Picture by Victoria Borodinova
Halloween is developing quickly, and also you’ll probably see just a few warty witches over the weekend. And that brings to thoughts just a few amphibian myths which have popped up over the centuries.
Why, for example, do witches at all times use toads of their potions? And did they actually get these warts from frogs?
Let’s check out some amphibian myths that maintain popping up in tales however simply aren’t true…
Delusion #1 Frogs and toads offer you warts.
This fable has been round for a very long time, and it mainly says that selecting up, touching, or dealing with frogs or toads may cause you to get warts in your pores and skin.
The reality:
Frogs and toads can have warty trying pores and skin, however these aren’t truly warts on their our bodies. They’re glands for secretions. Warts on human pores and skin are brought on by a virus, and you’ll’t get it from amphibians.
You might, nonetheless, get a rash from the frog’s pores and skin secretions.
Delusion #2 Frogs can be utilized to treatment sicknesses.
Alternately, some folks medication says that consuming frogs, rubbing them in your pores and skin, or sporting their dried organs in a pouch round your neck can treatment numerous illnesses. And tales about witches discuss them utilizing frogs and toads in every kind of magical cures and curses.
The reality:
You must in all probability go away your medical therapy to higher confirmed strategies or suggestions out of your physician. Sure species of frogs, equivalent to bullfrogs, can actually be eaten, however all they’ll offer you is diet, not a magic treatment.
Delusion #3 Kissing frogs turns them into princes.
The frog who turns right into a prince upon being kissed by a princess is one in all Grimm’s Fairy Tales. This story is so loved that it has been handed down in lots of kinds and made into films. Sadly (or maybe luckily), actual frogs don’t flip into something apart from frogs.
The reality:
Kissing a frog might be a nasty thought. Reasonably than a contented ending, you’ll probably find yourself with a case of salmonella, which amphibians have a tendency to hold.
Additionally, it’s not nice for the frog. As a result of they take in loads of issues by their pores and skin, any chemical compounds in lip balm or different substances in your lips will get into their physique. You may also go on germs to your frog.
Delusion #4: Frogs could be become poison.
Effectively, this one’s not solely a fable, since some frogs and toads do, in truth, secrete poisonous substances. Nevertheless, you don’t actually need to fret about whether or not somebody brewed a frog-based poison and slipped it to you. All you really want to do to keep away from this one is don’t lick frogs or toads.
Have you learnt somebody who’s afraid of frogs or toads? This worry is known as ranidaphobia.
Probably the greatest methods to recover from a worry is to reveal your self to the thing of worry in a secure method. At The Tye-Dyed Iguana in Fairview Heights, you’ll be able to are available in and see quite a lot of frogs and toads safely behind glass, the place they will’t contact you…or kiss you.