newtoyou Loc: Eastport

And other arthropods.
Millipedes have many species that use chemical defense. And they advertise the fact with orange, yellow and red colors.
A common one here in the east is found above the fall line in moist, wooded areas. Found in leaf litter and under deadfall.
Apheloria haydeniana. It expels hydrogen cyanide and benzaldihyde when it perceives a threat.
Two in a pint jar and agitated make an emergency killing jar. Kills dragonflys. Kills slower than a fresh cyanide jar, but kills them.
Not much cyanide might kill someone with a weak heart. That is MIGHT. Never seen it in print. And remember, wasps and bees kill many allergic people. Enough stings can and have killed non allergic people.
Still, it's much safer than driving in Washington, D.C. rush hour.
An obligatory macro picture ang goodnight Sophie, wherever you are.
Bill

From spring, couple years back

(Download)

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

A fine water bug!
I had a very educational experience with cyanide once. In my youth I was an obsessive insect collector. Always out with the net and killing jars, and was growing a pretty serious collection. My father was a high school chem teacher, and he thought it a good idea to make me a very nice killing jar, with plaster (those are the good ones), and have it laced with cyanide. No idea how he got the stuff but he was a chem teacher.
Anyway, my 12 year old self wondered what cyanide smelled like. The action of cyanide was certainly impressive. An angry hornet -- curled up and expiring as soon as it hit the bottom.
So I took off the top, and very cautiously took a tiny whiff. The fact that it was a hot sunny day of course made for a lot of cyanide gas. I had not considered that.
It was like two lit matches up the nose. Heart rate accelerating, hyperventilating, and everything went black. There was a strong feeling of vertigo, which made me stagger. After a time, it passed and I am still here.

I am sure I am not the only one who does not tell their parents everything!

newtoyou Loc: Eastport

Carbon tetra chloride was also used, and ethyl acetate.
You reinforce my thoughts on cyanide jars. No thanks.
Those symptoms you describe, they are some of the description of gas chamber execution supplied by witnesses. Two puffs and could have been worse.
A way I found that worked for me. I did a lot of collecting at shopping centers at night. Also in shrubs near them during the day.The heyday of mercury vapor light was , well, ever see 50 or more Luna moths on one wall? I think that that may have led to the reduction in population by disrupting the mating cycle.
And the bats and rats and mice learned that a smorgasbord was at the walls. Robbed me of many a find. And anything under the rainbow. We collected many new to us a night. But for years most everything was new.
I used isobutane. Boils at about thirty below. Scripto was the brand. The nozzle was just right. Cannot find it today. Discontinued?
A squirt stunned a moth. Papered, then they got a body wetting, paper and all. Less co lateral damage to the struggling insect.
Hard bodiy types with no scales went into 70% alcohol or ethyl acetate to be stored until sorted, or if 'neat' got mounted when I got home. A new trophy.
I led a lot of young, elementary school age, kids on insect hunts. For obvious reasons, they did not get to kill specimens. Nor did we kill any large, showy Leps.
Mostly other types that went in my special collection. All student caught, mounted under the students name. Wonder if any of those kids got the calling?
Aah, the memories of a man in his old age are the deeds of a man in his prime.
Enjoy your day, Mark.
Bill

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Wonderful waterbug..! I recently watched a program called "Kings of Pain" and they let Giant Waterbugs bite them to rate the intensity of pain, duration and damage compared to other creatures that would bite or sting them. It was quite a nasty bite with a high potential of flesh eating and blood poisoning bacterias.

docshark Loc: Millersville, PA

Hunting dragonflies a few years back in the Shenandoah Valley I came upon a [/]Polydesmida[/i] millipede. I got down close for a shot and remember getting a whiff of cyanide. I was sick in the stomach for two days and had a burning in my nose and throat. Just a beautiful specimen, red, black and yellow but I'll give it a wide berth next time.
-Doc

newtoyou Loc: Eastport

'Lo, Doc.
I can smell cyanide, looks like you and Mark can. Only about 60% of humans can. That does not mean you are 'imune' to it. Just means you have symptoms without having smelled it.
Those colors are the colors of the two US coral snakes. Mark may encounter an eastern coral snake in Fla. Red touch yellow, kill a fellow.
There are many, and many more known snakes to be discovered or found to be poisonous.
Many formerly "harmless" rear-fanged snakes are being found to be poisoness.
Thanks, Doc.
Bill

newtoyou Loc: Eastport

Those shows are highly educational.
They show how not to prove your stupidity by doing such asinine tricks.
While I liked the Croc hunter, his death was no suprise.
Sorry, folks, he was a poor role model.
Some books on snakes by 'experts' are worse. One jerk had been bitten a number of times by being what I thought was very careless, and showing a 'can't happen to me behavior'.
I used to visit a small family zoo. Cactoctin Zoo, near Camp David.
They gave a snake handling show, cobras included, till a cobra got the owner.
And even Marlin Perkins had an incident. He was treating a viper for mouth rot and snagged a thumb on a fang. Almost no "Wild Kingdom". He, tho, was doing it in his work, curator at the St. Louis Zoo.
Good day, Gary.
Bill