Sunday 5 August 2012


Better Safe Than Sorry

If ever in Brazil (or any tropical place for that matter) there are some safety tips northerners - and by that I mean anyone who lives in the northern hemisphere in general – don't seem to be aware of.

Dealing with potentially poisonous creatures (mainly insects and arachnids).

To anyone in the tropics this will seem like a stupid thing to point out, but you must never ever put your hand into a dark place (eg mail box) without looking first. The tropics are rife with insect and arachnid life, and nice dark spots are their favourite hiding places. That isn't to say you will always find a bug (let alone a poisonous one) poised to pounce on unwary victims, but it is a very real possibility. And that doesn't mean you should wear gloves every time you get the mail, but rather remember to take a quick peek first just to be safe.

You also should never rummage around woodpiles/rubble/etc without being very careful for the same reason. A nice woodpile is a spider's and scorpion's best friend. Which again isn't to say that there will be anything to worry about hiding in there, but it's better to be careful than have to make a panicked mad dash to a hospital.
    - Note: a good rule of thumb to guess how poisonous a scorpion is is “the bigger the scorpion the less poisonous they tend to be”. That's because they will generally gely on their pincers for hunting and defence. If you ever do get stung it's best to hurry over to a hospital just to be safe. The scorpion being big just means you probably don't need to panic about dying within the next five minutes, not that you should just shrug and go back to business as usual.
With that being said, even after it's dead a scorpion's sting is still poisonous

If you're in the country (as in “not in a city”, not as in “the country of Brazil”) it's always a good idea to shake out closed shoes (eg sneakers) before putting them on, just in case someone came across it when you weren't looking and thought it looked like a neat place to spend the night in.

Remember, when you run into these creatures their point of view is that they are in their home and you are the intruder. Always show them due respect, no matter whether that might truly be the case.


5 comments:

  1. Oi! Achei teu blog através dos mapas do Augustana Campus da University of Alberta. Você mora em Camrose? Sou brasileiro e estou indo estudar lá! Legal encontrar o blog de um brasileiro que mora aí. :)

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  2. Ai, que legal! Me encontre quando vc chegar! Meu nome é Alice. :) Eu trabalho na livraria da Augustana, entáo vai ser facil de saber onde me encontrar. Vc vai estar morando no campus ou por perto do campus?

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    1. No campus! Eu, uma amiga de SP, uma de MG, e um de MG também. Vamos pelo programa Ciência sem Fronteiras. Sei que não é o foco de teu blog, desculpa, mas tu sabes se existe alguma linha de ônibus ligando Camrose a Edmonton? Pelo que nos informaram só dá pra chegar aí de taxi, mesmo.

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  3. Aaaai!que chique! Eu sou de MG (de BH)! Pelo que eu saiba não tem ônibus mesmo não. Tinha um que ia num horário ridículo, mas eu acho que não vai mais. Eu tenho que ligar pra Augustana amanhã pra checar uma coisa e já que vou estar ligando mesmo eu posso conferir pra vcs. :) Vcs já sabem em qual dormitório que vcs vão ficar? (E alguma das meninas está procurando uma companheira de quarto?).

    Qualquer pergunta que vcs tiverem podem me perguntar à vontade. :) Estou pra começar o meu terceiro ano lá, e moro no Canadá há 11 anos, então tem muita dúvida que eu posso esclarecer. (Eu não sei muito sobre os profs de ciências, pq estou no programa de artes, mas sempre posso passar a pergunta pros meus amigos que tmb estudam lá). Meu email é o meu "nome" virtual e é do hotmail (termina com .com, não .ca). Se vcs quiserem me adicionar no fb meu sobrenome é Espeschit. :)

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    1. Mandei um email! Vê lá se eu acertei o teu e se chegou mesmo. ^^

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