Unfinished business (the Brown Recluse Spider)

Time to make good on one last bit of unfinished business on the blog, or my explanation of a bit of a screw-up on a story about the Brown Recluse spider.

Better late than never, I hope.

A few months ago I published a story about a three-day wilderness-skills workshop in and around High Park with Sticks and Stones Wilderness School.

We covered lots of topics, including making fire with a bow drill kit, tracking, snares and edible plants. I focused on something we built as a group: a debris hut, or a structure made from leaves and sticks or whatever you can gather from the forest floor.

When you scoop up debris, you are probably going to get some insects with it, including spiders. The idea of bunking down with perhaps hundreds of wee, eight-legged insects that might find their ways into my ears or nostrils sent a bit of a chill through me.

Calming my fears was a two-part process;

1. Our instructor, Skeet Sutherland, explained "smudging," the process of placing hot coals on top of sage or green conifer needles in a container to create smoke. You place the smoking container inside and the insects run for the hills.

2. Sutherland also explained, we are quite lucky in Ontario because our venomous-insect population is quite low. He identified two potential candidates that could (the key word here is "could") cause harm -- the black widow and the brown recluse -- and I typed it up.

The paragraph below is the way it appeared in the paper. The full story is here.

“Ontario is not home to a lot of dangerous spiders so the majority of tenants living inside our debris hut are likely harmless, Sutherland reassured. The worst are the Brown Recluse, that can cause the tissue surrounding the bitten area to die, and Black Widows; while bites are fairly rare they can cause feverish symptoms and can be fatal for young, sick or elderly people.”

The story prompted swift challenges from entomologists who said there was no evidence of Brown Recluse spiders living or making their home in Ontario.

Here is part of an email from Antonia Guidotti, entomology technician in the Department of Natural History at the Royal Ontario Museum.

"There are doctors that claim a patient has been 'bitten' by a Brown Recluse but there has never been a case in Ontario were a spider was caught and identified as a Brown Recluse. The so-called 'bites' are more likely serious bacterial infections."

I called Sutherland, he called the entomologists, did some additional research, and we connected again on the phone this week.

Straight out of the gate he said the entomologists are correct. There is no evidence of breeding populations in Ontario.

His said his concern was the potential for the Brown Recluse to travel, or hitch a ride on clothing, in cargo or some other method from its home in the central United States to Ontario.

“The nature of this insect is that it likes to spend a lot of its time in human cultured environments.  Often times you will find it in the attic or old dusty pile of blankets in the basement,” he said.

“I guess what we were trying to get through in the article is there is a slight potential for these things,” said Sutherland. “But really when it comes down to it there is very little to worry about in Ontario which is really a sigh of relief for so many different people.”

Here is where I have to fess up and say I oversimplified the bit about the spiders ( I got a bit stuck on the dimensions of the debris hut and was on deadline)  and as a result the article did not represent the diversity of our province, how insects move from place to place, and what my instructor understands about spiders and where they make their homes.

That was rightly pointed out by dedicated spider and insect lovers. As mentioned in my previous note, next time I tackle anything as complicated and interesting as spiders and where they live, love and have thousands of babies I promise to get it right.

Sutherland capped off the conversation by saying that spotting a Brown Recluse spider in Ontario is about as likely as seeing a mountain lion.

I actually might really enjoy seeing a mountain lion. A spider that rots your flesh with a necrotic bite, not so much.

 

 

Goodbye

Time certainly flies when you're having muddy, dirty, somewhat dangerous fun.

This has been an amazing year for me. I have been lucky enough to find people to teach me a variety of skills that I plan to build on for the rest of my life. My final column for the paper is here.

When I actually care about something or someone, I am fairly lousy at goodbyes, so I will keep it quick.

To my teachers: Thank you for sharing your time and knowledge, for letting me dress up in suits, learn your secret recipes and allowing me to hold knives. I am amazed by your patience and impressed by how you all managed to put up with a somewhat flustered reporter fumbling with a video camera.

To my readers: Knowing you were out there pushed me to step further from my comfort zone than I thought possible. The safety suits were a piece of cake - Toronto Police, if you need a stunt body to get dropped in the ice or taken down by dogs please give me a call -  but I wouldn't have stepped near a spinning class unless I had committed to shaping up as part of this plan.

I owe you one.

Best of luck to you and your loved ones for all your adventures ahead. I am really going to miss this.

Emily

A meal in a box and the "ageless oxygen absorber"

(The full contents of one meal pack from Meal Kit Supply Canada)

This post is long overdue.

Many months ago I got in touch with a company called Meal Kit Supply Canada, a distributor of prepackaged meals developed by the U.S. Military. The meals are warmed using a water-activated heating pack.

I had reached out to the company early on in the series, and Stevi Hanson, vice president business development, had sent me a sample pack of their most popular meals.

It seemed logical to wait for an actual emergency or outdoors experience to try them out. Thankfully there have been no emergencies, and my two outdoor experiences, the cottage and my week with Sticks and Stones Wilderness School, involved so much delicious provided food I may have gained a few pounds.

So the box sat in my closet for several months.

With the clock ticking on the wrap-up for the blog, I decided Sunday night was the night!

I slit open the case and perused my choices. The meals included vegetable lasagna, beef ravioli, and chicken and dumpling meals. I went for the chicken and pesto pack.

Pasta is just the main course. This meal comes with potato cheddar soup, crackers, a massive 1.5-ounce tube of peanut butter, vacuum-packed carrot pound cake, hot chocolate, and an electrolyte juice-type drink.

As a lover of gadgets and disaster preparedness (nerd flag flying high here), I have to admit that cracking this open was a bit like Christmas morning. My favourite part was the print on the directions for the hot chocolate: "Allow water just chemically purified to stand 30 minutes before adding to beverage powder." Perfection.

To heat the meals, you drop a sealed pouch of food into a plastic sleeve with a heating pack that is activated by water. You add water, fold the top of the bag, tuck the meal and sleeve back into the cardboard box it came from, and wait for it to heat.

I may have added too much water.

As I am typing, my meal and the cardboard box I stuffed it back into is making gasping noises like a dying fish on my counter.

I wait for the bag to settle down and manage to remove the meal without burning myself. The water in the sleeve has a strange odour, a product of the heating pack, but the sealed pasta is actually hot and there is a high volume of decent tasting chicken.

While I wouldn't describe it as fine dining - let's be honest, this is for a disaster - it is impressive for something that came out of a bag and is brought back to life with a heater pack.

The carrot cake comes in the shape of a bar of soap but is actually quite tasty. Because I am easily amused by the little things, I was delighted to find the "ageless oxygen absorber" packet that comes inside. 

Each meal also contains instant coffee, dried creamer, sugar, and a lemon moist wipe. There are also two of the sturdiest plastic spoons I have ever seen.  I am guessing the company that makes these gets a lot of feedback on how little things make a difference in harsh environments.

So how did Meal Kit Supply Canada get into the business of distributing meals in a box?

Hanson said the main reason was SARS.

"There was mild concern of an outbreak and some sort of breakdown in infrastructure," said Hanson.

Those concerns prompted company owner Blair Calder to seek out food products he could store in his basement.

Calder sourced the food products from the U.S. manufacturers and was told that there was no one distributing them in Canada. They negotiated exclusive rights and about five years ago the company was formed.

Their big clients are the RCMP and OPP, fire and emergency service workers, and government workers, including Toronto, said Hanson.

The meals can be picked up at Costco or ordered online or over the phone. The smallest case costs $129.99 and comes with 12 meals, four breakfasts, four lunches and four dinners. If you store them at room temperature, they last five years. The food is also preservative-free; the package is what keeps the products from spoiling, according to information on the company website.

Hanson said demand often increases during global emergencies. "After Haiti, we sold out our warehouse," mostly to the Red Cross and other emergency support groups, said Hanson.

They also experience boosts in sales when smaller disasters hit in Canada or abroad, said Hanson.

Opening the boxes and using the heating pack was fun, and I can totally understand the appeal of having huge, ready-to-eat meals in case of an emergency. But for someone like me, with lots of space in her apartment to store a variety of bulkier foods - I am more of a dried meat, fruits and nuts kind of lady -  and on a budget, I don't know if they would be my first choice.

That said, buying a box would be an easy solution to stocking up on food to last for 72 hours. If you were not expending much energy, the peanut butter tube alone could be a small meal.

I can also see why they would be ideal for people in remote locations or using up thousands of calories working in emergency situations.

Really interesting product. Still picking away at the carrot cake.

"Deep survival:" Why some people are more likely to live

Professor Jim McLennan, a psychologist at LaTrobe University in Melbourne, has studied the theory of "deep survival" or why some people can remain calm in traumatic events. It turns out a great deal of how well you fare when suffering from extreme physical stress or pain has a lot to do with your state of mind.

Simply put, if you give up or panic, you are more likely to die.

You can hear more about his theories in this interview on RadioLive.

When the host asked him what advice he would give to someone in a difficult situation, McLennan made the comments below.

"Try and manage your fear, try and keep your head. Try to be alert to what is actually going on, what is it that is threatening you most, and what you can see and what you can become aware of (that) you could make use of to save your life in the given situation. Don't give up."

Bonus material: Great survival story blog courtesy of National Geographic. That is what you get when you Google "Deep Survival."

Lost hiker builds shelter to stay warm.

Tampa Bay Online is reporting on the rescue of a 56-year-old man who got lost in a wilderness park in Florida. The story is here. Francis Netto, 56, knew the area and had set out on a 15-mile walk he had done multiple times before. He had food, something to drink and books to read along the way. The problems started when he fell asleep - he blames sinus medication - and woke up in the dark about 10 or 11 p.m.

When he tried to walk out on Thursday he got turned around and went deeper into the woods. He was located by some canoeists after a few days.

Two things stuck with me about this story.

The first was Netto said he was able to stay dry during a storm on Thursday night by building a shelter. I have been learning a bit about building debris huts - or shelters made from whatever you can collect from the forest floor - so I was excited to read he was able to create something to protect himself from the elements.

The second was at one point Netto was floating down the river to try and move towards civilization. He got out when he came across a three-metre long alligator that wouldn't move out of his path.

I know we don't get to choose where we get lost, but I have to say Ontario seems like a friendlier place all the time.

 

Thomas Coyne makes it across Death Valley with no food and water

This update comes a bit late, but I still think it needs to be posted. Thomas Coyne completed his journey across Death Valley on Sept 9.

Coyne is the founder of the Survival Training School of California and set out to cross the valley with nothing but the clothing on his back and a minimal list of gear. No food. No water.

He started at the Badwater Basin of Death Valley, Calif., on Aug. 31 and ended his trip about 200 km away at the Mt. Whitney Portals. Temperatures can rise as high as 48 C in some of the areas he crossed. He was able to locate ample water supplies and lived off "Palm dates, cattail roots, watercress greens, fresh barrel cactus, chokecherries, and even Wild Celery and Native Sunflower seeds," according to a release about his adventures.

This wasn't his first attempt to survive using just his skills in extremely harsh conditions. According to the release, last year Coyne "hiked 100 miles across the entire Sierra Nevada Mountain Range- bringing no food, water, sleeping bags or tents. He and his sole partner in that hike lived off the land on that journey as well; foraging wild edibles, drinking from streams, and building primitive shelters the entire time."

You can check out the details on his YouTube channel.

Bonus material: Global News has posted an interesting short list of survival stories.

Search for missing soldier continues and tracking

The search for missing soldier Noah Pippin continues in the U.S. Pippin went missing in 2010. He was last seen in the Flathead Valley in Montana in 2010.

A search and rescue team looking for clues has found some decomposed material near where some boy scouts claimed to have found some of his clothing this summer, according to a story on KRTV.com.

I recently came back from a week-long outdoors skills training workshop with Sticks and Stones Wilderness School. One of the many topics we touched on was tracking. The skills of a man named Tom Brown Jr. were mentioned many times. During those talks our teachers said a dedicated tracker can tell you things about your health, stress level, carrying load and even if you have a full bladder based on your imprint in the soil or sand. I understand the concept but have trouble comprehending the practice and dedication it would take to get to that point. Go to Tom Brown Jr's website for an interesting read.

Wondering if they have had trackers looking for Pippin and at this point would it make a difference?

Lost your compass - but you have your phone

A short funny story posted on the West Fargo Pioneer written by Tyler Shoberg.

Shoberg has always carried a compass, a regular gift from dad, but during a recent outdoor jaunt left it at home. The author's guide, someone who should have known the area, got turned around and the pair was forced to rely on a map in a cell phone.

I am the first one to admit the allure of fancy gear - my obessession with multi-tools is well documented - but this reminds me I need to pick up a few more lessons on how to tell direction based on the sun and the wind.

That said, I am always on the hunt for a simple, small compass I can clip to my keys.

Bonus material: Check out this amazing survival story on the Star's website. My interest in bear encounters - how to understand their behaviour and avoid confrontations - continues to grow.

Getting over my fear of the dark (at least a bit)

I spent a week with Sticks and Stones Wilderness School for a course called Empowering Ancient Ways. The story and a video of me making fire - or blowing on a tinder bundle wrapped around a coal I made with my bow drill kit - are here. I left the video camera at home this time, but a classmate Rhonda Ursulak was there with an iPad to capture the experience. It is a bit dark, the camera picked up the light coming in a giant barn door behind me, but you get the idea. If you make it to the end you can see my face lit up with flame and an extremely satisfied grin. It was the second time I have managed to light a fire using a bow drill kit, so I was pretty excited.

I should add that another classmate took the photo of me blowing into the tinder bundle, but for some reason the photo credit has not popped up online. So thanks Sean McGarrity for that one.

In the story I admit I am not comfortable in the dark (or I should say someone who still sprints up the stairs at her parents' house at night because of a really active imagination). But I have to say after spending a great deal of the week outdoors I could conceivably walk at night in a strange patch of woods without collapsing into a whimpering ball and spending the night lashing out at strange noises with a sharp stick.

The course was jam-packed with lessons on making fire, tracking, medicinal plants and herbs and flintknapping to name a few. I have a notebook filled with diagrams and plan to sign up for more classes.

By the end of the week I was whipped - but as relaxed as a kid coming home from sleepover camp.

Sticks and Stones are located in Honeywood but will be moving to another location this fall. Founder Skeet Sutherland hosted a weekend workshop in Toronto put on through Toronto's P.I.N.E. Project. They have a fairly lengthy list of events coming up through winter and fall and run camps for kids throughout the summer.

 

 

Man impaled by steel pole, pulls himself off and crawls for help

Another amazing survival story. Sometimes I am blown away by how tough humans can be, or how calm.

Gary Walker, a 45-year-old from Melbourne, was out collecting timber for his bird aviaries when he slipped and a steel pole went through his upper thigh pinning him to the ground, according to a report from ninemsn.com. He called for help for about five to 10 minutes before using his belt as a tourniquet, pulling himself off, and crawling for about 90 minutes to his car to use his phone. 

There is also a video with Walker explaining how he managed to get himself to safety on ninemsn.com.

(Please accept my apologies in advance for the heinous commercials before the video.)

He clearly had an understanding of nature, noting efforts he made to avoid Bull Ants while dragging himself to his vehicle, but I am not sure spending time in the outdoors can fully prepare you for the psychologcical experience of being impaled. Who can imagine being impaled? Really?

Of course I do think knowing what to avoid and being comfortable with the landscape could have been what kept him calm enough to save his life.  I have never been seriously injured (knocking the top of my wooden coffee table as I type) so I really have no concept of how I would react to that level of pain, adrenaline and blood loss.

What do you think? How would you respond if you were impaled in familiar outdoor territory? Would you fare better in a parking lot in a strange city?

People amaze me.