Poisonous animals in Mid-West?

"Craig" wrote in message
...

"Fiance" wrote...

Thank you all for the clarification on the Mid-West/South-West. The US
are bigger than I thought: Utah seemed to be in the middle of the West,
and it turns out to be that there is still a lot of distance until that
middle

Those of us that live here in The States know where the various regions
are but many of the names admittedly make little sense. Having lived in
Wisconsin, and then Cincinnati, Ohio for 22 years, I always thought the
Midwest is far too east to make any sense--but it probably goes back to
the pre-Louisiana Purchase days when anything west of the Appalachians was
getting to be Westerly--and St Louis and other towns west of the
Mississippi River were the real West. Odd as it sounds, one of
Cincinnati's nicknames is "Queen City of the West". Of course, another was
Porkopolis. Personally, I'd say the Midwest is anything west of the
Appalachians (including about half of Pennsylvania! but none of West
Virginia), north of the Ohio River and maybe going just a smidge west of
the Mississippi River and proceeding northwards to the Canadian border.
Within my Midwest is a majority of the Great Lakes States to further
muddle issues. What geographically looks like it should be The Midwest
already has another name: The Great Plains. They pick up from almost the
Mississippi River to the Rockies excluding Texas (which I'd call a region
in and of itself). Then again, if Arizona and Utah are in the Southwest,
shouldn't Tennessee and Alabama be in the Southeast? But no...they're in
The South. And of course, The South doesn't include Florida (from its
population today, Florida may be best called the southernmost state of the
Great Lakes).

I was seriously frightened after browsing through
http://www.rattlesnakebite.org/
How could that have happened?

Yowser, no wonder you asked! Yikes. Thank heavens the family had
insurance and was in a park with reasonable communications and rescue
personnel. Being bitten on a hiking trail with no advance audible warning
from the snake seems to be a freak accident--to me at least.

Craig

Being from this region I just wanted to point out that Tennessee and Alabama
are also referred to as being in the southeast. :-)

Sophie T wrote:
"Craig" wrote in message
...

"Fiance" wrote...


Thank you all for the clarification on the Mid-West/South-West. The US
are bigger than I thought: Utah seemed to be in the middle of the West,
and it turns out to be that there is still a lot of distance until that
middle

Those of us that live here in The States know where the various regions
are but many of the names admittedly make little sense. Having lived in
Wisconsin, and then Cincinnati, Ohio for 22 years, I always thought the
Midwest is far too east to make any sense--but it probably goes back to
the pre-Louisiana Purchase days when anything west of the Appalachians was
getting to be Westerly--and St Louis and other towns west of the
Mississippi River were the real West. Odd as it sounds, one of
Cincinnati's nicknames is "Queen City of the West". Of course, another was
Porkopolis. Personally, I'd say the Midwest is anything west of the
Appalachians (including about half of Pennsylvania! but none of West
Virginia), north of the Ohio River and maybe going just a smidge west of
the Mississippi River and proceeding northwards to the Canadian border.
Within my Midwest is a majority of the Great Lakes States to further
muddle issues. What geographically looks like it should be The Midwest
already has another name: The Great Plains. They pick up from almost the
Mississippi River to the Rockies excluding Texas (which I'd call a region
in and of itself). Then again, if Arizona and Utah are in the Southwest,
shouldn't Tennessee and Alabama be in the Southeast? But no...they're in
The South. And of course, The South doesn't include Florida (from its
population today, Florida may be best called the southernmost state of the
Great Lakes).


I was seriously frightened after browsing through
http://www.rattlesnakebite.org/
How could that have happened?

Yowser, no wonder you asked! Yikes. Thank heavens the family had
insurance and was in a park with reasonable communications and rescue
personnel. Being bitten on a hiking trail with no advance audible warning
from the snake seems to be a freak accident--to me at least.

Craig


Being from this region I just wanted to point out that Tennessee and Alabama
are also referred to as being in the southeast. :-)



I believe that the designation of Midwest for Ohio to Illinois dates
from the Mid 19th century. Somehow it never changed. As was pointed
out in earlier times the area was the Western US. Even after the
Louisiana purchase not much attention was paid to the space west of the
Miss.

It is interesting that the Southernmost parts of the US are not in the
South. Somehow even though they trashed Sam Houston to join the
Confederacy Texas never really made it into the South. I always enjoy
talking of visiting in the Carolinas and Virginia as coming up North to
visit.

I had a scorpio on the wall, in a hotel room in Puerto Penasca, once. also a
long rattle snake, at El Morro, ( New mexico )on the path , sleeping.
The ranger told me , you don't bother him , he won't bother you!
thats where they have the inscriptions from past centuries travellers.

"Fiance" wrote in message
oups.com...
As funny as it may sound, is there any real danger posed by poisonous
animals when travelling in US Mid-West, e.g. Utah, Arizona, Nevada?

We will be camping near Grand Canyon North Rim - any chance of stepping
on rattle-snake? Or, say, what about hiking in Utah canyons or Monument
Valley etc?

What about other snakes, scorpions, spiders?

On 2006-05-14 15:15:45 -0400, "Frank F. Matthews"
said:

I believe that the designation of Midwest for Ohio to Illinois dates
from the Mid 19th century. Somehow it never changed.

If that's how it was originally interpreted, it HAS changed. I grew up
in Missouri, and it was then (1940's-50's) considered part of the
Midwest. I still consider it such.

On Sun, 14 May 2006 18:26:25 GMT, "Craig"
wrote:

.. Personally,
I'd say the Midwest is anything west of the Appalachians (including about
half of Pennsylvania! but none of West Virginia), north of the Ohio River
and maybe going just a smidge west of the Mississippi River and proceeding
northwards to the Canadian border.

There is a Midwest City in Oklahoma. When in North Dakota, I
noticed a number of local businesses with Midwest in their names. The
"Midwest" is a very ambiguously defined region which seems to cover
just about everything that is not a coastal state by at least
somebody's definition.

wrote in message
oups.com...
If you're going to be in that area , you ought to go snipe hunting.
It's best right at dusk.

Yes, but, if it isn't done properly, it can cause the sky to fall and then
we'd have to listen to Chicken-Little again. KM
--
(-:alohacyberian:-) At my website there are 3600 live cameras or
visit NASA, the Vatican, the Smithsonian, the Louvre, CIA, FBI or
CNN, NBA, the White House, Academy Awards & 150 foreign languages
Visit Hawaii, Israel and mo http://keith.martin.home.att.net/

On 14 May 2006 10:28:25 -0700, "Fiance" wrote:

Thank you all for the clarification on the Mid-West/South-West. The US
are bigger than I thought: Utah seemed to be in the middle of the West,
and it turns out to be that there is still a lot of distance until that
middle

We will avoid hiking anywhere except for clearly visible tracks, no
rests on any logs, boulders etc. Caring a walk-stick would be an
overkill I guess, because we'll keep shy of grass anyway

The only risk I can imagine is our overnight at the North Rim Camp
Ground where we've already booked a place for a tent for one night. But
I hope it will be crowded enough so that there are no rattlers within a
mile's radius. Zipping the tent up, of course.

Rattlesnakes generally don't want to get anywhere near you. The
biggest risk is touching one or stepping on one while hiking. A little
prudence should minimize this risk. Don't put your hands or feet
anywhere that you can't properly see.

I was seriously frightened after browsing through
http://www.rattlesnakebite.org/
How could that have happened?

He touched a rattlesnake while sitting on a boulder, with his arm
dangling by his side. Always have a look around before sitting down,
and definitely don't put your hands anywhere without looking.
Rattlesnakes are often found beside or under rocks when the air is
chilly, because stone retains warmth. If they have any advance
warning, they'll scurry away, but if you touch one when he's sleeping,
he'll react to protect himself.
--
Barbara Vaughan

My email address is my first initial followed by my last name at libero dot it.

SNIP
Actually I think the greater danger comes from chipmunks. Or at least
the diseases that they carry. You really don't want to track that
stuff. Stay away from all wild animals even cute ones. For both their
good and for yours. Watch from a distance.

Hi

Not always easy to just watch from a distance - the animals may have
other ideas!!! 8^)

On a campground, my wife once had a teabag stolen actually from her
mug on the picnic table by a ground squirrel, just as she was about to
add the boiling water.

I also remember the time we were sitting in the car in a deserted
parking area one lunchtime. Not an animal in sight until we got out
our sandwiches. At the first rustle of the paper bag, within seconds
the car was completely covered in ground squirrels all begging for
food.

We were also once sitting at our picnic table in the campground at
Great Basin NP, when we spotted a family of deer about twenty feet
away. We very carefully picked up our cameras and as soon as they saw
the movement, we were thoroughly mugged by the entire herd. We spent
the next few minutes wrestling them off the table, kicking them out of
the tent and retrieving stolen items of property from them.

There was also the time we were held up at gnu point on the way to the
South Rim of the Grand Canyon; actually, not a gnu but a mule deer
after food - luckily its antlers wouldn't fit through the car window!!

I do realize of course that the above incidents were brought about
entirely by the irresponsibility of some humans who think it is "cute"
to encourage and feed wildlife. We certainly didn't encourage the
above behaviour - nor feed the animals in question - but events were
completely beyond our control.

Regards

KGB

On Mon, 15 May 2006 10:49:50 +0200, B wrote:

SNIP
Rattlesnakes generally don't want to get anywhere near you. The
biggest risk is touching one or stepping on one while hiking. A little
prudence should minimize this risk. Don't put your hands or feet
anywhere that you can't properly see.


Hi

Being a Brit, we only have one poisonous snake - the adder - on our
side of the pond.

I have never actually seen one, but one afternoon my wife and I were
taking our 6 months old Finnish Spitz Puppy for a walk through some
local scrubland when he suddenly collapsed and went into shock.

We hadn't a clue what had happened, but my wife ran home for the car
whilst I carried Fitz the half mile to the nearest road. We rushed
him to our vet convinced that he must have broken a leg or something;
but he hadn't and the vet was completely baffled, never having seen
anything like it before - for no obvious reason his foreleg had by now
swollen to dangerous levels. The vet suddenly spotted two marks on
his leg and realized it must be an adder bite.

He immediately phoned the nearest (human) hospital who fortunately
happened to have some anti-venom in stock and whilst the vet set up a
drip and packed the leg in ice to try and reduce the swelling, my wife
and I did a high speed dash to the hospital and back to collect the
anti-venom, a round trip of over 50 miles knowing time was important
(strewth, I never knew my wife could drive like that!!).

The vet had originally planned on keeping the dog at the surgery for a
few days but by the next morning he had recovered so much (and barking
non-stop) that he was allowed home - quite obviously feeling very
sorry for himself.

Although he had never come across a snakebite before, our vet luckily
did all the right things and Fitz made a full recovery. This was
several years ago now and needless to say we have never walked a dog
there since - and I have still never seen an adder.

Regards


KGB

"Gary Reichlinger" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 14 May 2006 18:26:25 GMT, "Craig"
wrote:
. Personally,
I'd say the Midwest is anything west of the Appalachians (including about
half of Pennsylvania! but none of West Virginia), north of the Ohio River
and maybe going just a smidge west of the Mississippi River and proceeding
northwards to the Canadian border.

There is a Midwest City in Oklahoma. When in North Dakota, I
noticed a number of local businesses with Midwest in their names. The
"Midwest" is a very ambiguously defined region which seems to cover
just about everything that is not a coastal state by at least
somebody's definition.

Naw! Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Nevada and
Arizona are the Mountain west and Arizona and New Mexico are also the
Southwest. Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas are definitely
Midwest. KM
--
(-:alohacyberian:-) At my website there are 3600 live cameras or
visit NASA, the Vatican, the Smithsonian, the Louvre, CIA, FBI or
CNN, NBA, the White House, Academy Awards & 150 foreign languages
Visit Hawaii, Israel and mo http://keith.martin.home.att.net/