Debunking Myths Of The Natural World
Durango Herald, August 10, 2003
Jennifer Kleffner

The myth of the baby bird.

We’ve all heard it. “If you touch a baby bird in a nest, the mother will smell your scent on the baby and abandon the chick”. While this is a myth that we don’t often correct with children, as we don’t want to encourage small hands reaching into nests, it is actually untrue. By the time a mother bird has chicks in her nest, she has invested a substantial amount of time and energy into reproducing, and she (or he...most fathers help raise the chicks too) is unlikely to abandon the chicks due to an unfamiliar smell.

What can happen when you visit a nest is that you leave a scent trail for predators to follow. Bird researchers, who monitor nests regularly, are very careful to observe nests from a distance whenever possible to avoid tipping off wiley predators to the nests location.

The myth of the Daddy Longleg.

We hear this several times a year from wide eyed young ones. “The Daddy Longleg is the most poisonous spider in the world, but its fangs are too small to bite humans”. The species being referred to here is most likely the common web building Pholcid house spider, with its almost round tan body and very long legs.

All spiders are poisonous, because they use venom to immobilize or kill their prey. There are over 34,000 species of spider in the world. However, very few are tested for venom toxicity unless they are a threat to humans. It’s difficult to milk spiders for venom, and its hard to find volunteers to test it on once you have it! The reality is we really don’t know how poisonous this spider is, because like most spiders, it has never been tested. Pholcid spiders have fangs very similar in size to the brown recluse, a spider that does bite humans.

The myth of one worm into two.

It is not true that when you cut a worm in half, each half regenerates. Worms can grow new tails, but not new heads. If you cut the clitellum (the fat ring around the worm that contains many vital organs) in half, you will most certainly kill the worm.

Interestingly, earthworms are not native to the United States. They were brought over by settlers in the soil holding their plants. However, we are happy to have them, as worms eat dirt, and in doing so they help churn and aerate the soil. Worm castings (worm poop) are five times richer in nitrogen, seven times richer in potassium and eleven times richer in phosphorus than the soil that went in.