How to Kill Snakes and Fleas: advice from 1688

How to Kill Snakes, 1688

"1. How to gather Snakes and Adders to one place. Take one handful of Onion, and ten River Crab-fish, pound them together, and lay it in the places where the Snakes and Adders are, and they will all gather together.

2. To kill Snakes and Adders. Take a large Rhadish, and strike the Adder and Snake with it, and one blow will kill them." 

R. W., A Necessary Family-Book (1688)

A simple and elegant technique: lure the snakes with a giant crabcake and then bludgeon them with a radish.

From the same book, here's How to Kill Fleas:

"Take an Earthen Platter, that is broad and shallow, fill it half full with Goats Blood, and set the Platter under the Bed, and all the Fleas will come into it like a swarm of Bees. Or take the Blood of a Bear or Badger, and put it under the Bed, as before, and it gathers the Fleas to it, and they die immediately."

via Ask The Past (blog)

Thursday links

How to Kill Snakes and Fleas: advice from 1688.

Giant Hand Sculptures Around The World.

The Amazing Architectural Evolution of the Filling Station.

These food photography tricks are kinda fascinating.

Inside the Cut-Throat World of Toddler Bike Racing.

Diet tip of the day: Drinking tequila can lead to weight loss. Among other things.

ICYMI, Tuesday's links are here, and include using a a charge card for a $170 million painting, pasta shape ranking, D-Day links, artificial skating rinks before reliable ice-making technology, and foolproof pick up lines (according to Chinese scientists).

Australian wildlife update: football-sized goldfish invading waterways (with bonus Aussie wildlife links)

There's lots of over-the-top wildlife in Australia, in addition to the cane toad (wiki). 

Telegraph:

Unwanted former pet goldfish that have grown to the size of footballs are travelling hundreds of kilometres through Western Australian waterways, new research has found.

Weighing up to 1.9kg, the goldfish enter river systems after being dumped from aquariums into catchment lakes.

Once established they are difficult to eradicate and damage Australian ecosystems, Murdoch University researchers have found.

Australia has way too much weird wildlife. Remember this?: Python Caught on Camera Eating a Crocodile After 5 Hour Battle:

 And this spider web forest:

Plus a spider big (and mean) enough to eat snakes:

This spider eats birds:

And Feral Camels Plague Australian Outback:

The 1.5 billion poisonous cane toads (wiki) are the most famous of the outrageous Aussie wildlife:

Here's a brief (4 minute) BBC video on them:



And the snakes are adapting so that they can eat the poisonous cane toads:

As if all that wasn't enough, they also have firenados:

Feel free to provide your own favorite Aussie wildlife stories in the comments, and I'll update this post.

In Australia, Python Caught on Camera Eating a Crocodile After 5 Hour Battle

Witnesses said it took hours for the snake to take the crocodile down.

A group of Australians were having breakfast near a lake in Mount Isa over the weekend when they witnessed an unexpected event: an epic battle between a snake and crocodile.

‘‘[The crocodile] was fighting at the start, so it was trying to keep its head out of water and survive,” Corlis said of the event, calling it “unbelievable.”

More information and photos at The Age.