dancrane
Well-known member
Interestingly, garlic doesn't only deter mozzies...
Newbie Liveaboards Beware of the...
- Thread starter Baggy
- Start date
Dreamcatcher
New member
Some people catch lizards to catch cockroaches, we however got ourselves a chameleon....fantastic they go to sleep at night just when the cockroaches come out.
We lost the chameleon, or at least we think we have.
We lost the chameleon, or at least we think we have.
charles_reed
Active member
So?Interestingly, garlic doesn't only deter mozzies...
Is that a good thing or a bad one?
dancrane
Well-known member
Well, exactly...
...by munching on enough garlic, I believe one could keep at bay almost anything - quayside urchins selling tat, rapacious harbourmasters who loiter round vacant 'Visitors' moorings, perhaps even racing skippers, bent on ploughing a straight line through all other traffic. Worth a try, no?
Then again...it may depend whether one adopts the diet singlehandedly, and whether one intends and hopes to remain alone.
The 1992 film Jamon, Jamon (at least I think it was that one) would have you believe garlic is the food of love. It may be, if neither party ever eats anything else! Until you've heard your hot-date order the garlic mushrooms, and seen him or her wolfing them down with obvious relish, think twice about picking the bouillabaisse d'ail.
I wonder if Great White Sharks go for garlic prawns? Fascinating, to see whether attacks in New South Wales are primarily on persons disinclined to enjoy the taste of Sydney's garlic-serving restaurants. Or maybe the sharks take a 'suck it and see' approach, which doesn't help the surfer much...
Either way, adopt garlic and you'll drive your crew to the windward side of the cockpit.
...by munching on enough garlic, I believe one could keep at bay almost anything - quayside urchins selling tat, rapacious harbourmasters who loiter round vacant 'Visitors' moorings, perhaps even racing skippers, bent on ploughing a straight line through all other traffic. Worth a try, no?
Then again...it may depend whether one adopts the diet singlehandedly, and whether one intends and hopes to remain alone.
The 1992 film Jamon, Jamon (at least I think it was that one) would have you believe garlic is the food of love. It may be, if neither party ever eats anything else! Until you've heard your hot-date order the garlic mushrooms, and seen him or her wolfing them down with obvious relish, think twice about picking the bouillabaisse d'ail.
I wonder if Great White Sharks go for garlic prawns? Fascinating, to see whether attacks in New South Wales are primarily on persons disinclined to enjoy the taste of Sydney's garlic-serving restaurants. Or maybe the sharks take a 'suck it and see' approach, which doesn't help the surfer much...
Either way, adopt garlic and you'll drive your crew to the windward side of the cockpit.
whipper_snapper
New member
Yes. It is relatively straightforward to keep cockroaches off the boat if you are ruthless about what you allow on-board.
Mozzies are a nuisance but don't get paranoid about them. There are very effective new generation anti malarials. THese days I never take prophylaxis but carry coartin with me to treat. You are very likely to get excellent treatment in the area where you caught malaria because the medics there know the system.
The biggest danger is to return to UK before signs appear. Then you are in trouble because the medics will not accept your own diagnosis 'of course it's malaria, I was bitten by mozzies in known malaria risk area 10 days ago and I have a periodic high fever', doesn't cut it!!! They won't treat until they have seen parasites; for a naive European that can be near the point of death. THe medics will then say 'aha! You have malaria', treat you and proclaim they have saved your life. In fact they nearly killed you and any clinic in Africa would have managed you better. For that reason I always carry Coartin to self-treat when in Europe within a couple of weeks of exposure. In the past I have had to carry drugs to treat friends in the UK in exactly that position. If it responds to coartin it probably was malaria, if it doesn't you have lost nothing. The new drugs are very safe and non toxic. Just use them properly and responsibly so that this new 'last line' is not squandered like all the other drugs in which resistance has been cultivated by improper use.
Apart from malaria, there are assorted viruses, but most are unlikely to kill you!!
My advice is to take it seriously, but not to let that stop you getting out there and having the experience.
Nostrodamus
New member
After reading these posts what are the best drugs to carry and where is the best place to get them?
dancrane
Well-known member
Just how different are today's Englishmen and women, in terms of biological resistance to malaria, from early sailing explorers?
I'm curious whether anyone knows if we're any stronger (other than through improved health anyway) than Cook's or Bligh's crews.
As an astoundingly poor biology student, I ask in total ignorance. I've heard poor reports of drugs that prepare a UK constitution for tropical attacks, and that eg. African clinics, are much better aware of how to treat European sufferers. But it's difficult to believe that in this day and age, any wisdom about cracking malaria cases would have failed to permeate health services internationally.
On a bit of a tangent...(total, actually) wasn't there a chap who made it across an ocean, drinking only seawater? As I understood it, he wasn't in any imminent danger, but just sought to prove it could be done, and managed it. I may have dreamed it...
I'm curious whether anyone knows if we're any stronger (other than through improved health anyway) than Cook's or Bligh's crews.
As an astoundingly poor biology student, I ask in total ignorance. I've heard poor reports of drugs that prepare a UK constitution for tropical attacks, and that eg. African clinics, are much better aware of how to treat European sufferers. But it's difficult to believe that in this day and age, any wisdom about cracking malaria cases would have failed to permeate health services internationally.
On a bit of a tangent...(total, actually) wasn't there a chap who made it across an ocean, drinking only seawater? As I understood it, he wasn't in any imminent danger, but just sought to prove it could be done, and managed it. I may have dreamed it...
rivonia
Active member
Mosquitos - The Natural Repellent
My OH is extremely allergic to any chemicals so insect repellents and citronella candles are not an option.
So, we have a BASIL plant in the cockpit area and that keeps away all flying insects - also can be used in cooking!
Sometimes, when an UFO approaches, she picks up the plant and chases the UFO away - it works!!
My OH is extremely allergic to any chemicals so insect repellents and citronella candles are not an option.
So, we have a BASIL plant in the cockpit area and that keeps away all flying insects - also can be used in cooking!
Sometimes, when an UFO approaches, she picks up the plant and chases the UFO away - it works!!
charles_reed
Active member
Re Malaria:-
Depends on how much hybridisation has taken place, if anything current Brits are more malaria-resistant than their forebears but at such a low level of significance as to be mere chance.
There are some Brits who have G6PD - allows one to shrug off falciparum - but only by grace of having Mediterranean littoral, Bengali, some 82 pre-Han Chinese or innumerable African forebears. It's like haemophilia, x-y carried, so the bad effects (haemolysis mainly) are more apparent in the male and carried on distaff.
Unfortunately few, if any UK med-students ever see (or can diagnose) the condition, though estimates put the worldwide incidence at 18%, it's almost unknown in N Europe.
The European Centre of Excellence for ths study of the disease (favism in Italian) was at the University of Sassari, but their funding got chopped by that clown Burlesquoni (pun) and they all decamped to the University of Florida.
dancrane
Well-known member
Excellent pun! I've private reasons, far beyond the probable lifespan of my laptop's keyboard, for saying so.
Fascinating stuff, at least as far as I'm able to follow it. Tragic, if people routinely die from first-world ignorance about what would be very insignificant, in tropical zones.
Isn't it likely (or even possible) that resistance to malaria, carried genetically, might in the not so dim-and-distant, be made an adoptable solution or injection?
Fascinating stuff, at least as far as I'm able to follow it. Tragic, if people routinely die from first-world ignorance about what would be very insignificant, in tropical zones.
Isn't it likely (or even possible) that resistance to malaria, carried genetically, might in the not so dim-and-distant, be made an adoptable solution or injection?
charles_reed
Active member
Doubtful, the downsides of the G6PD genes are too great.
No broad-beans, hydro-quinalones, quinine or its derivatives, COX1&2 inhibitors to name a few no-nos.
If you do sin, one goes yellow and has to be given a few transfusions to get your RBC count back to normal.