUOTE] I don’t know, I find it rather pretty. Industrious, too. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/86 "2007-03-14T19:51:04Z")
I grew up in Kentucky, where we grow lots of tobacco, although not as much these days as in my younger years. When I was about 12, I had occasion to wander near a field and observe the … \ [tobacco horn worm](http://www.pbase.com/digipets/image/34417277)! He looks rather beautiful in this photo, but lemme tell you, he was large, very green and very … ur, _substantial_. You don’t want a worm with heft, lemme tell ya. Silverfish. _gahhhh!_ _fetal position_ ---
**Author:** ![Foxy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Foxy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foxy40)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/87 "2007-03-14T20:02:58Z")
[QUOTE=Ellen Cherry] I grew up in Kentucky, where we grow lots of tobacco, although not as much these days as in my younger years. When I was about 12, I had occasion to wander near a field and observe the … \ [tobacco horn worm](http://www.pbase.com/digipets/image/34417277)! He looks rather beautiful in this photo, but lemme tell you, he was large, very green and very .. ur, _substantial_. You don’t want a worm with heft, lemme tell ya. Silverfish. _gahhhh!_ _fetal position_ [/QUOTE] Ok, out of all these ickies, this was the ickiest to me. Congratulations. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/88 "2007-03-14T20:07:58Z")
> [@](#): > > grew up in Kentucky, where we grow lots of tobacco, although not as much these days as in my younger years. > > When I was about 12, I had occasion to wander near a field and observe the … \ tobacco horn worm! He looks rather beautiful in this photo, but lemme tell you, he was large, very green and very .. ur, substantial. You don’t want a worm with heft, lemme tell ya. > > Silverfish. gahhhh! _fetal position_ Then whatever you do, don’t see the movie **Sommersby** (sort of American remake of **The Return of Martin Guerre** ). There’s a scene that has _bushels_ of them, and people grabbing them by the handful! [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108185/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108185/) ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/89 "2007-03-14T20:33:20Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] Then whatever you do, don’t see the movie **Sommersby** (sort of American remake of **The Return of Martin Guerre** ). There’s a scene that has _bushels_ of them, and people grabbing them by the handful! [/QUOTE] And then shoving handfuls of them into their mouths and eating them raw because the crops had failed again! ---
**Author:** ![Beaucarnea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@Beaucarnea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beaucarnea)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/90 "2007-03-14T20:51:55Z")
[QUOTE=Ellen Cherry] I grew up in Kentucky, where we grow lots of tobacco, although not as much these days as in my younger years. When I was about 12, I had occasion to wander near a field and observe the … \ [tobacco horn worm](http://www.pbase.com/digipets/image/34417277)! He looks rather beautiful in this photo, but lemme tell you, he was large, very green and very .. ur, _substantial_. You don’t want a worm with heft, lemme tell ya. Silverfish. _gahhhh!_ _fetal position_ [/QUOTE] A tobacco hornworm with parasites. I give you a [fully loaded tobacco hornworm](http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Parasitic+wasp+cocoons+on+hornworm&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2). These nasties get on my organic tomatoes every year. I actually feel sorry for the giant worm that is feasting on my tomatoes when I see them burdened thusly. If you think it looks gross on the outside, imagine what is happening inside. You do…_not_…want to squish this bug. Toss it in the pond and let the bluegill deal with it. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/91 "2007-03-14T21:22:46Z")
I’m glad to see the eggs on the hornworms when they show up. I haven’t had a hornworm to deal with for 30 years, and I don’t miss them. They were on my grandpas farm and you found them on the tomatoes. I don’t think people looking at the picture know how huge they are. Think something approaching an inch in diameter and up to 6 inches long. They can finish a plant off quickly at that size. All you see are the stubs of the thicker branches. The tent catapilers didn’t give me the ick feeling until last year when some lrge one crawling around on tree trunks, made it look like a nest of writhing snake. I wanted a flame thrower at that point. The tree was weed tree anyhow and stripped, so flames wouldn’t have been a problem. ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/92 "2007-03-14T21:47:57Z")
Ok, ya’ll, thanks. I was reading this lovely thread (nodding :yes, yes, I agree with that one, and that one and …ewwwwwwwwwwww:) when one of my cats decided to tickle my bare leg with the tip of his tail. While I was reading about the “fully loaded tobacco hornworm”. I launched myself straight up into the air while scrubbing frantically at my leg and moaning. I very nearly peed on myself. The cat is laughing at me. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/93 "2007-03-14T21:49:34Z")
[QUOTE=Beaucarnea] A tobacco hornworm with parasites. I give you a [fully loaded tobacco hornworm](http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Parasitic+wasp+cocoons+on+hornworm&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2). These nasties get on my organic tomatoes every year. I actually feel sorry for the giant worm that is feasting on my tomatoes when I see them burdened thusly. If you think it looks gross on the outside, imagine what is happening inside. You do…_not_…want to squish this bug. Toss it in the pond and let the bluegill deal with it. [/QUOTE] Good god…that’s disgusting. I know I won’t be able to sleep tonight. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Beaucarnea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@Beaucarnea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beaucarnea)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/94 "2007-03-14T22:07:52Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] Good god…that’s disgusting. I know I won’t be able to sleep tonight. :eek: [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=SnakesCatLady] Ok, ya’ll, thanks. I was reading this lovely thread (nodding :yes, yes, I agree with that one, and that one and …ewwwwwwwwwwww:) when one of my cats decided to tickle my bare leg with the tip of his tail. While I was reading about the “fully loaded tobacco hornworm”. I launched myself straight up into the air while scrubbing frantically at my leg and moaning. I very nearly peed on myself. The cat is laughing at me. [/QUOTE] Gosh, girls, I’m sorry. I don’t want to go down as the grossest chick on the Dope. Let me redeem myself. Here is the lowdown on organic gardens- Rachel Carson only told half the story. You use pesticides: you get Silent Spring. You don’t use pesticides: Pukey Spring. But look at it this way- when you buy my tomatoes at the Farmer’s Market this summer and exclaim, “Wow. How do you get such pretty fruit without pesticides?” The answer is that I am the girl who has the _huevos_ to pick off these tiny horrors before they do any damage. Ditto for corn earworms, cabbage loopers, potato bugs, cucumber beetles, etc. _Dons cape emblazoned with OG_ “Don’t worry ladies and gentlemen! I’ll save you from the arthropods and larvae and such!” ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/95 "2007-03-14T22:18:21Z")
The time my brother and I found this freakishly large beetle on the porch of my aunt’s house. It was massive, the same size and shape as a granny smith apple cut in half, except a sickly rusty-black color. And legs, creepy spiny legs. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I got a stick and poked it. It _screamed_. Not a squeak, nor a titter, nor a rustle. A scream, loud and shrill like a baby piglet crying. I freaked out and screamed even louder, falling over backward as I pinwheeled away from it. My brother let out a bloodthirsty battle cry, leaped up, and stomped on it. It screamed again as it crunched, grey beetle gut goo jetting out all over the porch. My brother, being positioned correctly as the stomper, came away unscathed. I was picking bug bits and bristly slime out of my clothes and hair ☹☹☹☹ ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2007, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/96 "2007-03-15T00:38:01Z")
**Beaucarnea** , yikes,what a story! I laughed hysterically, then again with your “Confetti and streamers” comment. Thanks. I don’t get grossed out by much in Nature, am usually just fascinated. Surinam toad; we had one my dad, biologist magnet for weird critters, brought home. Kinda icky, and raggy looking when the babies hatched, but the little tiny frogs were **so cute**!!! Slugs having sex: strange and beautiful, wish I could put a microphone and hear that. Maggots, oh well; caterpillars, hi there! But then there is the [Guinea Worm](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.asnom.org/image/447_dracunculose/extraction_progres.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.asnom.org/en/447_dracunculose.html&h=232&w=350&sz=13&hl=en&start=37&tbnid=UwWv53c6k8QbHM:&tbnh=80&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dguinea%2Bworm%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN). This just squicks me out to no end. WARNING: if you are squeamish, avoid this link. It is really awful, with no redeeming “everything has a place in Nature” qualities. ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2007, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/97 "2007-03-15T01:46:46Z")
If we’re gonna get really squicky - no matter that I know I don’t have them and have never had them, if the discussion turns to [crabs](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/lice/factsht_pubic_lice.htm) I get itchy. ---
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2007, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/98 "2007-03-15T02:08:27Z")
[QUOTE=Maastricht] Then don’t click on this [link.](http://www.honoluluzoo.org/images/surinam_toad_eggs2.jpg) Mwuhahaa! [/QUOTE] Ha! Gremlins! > [@butler1850](#): > > There is no explanation, other than it’s all part and parcel of the “snips & snails, and puppy dog tails” bit. Where that cow is concerned, mostly snips. I’m not the biggest fan of parasitic worms, either nor do I make any exceptions for guinea worms. Guh. I’m a bit of a vermiphobe in general, I think. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the work they do–Earthworms with the aeration, _C. elegans_ as a model organism, _S. hulud_ with transportation–that particular GENRE of creature just isn’t my thing. When I was 11 I was paging through my science book I ran across a picture of a [planarian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarians). “Oh, hey,” I thought, “a halibu–wait, that’s not a–WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!” The eyespots and and that squiggly pattern on their skin struck a rather nasty chord with me. Once I found out how small they are when my older sister brought some home in a little jar from her AP bio class, they weren’t quite so freakish any more. Also, I like horses. My mom and sister ride, and a young woman who once put a spell on me had a few of them on her family’s farm. I’d also like to think that enjoying feeding them apples and carrots from the palm of my hand is something ladies might find endearing. But, [SAM KINISON] AUGH! AUGH! AAAAUUUUGGGHHH!!![/SAM KINISON] [Blue-eyed horse](http://www.champagnehorses.net/ch1.gif) freak the bejesus out of me. Just think: that’s what those “soft, brown eyes” really look like with a little contrast. Please, somebody just get Wildfire some contacts. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2007, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/99 "2007-03-15T02:10:12Z")
Yeah, I’ve seen films of **Guinea Worm** – kids twirling them around sticks as the try to unwind them out of their bodies. yecchhh. **Bilharzia** is pretty scary, too. [http://www.escargot.ch/personel/schisto.htm](http://www.escargot.ch/personel/schisto.htm) Between these, various insect larvae, and malaria, I don’t feel a strong attraction for equatorial Africa. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2007, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612/100 "2007-03-15T02:19:07Z")
[QUOTE=Solfy] The multiple people mentioning the surinam toad is what makes me love this board. I’ve never met anyone else who witnessed the horror I saw on some nature program years ago. All those babies crawling out of all those holes in the toad’s back. Ugh! My worst gross out is mold. I have a horrified fascination with the textures, the colors, the variety, but the thought of contacting it, or worse - accidentally ingesting it, makes me want to run screaming for the hills. Slime molds squick me out, too (but they don’t grow in my refrigerator). In my crummy college appartment I kept finding these odd little bugs by the sink. I traced them to their source. They were living behind a circuit board in the base of my cordless phone on a nearby shelf. There was a whole nest of them. I took the phone outside and beat it on the pavement until they were all gone. I am eternally grateful that I didn’t realize at the time that I had a nest of roaches living in my phone. (I still have the phone, too!) [/QUOTE] RE: the aforementioned toad: there is a link below which actually show the eggs on the toad’s back. Not hatched yet, but still disturbing. YOU have been warned! [http://www.honoluluzoo.org/surinam\_toad.htm](http://www.honoluluzoo.org/surinam_toad.htm) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-grosses-you-out/395612.md?page=6)