- Oct 29, 2009
- 69
- 1
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People keep replying about mothballs, so I'll take a minute to try to explain how idiotic this is.
So you take a small wire cage of mothballs and place them around "cool, dark places", or you just sprinkle the mothballs around on the ground. Imagine a snake coming upon them. Lets just say, for arguments sake, that the snake just hates the smell of mothballs. (There is not a shred of evidence anywhere in the world that even suggests snakes don't like, or avoid mothballs). But assuming they do - what do you suppose the snake thinks when it discovers the mothball?
Do you suppose it thinks to itself - wow, I should leave this property because I can tell these people use moth balls! Or do you think it just moves two inches to the left or right then continues ahead? In which case the mothballs would do absolutely nothing to deter the snake?
I don't mean to be rude, but it is amazing how people keep responding "mothballs seem to work for me" when their perception is obviously completely unscientific. Its spring, snakes come out, they throw out the mothballs, summer comes, snakes are less obvious. Their misguided conclusion that the mothballs worked is so obviously wrong, I'm amazed they don't get it.
I used to be amazed that primitive people believed in witch doctors. But seeing how willing people are to believe in witch doctor type remedies for snakes, I'm really not surprised anymore. I guess if your desperate enough, and unscientific enough, any solution - even an ineffectual one, is better than nothing.
What did P.T. Barnum say?
So you take a small wire cage of mothballs and place them around "cool, dark places", or you just sprinkle the mothballs around on the ground. Imagine a snake coming upon them. Lets just say, for arguments sake, that the snake just hates the smell of mothballs. (There is not a shred of evidence anywhere in the world that even suggests snakes don't like, or avoid mothballs). But assuming they do - what do you suppose the snake thinks when it discovers the mothball?
Do you suppose it thinks to itself - wow, I should leave this property because I can tell these people use moth balls! Or do you think it just moves two inches to the left or right then continues ahead? In which case the mothballs would do absolutely nothing to deter the snake?
I don't mean to be rude, but it is amazing how people keep responding "mothballs seem to work for me" when their perception is obviously completely unscientific. Its spring, snakes come out, they throw out the mothballs, summer comes, snakes are less obvious. Their misguided conclusion that the mothballs worked is so obviously wrong, I'm amazed they don't get it.
I used to be amazed that primitive people believed in witch doctors. But seeing how willing people are to believe in witch doctor type remedies for snakes, I'm really not surprised anymore. I guess if your desperate enough, and unscientific enough, any solution - even an ineffectual one, is better than nothing.
What did P.T. Barnum say?