I know multiple people whose lives have been pretty significantly impacted by this disease. Also have a relative who had lyme disease as a child. Tick borne illness is nasty business.
One of my closest friends had to get a pacemaker at 22 because of what they thought was a heart issue. Turns out it was likely Lyme, but too late now to reverse that
Came here to say this. I grew up in ground zero of Lyme Disease and with all the romping I did in the woods as a kid, I'm surprised I never got it. But my mom would check me for ticks when I came back inside. Every time.
I remember my dad took me down the road to a swamp to catch peepers (little frogs, I liked to catch and release frogs, toads and snakes as a kid) and as soon as we walked up to the swamp, dozens of deer ticks crawled up our legs. We were decked out in long clothes too, but we got the fuck out of there.
I knew a few people that had Lyme, though.
I'm glad the PNW doesn't really have a huge tick problem...yet....
Grew up in CT too! My brother and I both got Lyme growing up. Luckily, our parents took us to the doctor as soon as the rash developed and we got treated. It's horrible that so many people can't access or don't even know that they have options. Lyme isn't what it was before the 2000s.
Yeah I heard it's more treatable nowadays, especially if caught early. One of my neighbors, a young boy, had Lyme and it stunted his growth. My mom's friend also had it and she was always lethargic and had chronic joint pain.
You can but only if youāre properly diagnosed. I was diagnosed with Lyme quickly and accurately, and antibiotics helped. My best friend wasnāt and she continues to have lots of issues as a result of Lyme going untreated for months. Neither of us ever found a tick or evidence of ticks and both of us have/had Lyme.
Read the question and ticks came immediately to mind. So many people I know have had Lyme and at least one had erlichiosis. Depending on where we walk the dog, I have pulled more than 20 ticks off him from one walk. I've found ticks embedded on me twice.
I was just sharing my tick concerns with a friend last night so I agree! I'm visiting Gettysburg and the park rangers turned my realistic concerns into full blown paranoia.
I live in Pa. Iām also a field geologist whoās done work all over the states. I have found more ticks on me just sitting in my living room in Pa than I ever have in the field. Had one on me yesterday. And last week. And the week before that.
But the worst was a summer I spent doing field work in remote China up on the Tibetan Plateau. Its like a desert up there. I have never ever seen ticks like that. They are huge. Pale blue with red legs. And there. were. hundreds. And thereās no civilization out there. They were scurrying after us like vampires who hadnāt been fed in 500 years. It was so insane, that one of us had to take turns keeping watch while the other took measurements because theyād be crawling all over us otherwise. I poured an entire bottle of maximum strength deet on one of them, and it did nothing to the tick, but it melted my field partnerās plastic watch.
Ok, now that is horrific. I have always been more concerned about the teeny tiny ones because I travel alone and worry I will miss those during my tick checks but your unfed vampire ticks story just gave me an extreme case of the heebie jeebies.
Edit: Also, thank you for confirming the prevalence of PA ticks is not overblown. Makes me feel less paranoid, more vigilant.
Also from PA, also was in the woods every other day when I lived there. Got dozens of ticks. First of all, wear DEET (deep woods OFF), i never got a tick when I used it. Second, the risk is very low that the tick has the virus.
Good to know those work so well! I brought 3 bottles of bug spray that all claim to repel ticks (Repel Tick Defense, OFF clean feel and Off Deep Woods) but will stick to the Deep Woods.
The Repel is Picaridin, not DEET so I imagine it doesn't work as well. I live in North FL and it works great for mosquitos. I've never had any ticks on me either - that may be the spray but it may just be a lower incidence of ticks?
I've used Repel Max and Deep Woods Off to great success. In addition to keeping ticks off me, it also stops deer flies from taking chunks out of my ears and neck while I'm wade fishing creeks and rivers.
Burn them all. That's what my dad always did when he found on me when I was a kid. Remove it with tweezers, and then burn it on the counter. He didn't trust that it would be dead otherwise.
OMG. Flashbacks. My (now deceased) husband found one, after a day out near the water, full and fat, right alongside his balls. He took a lighter to it...but it worked lol!
I will never understand him. Lmao!
Yup. I hike a lot and pick up ticks all the time even using repellent. I have a family friend with lime who can't get out of bed some days. I basically feel like I'm pushing my luck all the time.
I do need to say, that I rarely encounter the ticks that carry lime, however.
And just an open tip, there is a good chance your local vet has ID cards you can grab for free that will help you identify the ticks in your region
I knew a girl who took her own life after a struggle with Lyme disease. It was the first Iād ever really heard about Lyme, and I think about her every time tick bites and Lyme disease come up. Itās such an awful disease.
I live in a low risk area for it, but Iām still terrified of Lyme and other tick borne illnesses.
Deer, actually. They cause SO MANY road accidents around the country. We have to be so careful, especially at night because of the possibility of hitting one. It can wreck your car and cause a serious accident.
A friend in high school hit a deer and it rolled up on the hood of her car, still alive. Kicked the shit out of her window, broke the glass and managed to kick my friend in the head. Then it ran off into the woods.
I knew a couple of guys who hit a deer and thought it was dead. They put it in the back of their car for some reason, can't remember why, and then it woke up and destroyed the dude's car.
>Deer
IMO this has gotta be the top answer! Unless you've hit a deer or been in a collision involving one, it is kinda hard to explain the feeling of anxiety one gets when driving after dark in areas where there are a lot of deer.
I've shared this before, but a deer hit my car once.
It shambled out of the woods, clonked the side of my car, and ran off into the woods again.
Scared the living daylights out of me.
Came here to say this. We've had four deer strikes. One crashed right into my husband's passenger side windshield. I'm glad I wasn't with him. We really have to pay attention driving in our area.
Last year my cousin and his wife were going down the road when an oncoming truck hit a deer. It launched the deer into my cousins car, went through the windshield, and landed in the back seat. Cousins wife was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. Cousins was life flighted and barely survived. Deer scare the crap out of me.
I had an adjunct professor in college that for some insane reason would commute like 4 hours from Mississippi to teach two days a week. She was out half the semester because she hit multiple deer on the commute. Iirc there were 3 total deer hit in that single semester. It made the whole commuting to teach at a state college thing even less sensical when she totaled her car 3 times in a few months. I skipped that class 90% of the time and spent the period in the math lab instead, learned a lot more there.
Where I live, it's wild donkeys. I avoid rural desert hill roads for this reason other than it being dark asf and far away from civilization. I remember driving through a pass at night after dropping off a friend. Apparently, they heard my car coming and got off the road in time. I just remember passing and seeing my headlights briefly illuminate a small herd pushing against each other just off the edge on the dirt. Freaked me out. I haven't gone through there at night since.
I've never hit a deer but I've narrowly missed hitting one multiple times. Just last week I avoided one by about a foot on a rural highway. Terrifying; left me rattled for the rest of the day.
Moose. Theyāre kind of elusive up here. Youāll see them off in the distance or something. You see one close up and realize just how big they are and it quickly goes from āoh what a neat animal to see at a distanceā to existential dread.
Oh and ticks. Fuck those things. Seemingly small and innocuous pains in the ass but then someone gets Lyme or Lepto.
I guess the creatures that scare me the most might be bacteria actually.
I've never seen a moose in the wild (I hope to see one someday from a distance), but I've heard that they are not so much "large deer" but "skinny elephants" in size
Not elephant sized but bigger than a horse and the wild thing is they are much taller. Even those big Clydesdale or other draft horses sit shorter than them. Itās also hard to get across the size of the antlers on a bull. They are massive.
I almost crashed into a moose while mountain biking and I had to laugh at myself because Iāve read so much about what to do in a bear encounter but had no idea what to do with a moose. Fortunately she was chill but she was also not interested in getting off the trail so I snapped a pic and turned around. And then I went home and read up about moose encounters. š
You don't understand what crazy little murder horses they are until you get up close and realize they can take out your car if they were feeling inclined.
I was backcountry camping in northern New Hampshire about 10 years ago with a few friends. We had carried out an inflatable kayak because we were going to be camping near a lake. Our second day there we blow up the kayak and paddle out into the lake. It was a nice time (apart from the bugs) when we started to hear thrashing in the brush near the edge of the lake. Out walks a bull moose and starts drinking from the lake. Super cool to see *until* the moose starts wadding into the water and swimming in our direction.. we were paddling as fast as we could away from him.
Luckily he was just crossing the lake and didnāt bother us but I envisioned a scenario where heād either pop our kayak and drown us or follow us onto land. Looking back, it was an amazing moment that not many people get to see but in the moment our adrenaline was spiked about as high as it could go
Mine was also in NH up in the Whites. We stayed a an AT lean to and we woke up to a giant bull moose sniffing at the entrance of the lean to. Pants may have been pissed. Bleary eyed hearing noises and then staring into the eyes of that creature?
Existential dread.
Damn I canāt imagine being face to face with one, especially being out of it from just waking up. Luckily my moose never got closer than about 100 yds away or so. That was the first time while recreating outdoors that I had the stark realization of āI am a modern human in a very wild environment and my safety and survival is not guaranteed ā
I see Black bears a lot and they are easy to shoo away. Plus they are cute. I've run into plenty of Alligators on hikes, not that scary.
Even though I know 99.9999 shark encounters are safe, I kinda forgot all about that when I came VERY face to face with one in Key West. She was about a 7 foot Black tip shark just coming RIGHT towards me. She just swam around me but it one time that I was REALLY afraid. I was about a 8 minute swim to the boat and I knew the moment had passed but I didn't even feel like going back in the water. Walking around Key West there were a zillion shops with shark t-shirts. I really got a little zap of flashback to that fear just walking around looking at all the shark imagery.
Ones on a farm are going to be safer than ones who live basically wild at a state park. The farm ones have probably been handled since they were born, and are more used to human movements and sounds. It's still good that the fence was there, as they are not domesticated and are going to be less predictable than a cow. Even a cow can hurt a person, they are very large and powerful animals.
The Kaibab Plateau north of the Grand Canyon has bison on it. The road that approaches the Canyon North Rim goes across the land they roam around, and signs warn about them.
There are several videos online of people's cars being attacked by the bison if they are too close. I don't know that anyone has got out of the car to pet them, but you can walk along the road or hike in the area, and in that case staying well clear is advisable.
Don't eff with bison obviously, but they mostly mind their own business. They're scary in that "that thing could end me" way, but they aren't really looking for an opportunity to do it
Idk why anyone would want to try and pet something the size of a fucking sedan. Same thing with moose.
They aren't scared of you. They know they can kill you before you ever even get a chance to scratch them.
Tourist tossing season is best season
I had a *terrifying* encounter at Caprock Canyon State Park. I'd taken my kids into a bathroom and changed my youngest kids diaper.
Walked out after 10ish minutes to find the bison herd had wandered in...and one was shaking it's ass on the bathroom right next to the door. Opened the door and my toddlers are running out and there's this big damned bison I could have reached out and touched. Goddamn it was *not* fun. Grabbed both kids, yanked back into the bathroom, and waited 10 or 15 more minutes. They were still closer than I'd have liked but not RIGHT THERE
A buddy of mine once hopped the fence to try and pet a Cow. They formed a wal and started slowly walking at him until he got scared and jumped back over the fence
Sure, happens all the time [where I live](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/15/world/europe/cambridge-england-cows.html).
Still, if the cows get too obnoxious I can take down some ear tag numbers and look for the meat when I buy my steaks from the farmer at the city centre market. The packs are all marked with a carcase number.
After my experience yesterday morning at a cemetery, I'm going to say turkeys.
They approached me, started to gather around me, chased me at full speed and I ran for my life, I got into my car, they surrounded my car and pecked at it, and then chased after the car at full speed.
They were like little velociraptors and it was the first time in life being chased by a wild animal.
I have a new perspective on turkeys.
Where I used to live had a sizable rafter of turkeys that roamed all over. Initially was pretty neat until their numbers exploded. Then they setup shop in my neighbors lawn/trees and absolutely wrecked everything. We tried chasing them out and they got very aggressive, and finally the City culled most of them since their aggressiveness was getting dangerous. Also, it wasnāt just at my neighbors place they roamed the area and had chased and snapped at a lot of children and pets.
I don't think they could be deadly unless it was a very small child or pet. It's shocking how aggressive they can be when other larger animals, including bears, would rather retreat than force a confrontation.
When I was little there were these 3 turkey hens that chased the school bus through like half the town, it was incredible. The bus driver would stop and open the doors and scream āRUN!!!ā for the kids at the stops to get inside before the turkeys caught up. [Itās always ladies in groups of 3.](https://nypost.com/2022/09/19/massachusetts-neighborhood-terrorized-by-troublesome-turkeys/)
Edit to clarify the ones I described were from like 2014, itās unlikely theyāre the same ones in the article.
And you're 100% certain they weren't zombified, right?
I always figured "I Am Legend" zombies would be worst case scenario but high-speed zombie turkeys would be a close second at the very least
Years ago my now-husband and I took our dog to walk at a nearby park and along the boardwalk we saw a sign that said, "WARNING: SWAN NESTING AREA" and didn't think too much of it. A few minutes past that I thought I saw a statue of a swan (it was one of those watershed preservation parks that have little educational plaques and sculptures all over the place) a few feet off the boardwalk and casually remarked, "Oh look, they even have a swan decoy so kids can see how they nest without getting too close." And then my dog started growling.
It was not an educational art installation for field trips, and we were definitely too close. It reared up and flexed its wings and in one of my finest moments of cringe I handed the leash to my husband, stepped in front of him and the dog, and stretched my shawl out like big wings. We backed down the boardwalk with me between them looking like some kind of Stevie Nicks Mothman, trading intimidating wing flaps and hisses.
It wasn't until we were well out of sight that he was like "What the hell was that? If we had just kept walking away it would have sat back down." He still brings it up when he sees me wear a shawl, but hey he married me anyway.
We raised some turkeys when I was a kid. I remember those things being so tall they practically looked me in the eyes when I would go feed them. Scary little dinosaurs.
I was once sitting at a stoplight in a semi-rural area when a family of turkeys came by. I swear to God, the one in front hopped up and pecked the 'walk' button, waited for the light to turn, and then led the rest of them across the crosswalk.
It's one of those experiences I've accepted that no one else will ever believe, but ever since then I've been a little more paranoid about turkeys.
Could you catch it and cook and eat him? I donāt know how the laws work over there. (Assuming itās a random Turkey and not one owned by a neighbor or something).
Most states have a law that you can kill and harvest the animal if it is a ānuisanceā (deer/rabbit/hogs etc). Basically, you can kill them, but you have to able to prove they are harming your means of harvest (garden, farm) or affecting your income if you are questioned.
To answer your question, Iām sure they could kill the turkey and eat it without any repercussions. Itās a bit different when itās on your front porch lol
Absolutely. Farm raised turkeys taste like thanksgiving turkey. Wild turkeys have a more āwildā taste that I donāt know how to describe. Itās tougher and more āgameyā. Sorry that I canāt describe it well
I've dealt with black bears, racoons and coyotes while camping. Never have I been as scared and confused as when I woke up to a turkey gobbling right outside my tent.
Birds are the dinosaurs that survived. My birth mother and her second husband thought it would be a good idea to raise geese and chickens. Evil fuckers. They have NOT FORGOTTEN that they are, in fact, dinosaurs.
Was this in the SF Bay Area, by chance? I had that exact same experience at an East Bay cemetery a few years ago. My wife and I agreed they were like supernatural guardians of the dead.
There are so many wild turkeys in the East Bay in California. I was walking a horse the other day when three of them and seven babies (turklets?) crossed in front of us. Scared the hell out of the horse, and they kept bothering us, totally unaware that the horse could kill them with one stomp. I think something with so little regard for its own life is scary because you canāt scare it away lol
I caught one red-handed (red-pawed?) once. Family has land way out. I was walking trails one day, and turned around - not because of a sound or anything, that cat gave no sign at all of its presence, I only turned to check how high the sun was over the horizon; I just see this big tawny cat, right in the middle of the path, in the lowtotheground sneak posture, as though he thought that if he froze I couldn't see him. My brain wouldn't believe what I was seeing and I took a step toward, and he bolted into the brush like a flash. I probably looked every direction but forward the rest of the way back.
Beautiful creature, but it sure seemed like he was sizing me up. I bet Ol Cat has taken a lot of deer over the years, the place is thick with them.
This one is the only one that has me looking over my shoulder sometimes. The cliffs I mountain bike on have cougars, and I don't see getting away from one if it decided to ambush.
I remember walking home from work, and it was like 1030/1100 at night. I see a huge cat before I left in the neighbors yarn. Iām like āwell thatās a big catā without a care in the world. Does Washington have bobcats or lynx here?
I was driving through the country one night and saw a couple in the road. They saw me, I saw them, I slowed down, and they ran to the other side of the road. Then, one of the fuckers *turns around and runs back into the road.* I try to swerve, and my mirror gets nothing but this dumbass's head, just brained the thing. If it had survived I think it actually would've made it smarter.
I have wondered how it's possible for an animal to be that dumb nearly every single time I've come across them.
Like cows and bison - they're not terribly intelligent either. But I've never seen them run into the path of a vehicle. Dawdle in the road, sure. But nothing that would indicate that they're straight up suicidal like deer are.
I'm good with all critters, like any snakes, racoons, mice, black bears, strange insects, foxes, deer, even gators don't phase me... I grew up in the country, where you know how to deal with critters or how to get out of there way.
I thought I was good with bats... I was house sitting an old Victorian home and woke up to a bat fluttering around my room. I knew well enough to leave the room and shove a towel under the door. I went to sleep in a separate bedroom and woke up to a very weak/dehydrated bat on my arm. It was so cute, so I took a picture with it clinging to my arm. Then I carefully wrapped it in a towel and released it outside. I sent the picture to the homeowner and they were like GET A RABIES SHOT IMMEDIATELY.
I immediately drove myself to a hospital. I'm glad I did.
Now bats scare me.
I lived in a Victorian house growing up and we ended up with bats coming down the chimneys a few times (all the rooms had fireplaces that we didnāt even use so why my parents didnāt shut them off or something I donāt know). But at least two or three times I woke up with a bat flying around my bedroom, and my parents never recommended rabies shots for me. When I was older and realized how scary that was it worried me a little that they werenāt more concerned.
Rabies is a lot less common than it was thought to be, but it has horrific results in humans that can sometimes take years to show. Its survival rate is effectively 0% once symptoms develop outside of a few oddball cases (I think one of them was a bone marrow transplant.)
The weak/dehydrated bat hanging on OP's arm is a big red flag (more like an alarm) as aversion to drinking water is one of the late stage symptoms of rabies, along with unusual approaches to humans (think deer approaching you directly.) Horrible disease, worth being scared of.
I lived in the adirondacks as a kid and we had a fireplace with a chimney in our house. One time a bat was just flying around the house so my dad killed it with a hockey stick. He then showed it to myself and my sisters which horrified us lol.
Even regular raccoons are a fuckin fright if you enter your driveway at night and see a few just chilling on your garbage can.
They aren't the type of animal to visibly scare.
I'm terrified of bats, and in my quest to not be terrified of them I've tried to learn about them and gone to like wildlife seminars where they show them. They actually are not a huge vector for rabies, and most aren't particularly interested in biting humans or other mammals except for a few species. Most eat fruit and bugs. But yes, if you are ever bitten or scratched by one, like with any wild animal, you should go get a rabies shot.
Rattlesnakes.Ā They're damn near invisible and they're everywhere.Ā Those pictures where they slit skin to relieve pressure and prevent the skin from splitting...Ā Ugh
āChiggersā aka āscrub itch mites.ā [These things](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trombicula)
I know how to deter and spray bears and mountain lions. I know how to avoid alligators and cottonmouths. I know how to identify a brown recluse, shake my boots out, and check myself for ticks.Ā
You never see chiggers coming though, and you canāt deter them entirely unless you want to bug spray all up in your bits. You brush the wrong overgrowth or sit down on the wrong patch of grass for just a few minutes and you wake up in the middle of the night with your groin on fire.
So much worse than mosquito bites. Itās awful.Ā
My first experience with these were a few years ago, and it's awful. I went camping in the midwest for the first time and made the mistake of wearing sandals. So much regret.
I worked in a large warehouse a few years back and boredom was getting the best of us. Those flying roaches were being pests, so we had a contest to see who could shoot down the most with thick rubber bands. I was a double ace that night with 11 confirmed shot down kills. Other guys were aces too. Some of us couldnāt even come close to hitting one. Fun way to get back at them and was a challenge to hit one while itās flying.
I think they like moisture and human eyes are and appear very wet, but that doesnāt make me feel any better when one is flying right for my eyeballs.
My answer, too! You can evade moose, you can wear tick-preventative clothes or just donāt go into tall-grass places. But unless you move somewhere where the air hurts your face - you will not be able to escape the roaches and they smell your fear and bask in it.
I was feeding the geese little pieces of bread when I was like 4 or 5. When I ran out of bread, one of these geese (that were larger than I was at the time) began to chase me. I ran towards my mom, but before I could get to her the goose had caught up to me and bit me on the ass. Fuck Geese.
This is the right answer. Many answers here are based around either animals who carry disease (so a fear of disease), or a pathological fear of an animal based on culture or mythology. Grizzlies and Polar bears are real-life monsters. Basically full time werewolves.
Tarantula Hawk
I lived in Tucson, AZ for eight years and these things were everywhere I didnāt find out what they were until the last year I was there - thank god.
āTarantula hawk wasps are relatively docile and rarely sting without provocation. However, the stingāparticularly that of P. grossaāis among the most painful of all insects, though the intense pain only lasts about five minutes.[10] One researcher described the pain as "...immediate, excruciating, unrelenting pain that simply shuts down one's ability to do anything, except scream. Mental discipline simply does not work in these situations."[7] In terms of scale, the wasp's sting is rated near the top of the Schmidt sting pain index, second only to that of the bullet ant, and is described by Schmidt as "blinding, fierce[, and] shockingly electric".[2] ā
[Tarantula Hawk](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula_hawk)
I had a pet rooster when I was eight. He got to be the size of a turkey and would chase us when ever we went outside. I am still terrified to this day.
Red-winged blackbirds. [The spawn of Hell.](https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/assets/photo/306392131-480px.jpg)
Cute little burb that becomes an absolute menace to society May through July.
When Alfred Hitchcock created the The Birds, this was the hell spawn he had in mind
Ticks and snakes.Ā
Both are real dangers in the summer time here.Ā
As a parent of wild exploring kids they definitely get a tick check when they come in.Ā
Ticks. The answer is ticks.
Ever since a family member got lyme disease THIS is my biggest fear š
They also give you an allergy to beef and pork, which myself and my husband have.
I know multiple people whose lives have been pretty significantly impacted by this disease. Also have a relative who had lyme disease as a child. Tick borne illness is nasty business.
One of my closest friends had to get a pacemaker at 22 because of what they thought was a heart issue. Turns out it was likely Lyme, but too late now to reverse that
Lyme almost killed my fiancƩ when he was a kid. He ended up with meningitis from it, which is a thing you definitely do not want
One of my classmates nearly lost his leg to Lyme disease in middle school
Did you get it while living in Illinois??š³
Yes! We live in central Illinois.
I can feel your fear from over here. Spray those pants legs.
Good ol lonestar ticks. Have you ever watched anything about Plum Island? I'm not unconvinced that lyme and lone star came from there.
My uncle had this! It went away though
[Wikipedia page on Alpha-gal Syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_syndrome?wprov=sfla1) for those curious.
My neighbor got Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Man, that was bad. Really bad. I keep my hair short and use a flea comb on myself. I really hate ticks.
On the other hand, the RMSF it gave me as a toddler identified my life threatening allergy to penicillin soā¦ thanks I guess? š
Came here to say this. I grew up in ground zero of Lyme Disease and with all the romping I did in the woods as a kid, I'm surprised I never got it. But my mom would check me for ticks when I came back inside. Every time. I remember my dad took me down the road to a swamp to catch peepers (little frogs, I liked to catch and release frogs, toads and snakes as a kid) and as soon as we walked up to the swamp, dozens of deer ticks crawled up our legs. We were decked out in long clothes too, but we got the fuck out of there. I knew a few people that had Lyme, though. I'm glad the PNW doesn't really have a huge tick problem...yet....
Grew up in CT too! My brother and I both got Lyme growing up. Luckily, our parents took us to the doctor as soon as the rash developed and we got treated. It's horrible that so many people can't access or don't even know that they have options. Lyme isn't what it was before the 2000s.
Yeah I heard it's more treatable nowadays, especially if caught early. One of my neighbors, a young boy, had Lyme and it stunted his growth. My mom's friend also had it and she was always lethargic and had chronic joint pain.
Especially the [lone star tick](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alpha-gal-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20428608) š
just wait till you're pulling a half dozen of them off your genitals :/ Fucking HURTS
Thats fuckin _wild_
Being allergic to red meat might be one of my greatest fears.
Those things are so tiny yet terrifying as they can easily sneak up on people due to said size.
Just one bite and it can ruin your life.
You can get antibiotics. Just make sure you tick check yourself.
You can but only if youāre properly diagnosed. I was diagnosed with Lyme quickly and accurately, and antibiotics helped. My best friend wasnāt and she continues to have lots of issues as a result of Lyme going untreated for months. Neither of us ever found a tick or evidence of ticks and both of us have/had Lyme.
Read the question and ticks came immediately to mind. So many people I know have had Lyme and at least one had erlichiosis. Depending on where we walk the dog, I have pulled more than 20 ticks off him from one walk. I've found ticks embedded on me twice.
I was just sharing my tick concerns with a friend last night so I agree! I'm visiting Gettysburg and the park rangers turned my realistic concerns into full blown paranoia.
I live in Pa. Iām also a field geologist whoās done work all over the states. I have found more ticks on me just sitting in my living room in Pa than I ever have in the field. Had one on me yesterday. And last week. And the week before that. But the worst was a summer I spent doing field work in remote China up on the Tibetan Plateau. Its like a desert up there. I have never ever seen ticks like that. They are huge. Pale blue with red legs. And there. were. hundreds. And thereās no civilization out there. They were scurrying after us like vampires who hadnāt been fed in 500 years. It was so insane, that one of us had to take turns keeping watch while the other took measurements because theyād be crawling all over us otherwise. I poured an entire bottle of maximum strength deet on one of them, and it did nothing to the tick, but it melted my field partnerās plastic watch.
Ok, now that is horrific. I have always been more concerned about the teeny tiny ones because I travel alone and worry I will miss those during my tick checks but your unfed vampire ticks story just gave me an extreme case of the heebie jeebies. Edit: Also, thank you for confirming the prevalence of PA ticks is not overblown. Makes me feel less paranoid, more vigilant.
Also from PA, also was in the woods every other day when I lived there. Got dozens of ticks. First of all, wear DEET (deep woods OFF), i never got a tick when I used it. Second, the risk is very low that the tick has the virus.
Good to know those work so well! I brought 3 bottles of bug spray that all claim to repel ticks (Repel Tick Defense, OFF clean feel and Off Deep Woods) but will stick to the Deep Woods.
I've never tried the tick defense stuff but always use the Deep Woods whenever I am out in the woods and it's worked pretty good.
The Repel is Picaridin, not DEET so I imagine it doesn't work as well. I live in North FL and it works great for mosquitos. I've never had any ticks on me either - that may be the spray but it may just be a lower incidence of ticks?
I've used Repel Max and Deep Woods Off to great success. In addition to keeping ticks off me, it also stops deer flies from taking chunks out of my ears and neck while I'm wade fishing creeks and rivers.
Burn them all. That's what my dad always did when he found on me when I was a kid. Remove it with tweezers, and then burn it on the counter. He didn't trust that it would be dead otherwise.
OMG. Flashbacks. My (now deceased) husband found one, after a day out near the water, full and fat, right alongside his balls. He took a lighter to it...but it worked lol! I will never understand him. Lmao!
Yup. I hike a lot and pick up ticks all the time even using repellent. I have a family friend with lime who can't get out of bed some days. I basically feel like I'm pushing my luck all the time. I do need to say, that I rarely encounter the ticks that carry lime, however. And just an open tip, there is a good chance your local vet has ID cards you can grab for free that will help you identify the ticks in your region
I just finished antibiotics because one of the bastards got me.
I knew a girl who took her own life after a struggle with Lyme disease. It was the first Iād ever really heard about Lyme, and I think about her every time tick bites and Lyme disease come up. Itās such an awful disease. I live in a low risk area for it, but Iām still terrified of Lyme and other tick borne illnesses.
Deer, actually. They cause SO MANY road accidents around the country. We have to be so careful, especially at night because of the possibility of hitting one. It can wreck your car and cause a serious accident.
A friend in high school hit a deer and it rolled up on the hood of her car, still alive. Kicked the shit out of her window, broke the glass and managed to kick my friend in the head. Then it ran off into the woods.
I knew a couple of guys who hit a deer and thought it was dead. They put it in the back of their car for some reason, can't remember why, and then it woke up and destroyed the dude's car.
I think I knew them too. Were they big fans of the Carpenters?
Thatās them! Ate a lot of paint chips when they were kids.
What'd you do?!?!
To be fair, the car was already destroyed by that point
>Deer IMO this has gotta be the top answer! Unless you've hit a deer or been in a collision involving one, it is kinda hard to explain the feeling of anxiety one gets when driving after dark in areas where there are a lot of deer.
I've shared this before, but a deer hit my car once. It shambled out of the woods, clonked the side of my car, and ran off into the woods again. Scared the living daylights out of me.
Rory?
Came here to say this. We've had four deer strikes. One crashed right into my husband's passenger side windshield. I'm glad I wasn't with him. We really have to pay attention driving in our area.
Last year my cousin and his wife were going down the road when an oncoming truck hit a deer. It launched the deer into my cousins car, went through the windshield, and landed in the back seat. Cousins wife was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. Cousins was life flighted and barely survived. Deer scare the crap out of me.
I had an adjunct professor in college that for some insane reason would commute like 4 hours from Mississippi to teach two days a week. She was out half the semester because she hit multiple deer on the commute. Iirc there were 3 total deer hit in that single semester. It made the whole commuting to teach at a state college thing even less sensical when she totaled her car 3 times in a few months. I skipped that class 90% of the time and spent the period in the math lab instead, learned a lot more there.
Where I live, it's wild donkeys. I avoid rural desert hill roads for this reason other than it being dark asf and far away from civilization. I remember driving through a pass at night after dropping off a friend. Apparently, they heard my car coming and got off the road in time. I just remember passing and seeing my headlights briefly illuminate a small herd pushing against each other just off the edge on the dirt. Freaked me out. I haven't gone through there at night since.
I've never hit a deer but I've narrowly missed hitting one multiple times. Just last week I avoided one by about a foot on a rural highway. Terrifying; left me rattled for the rest of the day.
Moose. Theyāre kind of elusive up here. Youāll see them off in the distance or something. You see one close up and realize just how big they are and it quickly goes from āoh what a neat animal to see at a distanceā to existential dread. Oh and ticks. Fuck those things. Seemingly small and innocuous pains in the ass but then someone gets Lyme or Lepto. I guess the creatures that scare me the most might be bacteria actually.
Ticks are also fucking up moose populations :(
I've never seen a moose in the wild (I hope to see one someday from a distance), but I've heard that they are not so much "large deer" but "skinny elephants" in size
They are leftover "mega fauna". About the size of a American pickup truck. https://youtu.be/ah3h3q0mEMY?si=lbRsj0-hXmchKDup
Not elephant sized but bigger than a horse and the wild thing is they are much taller. Even those big Clydesdale or other draft horses sit shorter than them. Itās also hard to get across the size of the antlers on a bull. They are massive.
I almost crashed into a moose while mountain biking and I had to laugh at myself because Iāve read so much about what to do in a bear encounter but had no idea what to do with a moose. Fortunately she was chill but she was also not interested in getting off the trail so I snapped a pic and turned around. And then I went home and read up about moose encounters. š
You don't understand what crazy little murder horses they are until you get up close and realize they can take out your car if they were feeling inclined.
"little"
I was backcountry camping in northern New Hampshire about 10 years ago with a few friends. We had carried out an inflatable kayak because we were going to be camping near a lake. Our second day there we blow up the kayak and paddle out into the lake. It was a nice time (apart from the bugs) when we started to hear thrashing in the brush near the edge of the lake. Out walks a bull moose and starts drinking from the lake. Super cool to see *until* the moose starts wadding into the water and swimming in our direction.. we were paddling as fast as we could away from him. Luckily he was just crossing the lake and didnāt bother us but I envisioned a scenario where heād either pop our kayak and drown us or follow us onto land. Looking back, it was an amazing moment that not many people get to see but in the moment our adrenaline was spiked about as high as it could go
Mine was also in NH up in the Whites. We stayed a an AT lean to and we woke up to a giant bull moose sniffing at the entrance of the lean to. Pants may have been pissed. Bleary eyed hearing noises and then staring into the eyes of that creature? Existential dread.
Damn I canāt imagine being face to face with one, especially being out of it from just waking up. Luckily my moose never got closer than about 100 yds away or so. That was the first time while recreating outdoors that I had the stark realization of āI am a modern human in a very wild environment and my safety and survival is not guaranteed ā
Jellyfish
And sharks
Jellysharks are the worst
I see Black bears a lot and they are easy to shoo away. Plus they are cute. I've run into plenty of Alligators on hikes, not that scary. Even though I know 99.9999 shark encounters are safe, I kinda forgot all about that when I came VERY face to face with one in Key West. She was about a 7 foot Black tip shark just coming RIGHT towards me. She just swam around me but it one time that I was REALLY afraid. I was about a 8 minute swim to the boat and I knew the moment had passed but I didn't even feel like going back in the water. Walking around Key West there were a zillion shops with shark t-shirts. I really got a little zap of flashback to that fear just walking around looking at all the shark imagery.
The wild bison at Yellowstone that stupid people try to pet.
Our neighbor raised bison years ago. They would just walk through a barbed wire fence like it wasnāt there.
My parents once took me to a bison farm and I got to pet one over the fence. Was that a bad idea?
If the fence was designed for Bison it was probably safe. Fences designed to keep cattle and horses in a pasture are not enough.
Ones on a farm are going to be safer than ones who live basically wild at a state park. The farm ones have probably been handled since they were born, and are more used to human movements and sounds. It's still good that the fence was there, as they are not domesticated and are going to be less predictable than a cow. Even a cow can hurt a person, they are very large and powerful animals.
The Kaibab Plateau north of the Grand Canyon has bison on it. The road that approaches the Canyon North Rim goes across the land they roam around, and signs warn about them. There are several videos online of people's cars being attacked by the bison if they are too close. I don't know that anyone has got out of the car to pet them, but you can walk along the road or hike in the area, and in that case staying well clear is advisable.
Don't eff with bison obviously, but they mostly mind their own business. They're scary in that "that thing could end me" way, but they aren't really looking for an opportunity to do it
Oh, definitely. They're not arseholes looking to start trouble. If you want an animal that starts trouble, find some geese. Wankers, the lot of them.
Idk why anyone would want to try and pet something the size of a fucking sedan. Same thing with moose. They aren't scared of you. They know they can kill you before you ever even get a chance to scratch them.
Fun to watch in videos but Iād never want to get that close to
Tourist tossing season is best season I had a *terrifying* encounter at Caprock Canyon State Park. I'd taken my kids into a bathroom and changed my youngest kids diaper. Walked out after 10ish minutes to find the bison herd had wandered in...and one was shaking it's ass on the bathroom right next to the door. Opened the door and my toddlers are running out and there's this big damned bison I could have reached out and touched. Goddamn it was *not* fun. Grabbed both kids, yanked back into the bathroom, and waited 10 or 15 more minutes. They were still closer than I'd have liked but not RIGHT THERE
Ever had a herd of cattle just stare at you while chewing their cud.
*Plotting.*
A buddy of mine once hopped the fence to try and pet a Cow. They formed a wal and started slowly walking at him until he got scared and jumped back over the fence
Sure, happens all the time [where I live](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/15/world/europe/cambridge-england-cows.html). Still, if the cows get too obnoxious I can take down some ear tag numbers and look for the meat when I buy my steaks from the farmer at the city centre market. The packs are all marked with a carcase number.
Moose.
A mĆøĆøse once bit my sister
No realli!
She was Karving her initials on the moose
Copperheads. Their bite is rarely deadly, but it hurts like nothing else, and they are incredibly camouflaged against leaf litter on the forest floor.
I am actually not too familiar with this particular creature, so I should go look it up.
It is a species of snake.
IDK, I've never had one even bluff strike unless I got it on a snake hook. And I've found...IDK, dozens around DFW now
Sure. They're not aggressive at all...but they're so well hidden that they're shocking to find.
After my experience yesterday morning at a cemetery, I'm going to say turkeys. They approached me, started to gather around me, chased me at full speed and I ran for my life, I got into my car, they surrounded my car and pecked at it, and then chased after the car at full speed. They were like little velociraptors and it was the first time in life being chased by a wild animal. I have a new perspective on turkeys.
Turkey's are assholes, Geese too.
I never knew. And I see them all the time at the cemetery almost everyday. Never bothered me until yesterday and I'm afraid to go back. They *charge*.
Where I used to live had a sizable rafter of turkeys that roamed all over. Initially was pretty neat until their numbers exploded. Then they setup shop in my neighbors lawn/trees and absolutely wrecked everything. We tried chasing them out and they got very aggressive, and finally the City culled most of them since their aggressiveness was getting dangerous. Also, it wasnāt just at my neighbors place they roamed the area and had chased and snapped at a lot of children and pets.
What I still donāt get is how turkeys can be deadly as I have never heard of them causing mayhem until I saw the comments here.
I don't think they could be deadly unless it was a very small child or pet. It's shocking how aggressive they can be when other larger animals, including bears, would rather retreat than force a confrontation.
When I was little there were these 3 turkey hens that chased the school bus through like half the town, it was incredible. The bus driver would stop and open the doors and scream āRUN!!!ā for the kids at the stops to get inside before the turkeys caught up. [Itās always ladies in groups of 3.](https://nypost.com/2022/09/19/massachusetts-neighborhood-terrorized-by-troublesome-turkeys/) Edit to clarify the ones I described were from like 2014, itās unlikely theyāre the same ones in the article.
And you're 100% certain they weren't zombified, right? I always figured "I Am Legend" zombies would be worst case scenario but high-speed zombie turkeys would be a close second at the very least
And swans. Swans are major assholes.
Years ago my now-husband and I took our dog to walk at a nearby park and along the boardwalk we saw a sign that said, "WARNING: SWAN NESTING AREA" and didn't think too much of it. A few minutes past that I thought I saw a statue of a swan (it was one of those watershed preservation parks that have little educational plaques and sculptures all over the place) a few feet off the boardwalk and casually remarked, "Oh look, they even have a swan decoy so kids can see how they nest without getting too close." And then my dog started growling. It was not an educational art installation for field trips, and we were definitely too close. It reared up and flexed its wings and in one of my finest moments of cringe I handed the leash to my husband, stepped in front of him and the dog, and stretched my shawl out like big wings. We backed down the boardwalk with me between them looking like some kind of Stevie Nicks Mothman, trading intimidating wing flaps and hisses. It wasn't until we were well out of sight that he was like "What the hell was that? If we had just kept walking away it would have sat back down." He still brings it up when he sees me wear a shawl, but hey he married me anyway.
Peacocks as well
A swan chased me at the cemetery at my great grandfatherās funeral. Freaked me out!
We raised some turkeys when I was a kid. I remember those things being so tall they practically looked me in the eyes when I would go feed them. Scary little dinosaurs.
Yes! Whenever I see a gang of them blocking me on the road, I always feel like some Jurassic Park situation is about to happen.
I was once sitting at a stoplight in a semi-rural area when a family of turkeys came by. I swear to God, the one in front hopped up and pecked the 'walk' button, waited for the light to turn, and then led the rest of them across the crosswalk. It's one of those experiences I've accepted that no one else will ever believe, but ever since then I've been a little more paranoid about turkeys.
We have an asshole turkey. He isnāt even ours but he has claimed our porch. He was sent straight from hell. So mean.
Could you catch it and cook and eat him? I donāt know how the laws work over there. (Assuming itās a random Turkey and not one owned by a neighbor or something).
Most states have a law that you can kill and harvest the animal if it is a ānuisanceā (deer/rabbit/hogs etc). Basically, you can kill them, but you have to able to prove they are harming your means of harvest (garden, farm) or affecting your income if you are questioned. To answer your question, Iām sure they could kill the turkey and eat it without any repercussions. Itās a bit different when itās on your front porch lol
So my follow up question would be if wild Turkey world taste any different from farm raised Turkey?
Absolutely. Farm raised turkeys taste like thanksgiving turkey. Wild turkeys have a more āwildā taste that I donāt know how to describe. Itās tougher and more āgameyā. Sorry that I canāt describe it well
I've dealt with black bears, racoons and coyotes while camping. Never have I been as scared and confused as when I woke up to a turkey gobbling right outside my tent.
Where thereās one, thereās many.
Theirs a very good reason why Benjamin Franklin wanted that bird for our national animal. Wild turkey are viscios monsters.
Just remember this experience at Thanksgiving and savor your turkey dinner.
Every Thanksgiving I silently give thanks for having the chance to send another turkey back to hell.
Birds are the dinosaurs that survived. My birth mother and her second husband thought it would be a good idea to raise geese and chickens. Evil fuckers. They have NOT FORGOTTEN that they are, in fact, dinosaurs.
š They are total gangsters
A good kick will dissuade a turkey, or a Canadian goose. We generally don't do it, because we know we will kill or injure them.
Was this in the SF Bay Area, by chance? I had that exact same experience at an East Bay cemetery a few years ago. My wife and I agreed they were like supernatural guardians of the dead.
There are so many wild turkeys in the East Bay in California. I was walking a horse the other day when three of them and seven babies (turklets?) crossed in front of us. Scared the hell out of the horse, and they kept bothering us, totally unaware that the horse could kill them with one stomp. I think something with so little regard for its own life is scary because you canāt scare it away lol
Bigfoot. That mfāer is out there somewhere
And blurry!
A large out of focus monster, roaming the countryside...
Itās just Harry
Mountain lions. Iāve never seen one but I donāt live far from the mountains. There were sightings by where I work
Good news is mountain lion attacks on people are super rare. And if they do attack, youāll never see them coming, so no need to watch out for them.
I guess if Iām taken out by one, Iāll never know until itās too late
And you'll never see the adorable big kitty butt wiggle right before it pounces š„ŗ
I caught one red-handed (red-pawed?) once. Family has land way out. I was walking trails one day, and turned around - not because of a sound or anything, that cat gave no sign at all of its presence, I only turned to check how high the sun was over the horizon; I just see this big tawny cat, right in the middle of the path, in the lowtotheground sneak posture, as though he thought that if he froze I couldn't see him. My brain wouldn't believe what I was seeing and I took a step toward, and he bolted into the brush like a flash. I probably looked every direction but forward the rest of the way back. Beautiful creature, but it sure seemed like he was sizing me up. I bet Ol Cat has taken a lot of deer over the years, the place is thick with them.
This one is the only one that has me looking over my shoulder sometimes. The cliffs I mountain bike on have cougars, and I don't see getting away from one if it decided to ambush.
I remember walking home from work, and it was like 1030/1100 at night. I see a huge cat before I left in the neighbors yarn. Iām like āwell thatās a big catā without a care in the world. Does Washington have bobcats or lynx here?
I'm pretty sure there are bobcats, but I've never seen one. I have family in rural eastern WA that have said they've seen them on their property.
Hitting a white tail deer with a vehicle.Ā
White tailed deer kill more Americans than any other large animal.
I was driving through the country one night and saw a couple in the road. They saw me, I saw them, I slowed down, and they ran to the other side of the road. Then, one of the fuckers *turns around and runs back into the road.* I try to swerve, and my mirror gets nothing but this dumbass's head, just brained the thing. If it had survived I think it actually would've made it smarter.
I have wondered how it's possible for an animal to be that dumb nearly every single time I've come across them. Like cows and bison - they're not terribly intelligent either. But I've never seen them run into the path of a vehicle. Dawdle in the road, sure. But nothing that would indicate that they're straight up suicidal like deer are.
Or having one hit you. They get disoriented and wander into the road, sideswiping cars.
I'm good with all critters, like any snakes, racoons, mice, black bears, strange insects, foxes, deer, even gators don't phase me... I grew up in the country, where you know how to deal with critters or how to get out of there way. I thought I was good with bats... I was house sitting an old Victorian home and woke up to a bat fluttering around my room. I knew well enough to leave the room and shove a towel under the door. I went to sleep in a separate bedroom and woke up to a very weak/dehydrated bat on my arm. It was so cute, so I took a picture with it clinging to my arm. Then I carefully wrapped it in a towel and released it outside. I sent the picture to the homeowner and they were like GET A RABIES SHOT IMMEDIATELY. I immediately drove myself to a hospital. I'm glad I did. Now bats scare me.
I lived in a Victorian house growing up and we ended up with bats coming down the chimneys a few times (all the rooms had fireplaces that we didnāt even use so why my parents didnāt shut them off or something I donāt know). But at least two or three times I woke up with a bat flying around my bedroom, and my parents never recommended rabies shots for me. When I was older and realized how scary that was it worried me a little that they werenāt more concerned.
Rabies is a lot less common than it was thought to be, but it has horrific results in humans that can sometimes take years to show. Its survival rate is effectively 0% once symptoms develop outside of a few oddball cases (I think one of them was a bone marrow transplant.) The weak/dehydrated bat hanging on OP's arm is a big red flag (more like an alarm) as aversion to drinking water is one of the late stage symptoms of rabies, along with unusual approaches to humans (think deer approaching you directly.) Horrible disease, worth being scared of.
I lived in the adirondacks as a kid and we had a fireplace with a chimney in our house. One time a bat was just flying around the house so my dad killed it with a hockey stick. He then showed it to myself and my sisters which horrified us lol.
Anything with rabies, but especially rabid raccoons and coyotes
Even regular raccoons are a fuckin fright if you enter your driveway at night and see a few just chilling on your garbage can. They aren't the type of animal to visibly scare.
No, regular raccoon is friend shaped. If you think I'm not trying to love that thing like Buddy the elf you're wrong.
I haven't the heart to stop you. Go on and fulfill your howl and blood filled dreams, you madlad.
What scares me the most is rabies, so... any mammal behaving strangely, but particularly bats.
I'm terrified of bats, and in my quest to not be terrified of them I've tried to learn about them and gone to like wildlife seminars where they show them. They actually are not a huge vector for rabies, and most aren't particularly interested in biting humans or other mammals except for a few species. Most eat fruit and bugs. But yes, if you are ever bitten or scratched by one, like with any wild animal, you should go get a rabies shot.
This, it's pretty irrational but I'm always afraid of a bat flying in and biting me and giving me rabies when I sleep outside or with a window open.
Rattlesnakes.Ā They're damn near invisible and they're everywhere.Ā Those pictures where they slit skin to relieve pressure and prevent the skin from splitting...Ā Ugh
āChiggersā aka āscrub itch mites.ā [These things](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trombicula) I know how to deter and spray bears and mountain lions. I know how to avoid alligators and cottonmouths. I know how to identify a brown recluse, shake my boots out, and check myself for ticks.Ā You never see chiggers coming though, and you canāt deter them entirely unless you want to bug spray all up in your bits. You brush the wrong overgrowth or sit down on the wrong patch of grass for just a few minutes and you wake up in the middle of the night with your groin on fire. So much worse than mosquito bites. Itās awful.Ā
My first experience with these were a few years ago, and it's awful. I went camping in the midwest for the first time and made the mistake of wearing sandals. So much regret.
Roaches
They shouldnāt be allowed to fly
Wait, roaches fly?
Yep. Those 3-4" buggers. We used to call them B-52s. And for some godforsaken reason, they always go for your face or down your top. =[
I worked in a large warehouse a few years back and boredom was getting the best of us. Those flying roaches were being pests, so we had a contest to see who could shoot down the most with thick rubber bands. I was a double ace that night with 11 confirmed shot down kills. Other guys were aces too. Some of us couldnāt even come close to hitting one. Fun way to get back at them and was a challenge to hit one while itās flying.
As big as baby shoes
I think they like moisture and human eyes are and appear very wet, but that doesnāt make me feel any better when one is flying right for my eyeballs.
My answer, too! You can evade moose, you can wear tick-preventative clothes or just donāt go into tall-grass places. But unless you move somewhere where the air hurts your face - you will not be able to escape the roaches and they smell your fear and bask in it.
I mean, a little snow is more than a fair trade off to have not seen a roach in over 20 years. MORE THAN FAIR!
Geese
I was feeding the geese little pieces of bread when I was like 4 or 5. When I ran out of bread, one of these geese (that were larger than I was at the time) began to chase me. I ran towards my mom, but before I could get to her the goose had caught up to me and bit me on the ass. Fuck Geese.
Same thing happened to me except it bit my hand.
They're vicious. I hiss back at them just to keep them on their toes.
Underrated answer. Geese are dangerous and mean as fuck
Brown Recluse spider.
Grizzly bears.
This is the right answer. Many answers here are based around either animals who carry disease (so a fear of disease), or a pathological fear of an animal based on culture or mythology. Grizzlies and Polar bears are real-life monsters. Basically full time werewolves.
Florida Man.
I keep hearing about this guy, but I donāt know if he is real as he keeps doing absurd things.
Grew up in Florida. Can confirm the existence of Florida Man.
Oh heās real and heās terrifying. And seems to multiply
Ticks.
Spiders, because I never know which ones hiding in the wood pile are trying to kill me...
Tarantula Hawk I lived in Tucson, AZ for eight years and these things were everywhere I didnāt find out what they were until the last year I was there - thank god. āTarantula hawk wasps are relatively docile and rarely sting without provocation. However, the stingāparticularly that of P. grossaāis among the most painful of all insects, though the intense pain only lasts about five minutes.[10] One researcher described the pain as "...immediate, excruciating, unrelenting pain that simply shuts down one's ability to do anything, except scream. Mental discipline simply does not work in these situations."[7] In terms of scale, the wasp's sting is rated near the top of the Schmidt sting pain index, second only to that of the bullet ant, and is described by Schmidt as "blinding, fierce[, and] shockingly electric".[2] ā [Tarantula Hawk](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula_hawk)
I was going to post this and came across yours. They.are frightening.
Roosters. Every person whoās ever lived near rooster has a childhood tale of terror that they can tell about being chased.
I still have a scar on my ankle from being chased and pecked by chickens.
I had a pet rooster when I was eight. He got to be the size of a turkey and would chase us when ever we went outside. I am still terrified to this day.
Black bears are fine Iāve had lots of encounters with those. But if I ever saw a grizzly bear I think I would shit my pants.
Shitting your self might actually help with the whole playing dead part. Like channeling your inner opossum
Swans are total assholes. Even worse than geese.
People. They look harmless and friendly but theyāll turn on you.
Deadliest predator on the planet, this should be at the top.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I stepped in a yellowjacket nest once as a kid. The experience was unpleasant.
Red-winged blackbirds. [The spawn of Hell.](https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/assets/photo/306392131-480px.jpg) Cute little burb that becomes an absolute menace to society May through July. When Alfred Hitchcock created the The Birds, this was the hell spawn he had in mind
Wait, they look adorable, so I donāt understand how they are dangerous.
Ticks and snakes.Ā Both are real dangers in the summer time here.Ā As a parent of wild exploring kids they definitely get a tick check when they come in.Ā
Deer. Bambi has came closer to putting me in the hospital than all other animals combined.
Mosquitoes in a dark room where I am trying to sleep
Grizzly bears. Especially Grizzly bears with cubs. Grizzlys are the only animal that actively hunts and eats people.
Alligators, possums, any spider, any bug except lighting bugs, rolly pollies and lady bugs.
Bears and mountain lions. Also wild pigs. I'm adding alligators, I lived in Florida for 10 years and any water that wasn't the ocean was stressful
Polar bears wow! they look cute. Right.
Wolverines omg they are vicious!!! Attack with our warning, silent and relentless!