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Post by timoinsects on Feb 6, 2012 19:47:37 GMT -8
don't know if any of you ever had came across dangerous cases when in wild collecting trip. the most serious thing would be the death.
Dangerous i had,
1.
Got Lost,
i got lost in the primitive forest once when i was in forest collecting ALONE-------->in the begining,i searched for Cyclobalanopsis glauca(Thunb.) Oerst , up to the higher places in a mountion(forest),i walked and walked,the path became fade away till in the end no pathes or several fuzzy pathes,then i selected one to go on,and walked and walked without any consideration if could not find the same way back. after some time,not much insects were collected then i planed return along with the way i came,but could not find the previous way back. all of a sudden i relaised the situation was not nice,then i became warried bit more.........after a terrible/hard forward in the forest,i got my way back.
this place is S.E.Tibet a villege,indian border.
2.Get an Electric Shock,
don't write in details,anyway i was alone also,when light trap. my hand touched the wire,fortuneally i was oK, nobody around me at that time,so it was a great lesson.
Death,
1.
of course we all alive,but have you heard any ture stories maybe your friends/colleagues or other people who died from a collecting trip?
i had a ture story----> in 2011,a taiwanese colleague,maybe 30years old around,died from an Electric Shock when he was collecting in Hainan Island.he was alone at that time.died directlly from the insects collecting.
and other potential dangerous such as:
mud flood, the traffic accident(as some places are terrible traffic condition),fall down to precipice,thouse directlly threaten your life.
other dangerous made you unrest or hurt but don't threaten your life: poisonious bugs 'kiss'(bite). mecury bulb got explosion for the damp things touched it. etc.
anyway,collecting is not always safe,Take Great Care Yourself and the people around you Always when you're on the way!
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Post by obewan on Feb 6, 2012 20:44:39 GMT -8
Had a friend collecting in SA, and had a gun put to his and his wife's head for a long time while robbers stole all of their valuables. Sure am glad they made it back!
obe
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Post by rayrard on Feb 6, 2012 22:48:49 GMT -8
What were those people running on their traps? I mean an errant touch should deliver a good shock but I'd think you'd have to drop the battery into a puddle you were walking through to be killed by it. I was thinking about that the other day when I was checking my new BL trap and there was a moth sitting on one of the alligator clips. I was trying to get the moth on my fingers when I realized how close I was to the terminal!  |
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Post by africaone on Feb 6, 2012 23:08:52 GMT -8
I had some accidents (two ammiac accidental injections, one snake bite that cost me 3 weeks in beds, ...)
but one important when i approach my net to a high voltage line that come out a small hydroelectric plant (a nice place as the bush was cut for the maintenance of the line, not far the soil to get out the valley, with a forest around it)). I don't remember exactly what hapened, I tried to net an hesperid and my net approchoed the line that I probably don't touch (as i am writing here). I was completely shocked and waked up some time after (I don't know how many probably a dozen or more minutes), lying down in the bush with cardiac problem ( that rest 3 months, cardiac arythmy).
I never hunted near such line after !
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Post by wollastoni on Feb 7, 2012 0:17:36 GMT -8
I had 2 falls in Papua that could have been dangerous : one in a river while trying to catch Delias argentata, one during a very impressive descent during a big rain : the floor was totally wet and slipping : I fall on the back in dense bushs ... and could not get off the ground without the help of my group.
Hopefully I did not break anything... because I can guarantee you that you don't want to be operated by a Papuan surgeon...
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Post by nomihoudai on Feb 7, 2012 2:02:15 GMT -8
-> inbe4 sharp greec rocks What kind of batteries you got there in china??? I doubt my small motocycle battery could harm me... on the other hand I don't want to try and touch both contacts at the same time^^ Deaths that I heard about: - Best friend of a Munich collector fell to death in his mid 20's on a collecting trip in Himalayas. - One author of "Noctuidae Europaeae" died in a car crash while on a collecting trip in Thailand - Two users of German forums recently died on a collecting trip to Skandinavia =( ( I don't know the causes but I think car crash too) I have never been in real danger so far, but on the other hand I must say that I don't have that much field experience that something could have happened. There was only one very unpleasent situation last year in Switzerland. It was the second time that I went to mountains and I am not used how fast weather can change there. We went up to the top of the mountain at 2700m above tree level ( tree level at 1900m) when there was a few clouds and it got cooler so we decided to get back down again. When we where at half the way we heard thunder and thunderclouds drifted over the summit of the mountain taking the exact path of the dell we where in. We were running as fast as we could to get at least to tree level. Trees do not protect you from lightning and you are not allowed to sit too close to one when the flash hits it because the tree and you will start to burn when you are closer than 10m. On the other hand it still is better to have a forest surrounding you because then the chance that it hits you is smaller as you are no more the highest spot in the field. The last thing is not related to collecting but I had a surgery related to butterfly mounting. When I was mounting butterflies on a wooden spreading board the head of a glass needle cracked and I stung myself with the needle. I later could only find 1/2 of the glass head and was not worried too much where the rest of it was. My finger hurt a lot when touching things and I was thinking it will go away. After 5 weeks it still hurt despite the fact that the wound healed so I went to hospital and got an x-ray...well there we found back the rest of the head  There was a lot of scar tissue around the glass and it would not have gotten out by itself, so I got a surgery on the tip of my right index finger to remove it. This is now half a year ago and the feeling in my finger still has not gotten back completely and I had to sell my wooden boards as I don't have the power in my finger to put the needle into the wood. I got now styrodur foam spreading boards. Attachments:
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2012 5:58:56 GMT -8
I have lost count in my younger days how many times I risked life, limb and serious injury chasing butterflies, the worst one was being chased down a mountain side by a wild pig, almost dropping 300 feet when running across a field chasing papilio machaon did'nt know the drop was there and numorous others too many to speak of.
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Post by wollastoni on Feb 7, 2012 6:05:32 GMT -8
Love the wild pig story !  |
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Post by exoticimports on Feb 7, 2012 8:07:29 GMT -8
Since most serious field work is conducted in remote, and/or wartorn, and/or impoverished areas, the dangers are real.
Off the top of my head:
1. Found out years after the fact that I'd been picking up Cone shells while snorkeling that I'd been picking them up backwards.
2. Militants- while sitting at a hotel patio popular amongst one faction, somebody from another faction opened up with a .308 SLR from 75 meters away. Everyone except me dove to the ground. Nobody hit.
3. Militants- came up over a rise and found myself at a militant checkpoint. They were drunk. Within half an hour I had them running around netting Ornithoptera.
4. Diseases- a double dose of Malaria and Salmonella just about finished me off. A group of kids found me lying in the mud.
5. Starvation- in a land full of fruits, veggies, and wildlife, I found myself unable to locate food! Astonishing but true; not close to dying but had to return to base and became ill from weakened condition.
6. Injury: 1) chasing an Ornithoptera I leapt over a small cliff I didn't see, landing on my tailbone from a 2.5meter drop. That really smarted for months. It could have been worse. 2) five minutes into a multi-day trip I lost my footing on hillside scree, and wound up with a finger-thick stick right through my shin. End of journey.
7. Lost. Well, there's a difference between not knowing where you are, and being lost. The way I see it, if there's a stream, you're not lost, you get to the coast. But people (including military) have been lost in areas in which I was comfortable. It's a matter of knowing how to navigate. BTW, GPS doesn't work under jungle cover.
8. Bit in the stomach by an arboreal fer de lance. Luckily it was a dry bite.
During my expedition days I carried a full field kit for field surgery, which I had to do on myself several times. I also carried a variety of antibiotics to treat specific ailments- parasites, infection, etc. I also carried (I suppose illegally) oxycodone and vicadin in case I busted my leg and had to get myself back.
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Post by anthony on Feb 7, 2012 8:15:16 GMT -8
Nearly broke my left leg stepping into a hidden hole chasing butterflies 3 years ago. Left knee still hurts sometimes. It can be deceptively dangerous out there.
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Post by prillbug2 on Feb 7, 2012 8:44:31 GMT -8
All the poison ivy that I've contracted over the years while in the field, to the point where it would make my legs swell, and the itching and oozing of puss from the blisters made me very uncomfortable. Running into a nest of yellow jackets, and getting stung a few times, very painful. Disturbing a nest of European hornets down in Southern Illinois, while collecting one night. Fortunately, they didn't sting me and my friend. Getting bitten by deer ticks to the point where I had Lyme Disease, and now a slight numbness to both of my feet. I take alot of protein powder, vitamin B, niacin, and other vitamins to help the nerves in my feet.
Finding that I'm in bear country while I'm collecting in Colorado back in 1996. Got the heck out of there when I saw one. Stayed near the roadside and collected.
Jeff Prill
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Post by wollastoni on Feb 7, 2012 8:44:50 GMT -8
exoticimports < where did you have those problems with militants ? PNG ?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2012 9:01:45 GMT -8
one that my wife never lets me forget is about 15 years ago when she was 8 months pregnant with our daughter, we went for a walk in some woods on the Isle of Wight, I took my net of course and while we were in there I found freshly emerged limenitis camilla in droves, never seen so many, I was so absorbed in what I was doing I didnt notice she had fell into a muddy pool in the wood, I just carried on blissfully unaware, it had a good ending though as she flapped about like a beached whale trying to get up, 1. she had a soft landing but more importantly 2. I caught a great series of camilla.
the wild pig thing happened the day after I had mocked and laughed at a fellow holiday maker who used to go jogging in the hills every morning who got chased by the same pig the day before, serves me right.
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runear
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Post by runear on Feb 7, 2012 9:47:11 GMT -8
Great collection of stories guys! Militia, parasites, wild pigs, tropical diseases, bears, ticks, starvation, electrocution.. To get close to that perfect little bug.. And people say we're crazy.. What a weird world we live in  My closest encounter with death was while I was trekking along the Geirangerfjord looking for the rare P.mnemosyne. Weather was great and the climb became more of an easy walk as the large stones gave way to wet patches of grass. Foolishly I dedicated my full attention to the camera as the terrain gradually became steeper & slipperier.. Suddenly I lost my footing completely and was heading for the edge. Luckily there was this single stone blocking my 700m (over 2200 feet) free fall - just a meter or so from the edge.. Not a single glimpse of mnemosyne, but I don't think I could handle more excitement for one day anyway... Rune ... This is now half a year ago and the feeling in my finger still has not gotten back completely and I had to sell my wooden boards as I don't have the power in my finger to put the needle into the wood. I got now styrodur foam spreading boards. Claude: a simple trick to turn those hardwood spreading boards into finger friendly boards is to cover them with thin sheets of cork. A cheap source for cork sheets is IKEA. I thinks it's called DUGA: 6 sheets 43cm x 32cm ( about 2mm thick) in each package. A thin coat of wood glue (Elmer's glue), a pre-cut sheet of cork and Voila - your old nasty boards get a new life Attachments:
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Post by nomihoudai on Feb 7, 2012 11:01:11 GMT -8
Thanks for the advice, I sure would have tried it but my boards got sold 2 weeks ago I am ok with my styrodur boards, I put millimeter paper on them and cut the groove with a piece of fishing line. They look ok, only thing is that they are flat type but I will get used to that. |
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There was a lot of scar tissue around the glass and it would not have gotten out by itself, so I got a surgery on the tip of my right index finger to remove it. This is now half a year ago and the feeling in my finger still has not gotten back completely and I had to sell my wooden boards as I don't have the power in my finger to put the needle into the wood. I got now styrodur foam spreading boards.
