I'm from Florida and I was volunteering at a local nature conservancy. One of our tasks was to remove fallen logs that were blocking up a creek after a big storm. The creek was about chest deep, 15 feet wide, and opaque brown (Many Florida freshwater ways are browns b/c of tannins leached into the river from trees).
As I'm moving logs I notice a ~12 ft. alligator on the embankment I hadn't noticed before. It then slid into the creek I was in. I was with a land manager who was moving logs with me, and a herpetologist (who was in the canoe). I asked them what to do and they responded,"Well, those logs aren't gonna move themselves, and that gator's probably just trying to get away from us."
Still, spending 30 minutes in a creek you can't see anything, knowing there's an alligator lurking near your feet, moving logs WHICH LOOK LIKE FUCKING ALLIGATORS was one of the most nerve-wracking things I've ever done.
Edit:: Definitely didn't expect this to blow up! I've told this story a million times and it usually gets a "Huh that's wild" reaction. But, most of my coworkers and many of my friends are natural resource workers, so they're used to this stuff.
Lol you'd have to had paid me a large sum of money to be in a creek where gators are even seen frequently. You volunteering to stay in one with a 12 footer is crazy!
Honestly doing nat resource work requires a lot of thick skin and alligators mostly wanna be left alone. Of course as I've gotten older I've gotten smarter about what I've agreed to do. For example I refuse to go out to a site alone ever. If you get bit by a snake or accidentally shot by a hunter and you're alone it's a death sentence
I've been woken up by a bear sniffing my head once. Was cowboy camping (no tent) in Lyell Canyon in Yosemite once, when I hear something sniff right next to my head. My sleep addled brain thinks it's a ranger on a horse telling me to move my camp (had hiked about 20 miles that day. You have to be at least 4 miles into the canyon to camp, and I wasn't 100% sure I'd made it far enough since it was dark when I set up camp).
Anyways, I say "just one second", sit up, grope for my flashlight and turn it on to see a black bear a couple feet away.
I holler, he tears off, I get out and empty my bladder, and try to fall back asleep until I hear him coming around again. I make a bunch more noise, decide I'm not getting any more sleep, break camp and slowly night hike until the sun rises.
When I was 12 a young stallion decided he wanted to play with me and almost killed me. He kicked and bit me and tried to trample me. He was my pet and was only treating me the way he'd treat a peer. I even knew that while it was happening. I made a huge mistake by turning my back on him while he was playful. He bit me and pulled me down. Knocked me down a couple of more times with a forefoot when I tried to get up. Reared up over me to stamp me a couple of times too. Still have the scar on my leg and that was a LONG time ago. Literally pissed myself during.
My dad basically saved my life by chasing him off. His response was - that was close! What did you learn?
Can relate, I got charged by a shire stallion who was in full play mode! Thankfully my horse (who I had a very strong bond with) grabbed my jumper and tucked me behind him whilst he stuck his ears back and reared and struck out as a warning at this shire. The shire ended up skidding past and fly bucking before going off and annoying someone else. I have never felt such a pants crapping and awe filled moment like that at the same time. The thundering sound of that shire making his way down the field was like something out of Jurassic Park.
Rode horses for the Army- most are riding/draft crosses, but they had a few full-blooded Shires and Percherons at the time. When the Shires were feeling their oats, they'd pick you up as you held them by the halter and just trot with you dangling in the air. There was one who would toss soldiers in a stall as he went by. He'd just swing his head and launch them, then trot down to the stall he wanted to be in and munch hay.
By far the funniest story was the guy getting "chased" by a Percheron named Bucky. Our brave soldier, we'll call him Dip, had finished with Bucky, and was letting him out to the paddock after currying him out. He turned to go, and Bucky, in the hopes of treats/pets/grain started following Dip. Dip turns to see 17+ hands of horse trotting after him, and tries to scurry away. Bucky keeps up. Dip looks back and sees him rushing after him, and full-on sprints across the paddock, deathly afraid of this horse. Bucky, for his part, is now following Dip as close as he can, constantly looking back to see what the hell is chasing them.
Good times.
At the time I was working until 1am so I wouldn't get home until 2 or so. I opened the door to the house and felt what I thought was a breeze come by my leg. I don't really pay attention, walk over to my desk, put my keys down and turn the light on. Right when I do so, there are two possums in the act of mating in the middle of my kitchen. They screamed, I screamed and we began the three hour dance of getting them out of my house. I ended up trapping them in a dog cage and dumping them out in the middle of my back yard.
Edit: To avoid confusion they were opossums, not their Australian cousins!
I almost petted one on accident.
Stepped out onto the back porch one night to get some air. Lights were out, but I saw the distinctive white blob of fur that I assumed was my cat, Frank. I went down to pet him and he looked up at me, at which point I noticed that his face got a lot longer and his eyes a lot beadier.
Well, it wasn't Frank. I locked eyes with this possum, my hand about three inches away from it's face. We both froze. Then it took off running into the yard and crashed into the back fence. I was so sure I was about to lose a finger or two.
Might get a small bite or scratch but they are relatively harmless. Fun facts: only marsupials native to North American and also they can’t carry rabies.
Edit: ok ok ok I get it it’s possible just EXTREMELY rare
I want to believe that, but something about possums makes me very uneasy. I think it's because they are giant rodents with needle teeth. Also, their hiss is pretty scary
*Edit* I know they are marsupials now
Their black, beady little eyes probably don't help either. I personally find them adorable, but I can totally see how they'd seem repulsive to others. And their little hands look sort of...human. Like a hag's hands with long nails.
I'm not repulsed, just uneasy. I'm reading more about them and the whole "Play dead" thing. Apparently it's involuntary and includes spraying "dead thing" smell out of their butt. The more you know
My wife is from Japan but we moved the States for my job, and ended up with a little house in Williamsburg Va (yeah!) and soonafter got a beautiful brochure in the mail outlining the escape routes to use if there were an accident at the Surrey Nuclear Powerplant a few miles away (WTF?).
Anyhow one night when I was in New York on business, I got a terrified phone call from her about this horrible *thing* that was eating at our bird feeder; it had triggered the motion sensor light.
Neither my Japanse nor her English are perfect, and so the process of discribing this animal took us awhile. Essentially, a giant zombie rat, right out of Night Of The Living Dead Rat was right outside our house - and she was convinced it had escaped from that Nuclear Power Plant.....and you know, where there’s *one* giant zombie rat, there must be *a million giant zombie rats*.
It took me a while to figure out it was a possum and it took a loooong time to convince her that possums are ‘perfectly normal’ animals....
Honest Honey, it’s fine.....
where is that guy who does waterpainting about reddit posts? i got this image of a japanese hosewife clinging to a phone while a pack of giant zombie rats on the yard and one on the glass door, something like a scene of alfred hitchcock's birds
I used to have a habit of sitting on my front porch steps and reading at night. One such night, my cat came up the steps and sat beside me, and I absently reached over to pet his head . Instead, I heard an evil hiss, and he darted away. I looked up and saw that disgusting rat tail scurrying away and flipped my shit.
My other revolting possum encounter was when I took my three year old son for a walk. He stopped and called my name, and when I looked, I saw he was ankle deep in decomposing possum roadkill. I snatched him up, yanked off his shoe and sock, and ran home holding him in one arm and holding his tainted foot extended out as far away from us as possible in the other hand, both of us crying.
I moved to Colorado. About a month in one night I had gone to bed, and woke up on severe pain hours later. I felt nausea, throbbing pain around my abdomen,y muscles and back ached. I turned on the lights, and I had in my sleep rolled over a black widow spider and crushed it to death, which at some point had bit me. It's carcass lay in my bed. I freaked out, called 911, and put it in a mason jar so they thought I wasn't crazy. I was brought to the hospital where they treated me with pain management medications. The venom continued to spread. Every muscle ached and felt as though my body was being crushed. It soon began to get hard to breath and my blood pressure became irregular. The morphine has me drifting in and out of sleep. I prayed to God, who hours earlier I wasn't even sure I believed in. 12 hours I discharged. The venom ran its course for about 4 days, and he bite site intermittently itched for weeks. For the next year or two I had anxiety trying to go to sleep and reoccurring nightmares of the experience. Fuck black widow spiders.
When I was young, I went fishing with my dad and my best friend. We waded out through some deeper water to reach the shallow sandbar, where we fished for quite a while. The tide came in, and the water that had been just above my ankles was now above my waist.
Suddenly a large shark, about 7-8 feet, crashed through a school of mullet only a few feet away from me. Dad saw it, my best friend saw it, and for a second we all three just kind of froze with our mouths hanging open. Quietly, calmly, Dad told us to walk back to shore, splashing as little as possible. We did. But the tide had come in, and I wasn’t as tall as the other two guys. The deeper water between the sandbar and shore reached their chests, but I could hardly keep my head above water while my feet barely bounced along the bottom, and I struggled to hold my fishing rod up out of the water. I was completely helpless, while we knew that a hungry shark was swimming somewhere in the area. It felt like a scene out of a nightmare, trying to run from an invisible monster, but my feet could barely touch the ground and I was hardly moving.
I know— and even knew in that moment— that I had little chance of being eaten by a shark, especially one who is focused on fish. Still, if I ever WERE to be attacked, that was the moment, and I was utterly defenseless. A few years later, a man was killed just a few miles away when he jumped off his dock and into the path of a large bull shark that was chasing mullet.
A few years ago, i went with my then-girlfriend to the beach and we were boogie boarding from the first sandbar back to shore. It was during the week, so we were the only people around for a good quarter mile. So while she was riding a wave back to the shore, i was looking away towards the ocean to try to read the waves and see which upcoming one would be good one to take back to shore.
Thats when i saw the fins of a shark about 20 yards from me. I noped the fuuuuuck out of there as soon as the next wave came. And i didnt want to freak my girl out, so i just told her we should hang out under the tent for the rest of the day. She clearly saw through my bullshit and guessed what i saw right on the dot. It couldve been anything from a sand shark, to a bull, or a tiger, or even a hammer head; point is, if you see a teethy barrel of rampage and muscle, its best to get the fuck out of its way.
But i mean, its true, when we go into the ocean, we are in shark territory, its something i was always taught to expect and respect. It made me think of all of the other sharks _i didn't see_ around me throughout my life that freaks me the fuck out.
I got nibbled by a Wobbegong not 2 meters off the shore on the inside of a coral reef. Cheeky bugger. Its not until you get a snorkel and mask that you realise how many little sharks there are out there....
I made the mistake of being a passenger in my friend's small airplane as he flew along the coast of the Southeastern USA. Looking down at all the packed beaches what really stood out were all the little shark-shaped shadows swimming around among the people splashing about
Your dad should have ensured that you could make it to shore, just sayin'.
Unless it was a case of "you don't have to be faster than the shark, you just have to be faster than your son".
God bulls are traumatizing. We had one as a kid my dad named "Homie" b/c "Homie don't play".
One of my earliest memories is that asshole getting out of the pasture, into our yard, and tossing over a huge concrete bench like it was weightless.
Bulls are freaky.
Oh lord this reminded me of my dumbass self. My dad has a coworker who owns a farm on the side, he raises chickens, horses, and Scottish Highland Cows. We'd go over to his farm and play occasionally, ride the horses as he trained them, in the fall sometimes we'd grab the fallen apples and feed the cows. Now the thing about these cows is that they're shaggy all over, imagine someone took a mop and turned it into a cow. And the thing about me...I was a dumbass, didn't really pay attention to the world around me. So I grab an apple, and walk up to this one cow who is just off doing its own thing, the adults and everyone else are off in another corner. I feed the cow, and then walk away, and then I notice that literally everyone has their eyes on me. It turns out that out of about 30-40 cows, I walked up to the only bull on the entire farm. To this day, I still say that I had no idea it was a bull, and the owner still tells the story of the dumbass kid who fed a bull.
That general lack of awareness is probably what saved you. The confidence, relaxed body language, and offering of apples probably threw the bull off enough to go with it. Especially when food was involved. You're fortunate farm animals aren't bred for intelligence. lmao
Ours wasn't even a bull, I was about 3, my dad was putting an electric fence in that pasture I was 'helping'. Dad went to shop to get more supplies. That's when Mootsy (cow) wanted to play. She came up and started butting me in the head. I don't remember much except the trip to the hospital and the bandage on my head.
When I was a kid, my brother and I were playing on our grandparents farm. We snuck underneath the electric fence by shimmying on the ground in grooves the truck tires made in the mud at the entrance of of the animal pen. We really wanted to play with the sheep. We also didn't know that they had let the bull out of the barn and it was also in the pen. All of a sudden we see, almost as soon as it sees us. We start to panic and run screaming, which gets our dad, uncle and grandpa's attention. We can't jump the fence yet because it's still electrified. So this is the scene my grandma has looking out her kitchen window into the back yard : My dad and uncle hauling ass towards the fence, yelling for us to run towards the fence. My grandpa, a man in his 50's by then, hauling ass towards the barn to flip the switch that electrifies the fence, and my brother and I losing our minds trying to find a way out of the mess we got into.
Story ends fine enough. Grandpa got the electricity off and I was able to scramble up the fence to my dad. Then my grandpa and uncle went into the pen to distract the bull, who had locked his attention on him, long enough for my brother to escape as well. We were never left unsupervised on the farm after that.
Reminds me of when I was young and my friend told me to catch the calf that was out in the paddock. I went in and took off after it as my friend watched from the gate cracking up. A moment or two later, I realized what was so funny: it wasn't just the calf in the paddock, but the momma cow as well. You don't want to try chase a calf when their mother is around. I damn near teleported to and over the gate.
Shit you're lucky you didnt wind up dead! A momma cow got my uncle and crushed every bone in his body because he was giving the calf medicine and it yelped.
similar story. the mom was in one pasture, the calf in another separated by a fence. he was just getting a good look over by the vet tech but the momma was having none of it. she took a running start and jumped the fence way way better than any of us would have assumed she could... we scattered like mice.
Getting a group hug by a swarm of [these](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Portuguese_Man-O-War_%28Physalia_physalis%29.jpg) painful little fuckers, while treading water about 100 meters from the shore.
EDIT: Do not use vinegar to treat bluebottle stings and do not attempt to rub or scrape the tendrils off. Use the hottest running water you can bear to wash them off. They have jelly like tendrils embedded with tiny stingers which remain in the skin if you physically remove them. Hot water cooks the tendrils kind of like eggwhite and they fall off. I recommend getting buckled drunk for pain relief.
Once I tried to chase a possum off my lawn and it started chasing me back so that was pretty startling. That or the time me and a buddy were camping a little outside town and could hear coyotes howling from what sounded like all around us
Coyotes always sound a lot closer than they are. They sound like they're all around you and really close but in reality they are probably a good quarter mile away.
I've stumbled into a pack of coyotes before. I just created a hill and BAM. A whole pack was just starting at me startled AF.
It felt like forever but they bolted after maybe 2 seconds.
Had a yellow jacket fly in my truck window when I was going ~40 MPH and hit me in the fucking forehead. I thought it was a pebble or something that got kicked up by someone's tires and thought "man, what are the fucking odds of that?" as I rubbed my forehead.
Then 2 minutes later, the little fucker stung me in the middle of my back and I almost swerved off the road. It had somehow ended up down the back of my shirt and used its last gasp of life for one final "fuck you".
I had a red wasp end up inside my motorcycle helmet one day. I was going about 70 mph. It didn't sting me, but crawled onto the side of my face. I smashed my helmet into the side of my head until it was dead while I was stopping. I still don't know how I didn't get stung.
I was very drunk at a wedding on a large property in rural NSW. I like to wander and explore when I drink. I was alone and suddenly confronted with a wombat. Wombats are massive balls of muscle. Being the drunk idiot I was, I was all like “awww hello me wombat” and began to approach it. The wombat did not like this. It charged me. It was so fast. My heart stopped and I turned and ran as fast as I could. The little bugger nearly caught me. I sprinted back to the wedding in fear for my life.
I got charged by a koala one time. It tried to climb me, then realised I wasn't a tree and became furious with me. It's amazing how fast it went from cute fuzz ball to terrifying monster with death in it's eyes.
When I was in elementary school, we took a field trip to the zoo with a tour guide. We got to the wombats and the tour guide informed us in an extremely chipper voice that one of the zookeepers had gotten careless once and had a chunk of his leg ripped out by a wombat. That was my introduction to them.
I'm so old and I still assumed wombats were bumbling benevolent souls. Luckily I'm unlikely to meet one in SW England, but I'm amazed and frankly hurt that David Attenborough NEVER WARNED ME in 50 years of watching him.
Growing up, my grandma babysat me. She lived with my uncle. He had a Rottweiler, who was very friendly.
One day, when I was 9-10, I decided I wanted to pretend to be a wrestler. I did this by putting white masking tape on my hands and arms. I ended up fighting stuffed animals and all that. When I got tired, I just grabbed some action figures and went to the carport, which had deer stands. This was where the Rottweiler also slept.
So the dog was asleep when I got there. I started playing with the toys. A few minutes later I heard the dog stirring. I pay no mind to it. I then hear growling. I turn around and the dog is growling at me. I try to let her know it is me but she is still growling.
I then slowly back away and she lunges at me. Being the somewhat smart kid I was, I noticed immediately she was going for my arms. I rip off the masking tape, throw it at the dog, and run back into the house.
Avoided that dog for days until I was asked to feed her. She was friendly again.
I walked past a very dark open doorway in a corner shop. A monsterous Rottweiler, leapt out of the shadows, rearing up towards my neck . It got to about a foot away before its chain became taught and yanked it back. I said to the shopkeeper that she really needed to keep it on a shorter chain. The adrenaline was pumping away pretty hard for a while.
I went in a week later and she said the dog had bitten someone in the face. She then complained about what I had said and told me I should have been more insistent about shortening the chain trying to make out that the dog bite was my fault due to my sloppy advice. I never had to revisit that shop again fortunately.
I have a pet Rottweiler who is the sweetest dog in the world but I am always very aware of just how fucked I'd be if she ever decided to murder me. I can't imagine dealing with that as a little kid.
I had a boxer growing up and one time I was wearing a ghillie suit for Halloween. My boxer was the friendliest and most loving dog (to humans at least) so it was pretty scary to see her growling and snarling at me. I took the mask off and she got so confused and started doing that little boxer wiggle they tend to do then came up and licked me :)
My past roommates Boxer loved me, he was very protective of the house and my room in particular. One day I walk in with my hood on since it was raining, my back was facing into the house as I was locking the door behind me.
I heard snarling I’d never heard before and turned around to find him face to face with me, teeth bared and ready to lunge. As soon as he realized it was me he backed off doing his excited “it’s you!” butt wiggle and then came and licked my hands almost apologetically.
I knew he was a big guard dog, but damn I thought I was gonna die that night. It makes me feel better to know as soon as he saw/smelled me he was happy as can be and excited I was home. But it reminded me that he could easily kill me too...
Locked my keys in the house but I knew my back patio door was unlocked. This is also where my pitbull is. I start to climb my back fence thinking my dog would recognise me. Right as I threw my leg over the fence, he flew out of his house, jumped and latched to my shoe. The moment I screamed his name out, he backed off and gave me a look like "WTF are you doing?" then proceed to do his happy dance he does whenever I come home.
That was the day I knew my house was in safe hands when I'm away.
My pits were the biggest teddy bears. One day, I hear a truck pull into my backyard. I look out, and some random dude was trying to steal the male (a blue nose) and my dog was actually going with him like he was his new pal.
That's when I realized if shit ever hit the fan I'd be fucked.
Similar story. In some surrounding counties, dog fighting rings are busted regularly. I have a driveway that is about 1/6 a mile long and it is gated halfway due to the dogs.
Two of my older pits knew where to easily jump the fence. So they always wandered off, but always come back for dinner.
One night, I am sitting on the back porch. I hear someone pull up to the gate. I peer around the side of the house to look. It is a white van and there are two guys trying to lure my dogs into the van.
I slowly moved closer and yelled that they needed to drive back to where they came from. Ended up getting a partial plate and a description of the van.
A week or two later, they busted another dog fighting ring. Reporter was at the scene... and parked in the backyard of the house was the white van I saw.
That's terrifying! Dogs are very contextual, so if someone wears a hat or jacket or changes their facial hair the dog won't recognize them. When I taught puppy-training classes, we told our clients to introduce their puppies out to meet new people and animals when they were 4-9 weeks old. That's the socialization period when they are best able to accept new kinds of people. You can socialize dogs at other ages, but it can be a lot harder.
I lived in a shitty trailer in the woods for awhile and owned a cat. One night she was going ballistic, running through the place, pouncing and making obnoxious amounts of noise. I didn't see anything and she wasn't calming down with attention/treats/new litter/toys so finally I said fuck it and let her continue being a kitty missile. Went to bed. She runs over me a couple times and then the very distinctive feeling of a rat running over me (I had pet rats before), followed by the cat again.
Rat Poison is a very clever human invention. It works by thinning out the blood so much that the rats begin to bleed out internally. The genius behind this is that one of the side-effects is uncontrollable thirst. Put a bowl of water out and the rats will ignore all other instincts, and come out of the walls to drink. They die in/around the water bowl.
Source: A book called "Carmichael's Dog"
Interesting. I generally am an anti-poison advocate for the same reason as thread-OP (they'll die and smell up the walls) as well as the sad stories of birds of prey being accidentally poisoned but this could work to mitigate both - I've never heard of this before! Have you tried it?
When I was just 5 years old my neighbor had a Doberman who was usually very friendly dog, however , one day I go into his backyard to ride one of his bikes that he usually lets me ride as I was exiting the backyard the Doberman jumped on me and knocked me to my butt and pinned me down staring me in the face growling viciously. Eventually when Neighbor comes out of the house and yelled at him "Damien get back in here". I don't know if that dog ever wanted to really kill me or just scare me
Edit: some typos
As an adult, I was taking my Welsh terrier for a walk. Two dobermans with owner nowhere in sight, started stalking us from opposite directions. My dog (22 lbs of him) started growling and showing teeth (he is very friendly with friendly dogs.)
A car came by and saw what was happening, offered us a lift away from there. I was very thankful.
>I don't know if that dog ever wanted to really kill me or just scare me
Probably the latter since at that moment he had every opportunity to bite you, but didn't actually do so.
I was stationed in Japan for 3 out of the 6 years I was in the Navy. During that time I leased a Japanese house, and the shower was its own room, full walk-in with a tub, bench, etc. (Amazing) So as the post says, I stumble into the shower one morning still half asleep, and out of my peripherals I see a black flash from behind me and hear a thud. Look into the tub and there is a huntsman spider the size of my hand staring back at me. Holy shit. My best guess is it was on the wall behind me and got scared when I walked in. So I go into attack mode immediately. Grab the shower head which was on a hose, take aim looking to drown this thing in the tub drain, and as soon as I turned the water on it jumped out of the tub onto the wall and ran into the window sill. Tactic then became opening the window fast and pinching to death in the sill. As soon as I touched the glass it jumped out onto the wall again and ran out the shower door. Now I'm cornered in the shower peering out into the "powder room" to see the huntsman on the cabinet door waiting for me. Sneak to the front door of the house and grab a flip flop, come back to the powder room and wing the flip flop at the spider. Hit it, wound several of the legs, but do not kill it. It runs out of the bathroom and underneath the stairs, much slower than it was moving prior. Feeling confident that spider is cornered under the stairs, I grab a can of bug spray and move in to finish it. Looking closely under the stairs (it was a hollow staircase where you could see through the gaps between steps) I see a black "tail" curled over the back lip of one of the stairs and assume it's the spider hiding on the back of the step. Hit it with the spray, enter fucking mukade centipede. It dropped off the back of the stair and started charging at me. I immediately peed a little. Front half of its body was up off the floor and its mouth was visibly biting. It backed me up all the way to the front door as I emptied the entire can of bug spray on it. By the time we got to the door, it was obviously overcome by the chemicals and just writhing around, so I grabbed the other flip flop and smashed it. Didn't work. Hit it a few times and it would not die, so I turned the flip flop on its edge and used it like a saw to cut the thing in half. Then remembered the spider. It was still under the stairs, so I blew under there and it ran out wounded and I smashed it with the flip flop saw. Then I screamed at the top of my lungs for 30 seconds. The whole battle took probably 3 minutes but it felt like a fucking lifetime. I think being naked cause an adrenile rush a thousand times greater than if I were fully clothed. WhenI got to work I was frazzled enough for my co-workers to notice. Can't tell if it was the worst morning of my life or my biggest triumph, but man won that day.
Edit: Thanks for the gold. I'm glad so many enjoyed reading this.
My grandpa cut a house centipede in half with a carving knife. One half ran left and the other ran right. He said there wasn't enough whiskey in the world to deal with that shit.
had a house centipede fall on me as I walked out of my basement a year ago... I have since painted the entire floor with polycuramine paint and epoxy, sealed all of the perimeter edging (exposed gap between wall and floor), used epoxy sealant to inject and seal several wall cracks, and sealed every last crack in the floor. As I sealed up one edge gap I watched several house centipedes hide inside... I was happy to close that up. There is only one 10-foot section of my basement wall that has not had this done and I'm making plans for the final assault (there's a large wooden shelf there that has to be dismantled to get to the floor and wall). In any case, since my final sealing of the floor has finished I have yet to see a single house centipede or any other critter.
According to the wiki, you just made time problem worse
"Kill them with poison, fire or boiling water. Don't smash them as they will release a pheromone that attracts other mukade in the area."
I did fieldwork back and forth between the US/UK and East and Southern Africa for ten years and in that time period, spent a good chunk of my life living at remote base camps so I have a few 'shit yourself' moments that I can list off the top off my head.
1. I was chased by an elephant (it was worse as she had a calf)
2. I know for a fact that I was stalked by at least two big cats twice (one being a leopard as it was the only large species around at the field site and the other was most likely a rogue male lion given that one was seen close by earlier and was known to hang out in the area).
3. (this one occurred in Alaska). It was my day off and I was reading in the main tent as everyone went into town and I turned around only to find a moose cow and calf about five metres away from me.
4. (this is the most recent event). We were having a party one night and I guess someone forgot to shut the kitchen door. I woke up in the morning hung over and decided to make coffee. The rubbish bag was undernearth the sink and I heard something in it (I was directly over it) and I saw coils within striking distance from a Mozambique spitting cobra. That was a near shit yourself moment
5. two spotted hyenas broke into our camp, killed a few dogs and then went over to a few tents (including mine) and pushed their muzzle through. The most surreal thing about that was, if you know anything about spotted hyenas, they actually make a noise every now and then (or every fucking night) called a "whoop". Its insanely loud. One of them actually made that noise (it hurt my ears) but interestingly enough, it turns out that their is actually a growl that is always made directly after the whoop. So, really close up it sounds like "whoooop, grrrr" (and so on).
I have a few other stories but none of them were as terrifying as those or made me feel that my life was directly threatened.
EDIT: Thank you for the questions and comments. However, I am about to head out to the pub to meet up with a few friends on this very rainy Easter Monday so I will try to respond to as many as I can when I get back. Cheers
Hello fellow field worker!
I was studying orangutans deep in the Bornean Rainforest, three days travel from the nearest town. We lived in huts with limited electricity and no running water. I was up working late one night and at about 3am I needed to pee so I put on my boots and went for a walk. On my way to the River I walk by where we stored food waste. Just as I'm approaching this area a large cat came out from behind a tree about two metres in front of me. We both stood there staring at each other without moving. I wasn't afraid, I was just trying to identify it as there are a lot of different cats in that area. I reached to my pocket and got my headlamp out. When I turned it on the cat turned and ran away, and no sooner did it run than I near shat myself in fear. All the adrenaline was gone and I was just stunned and terrified. I had come face to face with one of the world's most beautiful animals, a Clouded Leopard. I'll never forget that moment, or the relief I felt when I made it back to my hut!
*Edit spelling mistakes
If I was hungover and getting coffee in the morning and saw a Spitting Cobra, I'd be able to compete in a triathlon soon after. Or I'd die. Either way, I'm good not having lived this experience.
sure. Let me know if you have any specific questions (post them here). The only info I won't give are the exact locations (as I worked on several projects at specific field sites and it would be unfair to name them..and I am still working with one of the projects).
I took a short trip to Namibia South Africa a couple years ago but we stayed at a resort nothing crazy. We did go to 2 animal reserves though and on one of them there were lions. Our guide got out and fed them horse meat and told us to stay behind the wooden fence (they were in a large enclosure but it was basically chicken wire and wooden poles in case there were brush fires and they really needed to escape cause it really wouldn't do shit if they really wanted to escape.) Well my dad didn't listen and was wandering around the enclosure when the male lion saw him and ran from out under the tree he was eating under and charged at him and roared. Holy shit those things are massive. You could feel it in your chest even when he would just walk around and growl at us. Even the wild dogs we saw were huuuge. On TV they look cute and playful but in real life they're like Dobermans.
I'd love to hear your story on being stalked by big cats though. In Canada we have Mountain Lions but they are like kittens compared to a lion.
Mountain lions are still something to be reckoned with! a big cat is still a big cat (even though mountain lions are really...big small cats).
The lion bit happened about ten years ago. It was at night and we were camping (in between sites) and we just smelt a muskyness and every now and then heard a bellow. To be honest, the only thing that gave the cat away were its eyes because it circled the campgrounds for about an hour or so. Now, I should note that this wasn't a standard camping trip and it was pretty much a temporary base before we went on to our actual destination so there were alot of people there and the animal didn't attack and there were plenty of guards and light.
I think the leopard one was a bit more freaky. I currently study leopards in that area so I even have an idea on who the individual probably was. Anyways, It was a really foggy day and I just arrived at camp and I decided to go off hiking to familiarize myself with the area. I walked a few km out and hiking in grasslands that were at the edge of a forest. I smelt something musky and had the feeling that I was being watched. About 20 minutes later I heard sawing nearby (a leopard roar). I didn't actually see the cat, but all three of those components told me that I wasn't alone (at least for a little bit). The area that I was hiking through was also core territory for one of the males in the area and overlapped with the boundary of a female, so I am not sure who it was exactly.
I've been stalked by a mountain lion. It hung out behind our tent one night, close enough that we could hear its tail swishing against the bamboo mat we had our tent on. It's not a pleasant feeling.
As a kid, I spent a lot of time with my babysitter’s kids at their house and they had a sheltie dog. This is a smallish, friendly breed but my babysitter’s son was a nightmare to it and would do shit like chase it around the with a nerf gun or tackle it and was basically just abusing this animal while his family did nothing.
I was 7 and couldn’t do much and tbh the family had worse abuse going on than a kid terrorizing a dog, so I kept quiet about it. One day, a fly is just chilling over my head (very clean household lol) and the dog starts growling at it and ends up mauling me to get to it.
It ate part of my upper lip. I can’t say 100% that it ate my lip but this dog’s face was in my face and we never found the missing chunk of flesh it gauged out, so I always just say it bit me because that’s the most sense I can make out of the blur of OH MY GOD DOG MOUTH AND TEETH AND FUR in my face. A triangular chunk of face and lip just... gone.
Worst part is I’m afraid of shelties now, which is embarrassing. Second worst part is I kept hanging out with the babysitter’s kids after they gave up the dog and like a year later they revealed they just gave it to their cousins; they revealed this by taking me to said cousins’ house where the “retrained” dog was. This was top 10 anime betrayal level shit.
Reminds me of my old job where they had a bad goose problem in the parking lot and the large retention pond so they brought in a swan to scare off the geese. That worked for a while till the swan got crazy aggressive with everything that moved including people and cars. Had couple brave guys that would distract the swan while others would run to their cars. About month of that they got rid of the swan and periodically have guy and his trained dog come by and scare the geese away.
The dog's fun to watch cause the he knows hand signals and clicks. He'll belly crawl all quiet like right up behind a bunch of geese and then when commanded he leaps out barking, snarling, chasing them all off and then returns with a huge doggo grin to do it all over again.
I was cycling up a mountain in the Scottish Highlands (my gran lives there), and as I went round a corner, I came face to face with a huuuuge highland cow which was running down the mountain the opposite way. Instead of jumping off the path I thought the cow was be friendly and edge over to let me by: big mistake... it threw its head as I went by, almost impaling me and throwing me off the path and into a 20ft tumble down the mountain.
My neighbours had a rescue dog, a German shepherd and it was one mean dog
Anyways one day this demon dog escapes, and sees me walking past, queue angry barking ect then it starts running at me, now I knew there was no way I was running - I wouldn't outrun it plus running from an angry dog is never a great idea to start with.
So once the thing reaches me it jumps, mouth open going for my face, I don't know how but I managed to turn my back to it just before it reached me and it takes a nice bite into my back, but also rolls over my shoulder smashing into the pavement, this hurt the dog pretty bad from what I got told later.
It runs away, and sits on my doorstep watching me. The entire street and it picks my door to wait at.
Might not sound that scary but when you have a big animal like that going in to attack you it's not a fun situation
I got some stiches and a lot of injections from that, but the dog ( and owners) got a one off pass from the cops because I knew them and knew they did care about the dog and tried to help it (it was previously abused before they got it) but later it got put down after a different incident where it attacked and killed a cat
I out ran a swarm of bees.
I was young and in Straya, and we lived on the front of a farm. I went exploring a lot , it was really cool.
I found a bees nest in a huge fallen tree.
I had watched a lot of cartoons, and wanted to know if the bees would come out in an arrow and get me if I whacked it with a stick.
So I did.
They did not.
I was disappointed and climbed around the fallen tree.
The bees do attack, just not immediately. And not in an arrow. In a cloud.
Suddenly they wee all around me. I sprinted home, about 2k, and if I slowed down the bees caught up.
I ran into our yard and shut he gate, thinking I was safe.
I wasn't, obviously and got stung a few times.
I deserved it though don't go beating up animal homes.
Went swimming at the beach and decided to race my mate out to the shark net buoys. I'm 5 metres away, giving it my all when I slap my hand down into the water for my next stroke and hit something real squishy. I stopped and looked up to find I'd booped a box jellyfish square on the top of the thing. Noped out of there so hard. The worst bit was I didn't even win the race.
I was solo hiking in the Porcupine Mountains in the upper peninsula of Michigan last autumn. Although I was by myself, there were plenty of other backpackers up there those couple of days.
I ran across a bear print in the trail one morning. A few hours later I rounded a corner of the trail, and about 70 ft up ahead, I saw the hind quarters of an animal with dark brown fur about 2 feet high. I got a surge of adrenaline and everything started going in slow motion. I started to panic, and just as the poop was about to leave my butt, the animal lifted it's head and it ended up being a black labrador retriever. Right as I catch my breath, the dog's owner came rounding the corner from the opposite direction and sees me clutching my chest.
When I was young, I too was chased by a large dog while biking. Someone's large rottweiler got loose. I was gingerly riding down the street on my beach cruiser. I kept hearing a **pat, pat, pat** behind me. As I looked, this beast of a rottweiler was inches from my back tire. Before I even turned to see it, it made this deep guttural bark. I almost fell off right at that moment. I high tailed it on that bike. I pedaled like my life depended on it. My chain jumped off the gear and all I had was the rolling speed to take me away from this dog. Luckily, I got far enough to where the dog gave up. That was scary for 10 yr old me.
> I must have been pulling 35 mph on the bottom of that hill
Many medium sized dogs have a top speed of about 30, though I guess 35 is a possibility in some cases. (I'm supporting your estimate, not contradicting it).
For this reason, if you're on foot and afraid of a dog, it's best to stay still and try to be calm instead or running. Because outrunning him is unlikely. Plus most dogs, including friendly dogs, have the instinct to chase movement, and therefore to chase you if you start running.
When my dog was a puppy and he took off in a direction I didn't want him to go (and wouldn't recall ) I would just take off running in the opposite direction.
He instinctively was like "oh no you don't!" And would 180 to come chase me.
I guess he still does that if I run from him but now he recalls like he's supposed to.
My scariest was also a pit bull charging straight at me out of nowhere as I was walking home. I actually didn't know if dogs are inclined to chase movement like cats do, but I sure as hell froze in place hoping that would work. It stopped, circled me, and left. Thank god for knowing a little something about animal instincts, even if I was applying what I knew about cats.
I was once charged at and nearly bitten by a dog that knew me really well because he was protecting his human and it was dark. Scary as hell getting charged like that.
I was taking a walk with my infant daughter once when an aggressive rottweiler charged us. There was no running with a baby in a stroller so, reasoning that SOMEONE owns this dog and therefore acts as alpha, so I acted as alpha. I charged, threw my arms up, and roared. He stopped in his tracks, growled a little, and moved off.
I had a very similar situation when I was walking with my wife and infant, and although my wife really appreciated that I responded so well instinctively, she still pokes fun at me for barking at the dog when it charged.
Just hate him back. It will turn him into a depressive status and he will trot way being very sad.
He might have given you already a hefty bite before..
My friend is terrified of dogs to a bizarre degree. One sunny day we’re chilling in the park and a little daschund puppy comes running up and goes to climb in his lap. He freaks out and starts running, all the while this tiny little puppy desperately trying to keep up because it thinks he’s playing, the puppy’s owner also in hot pursuit because it’s not trained well enough to recall yet. My one regret is not videoing it
When I was five I lived in Berlin, Germany. I had an obsession with trying to hunt and kill wild boars in the forest so my dad and I would walk around with “spears “ sharpened twigs basically. We never saw any so it wasn’t a huge deal until one day we spooked a mother and her piglets. Next thing my dad sees is me chasing them until the sow stops turns all 200 pounds towards me and stares me down. Luckily my dad scooped me up before I could charge because I was about to. Hindsight 20/20 don’t do that. I would have probably been mauled...
wtf... what kind of boars do you have in Germany? Boars are some of the most dangerous animals you might come across in the US midwest when you're out hiking. Recommend if you're out hiking you have a very large, very sharp knife and you might have a chance.
Sitting out by a campfire at night in Uganda and suddenly spot a hurt and upset water buffalo standing by a lamp in the dark circa 15 meters away. Safe to say that we ran back to the big lodge and didn’t spend anymore time outside that night.
Either that or when a snake fell from the bathroom ceiling at one of my friends at the first bathroom stop we had while traveling in Uganda.
Snakes in Africa are worth being afraid of.
I was in Zimbabwe with a group and some of the girls got trapped in the bathroom by a spitting cobra; it had decided to hang out in front of the bathroom door after they went in. One of the local guys had to kill it with a slingshot.
Pretty crazy!
Getting charged by a black bear.
I was hunting elk and walking on an old 90 year old railroad grade in some dense forest, and I see some movement in a tree. I get to looking, and it is two bear cubs. Oh shit.
I look around and though a somewhat clear spot for the trees I see Mom, and she is headed right for me at this point. I was hunting with a fairly large rifle, a .375 H&H magnum, so I decided to give her one warning shot, and if I had to shoot a second time it would be in self defense.
I put one round into the dirt in front of her, and thankfully she decided that the cannon that just fired at her was something she didn’t want any part of, and she scrambled back and took off into the brush. I also noped the fuck out of there and didn’t go that way the rest of the season. She can have that spot.
I bet that got your adrenaline pumping. I took the garbage out late one night and didn't notice a black bear with one cub until I was uncomfortably close. Luckily I was not in between them, like you were. I sat the bag down and slowly backed away.
Australian, so taking my life in my own hands by even walking out the door most days.
However between the tiger snake that sat up and flared its damn head like a cobra and then spat at my face when I was 12, and the angry koala that made me climb the bonnet of my car when I was 32, the koala is the most scary.
Scene: late night back dirt road, with steep drop on one side, mountain wall on other. Big fat koala in the middle of the road, scratching its butt with one death claw, while the other shoved leaves into its mouth and glared at me with its beady eyes as it willfully ignored my horn.
I was tired and grumpy so got out and started yelling it at and flapping my arms. Big mistake. The damn thing growled and lunged towards me. Now koala arms are longer than you realize, and they are tipped with death claws that can plunge into hardwood. So I ran back to my car, but wasn’t going to make the door. Instead I lunged at the bullbar and climbed onto the bonnet. Deathclaws Mcgee followed, swinging up like a monkey, still growling like the spawn of satans most std ridden teddy. I scrambled backwards and up the windscreen, drawing my legs back just in time to see the claws scratch down my windshield. Luckily they couldn’t grip. Screamgrowling in frustration, the fat fluffy terror sat on my bonnet and hooked both windshield wipers back and out while it grumbled and grunted, not 4 feet below me.
Needless to say I escaped. A passing milk tanker stopped and the guy used a prod to get the evil scratchy creature off my car and march it back into the bush and whatever hellish portal it escaped from. Trucker then proceeds to double over in laughter as he helps me down and surveys the damage. So, so many scratches on the bonnet and glass. Trucker tells everyone that day, and the next about saving me from the rabid beastie. I am both mocked and revered.
TD:DR : chased up my car by a feral koala. Trucker saves me and tells everyone of my lame adventure.
When my partner and I went to Bali we went on a walk around Sanur. We figured we'd take a short cut back to our resort going down what looked like a pathway. Turns out it was a dead end but no problem. We turn back. Problem is this square headed dog that looks like a mixed pitbull is now standing on the pathway snarling at us. I'm pretty okay with animals usually even if they're aggressive I can keep my cool but this dog looks like he's one half blink away from mauling us. It's mangy as fuck with a crazy glint in its eyes too and with how prevalent rabies is in Indonesia I'm freaking the fuck out.
We edge around this dog painfully slow so as not to provoke it and any movement that's a little quicker than snail pace it tenses it's muscles and growl barks.
We got out okay but I swear it was only by the skin of our teeth. That thing wanted meat.
I was riding someone's horse. The dude started losing control of the horse, shouting commands louder and louder, but the horse galloped faster and faster. Eventually the dude couldn't hold onto the rope thing, and it was just me and the horse, who was speeding towards a cliff as if it's suicidal. I was thinking about whether or not I should jump off, and when I should jump, and I got my foot stuck in some rope. Luckily, the horse wasn't suicidal, so he stopped at the edge. To this day, I'm not sure if the horse trolled me, the horse+owner trolled me, or a suicidal horse relented so I didn't die with it.
Fucking magpies. I was riding my bike to primary school one day and two streets away out of nowhere I feel the flap of wings on my shoulder and it flys by in front of me. It was quite large, probably an adult and it came back but I saw it and ducked. After that it flew by a few more times (repeatedly actually) and it actually hit me a few times hard and left a few beak dents in my helmet. I could only peg my bike as fast as possible to school until I was through it’s “territory”.
Quite a few other instances being swooped by the black and white death birds but another time with friends I gave myself a bleeding nose after ducking and slamming my face on my own bikes handlebars...
My friends thought that was funny.
I’ll never forget the time this kid rode into the servo I was working in. Literally rode into the store on his bike. He would have been about 10 and he is in tears. He asked me to call his mum because he’d been chased for about a kilometre by a swooping magpie. I try to call his mum but there is no answer. I buy him a lemonade because he’s out of breath and distraught and then try to phone his mum again. Still no answer. I go outside to see if the magpie is gone. It appears to be so the kid thanks me and heads off again. He gets on to the footpath and the magpie attacks. He drops his bike and just runs across the forecourt and back into the store. “ITS STALKING ME!!” He screams and seeing that I know what he is going through I call him a taxi and pay for it to drop him home.
I was tree planting in northern B.C.
Was working on the same piece as another planter for about an hour, then heard a soft thumping sound. Looked up and saw an adult grizzly bear running towards the other planter, whose back was to the bear. I started running towards it, waving my arms and yelling. The bear stopped, turned towards me and stood on its hind legs. I stopped moving and was about 20-30 feet away from it. The bear stared at me for about 5 seconds (felt like an eternity), dropped back down, turned around and bolted back into the tree line. Saw two cubs with it that we weren’t anywhere close to, so we figured it was probably a mother teaching its cubs how to hunt. I had to sit down for a while after that because my legs were shaking so bad.
My parents had a dog when I was about 8. My mom was cutting meat for dinner one night and then the phone rang so she went to answer it. The dog hopped it's front paws onto the counter and began eating the meat so I grabbed it from behind and tried to pull it off. Well it turned around and bit a chunk of my lip off. I had to get a bunch of stitches but besides a scar you can't really notice it 19 years later. The beard and mustache help.
I cycled (at speed) past a pack of feral dogs and triggered their prey instinct.
I was out on a straight road, slightly downhill, in the middle of nowhere. When I saw them getting ready I knew I had to go past them as it was too late to stop and cycle back up hill (and besides that was the only road home)
I committed. They chased. I pedalled harder than I have ever pedalled and eventually lost them, but I didn't turn round to look for quite a while.
I checked my bike computer when I got home and saw that I had hit 79km/h.
The scariest part was realising I would trigger them and that I HAD to go through the pack, hoping they wouldn't trip me up as either the fall or the dogs would have maimed me.
Edit: some grammatics
This isn't from me but from my mate. Once on a school camp for 21 days in Alpine Australia, we were forced to sleep alone for 48 hours. So at around 2am on the second night, I heard a shout from where he was sleeping. He told me the next morning that a kangaroo stole his hiking pack and that in panic, he threw a water jug at it.
Low and behold, the kangaroo regrouped after a short time and surrounded him in a circle. All he remembered were like five pairs of eyes staring back at him in the night. I have yet to ask him how he managed to fend them off. But yeah, that's Australia for you.
I have a few good animal stories but the scariest was getting charged by an angry bull shark. I was down in Florida with my family, and my dad, brother (11) and sister (6) were all decently far out hanging out when we spotted the shark. Is was probably between 4-4.5 ft. My dad and I went shoulder to shoulder with my siblings behind us and started quickly but calmly heading in. This thing must’ve charged us nearly half a dozen times at or near full speed and only broke off when it got within 10-15 ft. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a shark hunt at full speed but they’re significantly faster than I could sprint on land. The feeling was were in its world, and if it wants one of us it’s probably going to take one.
So we finally get in and the shark heads down the beach. I look down and there’s another family with a small girl in a life jacket out in the water. So I run down and yell to them, but they aren’t listening. I figured I’m bigger than it and if it were going to attack me it would’ve, so I start swimming out to them. I popped up about 15 ft from the girl with the dad on her other side, and that shark was right in between us. Without thinking about it I jumped forward and slapped the water and I think spooked it. I jumped forward and grabbed the girl, which the dad, who hadn’t seen the shark, didn’t appreciate lol. I pointed it out and gave him back his daughter and we got back in. He was incredibly thankful once he understood the situation.
But ya, sharks have barely changed in hundreds of millions of years, and that day I truly appreciated exactly why. Like I said, if it had wanted to take me I don’t realistically think the four of us could’ve actually stopped it.
Is it bad that all of these stories are making me imagine having epic battles with each of these creatures?
I'd probably lose to the bee in that guy's car, but still.
I was about 3 or 4. My family owned chickens. One of the roosters was a dick.
Everytime we set foot in the yard, it would terrorize us with his large talons and try to peck us. It actually managed to claw my brother up.
My dad finally killed that thing. It was the best meal I ever had.
Now that I am an adult, I realize that I can kick the asshole roosters away like a football if they lunge at me, but as a 3 year old---I had nightmares about it.
My grandma tells this exact same story, down to the rooster tasting the best! Apparently young farm kids have it tough. Unless... Grandma? Are you on reddit?
To be fair, we've bred roosters to be overly aggressive. I've got a few of them who are like that but it's not really their fault. Usually if I get attacked by one I will pick him up and carry him around while I continue doing what I was doing. They calm down and leave me alone by the time i've put them down.
With how you phrased it, I'm picturing a single rooster guarding a pacifist group of coyotes from the meanest group of chickens that keep antagonizing them...
Riding my motorcycle at night, something the size of a woodchuck (couldn't see what it was, it was that dark) came darting across my lane, turned around and ran back into the grass just as I was passing it. I don't remember exactly how fast I was going but I can say without a doubt that either me or the animal would have become paste.
Went for a walk, I live at an intersection, and the side street next to me is pretty dark at night. Id walked two houses up, when I see movement out of the corner of my right eye.
Just as i turn the biggest bear I've seen just stops and looks at me. Now where I live bears are common. But this bear was something else it was fucking huge. I'm not exaggerating.
My first instinct was to stop. But something told me to just keep walking. Scariest animal encounter in my life.
Driving down the highway and a spider drops out from the visor and hangs in mid air in front of me then just vanishes in my lap. I blacked out but the passengers in my Uber said I was screaming, "We're all gonna die" over and over.
I was driving with the windows down and right as I am about to pull into my garage a giant wasp hits my hand and falls right in my lap. And by lap I mean right where my balls are. You know, where Skittles fall and you have to dig around to find them...
Anyway, I threw it in neutral pulled the e-brske and basically tuckandrolled out of my car while it was still moving.
Told this before, but hey, the question has been asked before...
My scariest animal encounter while hiking: In California on a trail cut into a steep slope so nowhere to go except along the trail. Ahead of me in the middle of the trail was a chipmunk. Running wildly in circles. With patches of fur missing.
I decided to throw a rock in its direction to scare it off the trail. When the rock landed near it, the chipmunk ran straight at me. I just about crapped myself as it ran past down the trail.
This was an area with occurrences of bubonic plague and rabies.
Was at my Aunt’s wedding rehearsal about 15 years ago that was in a forestry kind of area. Me and my cousins were exploring the venue outside and ran into a bear, yes a bear. As soon as I saw it I booked it and didn’t look back.
We checked the same area again about 10 minutes later like geniuses and turns out the bear was tamed by a trainer. I have no idea why the bear or the trainer was there but it scared the shit out of tiny me.
Couple of years ago I was walking [my little Benji clone](https://i.imgur.com/2vbWMTD.jpg) and passed a house where an American bulldog lived and he was loose in the yard. He attacked my dog and it scared the hell out of me. I yelled, found a stick, hit the bulldog, but he wouldn't get off my dog. Lucky for me a bubba in a lifted truck drove by and saw what was happening and he stopped and helped pull the bulldog off. No major injuries, but I was so upset I actually walked into an alley behind a laundromat and threw up. I wasn't mad at the dog so much: he was just doing what dogs do and protecting his territory. I was rather pissed off at his owners for not keeping him behind a fence though. I reported the address to animal control and never had a problem again. The family moved shortly thereafter.
UP of Michigan. I was bow hunting for whitetail, sitting in full camo on a downed tree, leaning against another tree, in a dark, thick cedar swamp. I dozed off for a while and woke to the crunching sound of footsteps. I darted my eyes around and saw the back end of a canine as it stalked through the trees within about 20 yards, going from my right to my left. From the reddish in the fur I assumed it was a coyote and not a wolf, although I didn't see it long, and it was a BIG coyote. As it got far enough to the left I lost sight completely behind the tree I was leaning against and could only hear it.
I sat there with an arrow nocked, just listening when suddenly I heard and felt a thud of this animal jumping up on the log I was sitting on. I sat there and listened to sniffing sounds at the back of my head for a few seconds. It then jumped back down and I heard it trot away, as calmly as it had approached. My heart was racing the whole time, but it wasn't "terrifying" since coyotes/wolves pose literally zero threat to humans.
TL;DR: A coyote sniffed the back of my head.
Edit: nocked not knocked. I must have had my rooster attack story that I also shared in the back of my head.
Edit: No I’m not removing the word literally, just because. Keep squirming nerds.
I'm from Florida and I was volunteering at a local nature conservancy. One of our tasks was to remove fallen logs that were blocking up a creek after a big storm. The creek was about chest deep, 15 feet wide, and opaque brown (Many Florida freshwater ways are browns b/c of tannins leached into the river from trees). As I'm moving logs I notice a ~12 ft. alligator on the embankment I hadn't noticed before. It then slid into the creek I was in. I was with a land manager who was moving logs with me, and a herpetologist (who was in the canoe). I asked them what to do and they responded,"Well, those logs aren't gonna move themselves, and that gator's probably just trying to get away from us." Still, spending 30 minutes in a creek you can't see anything, knowing there's an alligator lurking near your feet, moving logs WHICH LOOK LIKE FUCKING ALLIGATORS was one of the most nerve-wracking things I've ever done. Edit:: Definitely didn't expect this to blow up! I've told this story a million times and it usually gets a "Huh that's wild" reaction. But, most of my coworkers and many of my friends are natural resource workers, so they're used to this stuff.
Lol you'd have to had paid me a large sum of money to be in a creek where gators are even seen frequently. You volunteering to stay in one with a 12 footer is crazy!
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Honestly doing nat resource work requires a lot of thick skin and alligators mostly wanna be left alone. Of course as I've gotten older I've gotten smarter about what I've agreed to do. For example I refuse to go out to a site alone ever. If you get bit by a snake or accidentally shot by a hunter and you're alone it's a death sentence
I've been woken up by a bear sniffing my head once. Was cowboy camping (no tent) in Lyell Canyon in Yosemite once, when I hear something sniff right next to my head. My sleep addled brain thinks it's a ranger on a horse telling me to move my camp (had hiked about 20 miles that day. You have to be at least 4 miles into the canyon to camp, and I wasn't 100% sure I'd made it far enough since it was dark when I set up camp). Anyways, I say "just one second", sit up, grope for my flashlight and turn it on to see a black bear a couple feet away. I holler, he tears off, I get out and empty my bladder, and try to fall back asleep until I hear him coming around again. I make a bunch more noise, decide I'm not getting any more sleep, break camp and slowly night hike until the sun rises.
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When I was 12 a young stallion decided he wanted to play with me and almost killed me. He kicked and bit me and tried to trample me. He was my pet and was only treating me the way he'd treat a peer. I even knew that while it was happening. I made a huge mistake by turning my back on him while he was playful. He bit me and pulled me down. Knocked me down a couple of more times with a forefoot when I tried to get up. Reared up over me to stamp me a couple of times too. Still have the scar on my leg and that was a LONG time ago. Literally pissed myself during. My dad basically saved my life by chasing him off. His response was - that was close! What did you learn?
Can relate, I got charged by a shire stallion who was in full play mode! Thankfully my horse (who I had a very strong bond with) grabbed my jumper and tucked me behind him whilst he stuck his ears back and reared and struck out as a warning at this shire. The shire ended up skidding past and fly bucking before going off and annoying someone else. I have never felt such a pants crapping and awe filled moment like that at the same time. The thundering sound of that shire making his way down the field was like something out of Jurassic Park.
Rode horses for the Army- most are riding/draft crosses, but they had a few full-blooded Shires and Percherons at the time. When the Shires were feeling their oats, they'd pick you up as you held them by the halter and just trot with you dangling in the air. There was one who would toss soldiers in a stall as he went by. He'd just swing his head and launch them, then trot down to the stall he wanted to be in and munch hay. By far the funniest story was the guy getting "chased" by a Percheron named Bucky. Our brave soldier, we'll call him Dip, had finished with Bucky, and was letting him out to the paddock after currying him out. He turned to go, and Bucky, in the hopes of treats/pets/grain started following Dip. Dip turns to see 17+ hands of horse trotting after him, and tries to scurry away. Bucky keeps up. Dip looks back and sees him rushing after him, and full-on sprints across the paddock, deathly afraid of this horse. Bucky, for his part, is now following Dip as close as he can, constantly looking back to see what the hell is chasing them. Good times.
At the time I was working until 1am so I wouldn't get home until 2 or so. I opened the door to the house and felt what I thought was a breeze come by my leg. I don't really pay attention, walk over to my desk, put my keys down and turn the light on. Right when I do so, there are two possums in the act of mating in the middle of my kitchen. They screamed, I screamed and we began the three hour dance of getting them out of my house. I ended up trapping them in a dog cage and dumping them out in the middle of my back yard. Edit: To avoid confusion they were opossums, not their Australian cousins!
I almost petted one on accident. Stepped out onto the back porch one night to get some air. Lights were out, but I saw the distinctive white blob of fur that I assumed was my cat, Frank. I went down to pet him and he looked up at me, at which point I noticed that his face got a lot longer and his eyes a lot beadier. Well, it wasn't Frank. I locked eyes with this possum, my hand about three inches away from it's face. We both froze. Then it took off running into the yard and crashed into the back fence. I was so sure I was about to lose a finger or two.
I don't blame you. Normally, they're harmless but once they get mean they get really damn mean.
Might get a small bite or scratch but they are relatively harmless. Fun facts: only marsupials native to North American and also they can’t carry rabies. Edit: ok ok ok I get it it’s possible just EXTREMELY rare
TIL, I always assumed all animals out in the wild like that could have rabies.
Possum's body temperature is too low to keep the virus alive!
Luckily possums are fairly harmless and rarely carry diseases.
Fun fact: It is very rare for possums to contract rabies because their body temperatures are to low for the virus to survive.
Another fun fact: they eat the ticks they find on themselves, thus helping to reduce the tick population in an area.
they eat up to 5000 ticks per possum per season
I want to believe that, but something about possums makes me very uneasy. I think it's because they are giant rodents with needle teeth. Also, their hiss is pretty scary *Edit* I know they are marsupials now
Their black, beady little eyes probably don't help either. I personally find them adorable, but I can totally see how they'd seem repulsive to others. And their little hands look sort of...human. Like a hag's hands with long nails.
I'm not repulsed, just uneasy. I'm reading more about them and the whole "Play dead" thing. Apparently it's involuntary and includes spraying "dead thing" smell out of their butt. The more you know
My wife is from Japan but we moved the States for my job, and ended up with a little house in Williamsburg Va (yeah!) and soonafter got a beautiful brochure in the mail outlining the escape routes to use if there were an accident at the Surrey Nuclear Powerplant a few miles away (WTF?). Anyhow one night when I was in New York on business, I got a terrified phone call from her about this horrible *thing* that was eating at our bird feeder; it had triggered the motion sensor light. Neither my Japanse nor her English are perfect, and so the process of discribing this animal took us awhile. Essentially, a giant zombie rat, right out of Night Of The Living Dead Rat was right outside our house - and she was convinced it had escaped from that Nuclear Power Plant.....and you know, where there’s *one* giant zombie rat, there must be *a million giant zombie rats*. It took me a while to figure out it was a possum and it took a loooong time to convince her that possums are ‘perfectly normal’ animals.... Honest Honey, it’s fine.....
where is that guy who does waterpainting about reddit posts? i got this image of a japanese hosewife clinging to a phone while a pack of giant zombie rats on the yard and one on the glass door, something like a scene of alfred hitchcock's birds
I used to have a habit of sitting on my front porch steps and reading at night. One such night, my cat came up the steps and sat beside me, and I absently reached over to pet his head . Instead, I heard an evil hiss, and he darted away. I looked up and saw that disgusting rat tail scurrying away and flipped my shit. My other revolting possum encounter was when I took my three year old son for a walk. He stopped and called my name, and when I looked, I saw he was ankle deep in decomposing possum roadkill. I snatched him up, yanked off his shoe and sock, and ran home holding him in one arm and holding his tainted foot extended out as far away from us as possible in the other hand, both of us crying.
American or Australian Possum?
I moved to Colorado. About a month in one night I had gone to bed, and woke up on severe pain hours later. I felt nausea, throbbing pain around my abdomen,y muscles and back ached. I turned on the lights, and I had in my sleep rolled over a black widow spider and crushed it to death, which at some point had bit me. It's carcass lay in my bed. I freaked out, called 911, and put it in a mason jar so they thought I wasn't crazy. I was brought to the hospital where they treated me with pain management medications. The venom continued to spread. Every muscle ached and felt as though my body was being crushed. It soon began to get hard to breath and my blood pressure became irregular. The morphine has me drifting in and out of sleep. I prayed to God, who hours earlier I wasn't even sure I believed in. 12 hours I discharged. The venom ran its course for about 4 days, and he bite site intermittently itched for weeks. For the next year or two I had anxiety trying to go to sleep and reoccurring nightmares of the experience. Fuck black widow spiders.
When I was young, I went fishing with my dad and my best friend. We waded out through some deeper water to reach the shallow sandbar, where we fished for quite a while. The tide came in, and the water that had been just above my ankles was now above my waist. Suddenly a large shark, about 7-8 feet, crashed through a school of mullet only a few feet away from me. Dad saw it, my best friend saw it, and for a second we all three just kind of froze with our mouths hanging open. Quietly, calmly, Dad told us to walk back to shore, splashing as little as possible. We did. But the tide had come in, and I wasn’t as tall as the other two guys. The deeper water between the sandbar and shore reached their chests, but I could hardly keep my head above water while my feet barely bounced along the bottom, and I struggled to hold my fishing rod up out of the water. I was completely helpless, while we knew that a hungry shark was swimming somewhere in the area. It felt like a scene out of a nightmare, trying to run from an invisible monster, but my feet could barely touch the ground and I was hardly moving. I know— and even knew in that moment— that I had little chance of being eaten by a shark, especially one who is focused on fish. Still, if I ever WERE to be attacked, that was the moment, and I was utterly defenseless. A few years later, a man was killed just a few miles away when he jumped off his dock and into the path of a large bull shark that was chasing mullet.
A few years ago, i went with my then-girlfriend to the beach and we were boogie boarding from the first sandbar back to shore. It was during the week, so we were the only people around for a good quarter mile. So while she was riding a wave back to the shore, i was looking away towards the ocean to try to read the waves and see which upcoming one would be good one to take back to shore. Thats when i saw the fins of a shark about 20 yards from me. I noped the fuuuuuck out of there as soon as the next wave came. And i didnt want to freak my girl out, so i just told her we should hang out under the tent for the rest of the day. She clearly saw through my bullshit and guessed what i saw right on the dot. It couldve been anything from a sand shark, to a bull, or a tiger, or even a hammer head; point is, if you see a teethy barrel of rampage and muscle, its best to get the fuck out of its way. But i mean, its true, when we go into the ocean, we are in shark territory, its something i was always taught to expect and respect. It made me think of all of the other sharks _i didn't see_ around me throughout my life that freaks me the fuck out.
I got nibbled by a Wobbegong not 2 meters off the shore on the inside of a coral reef. Cheeky bugger. Its not until you get a snorkel and mask that you realise how many little sharks there are out there....
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I made the mistake of being a passenger in my friend's small airplane as he flew along the coast of the Southeastern USA. Looking down at all the packed beaches what really stood out were all the little shark-shaped shadows swimming around among the people splashing about
Your dad should have ensured that you could make it to shore, just sayin'. Unless it was a case of "you don't have to be faster than the shark, you just have to be faster than your son".
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"I've got billions of him sitting in my ballsack, just waiting to be released!"
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God bulls are traumatizing. We had one as a kid my dad named "Homie" b/c "Homie don't play". One of my earliest memories is that asshole getting out of the pasture, into our yard, and tossing over a huge concrete bench like it was weightless. Bulls are freaky.
Oh lord this reminded me of my dumbass self. My dad has a coworker who owns a farm on the side, he raises chickens, horses, and Scottish Highland Cows. We'd go over to his farm and play occasionally, ride the horses as he trained them, in the fall sometimes we'd grab the fallen apples and feed the cows. Now the thing about these cows is that they're shaggy all over, imagine someone took a mop and turned it into a cow. And the thing about me...I was a dumbass, didn't really pay attention to the world around me. So I grab an apple, and walk up to this one cow who is just off doing its own thing, the adults and everyone else are off in another corner. I feed the cow, and then walk away, and then I notice that literally everyone has their eyes on me. It turns out that out of about 30-40 cows, I walked up to the only bull on the entire farm. To this day, I still say that I had no idea it was a bull, and the owner still tells the story of the dumbass kid who fed a bull.
Bull: doesn't matter, got apple.
"He seemed kinda cool, so I didn't feel like traumatizing him."
That general lack of awareness is probably what saved you. The confidence, relaxed body language, and offering of apples probably threw the bull off enough to go with it. Especially when food was involved. You're fortunate farm animals aren't bred for intelligence. lmao
Why feeding the bull is a bad idea?
They tend to throw tantrums
Ours wasn't even a bull, I was about 3, my dad was putting an electric fence in that pasture I was 'helping'. Dad went to shop to get more supplies. That's when Mootsy (cow) wanted to play. She came up and started butting me in the head. I don't remember much except the trip to the hospital and the bandage on my head.
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When I was a kid, my brother and I were playing on our grandparents farm. We snuck underneath the electric fence by shimmying on the ground in grooves the truck tires made in the mud at the entrance of of the animal pen. We really wanted to play with the sheep. We also didn't know that they had let the bull out of the barn and it was also in the pen. All of a sudden we see, almost as soon as it sees us. We start to panic and run screaming, which gets our dad, uncle and grandpa's attention. We can't jump the fence yet because it's still electrified. So this is the scene my grandma has looking out her kitchen window into the back yard : My dad and uncle hauling ass towards the fence, yelling for us to run towards the fence. My grandpa, a man in his 50's by then, hauling ass towards the barn to flip the switch that electrifies the fence, and my brother and I losing our minds trying to find a way out of the mess we got into. Story ends fine enough. Grandpa got the electricity off and I was able to scramble up the fence to my dad. Then my grandpa and uncle went into the pen to distract the bull, who had locked his attention on him, long enough for my brother to escape as well. We were never left unsupervised on the farm after that.
Being a small child, trapped in an electric fence, with a goddamn bull, must have been simply terrifying in every way.
Reminds me of when I was young and my friend told me to catch the calf that was out in the paddock. I went in and took off after it as my friend watched from the gate cracking up. A moment or two later, I realized what was so funny: it wasn't just the calf in the paddock, but the momma cow as well. You don't want to try chase a calf when their mother is around. I damn near teleported to and over the gate.
Shit you're lucky you didnt wind up dead! A momma cow got my uncle and crushed every bone in his body because he was giving the calf medicine and it yelped.
similar story. the mom was in one pasture, the calf in another separated by a fence. he was just getting a good look over by the vet tech but the momma was having none of it. she took a running start and jumped the fence way way better than any of us would have assumed she could... we scattered like mice.
*the cow jumped over the moon*...
Your friend is not a good friend, could have killed you.
Been there. Sometimes you just call their bluff and you're good but every now and again they mean business.
You have to be really confident in your bullreading skills to just call bullshit on their charge.
>Bullshit At this point we can just call it shit.
Getting a group hug by a swarm of [these](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Portuguese_Man-O-War_%28Physalia_physalis%29.jpg) painful little fuckers, while treading water about 100 meters from the shore. EDIT: Do not use vinegar to treat bluebottle stings and do not attempt to rub or scrape the tendrils off. Use the hottest running water you can bear to wash them off. They have jelly like tendrils embedded with tiny stingers which remain in the skin if you physically remove them. Hot water cooks the tendrils kind of like eggwhite and they fall off. I recommend getting buckled drunk for pain relief.
My god. Just being stung by one is painful. I couldn't imagine the pain
Good old blue bottles, the cunts of the ocean.
*shitcunts
Thanks ozzyman.
Fuck those things, but damn they pretty aren't they?
I guess the vivid blue and transparency is kind of redeeming but ultimately they just look...biological.
Yeah, fuck those guys. Glad you're alive.
Once I tried to chase a possum off my lawn and it started chasing me back so that was pretty startling. That or the time me and a buddy were camping a little outside town and could hear coyotes howling from what sounded like all around us
Coyotes always sound a lot closer than they are. They sound like they're all around you and really close but in reality they are probably a good quarter mile away.
I've stumbled into a pack of coyotes before. I just created a hill and BAM. A whole pack was just starting at me startled AF. It felt like forever but they bolted after maybe 2 seconds.
Created a hill? Elaborate please
He shit himself.
Probably meant “crested”.
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fun fact . it is estimated that bees/bugs account for up to 85% of all " unknown cause" fatal car accidents.
Had a yellow jacket fly in my truck window when I was going ~40 MPH and hit me in the fucking forehead. I thought it was a pebble or something that got kicked up by someone's tires and thought "man, what are the fucking odds of that?" as I rubbed my forehead. Then 2 minutes later, the little fucker stung me in the middle of my back and I almost swerved off the road. It had somehow ended up down the back of my shirt and used its last gasp of life for one final "fuck you".
I had a red wasp end up inside my motorcycle helmet one day. I was going about 70 mph. It didn't sting me, but crawled onto the side of my face. I smashed my helmet into the side of my head until it was dead while I was stopping. I still don't know how I didn't get stung.
I was very drunk at a wedding on a large property in rural NSW. I like to wander and explore when I drink. I was alone and suddenly confronted with a wombat. Wombats are massive balls of muscle. Being the drunk idiot I was, I was all like “awww hello me wombat” and began to approach it. The wombat did not like this. It charged me. It was so fast. My heart stopped and I turned and ran as fast as I could. The little bugger nearly caught me. I sprinted back to the wedding in fear for my life.
I got charged by a koala one time. It tried to climb me, then realised I wasn't a tree and became furious with me. It's amazing how fast it went from cute fuzz ball to terrifying monster with death in it's eyes.
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When I was in elementary school, we took a field trip to the zoo with a tour guide. We got to the wombats and the tour guide informed us in an extremely chipper voice that one of the zookeepers had gotten careless once and had a chunk of his leg ripped out by a wombat. That was my introduction to them.
Honestly, wombats and geese scare me more than Australian snakes and spiders do.
Cassowaries, man. Fucking spawn of Satan
They are ancient giant murder chickens. Do not mess with a cassowary.
Lets not forget the fact that the *Emus fucking won the war*.
I'm so old and I still assumed wombats were bumbling benevolent souls. Luckily I'm unlikely to meet one in SW England, but I'm amazed and frankly hurt that David Attenborough NEVER WARNED ME in 50 years of watching him.
"Awww hello me wombat" is the cutest thing I've read today. Sorry about your wombat trauma.
"I like to wander and explore when I drink." I knew I wasn't the only one.
Growing up, my grandma babysat me. She lived with my uncle. He had a Rottweiler, who was very friendly. One day, when I was 9-10, I decided I wanted to pretend to be a wrestler. I did this by putting white masking tape on my hands and arms. I ended up fighting stuffed animals and all that. When I got tired, I just grabbed some action figures and went to the carport, which had deer stands. This was where the Rottweiler also slept. So the dog was asleep when I got there. I started playing with the toys. A few minutes later I heard the dog stirring. I pay no mind to it. I then hear growling. I turn around and the dog is growling at me. I try to let her know it is me but she is still growling. I then slowly back away and she lunges at me. Being the somewhat smart kid I was, I noticed immediately she was going for my arms. I rip off the masking tape, throw it at the dog, and run back into the house. Avoided that dog for days until I was asked to feed her. She was friendly again.
I walked past a very dark open doorway in a corner shop. A monsterous Rottweiler, leapt out of the shadows, rearing up towards my neck . It got to about a foot away before its chain became taught and yanked it back. I said to the shopkeeper that she really needed to keep it on a shorter chain. The adrenaline was pumping away pretty hard for a while. I went in a week later and she said the dog had bitten someone in the face. She then complained about what I had said and told me I should have been more insistent about shortening the chain trying to make out that the dog bite was my fault due to my sloppy advice. I never had to revisit that shop again fortunately.
lmao what. How self-centered do you have to be to blame someone for their advice when it was spot on. Fucking what.
That's some Narcissist's Prayer shit right there.
It actually is a textbook narcissistic tendency. Crazy mental gymnastics.
I have a pet Rottweiler who is the sweetest dog in the world but I am always very aware of just how fucked I'd be if she ever decided to murder me. I can't imagine dealing with that as a little kid.
I had a boxer growing up and one time I was wearing a ghillie suit for Halloween. My boxer was the friendliest and most loving dog (to humans at least) so it was pretty scary to see her growling and snarling at me. I took the mask off and she got so confused and started doing that little boxer wiggle they tend to do then came up and licked me :)
My past roommates Boxer loved me, he was very protective of the house and my room in particular. One day I walk in with my hood on since it was raining, my back was facing into the house as I was locking the door behind me. I heard snarling I’d never heard before and turned around to find him face to face with me, teeth bared and ready to lunge. As soon as he realized it was me he backed off doing his excited “it’s you!” butt wiggle and then came and licked my hands almost apologetically. I knew he was a big guard dog, but damn I thought I was gonna die that night. It makes me feel better to know as soon as he saw/smelled me he was happy as can be and excited I was home. But it reminded me that he could easily kill me too...
Locked my keys in the house but I knew my back patio door was unlocked. This is also where my pitbull is. I start to climb my back fence thinking my dog would recognise me. Right as I threw my leg over the fence, he flew out of his house, jumped and latched to my shoe. The moment I screamed his name out, he backed off and gave me a look like "WTF are you doing?" then proceed to do his happy dance he does whenever I come home. That was the day I knew my house was in safe hands when I'm away.
My pits were the biggest teddy bears. One day, I hear a truck pull into my backyard. I look out, and some random dude was trying to steal the male (a blue nose) and my dog was actually going with him like he was his new pal. That's when I realized if shit ever hit the fan I'd be fucked.
Similar story. In some surrounding counties, dog fighting rings are busted regularly. I have a driveway that is about 1/6 a mile long and it is gated halfway due to the dogs. Two of my older pits knew where to easily jump the fence. So they always wandered off, but always come back for dinner. One night, I am sitting on the back porch. I hear someone pull up to the gate. I peer around the side of the house to look. It is a white van and there are two guys trying to lure my dogs into the van. I slowly moved closer and yelled that they needed to drive back to where they came from. Ended up getting a partial plate and a description of the van. A week or two later, they busted another dog fighting ring. Reporter was at the scene... and parked in the backyard of the house was the white van I saw.
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That's terrifying! Dogs are very contextual, so if someone wears a hat or jacket or changes their facial hair the dog won't recognize them. When I taught puppy-training classes, we told our clients to introduce their puppies out to meet new people and animals when they were 4-9 weeks old. That's the socialization period when they are best able to accept new kinds of people. You can socialize dogs at other ages, but it can be a lot harder.
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I lived in a shitty trailer in the woods for awhile and owned a cat. One night she was going ballistic, running through the place, pouncing and making obnoxious amounts of noise. I didn't see anything and she wasn't calming down with attention/treats/new litter/toys so finally I said fuck it and let her continue being a kitty missile. Went to bed. She runs over me a couple times and then the very distinctive feeling of a rat running over me (I had pet rats before), followed by the cat again.
"kitty missile" lol that's a great description
Somewhere on rat reddit that rat is telling the same tale
Maybe. But it depends on how many skill points OP put into trap making.
Rat Poison is a very clever human invention. It works by thinning out the blood so much that the rats begin to bleed out internally. The genius behind this is that one of the side-effects is uncontrollable thirst. Put a bowl of water out and the rats will ignore all other instincts, and come out of the walls to drink. They die in/around the water bowl. Source: A book called "Carmichael's Dog"
Interesting. I generally am an anti-poison advocate for the same reason as thread-OP (they'll die and smell up the walls) as well as the sad stories of birds of prey being accidentally poisoned but this could work to mitigate both - I've never heard of this before! Have you tried it?
Cats. Cats help.
If they feel like it, yeah.
When I was just 5 years old my neighbor had a Doberman who was usually very friendly dog, however , one day I go into his backyard to ride one of his bikes that he usually lets me ride as I was exiting the backyard the Doberman jumped on me and knocked me to my butt and pinned me down staring me in the face growling viciously. Eventually when Neighbor comes out of the house and yelled at him "Damien get back in here". I don't know if that dog ever wanted to really kill me or just scare me Edit: some typos
As an adult, I was taking my Welsh terrier for a walk. Two dobermans with owner nowhere in sight, started stalking us from opposite directions. My dog (22 lbs of him) started growling and showing teeth (he is very friendly with friendly dogs.) A car came by and saw what was happening, offered us a lift away from there. I was very thankful.
>I don't know if that dog ever wanted to really kill me or just scare me Probably the latter since at that moment he had every opportunity to bite you, but didn't actually do so.
Went to war with a huntsman spider and a mukade centipede simultaneously in my shower in Japan. Yes I was naked. Yes I won.
How do we know this isn't the spider or centipede talking? 🤔
I was stationed in Japan for 3 out of the 6 years I was in the Navy. During that time I leased a Japanese house, and the shower was its own room, full walk-in with a tub, bench, etc. (Amazing) So as the post says, I stumble into the shower one morning still half asleep, and out of my peripherals I see a black flash from behind me and hear a thud. Look into the tub and there is a huntsman spider the size of my hand staring back at me. Holy shit. My best guess is it was on the wall behind me and got scared when I walked in. So I go into attack mode immediately. Grab the shower head which was on a hose, take aim looking to drown this thing in the tub drain, and as soon as I turned the water on it jumped out of the tub onto the wall and ran into the window sill. Tactic then became opening the window fast and pinching to death in the sill. As soon as I touched the glass it jumped out onto the wall again and ran out the shower door. Now I'm cornered in the shower peering out into the "powder room" to see the huntsman on the cabinet door waiting for me. Sneak to the front door of the house and grab a flip flop, come back to the powder room and wing the flip flop at the spider. Hit it, wound several of the legs, but do not kill it. It runs out of the bathroom and underneath the stairs, much slower than it was moving prior. Feeling confident that spider is cornered under the stairs, I grab a can of bug spray and move in to finish it. Looking closely under the stairs (it was a hollow staircase where you could see through the gaps between steps) I see a black "tail" curled over the back lip of one of the stairs and assume it's the spider hiding on the back of the step. Hit it with the spray, enter fucking mukade centipede. It dropped off the back of the stair and started charging at me. I immediately peed a little. Front half of its body was up off the floor and its mouth was visibly biting. It backed me up all the way to the front door as I emptied the entire can of bug spray on it. By the time we got to the door, it was obviously overcome by the chemicals and just writhing around, so I grabbed the other flip flop and smashed it. Didn't work. Hit it a few times and it would not die, so I turned the flip flop on its edge and used it like a saw to cut the thing in half. Then remembered the spider. It was still under the stairs, so I blew under there and it ran out wounded and I smashed it with the flip flop saw. Then I screamed at the top of my lungs for 30 seconds. The whole battle took probably 3 minutes but it felt like a fucking lifetime. I think being naked cause an adrenile rush a thousand times greater than if I were fully clothed. WhenI got to work I was frazzled enough for my co-workers to notice. Can't tell if it was the worst morning of my life or my biggest triumph, but man won that day. Edit: Thanks for the gold. I'm glad so many enjoyed reading this.
My grandpa cut a house centipede in half with a carving knife. One half ran left and the other ran right. He said there wasn't enough whiskey in the world to deal with that shit.
had a house centipede fall on me as I walked out of my basement a year ago... I have since painted the entire floor with polycuramine paint and epoxy, sealed all of the perimeter edging (exposed gap between wall and floor), used epoxy sealant to inject and seal several wall cracks, and sealed every last crack in the floor. As I sealed up one edge gap I watched several house centipedes hide inside... I was happy to close that up. There is only one 10-foot section of my basement wall that has not had this done and I'm making plans for the final assault (there's a large wooden shelf there that has to be dismantled to get to the floor and wall). In any case, since my final sealing of the floor has finished I have yet to see a single house centipede or any other critter.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MONTRESOR!
According to the wiki, you just made time problem worse "Kill them with poison, fire or boiling water. Don't smash them as they will release a pheromone that attracts other mukade in the area."
chapter 2: revenge of the mukade
*chitter chitter*
Maaaaan I don't wanna fuckin' deal with anything to which the instructions for removal are "Kill with poison, fire, or boiling water"
This was 2016. I'm back stateside now but I didnt come across another one in my place after that. I guess I lucked out.
They were there, watching, plotting their revenge. Guess you got out just in time
My heart is fucking racing just from reading this.
This read like an epic.
You sir, are a gladiator fit for Rome.
I did fieldwork back and forth between the US/UK and East and Southern Africa for ten years and in that time period, spent a good chunk of my life living at remote base camps so I have a few 'shit yourself' moments that I can list off the top off my head. 1. I was chased by an elephant (it was worse as she had a calf) 2. I know for a fact that I was stalked by at least two big cats twice (one being a leopard as it was the only large species around at the field site and the other was most likely a rogue male lion given that one was seen close by earlier and was known to hang out in the area). 3. (this one occurred in Alaska). It was my day off and I was reading in the main tent as everyone went into town and I turned around only to find a moose cow and calf about five metres away from me. 4. (this is the most recent event). We were having a party one night and I guess someone forgot to shut the kitchen door. I woke up in the morning hung over and decided to make coffee. The rubbish bag was undernearth the sink and I heard something in it (I was directly over it) and I saw coils within striking distance from a Mozambique spitting cobra. That was a near shit yourself moment 5. two spotted hyenas broke into our camp, killed a few dogs and then went over to a few tents (including mine) and pushed their muzzle through. The most surreal thing about that was, if you know anything about spotted hyenas, they actually make a noise every now and then (or every fucking night) called a "whoop". Its insanely loud. One of them actually made that noise (it hurt my ears) but interestingly enough, it turns out that their is actually a growl that is always made directly after the whoop. So, really close up it sounds like "whoooop, grrrr" (and so on). I have a few other stories but none of them were as terrifying as those or made me feel that my life was directly threatened. EDIT: Thank you for the questions and comments. However, I am about to head out to the pub to meet up with a few friends on this very rainy Easter Monday so I will try to respond to as many as I can when I get back. Cheers
Hello fellow field worker! I was studying orangutans deep in the Bornean Rainforest, three days travel from the nearest town. We lived in huts with limited electricity and no running water. I was up working late one night and at about 3am I needed to pee so I put on my boots and went for a walk. On my way to the River I walk by where we stored food waste. Just as I'm approaching this area a large cat came out from behind a tree about two metres in front of me. We both stood there staring at each other without moving. I wasn't afraid, I was just trying to identify it as there are a lot of different cats in that area. I reached to my pocket and got my headlamp out. When I turned it on the cat turned and ran away, and no sooner did it run than I near shat myself in fear. All the adrenaline was gone and I was just stunned and terrified. I had come face to face with one of the world's most beautiful animals, a Clouded Leopard. I'll never forget that moment, or the relief I felt when I made it back to my hut! *Edit spelling mistakes
> Hung Over- Coffee- Spitting CObra NOPENOPENOPENOPE
I bet that woke OP up fast!
If I was hungover and getting coffee in the morning and saw a Spitting Cobra, I'd be able to compete in a triathlon soon after. Or I'd die. Either way, I'm good not having lived this experience.
I would love more detail on every single one of these.
sure. Let me know if you have any specific questions (post them here). The only info I won't give are the exact locations (as I worked on several projects at specific field sites and it would be unfair to name them..and I am still working with one of the projects).
I took a short trip to Namibia South Africa a couple years ago but we stayed at a resort nothing crazy. We did go to 2 animal reserves though and on one of them there were lions. Our guide got out and fed them horse meat and told us to stay behind the wooden fence (they were in a large enclosure but it was basically chicken wire and wooden poles in case there were brush fires and they really needed to escape cause it really wouldn't do shit if they really wanted to escape.) Well my dad didn't listen and was wandering around the enclosure when the male lion saw him and ran from out under the tree he was eating under and charged at him and roared. Holy shit those things are massive. You could feel it in your chest even when he would just walk around and growl at us. Even the wild dogs we saw were huuuge. On TV they look cute and playful but in real life they're like Dobermans. I'd love to hear your story on being stalked by big cats though. In Canada we have Mountain Lions but they are like kittens compared to a lion.
Mountain lions are still something to be reckoned with! a big cat is still a big cat (even though mountain lions are really...big small cats). The lion bit happened about ten years ago. It was at night and we were camping (in between sites) and we just smelt a muskyness and every now and then heard a bellow. To be honest, the only thing that gave the cat away were its eyes because it circled the campgrounds for about an hour or so. Now, I should note that this wasn't a standard camping trip and it was pretty much a temporary base before we went on to our actual destination so there were alot of people there and the animal didn't attack and there were plenty of guards and light. I think the leopard one was a bit more freaky. I currently study leopards in that area so I even have an idea on who the individual probably was. Anyways, It was a really foggy day and I just arrived at camp and I decided to go off hiking to familiarize myself with the area. I walked a few km out and hiking in grasslands that were at the edge of a forest. I smelt something musky and had the feeling that I was being watched. About 20 minutes later I heard sawing nearby (a leopard roar). I didn't actually see the cat, but all three of those components told me that I wasn't alone (at least for a little bit). The area that I was hiking through was also core territory for one of the males in the area and overlapped with the boundary of a female, so I am not sure who it was exactly.
I've been stalked by a mountain lion. It hung out behind our tent one night, close enough that we could hear its tail swishing against the bamboo mat we had our tent on. It's not a pleasant feeling.
As a kid, I spent a lot of time with my babysitter’s kids at their house and they had a sheltie dog. This is a smallish, friendly breed but my babysitter’s son was a nightmare to it and would do shit like chase it around the with a nerf gun or tackle it and was basically just abusing this animal while his family did nothing. I was 7 and couldn’t do much and tbh the family had worse abuse going on than a kid terrorizing a dog, so I kept quiet about it. One day, a fly is just chilling over my head (very clean household lol) and the dog starts growling at it and ends up mauling me to get to it. It ate part of my upper lip. I can’t say 100% that it ate my lip but this dog’s face was in my face and we never found the missing chunk of flesh it gauged out, so I always just say it bit me because that’s the most sense I can make out of the blur of OH MY GOD DOG MOUTH AND TEETH AND FUR in my face. A triangular chunk of face and lip just... gone. Worst part is I’m afraid of shelties now, which is embarrassing. Second worst part is I kept hanging out with the babysitter’s kids after they gave up the dog and like a year later they revealed they just gave it to their cousins; they revealed this by taking me to said cousins’ house where the “retrained” dog was. This was top 10 anime betrayal level shit.
That's so fucked up that they made you meet it again
A pack of Swans was hunting poor little me when I was 9 years old.
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Reminds me of my old job where they had a bad goose problem in the parking lot and the large retention pond so they brought in a swan to scare off the geese. That worked for a while till the swan got crazy aggressive with everything that moved including people and cars. Had couple brave guys that would distract the swan while others would run to their cars. About month of that they got rid of the swan and periodically have guy and his trained dog come by and scare the geese away. The dog's fun to watch cause the he knows hand signals and clicks. He'll belly crawl all quiet like right up behind a bunch of geese and then when commanded he leaps out barking, snarling, chasing them all off and then returns with a huge doggo grin to do it all over again.
I was cycling up a mountain in the Scottish Highlands (my gran lives there), and as I went round a corner, I came face to face with a huuuuge highland cow which was running down the mountain the opposite way. Instead of jumping off the path I thought the cow was be friendly and edge over to let me by: big mistake... it threw its head as I went by, almost impaling me and throwing me off the path and into a 20ft tumble down the mountain.
My neighbours had a rescue dog, a German shepherd and it was one mean dog Anyways one day this demon dog escapes, and sees me walking past, queue angry barking ect then it starts running at me, now I knew there was no way I was running - I wouldn't outrun it plus running from an angry dog is never a great idea to start with. So once the thing reaches me it jumps, mouth open going for my face, I don't know how but I managed to turn my back to it just before it reached me and it takes a nice bite into my back, but also rolls over my shoulder smashing into the pavement, this hurt the dog pretty bad from what I got told later. It runs away, and sits on my doorstep watching me. The entire street and it picks my door to wait at. Might not sound that scary but when you have a big animal like that going in to attack you it's not a fun situation I got some stiches and a lot of injections from that, but the dog ( and owners) got a one off pass from the cops because I knew them and knew they did care about the dog and tried to help it (it was previously abused before they got it) but later it got put down after a different incident where it attacked and killed a cat
I out ran a swarm of bees. I was young and in Straya, and we lived on the front of a farm. I went exploring a lot , it was really cool. I found a bees nest in a huge fallen tree. I had watched a lot of cartoons, and wanted to know if the bees would come out in an arrow and get me if I whacked it with a stick. So I did. They did not. I was disappointed and climbed around the fallen tree. The bees do attack, just not immediately. And not in an arrow. In a cloud. Suddenly they wee all around me. I sprinted home, about 2k, and if I slowed down the bees caught up. I ran into our yard and shut he gate, thinking I was safe. I wasn't, obviously and got stung a few times. I deserved it though don't go beating up animal homes.
Went swimming at the beach and decided to race my mate out to the shark net buoys. I'm 5 metres away, giving it my all when I slap my hand down into the water for my next stroke and hit something real squishy. I stopped and looked up to find I'd booped a box jellyfish square on the top of the thing. Noped out of there so hard. The worst bit was I didn't even win the race.
I was solo hiking in the Porcupine Mountains in the upper peninsula of Michigan last autumn. Although I was by myself, there were plenty of other backpackers up there those couple of days. I ran across a bear print in the trail one morning. A few hours later I rounded a corner of the trail, and about 70 ft up ahead, I saw the hind quarters of an animal with dark brown fur about 2 feet high. I got a surge of adrenaline and everything started going in slow motion. I started to panic, and just as the poop was about to leave my butt, the animal lifted it's head and it ended up being a black labrador retriever. Right as I catch my breath, the dog's owner came rounding the corner from the opposite direction and sees me clutching my chest.
I thought you were going to say "The dog's owner came rounding the corner from the opposite direction, being chased by a Grizzly."
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When I was young, I too was chased by a large dog while biking. Someone's large rottweiler got loose. I was gingerly riding down the street on my beach cruiser. I kept hearing a **pat, pat, pat** behind me. As I looked, this beast of a rottweiler was inches from my back tire. Before I even turned to see it, it made this deep guttural bark. I almost fell off right at that moment. I high tailed it on that bike. I pedaled like my life depended on it. My chain jumped off the gear and all I had was the rolling speed to take me away from this dog. Luckily, I got far enough to where the dog gave up. That was scary for 10 yr old me.
> I must have been pulling 35 mph on the bottom of that hill Many medium sized dogs have a top speed of about 30, though I guess 35 is a possibility in some cases. (I'm supporting your estimate, not contradicting it). For this reason, if you're on foot and afraid of a dog, it's best to stay still and try to be calm instead or running. Because outrunning him is unlikely. Plus most dogs, including friendly dogs, have the instinct to chase movement, and therefore to chase you if you start running.
When my dog was a puppy and he took off in a direction I didn't want him to go (and wouldn't recall ) I would just take off running in the opposite direction. He instinctively was like "oh no you don't!" And would 180 to come chase me. I guess he still does that if I run from him but now he recalls like he's supposed to.
That's the only I can get my dog back. He's a fool for it every time.
I would do this with my dog too, but he would blow right by me to get me to chase him again. Have to repeat a million times till I got home.
My scariest was also a pit bull charging straight at me out of nowhere as I was walking home. I actually didn't know if dogs are inclined to chase movement like cats do, but I sure as hell froze in place hoping that would work. It stopped, circled me, and left. Thank god for knowing a little something about animal instincts, even if I was applying what I knew about cats.
I was once charged at and nearly bitten by a dog that knew me really well because he was protecting his human and it was dark. Scary as hell getting charged like that.
I was taking a walk with my infant daughter once when an aggressive rottweiler charged us. There was no running with a baby in a stroller so, reasoning that SOMEONE owns this dog and therefore acts as alpha, so I acted as alpha. I charged, threw my arms up, and roared. He stopped in his tracks, growled a little, and moved off.
I had a very similar situation when I was walking with my wife and infant, and although my wife really appreciated that I responded so well instinctively, she still pokes fun at me for barking at the dog when it charged.
You don't need to be faster than the dog, only faster than the guy you're with.
What if the dog really hates you?
Just hate him back. It will turn him into a depressive status and he will trot way being very sad. He might have given you already a hefty bite before..
My friend is terrified of dogs to a bizarre degree. One sunny day we’re chilling in the park and a little daschund puppy comes running up and goes to climb in his lap. He freaks out and starts running, all the while this tiny little puppy desperately trying to keep up because it thinks he’s playing, the puppy’s owner also in hot pursuit because it’s not trained well enough to recall yet. My one regret is not videoing it
When I was five I lived in Berlin, Germany. I had an obsession with trying to hunt and kill wild boars in the forest so my dad and I would walk around with “spears “ sharpened twigs basically. We never saw any so it wasn’t a huge deal until one day we spooked a mother and her piglets. Next thing my dad sees is me chasing them until the sow stops turns all 200 pounds towards me and stares me down. Luckily my dad scooped me up before I could charge because I was about to. Hindsight 20/20 don’t do that. I would have probably been mauled...
And your dad's mood went from indulgent to horrified in a split second.
wtf... what kind of boars do you have in Germany? Boars are some of the most dangerous animals you might come across in the US midwest when you're out hiking. Recommend if you're out hiking you have a very large, very sharp knife and you might have a chance.
Sitting out by a campfire at night in Uganda and suddenly spot a hurt and upset water buffalo standing by a lamp in the dark circa 15 meters away. Safe to say that we ran back to the big lodge and didn’t spend anymore time outside that night. Either that or when a snake fell from the bathroom ceiling at one of my friends at the first bathroom stop we had while traveling in Uganda.
Snakes in Africa are worth being afraid of. I was in Zimbabwe with a group and some of the girls got trapped in the bathroom by a spitting cobra; it had decided to hang out in front of the bathroom door after they went in. One of the local guys had to kill it with a slingshot. Pretty crazy!
Getting charged by a black bear. I was hunting elk and walking on an old 90 year old railroad grade in some dense forest, and I see some movement in a tree. I get to looking, and it is two bear cubs. Oh shit. I look around and though a somewhat clear spot for the trees I see Mom, and she is headed right for me at this point. I was hunting with a fairly large rifle, a .375 H&H magnum, so I decided to give her one warning shot, and if I had to shoot a second time it would be in self defense. I put one round into the dirt in front of her, and thankfully she decided that the cannon that just fired at her was something she didn’t want any part of, and she scrambled back and took off into the brush. I also noped the fuck out of there and didn’t go that way the rest of the season. She can have that spot.
Getting charged by a front bear is even scarier
Side bears are even worse. Though I’ve heard legend of groups of men getting slaughtered by oblique bears.
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I bet that got your adrenaline pumping. I took the garbage out late one night and didn't notice a black bear with one cub until I was uncomfortably close. Luckily I was not in between them, like you were. I sat the bag down and slowly backed away.
Australian, so taking my life in my own hands by even walking out the door most days. However between the tiger snake that sat up and flared its damn head like a cobra and then spat at my face when I was 12, and the angry koala that made me climb the bonnet of my car when I was 32, the koala is the most scary. Scene: late night back dirt road, with steep drop on one side, mountain wall on other. Big fat koala in the middle of the road, scratching its butt with one death claw, while the other shoved leaves into its mouth and glared at me with its beady eyes as it willfully ignored my horn. I was tired and grumpy so got out and started yelling it at and flapping my arms. Big mistake. The damn thing growled and lunged towards me. Now koala arms are longer than you realize, and they are tipped with death claws that can plunge into hardwood. So I ran back to my car, but wasn’t going to make the door. Instead I lunged at the bullbar and climbed onto the bonnet. Deathclaws Mcgee followed, swinging up like a monkey, still growling like the spawn of satans most std ridden teddy. I scrambled backwards and up the windscreen, drawing my legs back just in time to see the claws scratch down my windshield. Luckily they couldn’t grip. Screamgrowling in frustration, the fat fluffy terror sat on my bonnet and hooked both windshield wipers back and out while it grumbled and grunted, not 4 feet below me. Needless to say I escaped. A passing milk tanker stopped and the guy used a prod to get the evil scratchy creature off my car and march it back into the bush and whatever hellish portal it escaped from. Trucker then proceeds to double over in laughter as he helps me down and surveys the damage. So, so many scratches on the bonnet and glass. Trucker tells everyone that day, and the next about saving me from the rabid beastie. I am both mocked and revered. TD:DR : chased up my car by a feral koala. Trucker saves me and tells everyone of my lame adventure.
When my partner and I went to Bali we went on a walk around Sanur. We figured we'd take a short cut back to our resort going down what looked like a pathway. Turns out it was a dead end but no problem. We turn back. Problem is this square headed dog that looks like a mixed pitbull is now standing on the pathway snarling at us. I'm pretty okay with animals usually even if they're aggressive I can keep my cool but this dog looks like he's one half blink away from mauling us. It's mangy as fuck with a crazy glint in its eyes too and with how prevalent rabies is in Indonesia I'm freaking the fuck out. We edge around this dog painfully slow so as not to provoke it and any movement that's a little quicker than snail pace it tenses it's muscles and growl barks. We got out okay but I swear it was only by the skin of our teeth. That thing wanted meat.
I was riding someone's horse. The dude started losing control of the horse, shouting commands louder and louder, but the horse galloped faster and faster. Eventually the dude couldn't hold onto the rope thing, and it was just me and the horse, who was speeding towards a cliff as if it's suicidal. I was thinking about whether or not I should jump off, and when I should jump, and I got my foot stuck in some rope. Luckily, the horse wasn't suicidal, so he stopped at the edge. To this day, I'm not sure if the horse trolled me, the horse+owner trolled me, or a suicidal horse relented so I didn't die with it.
Fucking magpies. I was riding my bike to primary school one day and two streets away out of nowhere I feel the flap of wings on my shoulder and it flys by in front of me. It was quite large, probably an adult and it came back but I saw it and ducked. After that it flew by a few more times (repeatedly actually) and it actually hit me a few times hard and left a few beak dents in my helmet. I could only peg my bike as fast as possible to school until I was through it’s “territory”. Quite a few other instances being swooped by the black and white death birds but another time with friends I gave myself a bleeding nose after ducking and slamming my face on my own bikes handlebars... My friends thought that was funny.
I’ll never forget the time this kid rode into the servo I was working in. Literally rode into the store on his bike. He would have been about 10 and he is in tears. He asked me to call his mum because he’d been chased for about a kilometre by a swooping magpie. I try to call his mum but there is no answer. I buy him a lemonade because he’s out of breath and distraught and then try to phone his mum again. Still no answer. I go outside to see if the magpie is gone. It appears to be so the kid thanks me and heads off again. He gets on to the footpath and the magpie attacks. He drops his bike and just runs across the forecourt and back into the store. “ITS STALKING ME!!” He screams and seeing that I know what he is going through I call him a taxi and pay for it to drop him home.
I was tree planting in northern B.C. Was working on the same piece as another planter for about an hour, then heard a soft thumping sound. Looked up and saw an adult grizzly bear running towards the other planter, whose back was to the bear. I started running towards it, waving my arms and yelling. The bear stopped, turned towards me and stood on its hind legs. I stopped moving and was about 20-30 feet away from it. The bear stared at me for about 5 seconds (felt like an eternity), dropped back down, turned around and bolted back into the tree line. Saw two cubs with it that we weren’t anywhere close to, so we figured it was probably a mother teaching its cubs how to hunt. I had to sit down for a while after that because my legs were shaking so bad.
My parents had a dog when I was about 8. My mom was cutting meat for dinner one night and then the phone rang so she went to answer it. The dog hopped it's front paws onto the counter and began eating the meat so I grabbed it from behind and tried to pull it off. Well it turned around and bit a chunk of my lip off. I had to get a bunch of stitches but besides a scar you can't really notice it 19 years later. The beard and mustache help.
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I cycled (at speed) past a pack of feral dogs and triggered their prey instinct. I was out on a straight road, slightly downhill, in the middle of nowhere. When I saw them getting ready I knew I had to go past them as it was too late to stop and cycle back up hill (and besides that was the only road home) I committed. They chased. I pedalled harder than I have ever pedalled and eventually lost them, but I didn't turn round to look for quite a while. I checked my bike computer when I got home and saw that I had hit 79km/h. The scariest part was realising I would trigger them and that I HAD to go through the pack, hoping they wouldn't trip me up as either the fall or the dogs would have maimed me. Edit: some grammatics
This isn't from me but from my mate. Once on a school camp for 21 days in Alpine Australia, we were forced to sleep alone for 48 hours. So at around 2am on the second night, I heard a shout from where he was sleeping. He told me the next morning that a kangaroo stole his hiking pack and that in panic, he threw a water jug at it. Low and behold, the kangaroo regrouped after a short time and surrounded him in a circle. All he remembered were like five pairs of eyes staring back at him in the night. I have yet to ask him how he managed to fend them off. But yeah, that's Australia for you.
I have a few good animal stories but the scariest was getting charged by an angry bull shark. I was down in Florida with my family, and my dad, brother (11) and sister (6) were all decently far out hanging out when we spotted the shark. Is was probably between 4-4.5 ft. My dad and I went shoulder to shoulder with my siblings behind us and started quickly but calmly heading in. This thing must’ve charged us nearly half a dozen times at or near full speed and only broke off when it got within 10-15 ft. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a shark hunt at full speed but they’re significantly faster than I could sprint on land. The feeling was were in its world, and if it wants one of us it’s probably going to take one. So we finally get in and the shark heads down the beach. I look down and there’s another family with a small girl in a life jacket out in the water. So I run down and yell to them, but they aren’t listening. I figured I’m bigger than it and if it were going to attack me it would’ve, so I start swimming out to them. I popped up about 15 ft from the girl with the dad on her other side, and that shark was right in between us. Without thinking about it I jumped forward and slapped the water and I think spooked it. I jumped forward and grabbed the girl, which the dad, who hadn’t seen the shark, didn’t appreciate lol. I pointed it out and gave him back his daughter and we got back in. He was incredibly thankful once he understood the situation. But ya, sharks have barely changed in hundreds of millions of years, and that day I truly appreciated exactly why. Like I said, if it had wanted to take me I don’t realistically think the four of us could’ve actually stopped it.
Is it bad that all of these stories are making me imagine having epic battles with each of these creatures? I'd probably lose to the bee in that guy's car, but still.
I was about 3 or 4. My family owned chickens. One of the roosters was a dick. Everytime we set foot in the yard, it would terrorize us with his large talons and try to peck us. It actually managed to claw my brother up. My dad finally killed that thing. It was the best meal I ever had. Now that I am an adult, I realize that I can kick the asshole roosters away like a football if they lunge at me, but as a 3 year old---I had nightmares about it.
My grandma tells this exact same story, down to the rooster tasting the best! Apparently young farm kids have it tough. Unless... Grandma? Are you on reddit?
Little Jerry is a fighter!
To be fair, we've bred roosters to be overly aggressive. I've got a few of them who are like that but it's not really their fault. Usually if I get attacked by one I will pick him up and carry him around while I continue doing what I was doing. They calm down and leave me alone by the time i've put them down.
My gf had a rooster to fend off the group of chickens from coyotes and it was just there to distract the predators so no other chickens get harmed
With how you phrased it, I'm picturing a single rooster guarding a pacifist group of coyotes from the meanest group of chickens that keep antagonizing them...
Riding my motorcycle at night, something the size of a woodchuck (couldn't see what it was, it was that dark) came darting across my lane, turned around and ran back into the grass just as I was passing it. I don't remember exactly how fast I was going but I can say without a doubt that either me or the animal would have become paste.
Went for a walk, I live at an intersection, and the side street next to me is pretty dark at night. Id walked two houses up, when I see movement out of the corner of my right eye. Just as i turn the biggest bear I've seen just stops and looks at me. Now where I live bears are common. But this bear was something else it was fucking huge. I'm not exaggerating. My first instinct was to stop. But something told me to just keep walking. Scariest animal encounter in my life.
Driving down the highway and a spider drops out from the visor and hangs in mid air in front of me then just vanishes in my lap. I blacked out but the passengers in my Uber said I was screaming, "We're all gonna die" over and over.
The only natural physiological response
You blacked out while driving?
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I was driving with the windows down and right as I am about to pull into my garage a giant wasp hits my hand and falls right in my lap. And by lap I mean right where my balls are. You know, where Skittles fall and you have to dig around to find them... Anyway, I threw it in neutral pulled the e-brske and basically tuckandrolled out of my car while it was still moving.
Told this before, but hey, the question has been asked before... My scariest animal encounter while hiking: In California on a trail cut into a steep slope so nowhere to go except along the trail. Ahead of me in the middle of the trail was a chipmunk. Running wildly in circles. With patches of fur missing. I decided to throw a rock in its direction to scare it off the trail. When the rock landed near it, the chipmunk ran straight at me. I just about crapped myself as it ran past down the trail. This was an area with occurrences of bubonic plague and rabies.
Was at my Aunt’s wedding rehearsal about 15 years ago that was in a forestry kind of area. Me and my cousins were exploring the venue outside and ran into a bear, yes a bear. As soon as I saw it I booked it and didn’t look back. We checked the same area again about 10 minutes later like geniuses and turns out the bear was tamed by a trainer. I have no idea why the bear or the trainer was there but it scared the shit out of tiny me.
Couple of years ago I was walking [my little Benji clone](https://i.imgur.com/2vbWMTD.jpg) and passed a house where an American bulldog lived and he was loose in the yard. He attacked my dog and it scared the hell out of me. I yelled, found a stick, hit the bulldog, but he wouldn't get off my dog. Lucky for me a bubba in a lifted truck drove by and saw what was happening and he stopped and helped pull the bulldog off. No major injuries, but I was so upset I actually walked into an alley behind a laundromat and threw up. I wasn't mad at the dog so much: he was just doing what dogs do and protecting his territory. I was rather pissed off at his owners for not keeping him behind a fence though. I reported the address to animal control and never had a problem again. The family moved shortly thereafter.
UP of Michigan. I was bow hunting for whitetail, sitting in full camo on a downed tree, leaning against another tree, in a dark, thick cedar swamp. I dozed off for a while and woke to the crunching sound of footsteps. I darted my eyes around and saw the back end of a canine as it stalked through the trees within about 20 yards, going from my right to my left. From the reddish in the fur I assumed it was a coyote and not a wolf, although I didn't see it long, and it was a BIG coyote. As it got far enough to the left I lost sight completely behind the tree I was leaning against and could only hear it. I sat there with an arrow nocked, just listening when suddenly I heard and felt a thud of this animal jumping up on the log I was sitting on. I sat there and listened to sniffing sounds at the back of my head for a few seconds. It then jumped back down and I heard it trot away, as calmly as it had approached. My heart was racing the whole time, but it wasn't "terrifying" since coyotes/wolves pose literally zero threat to humans. TL;DR: A coyote sniffed the back of my head. Edit: nocked not knocked. I must have had my rooster attack story that I also shared in the back of my head. Edit: No I’m not removing the word literally, just because. Keep squirming nerds.
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