Venezuelan poodle moth

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Photo: Arthur Anker

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Guest Post: Animal Myths Busted!

Estelle Page is a blogger at www.gkbcinc.com. She is also a keen gardener who waters her plants at any time of the day, and is tired of being harassed by lawn-ruining moles. Still, she does love animals! Mostly...

Some people still believe some astonishing myths about animals. No one really knows where they came from, but one thing is certain, I’m going to bust them wide open!


5 Infamous Animal Myths Busted!

Image: Mark Robinson

1: Bees can only sting once

A bee’s sting is primarily for combat between bees themselves; it’s not really designed to take on the mighty human. Thus, unfortunately for the bee, their stinger will get stuck and rip out half their abdomen. Not a clean getaway...

A bee can sting another bee though as much as it wants, which means a bee sting is only really an effective weapon against its own kind. (Not really that handy!)

Still, this busts the myth open all the same, POW!

Wasps and bees aren’t too friendly though so, if absolutely necessary, some wasp killer might help you to dispatch of them.

2: Mice love a bit of fondue (and other cheese)

You know when you say that you love something in passing conversation, and then that person who you were with buys it for you every birthday and Christmas forever more?

The result is usually that you end up with a stockpile of whatever it was and you start giving it away yourself.

I think this is the same kind of behaviour which led to mice being universally depicted as the most unstoppable cheese craving rodent there is.

Actually, mice prefer a food with higher sugar content. 

(*BONUS CHEESE JOKE:

Q: What does a Mexican say when you take their cheese?

A: That’s NACHO CHEESE!)

3: Moles are blind

 Image by: Jerry Kirkhart

The majority of moles are actually only short sighted.

That’s still not much to work with, but with a mole’s exceptionally good sense of smell and hearing, it doesn’t really matter too much.

They still manage to cause an abnormal amount of damage to people’s gardens!

4: Watering plants in the sun will burn them

 (Ok, this isn’t really an animal, but this is my list and it’s going in)

Unless you live on a space station, circling the sun itself, the rays absorbed by the earth’s atmosphere are not strong enough to burn your beloved rhododendrons.

If the sun was that strong, then farmers would get paranoid every time it rained (or at least more paranoid!)

It’s best to water your plants in the morning, but only because the water pressure is likely to be higher so you can mess around with the spray setting on your hose.

Also, lots of people have jobs to go to - that could be a factor.

5: Moths destroy all your lovely clothes

I’m always finding little holes in my t-shirts, and I always curse moths. In fact, the damage is most likely done by moth larvae.

Moths also get the blame when the culprits are likely to be caused by carpet beetles. I kind of think they should just stick to their name and eat carpet.

(Tip: Don’t be lazy and just blame moths when you get a hole chewed in your vintage Ramones T-shirt...instead get some STV Pest Control. Simples.)

Stay tuned for part two of animal myths busted! There will be further insightful moments as I look at a few more of the animal kingdom’s most widely believed myths.

Do you know of any other common misconceptions or downright lies that need to be put right in the eyes of the public?

 

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