Happening upon a snake in the yard can be a startling—to put it mildly—experience. Whether it’s an evolutionary instinct to jump back at the sight of a snake or another one of those ingrained cultural fears, a close encounter with the slithering kind usually shocks the system, even for those among us who admire the […]
Tag: Lyme disease
‘Tip of the iceberg’: is our destruction of nature responsible for Covid-19?
Mayibout 2 is not a healthy place. The 150 or so people who live in the village, which sits on the south bank of the Ivindo River, deep in the great Minkebe Forest in northern Gabon, are used to occasional bouts of diseases such as malaria, dengue, yellow fever and sleeping sickness. Mostly they shrug […]
Dubious benefits of midges and ticks explored
They are Scotland’s most notorious bloodsucking pests, but the Mountaineering Council of Scotland is highlighting the benefits of midges and ticks. Swatted, warded off with smelly repellent or twisted out with tweezers from where they have burrowed into skin, midges and ticks usually get short shrift by people they encounter. Midge bites can cause irritating […]