Discovering the Outdoors

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Identifying Mushrooms

Untitled Document

Hello, I'm the OUTDOOR PROFESSOR from DiscoveringTheOutdoors.com.
Here's your outdoor tip on mushrooms—poisonous, or not.

A popular outdoor activity for many people is collecting edible mushrooms. This is a hobby that should be pursued with a great amount of caution since errors made in collection of the wrong kind of mushroom—a poisonous one—can be deadly.

Each year poison control centers in the United States answer more than 6,000 calls regarding the consumption of poisonous mushrooms. About 2,500 are treated in health care facilities and more than 500 cases result in serious illness.

Watch out for old folk tales that tell you how to avoid poisonous mushrooms. For example, a mushroom that has been eaten by an animal is safe—wrong! Or dried fungus is safe—wrong! A mushroom growing on wood is not poisonous—wrong!

The only way to be safe is to be able to have 100% identification skills.

The kinds of toxins in mushrooms fall into four categories.
1. The most serious is the toxin that will act as cellular poison. Symptoms of this toxin may not happen until several hours or days after eaten and the poison is often deadly.
2. The second type of toxin affects the nerves. Symptoms may occur directly after ingestion and will include abdominal pain, diarrhea, dehydration, and vomiting. This nerve poisoning can also be fatal.
3. Another toxin causes gastrointestinal irritation. These symptoms may occur right away after eating the fungus.
4. The final category is dangerous when you consume alcohol. The toxin stops the metabolism of the alcohol and causes nausea, vomiting, and vasomotor reactions.

You also need to be careful of eating mushrooms that may have absorbed pesticides and pollution form the environment. In addition, mushroom allergies are common. Improper handling and storage of fungi can too create food poisoning.

Positively identifying mushrooms starts with a field guide and basic understanding of mushroom anatomy. Being active in a mycology club will also be a great help to your ability to identify editable mushrooms.

No matter how much education and training you have had—remember if you cannot be 100% sure of your identification—do not eat mushrooms that you have collected. The old rule does apply…better safe than sorry. Taking pictures of fungi with your camera is a fun activity and may be the best hobby for you.

This is the OUTDOOR PROFESSOR from DiscoveringTheOutdoors.com.

References: Additional Reading

Poisonous Mushrooms
http://www.natureskills.com/outdoor-safety/poisonous-mushrooms/
Poisonous Mushrooms Pose Danger as More People Forage for Locally Grown Food, Rutgers Experts Say
http://news.rutgers.edu/feature/poisonous-mushrooms-pose-danger-more-people-forage-locally-grown-food-rutgers-experts-say/20130920#.U5yAH_mJ-yU
Poisonous Mushrooms
http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/BOT135/Lect19.htm

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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

How to Remove a Tick

Hello, I'm the OUTDOOR PROFESSOR from DiscoveringTheOutdoors.com.

Here's your outdoor tip on how to remove a tick.

A tick is a blood-feeding parasite—not an insect. They are closely related to scorpions, spiders and mites. Ticks feed on mammals, reptiles, birds, or frogs to give them the blood meal they need to survive and reproduce. Most tick bites do not result in illness, but they can transmit several diseases such as Lyme disease, rocky mountain spotted fever and tick paralysis.

Ticks frequently become passengers on you or your dog when you are exploring the woods and grasslands. People talk about ticks jumping on them, but ticks don’t jump or hang on trees waiting to drop down on you. Most ticks ambush their victims using behavior called questing. Hungry ticks crawl up a tall plant stem and extend their front legs using them to sniff the air for your scent or to sense your movement. They can detect the carbon dioxide you exhale and the ammonia in your sweat—maybe your temperature as you come near them. Once the hungry critter senses your approach, some may run up the plant toward you or others just wait for you to sweep by so they can grab hold of your leg as you brush by.

Understanding tick behavior should help you lessen your risk of tick bites. Be careful walking through thick or high vegetation and keep your legs covered and treated with tick repellent. Unless you have done handstands in the grass, finding a tick in your head hair or upper body is probably because it crawled from your leg.

Always do a thorough check of your full body when you return from the outdoors. You can remove most ticks before they enjoyed much of a meal of your blood—and be sure to check your dog too. This will discourage any diseases being transmitted to you or your pet.

Take your time in removing a tick correctly when found. Do not follow some old myths about removing ticks:

Do NOT paint the tick with nail polish

Do NOT twist the tick when pulling it out.

Do NOT try to burn the tick with a match or other hot object.

Do NOT try to kill, smother, or lubricate the tick with oil, alcohol, Vaseline, or similar material.

Smothering a tick with the above methods could make it release fluid which could be infected and be transmitted to your body causing infection.

The way to remove a tick safely is to:

1. Don’t panic—take your time.

2. Use tweezers to handle the tick. Do not use your bare hands.

3. Grab the tick as close to the skin surface as possible. You want to grasp the head of the tick and not separate it from the body when being removed. Do not grab the swollen belly as this could push infection into your body.

4. Pull the head straight out with a steady even pressure. Do not twist or jerk. You do not want to break it into pieces leaving mouthparts in the skin.

5. Put the tick in a plastic bag and save it in case you later want to have it tested.

6. Disinfect the bite site with rubbing alcohol, an iodine scrub, or soap and water after removing the tick. Do not apply any salve or oil that would suffocate a mistakenly left piece.

For the next several weeks after the tick is removed, watch for:

Pain, swelling, or redness

Red streaks leading from the wound

Pus draining from the wound

Fever

Chances are you will have no after affect from a tick bite, but if you have any doubts about your condition, see a doctor immediately.

This is the OUTDOOR PROFESSOR from DiscoveringTheOutdoors.com.

References-Additional Reading

Tick Removal

http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/removing_a_tick.html

How to remove a tick

http://www.webmd.com/first-aid/tc/how-to-remove-a-tick-overview

3 Ways to remove a tick

http://www.wikihow.com/Remove-a-Tick

Ticks around your home

http://www.clemson.edu/cafls/departments/esps/factsheets/medvet/ticks_around_your_home_mv05.html

How do ticks get on you?

http://insects.about.com/od/ticksmites/ss/How-Do-Ticks-Get-On-You.htm