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I had an encounter with Gympie-Gympie/Stinging bush (Dendrocnide moroides) in the early 1980s when I was camping for some weeks at Emmagen Creek, Cape Tribulat

I had an encounter with Gympie-Gympie/Stinging bush (Dendrocnide moroides) in the early 1980s when I was camping for some weeks at Emmagen Creek, Cape Tribulation which is about 50 miles north of Cairns and past Mossman in Queensland's Daintree rainforest. (Back then, Mossman was a single street with none of the modern luxurious tourist hotels/accommodation that it has today and Emmagen Creek was just cane toad infested wilderness.) To say the stings were painful would be gross understatement (it's not something one ever forgets)! Nevertheless I was lucky as my encounter could have been much, much worse if it had not been for a quick-thinking local who grabbed me by the belt and pulled me back as we were tracking through some thick undergrowth (he saw it before me but not quite quickly enough). Also, I'd been forewarned about Gympie-Gympie and another nasty native which is aptly known as Lawyer Cane/Vine or Wait-A-While (Calamus muelleri) — once you're in its 'claws', needle-like hooks, you definitely wait—you're not going anywhere quickly (extracting oneself is a long and painful process). Being forewarned doesn't help much if one's only description of these hazards is verbal, one needs a picture as both are hard to see in the thick scrub and undergrowth and much of it looks pretty much the same (both are easily disguised amongst other greenery). Fortunately the Gympie-Gympie only got me on the back of one hand. I was also lucky in another respect in that the local advised me to wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt before we started out on that treck. (As it's so hot and humid in the Daintree such attire wasn't the usual norm, but getting around shirtless and in shorts is.) Back at base, much time was spent with the medical kit tweezers extracting the essentially invisible hair-like threads that had embedded themselves into my skin. I recall some lidocaine-based sunburn cream helped but my hand was sore for ages afterwards.

foobarian 4y ago
> I was also lucky in another respect in that the local advised me to wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt Just based on Australia's reputation alone I don't think I would ever even think about venturing outside in anything short of a hazmat suit on top of a suit of plate mail :-)
- eutropia 4y ago
  Made a mess from bursting into laughter from this. Cheers
  - hilbert42 4y ago
    Ages ago, I got a similar reaction (and also the exact opposite) when I posted my encounters with these critters (can't remember if on HN or elsewhere): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redback_spider https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redback_spider https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_funnel-web_spider https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_funnel-web_spider, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrax https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrax One of my staff had lots of Atrax robustus in his backyard and over a period he brought several to work and they became the Electronics Department's 'pet' (but we only kept one at a time). We put him (with A. robustus the males are more deadly and agressive than the females) in a large empty coffee jar with rocks and dirt filling about a third the jar and with air holes in the lid which were just big enough to fit a pencil through. We kept him fed on slaters (woodlice) and crickets and he took pride of place on my office desk. Typically, they'd live for 18 months to two years. They were talking points for visitors to my office (some were horried but most just curious). When I'd come in of a morning and switch the lights on he'd rear up on his hind legs with fangs thrust out. I'd occasionally respond by sticking one of those red 'Copperplate' pencils though an air hole and he'd attack it. The venom could be clearly seen running down the outside of the pencil. I kept that badly pocked-marked pencil as a souvenir for some years but unfortunately I've since lost it. Also, I was 'lucky' enough to have the organization's union rep as one of my staff. Often, he'd come into my office for a discussion and he'd jokingly preface our convention to the effect 'We expect your cooperation in this matter or we'll let him loose when you're not looking.' For some reason, that post horrified several UK readers. :-)
- aidenn0 4y ago
  Deadliest venomous creature in Australia is the honeybee.
  - hilbert42 4y ago

foobarian 4y ago

> I was also lucky in another respect in that the local advised me to wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt Just based on Australia's reputation alone I don't think I would ever even think about venturing outside in anything short of a hazmat suit on top of a suit of plate mail :-)

eutropia 4y ago
Made a mess from bursting into laughter from this. Cheers
- hilbert42 4y ago
  Ages ago, I got a similar reaction (and also the exact opposite) when I posted my encounters with these critters (can't remember if on HN or elsewhere): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redback_spider https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redback_spider https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_funnel-web_spider https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_funnel-web_spider, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrax https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrax One of my staff had lots of Atrax robustus in his backyard and over a period he brought several to work and they became the Electronics Department's 'pet' (but we only kept one at a time). We put him (with A. robustus the males are more deadly and agressive than the females) in a large empty coffee jar with rocks and dirt filling about a third the jar and with air holes in the lid which were just big enough to fit a pencil through. We kept him fed on slaters (woodlice) and crickets and he took pride of place on my office desk. Typically, they'd live for 18 months to two years. They were talking points for visitors to my office (some were horried but most just curious). When I'd come in of a morning and switch the lights on he'd rear up on his hind legs with fangs thrust out. I'd occasionally respond by sticking one of those red 'Copperplate' pencils though an air hole and he'd attack it. The venom could be clearly seen running down the outside of the pencil. I kept that badly pocked-marked pencil as a souvenir for some years but unfortunately I've since lost it. Also, I was 'lucky' enough to have the organization's union rep as one of my staff. Often, he'd come into my office for a discussion and he'd jokingly preface our convention to the effect 'We expect your cooperation in this matter or we'll let him loose when you're not looking.' For some reason, that post horrified several UK readers. :-)
aidenn0 4y ago
Deadliest venomous creature in Australia is the honeybee.
- hilbert42 4y ago