Come now, Folks...

  Convincing some folks that their long held beliefs are erroneous is like trying to convince an elephant to sit in a thimble.  I have just about as much of chance getting that huge animal in a tiny thimble as I do changing the ideas of some folks.  A lot of the beliefs are held onto out of fear.  "Dad always told me"..."I always heard"..."I know what I am talking about" are all things that I have heard over the years.  Sorry, folks...sometimes what you think is not what is correct.  For instance, one person swears that all snakes are "hunting" for people to bite and that all snakes are "poisonous".  Hmmm, I cannot imagine that human safaris are all the rage with snakes and, while there may be a few "poisonous" snakes out there, I do think you mean venomous.  (We won't go there...look it up.) The same person insists that green snakes and black racers are highly "poisonous" (her word).  Nope. Neither are. Nor are they venomous.  In fact, both will refrain from biting you unless you truly hurt them.  Those bites won't hurt either.

  The same belief is erroneously attached to another critter that is quite often found in the area. Folks are quick to claim that a broad-headed skink is (once again) highly poisonous.  Not that I can attest to this but I highly doubt it.  I have not eaten one to find out if it is poisonous so I am in no position to make claims on that supposition.  If the statement had read "A broad-headed skink is highly venomous", I could say without hesitation that there is no truth at all to the idea.  Broad-headed skinks are not venomous...period.  Enough said.  The critter will, however, not shy away from clamping down on your finger, hand, nose or whatever else gets poked into its business.  They will bite.  The fact of the matter is that the skink is merely protecting itself from a huge monster (you) and will use whatever means it has to escape unscathed.  I do not blame them.  I would, too. But, that bite will not feel to overly uncomfortable once you get over the initial shock of something latching onto you.  My best description is the bite feeling a lot like being pinched by two sandy fingers. 

  While the idea of being bit by any critter is enough to scare folks, I have found that if you ever want to catch a skink there is an easy method.  Just corner the critter, poke at it enough and it will catch you.  Once it latches down on your finger, just gently pick it up!  It works!  (And you do not have to worry about poison!  Or venom!)

  As an added note, the fine specimen of broad-headed skink that I found was not harassed into biting.  It is my belief that we can all live in peace...critters and humans alike. The critters have that down pat...to bad humans do not.  This is a male broad-headed skink. It is easy to tell as the males have the bright red heads during mating season.  This nigh on ten inch long beauty was sunning himself after downing a smaller ground skink for lunch.  (Which, by the way, has been labeled as a "highly poisonous scorpion lizard" by our misguided friend mentioned above.  Oh, come on! *Insert a tone of frustration at this point...groan!)

 Getting back to the fact of folks and their misbeliefs, I figure that perhaps it would be easier to help them overcome their fear of the critters.  By pointing out the beauty and the helpfulness of each critter, I may just alleviate their distaste of all things that wiggle, slither, slink, crawl and slide.  Hopefully, then they will "live and let live."  It is a good aphorism and one I try to live by.