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Message: <blockquote data-quote="alsih2o" data-source="post: 2120343" data-attributes="member: 4790">Strangely enough one fo the cave cricket sites says they are harmless. What we caleld cave crickets bite like demons. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Personal anectdote- Volunteering at a summer camp for Po' kids one summer we needed volunteer speakers. A coworker of my wife is a salamander specialist, 2 degrees in biology specializign in the local salamander population (fascinating in itself, but that is another story..). He came and spoke, right to their level. He brought cool visual aids and let them all see some large slamanders that were rare or from other continents. Then came "The fun". We knew form experience that the creek that ran through the park was infested with salamanders. 3-4 cool species in/aroudn the creek. We split into two groups and went towards the creek. I was speaking knowledgably (lol!) about the local wildlife and what to watch for with 30 children follwing me in single file. Then the 8th kid back started crying and fell to the ground. Then the 7th. The 9th and 10 started beating themselves furiously and screaming at the top fo their lungs. It spread like a wildfire. All my help or possible aid was 100 yards away and I was stuck near a terribly mean patch of hornets who had a nest in a nasty hole in the ground my "knowledgable" self had just missed. The next half hour was oen fo the worst on my life. 18 kinds stung unumerable times and 3 of them were allergic. It all came out well. The parents were all amazingly cool about it. One mom had a dozen shots available. Talk about thinking ahead!! But the nightmare of that moment...every child reacting differently. Some collapsing, some screaming and running in circles. Little girls trying to run away from their backs or legs. One child just pointed at the hole and screamed and cried. I was like one of those war films where everything goes slow motion and the heros buddies all get shot or blown up.  I got the kids out with help towards the end. It took several minutes of caring for the kids uin various ways until a staffer asked me where I was stung. It was the first time I had really thought about it. I realized that I hadn't been stung a single time, despite carryign out crying kids getting stung several times. The other group foudn a stash of some 300-400 marble salamanders in one hole. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /></blockquote>

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