Most people can't tell the difference between poisonous mushrooms and safe ones. Find out how to protect yourself and your family from a deadly mistake.
I have never seen a copperhead near my house in Albemarle County, but it seems I’ve just been unlucky. (I like snakes.) In September, many of my friends were reporting sightings of this distinctive-looking venomous snake. [caption id="attachment_9085" align="alignright" width="350"] This copperhead was spotted on the Rivanna Trail in Charlottesville…
The story flooded my Facebook feed: A house in Missouri was infested with 5,000 brown recluse spiders. More than one of my friends said they’d just burn that house down if it was theirs. [caption id="attachment_9067" align="alignright" width="350"] The brown recluse (bottom) isn't established in Virginia but is often confused…
With summer comes severe weather, so it doesn’t hurt to be prepared for storms, extreme heat and floods. It’s important to be able to recognize an impending hazard and know how to take action so you and your family can stay safe. Here are steps you can take for any…
There’s a lot of hype out there about spiders. This summer, I had a bunch of quarter-sized creepy crawly things with eight legs and white marks on their backs scurrying around my house. I just assumed they were black widows. I didn’t get much sleep. Then a few of my…
Poisonous snakes. Mention those words, and a lot of people freak out. When I told my co-workers I wanted to write about snakebites, one flinched and shrieked, “Ew, snakes!” Another refused to look at the copperhead photo in this post. But snakes aren’t as big a threat as we think…
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