Nature Myths, Debunked

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Will this boy get warts? The truth is that touching toads won’t give you warts, but it’s hard not to let the thought cross your mind. CORBIS

When a bee buzzes, it’s getting ready to sting you. There’s no telling where I got that notion as a child—from my imagination, most likely. But because I believed it, any sudden buzzing would toss me into a blind terror. Heart leaping to my throat, the metallic taste of fear at the back of my mouth, I’d run pell-mell away from that dreaded sound as fast as my little legs could carry me. All the while, I was convinced, a crazed human-hating bee followed in hot pursuit barely more than a stinger’s length away.

Of course, I know now there are countless buzzing insects, and although some do indeed buzz to warn off intruders, relatively few can actually sting—and fewer still are inclined to do so even when provoked.

But to tell you the truth, an unexpected buzzzz from an unnoticed insect still sends a jolt of adrenaline coursing through my veins.

That’s the trouble with long-held or oft-repeated myths, half-truths and other misbegotten beliefs. They tend to persist, despite common sense or scientific knowledge to the contrary. Here are some examples, with explanations.

“If you touch a toad, you’ll get warts.” Of course we all know it’s not true. But have you ever picked up a toad without the wart story coming to mind? Those lumps on a toad’s body do look a lot like warts. And that liquid that oozes from the toad’s skin if you grasp it too firmly ... eck.

Actually, that liquid is a poison, and it does come from the toad’s warty skin and from the two largest lumps—called parotoid glands—located just behind the amphibian’s eyes. But the toxin is merely a defense mechanism, emitted by the glands only under outside pressure—such as that from a would-be toad-eater’s unsuspecting mouth. Most animals immediately spit toads out, though hawks and snakes gobble them with apparent impunity. Raccoons and skunks eat toads after batting them around on the ground to release and rub off the poison.

Viruses—not toad secretions—cause warts. The toxin can, however, cause a local burning irritation if you handle a toad and then touch your eyes or mouth. That’s why you should always wash your hands after holding a toad.

“Beavers pack mud with their tails.” You can probably blame Walt Disney’s “Silly Symphonies” cartoons for this one. In a typical scene of idyllic natural industry, hard hat-wearing beavers merrily fling globs of mud from one worker’s tail to the next—production-line style—while the busy guys at the end of the line pat mud in place on the dam, using their tails as trowels. Meanwhile, bluebirds whistle with pursed beaks, ducks snatch bug-eyed worms from the soil, and not-quite-hatched chicken eggs stagger about on little pairs of legs, like tiny Humpty Dumptys.