Posidrive

Don't think I'll show "She Who Must be Obeyed" this thread. On Saturday when it hit -22C her opening phrase was "Where the f!@# have you brought us". Now we find out that the vegitation is as aggressive as the wildlife :scared:

daft batty

snakes- nobodies mentioned snakes. i have a serious snake phobia and am working on it! bearing in mind i hope to be living in rural ontarioi i think i need to!

how often do you come across the damn things??

i've only seen one on my trips and i ran over that-- it was very traumatic, for me, the snake and my husband who was the passenger

iaink

Hardly any poisonous / dangerous snakes in canada so dont worry, They are not aggressive and I hate when people kill them out of fear and ignorance.

The only one I know is the Mississauga rattler...thankfully not found anywhere near Mississauga in the GTA. Mostly found in a very few increasingly rare spots near lake Huron?

We get Gardner/Garter snakes and big brown water snakes, and I saw a milk snake once in the yard, but they are all (relatively) harmless. The brown water snakes might bite if you are really unlucky, but it wont do any serious damage. In short the mozzies are a much bigger problem, and the snakes are actually a positive factor in controlling problem animals in most cases as they eat a lot of nuisance bugs.

In our yard this year I saw about three gardners (probably the same one three times) and down by the river I saw the brown snakes basking about half a dozen times. Usually they are only interested in getting away from people.

Cadey

Ok, for Leeches read Slugs with attitude.. :scared:

Sutherlands

Thanks all that wrote back, looks like I will have to keep an eye on them both when we get out..

The rashes you get from that Ivy looks bad, but after showing the kids what it can do to them `im sure they will stay away...

Cheers

Sutherlands

iaink

Fortunately it takes a while for the damage to be done, so you get a few hours window of oportunity to scrub the oil off and hopefully escape unscathed.

Its remembering to look out for it I find hard. I usually end up riding through a patch in my bike before I think about it and then have to go through the decontamination routine later on just in case.

I dont react too badly, but have had some blisters before, and they were no fun I can tell you. Another problem is that a lot of people dont react at all, but get the oil on them that causes the reaction. This they then spread all over the place unintenionaly and then others suffer without knowing why!

Cowtown

You are in real trouble for January and February then! Any plans to get round it? I dont think "I'll just not tell her it snowed again and its minus 35" is going to work. You need to tell her - but take it from someone who knows - dont tell her before she gets out of bed!