Since I'm a biology teacher in high school, I hear a lot of misconceptions/myths about nature and biologically related subjects. I started on steemit today and thought: "Why not unravel some of the common misconceptions in nature? If they live in my school, they probably also live among steemit users.
So, toads, warty amphibians that are often the subject of negative sayings, people think they are ugly. Whether you think they are ugly or not isn't mine to judge, but I might make them a little less unattractive to people.
At first, they are extremely helpful eating a lot of pest animals like mosquitos and flies. Also, their young, larvae, help to keep water clear by eating small algae. People often are afraid of touching toads because they are afraid of getting warts, this common misconception is making me laugh every time. Students of mine even claim that, when toads are afraid, they will pee on you 'giving you their warts'. People, trust me when I say that warts are caused by a virus, everyone, at some point in life, will get warts (except for a few lucky people). Some will get a lot of them, some will get only one. They sometimes take about 7 to 8 years to go away, but in the end, warts always go away by themselves. Warts are extremely contagious though, meaning that you might give them to someone Although we call the bumps on a toads back warts, they are not the same warts we humans get. Toad warts often contain parotoid glands, which excrete a milky mucus which is poisonous to predators.
So the TL DR part: Toad warts are not the same as human warts. Toads cannot give humans warts.
I hope you enjoyed this, leave your comments, tips, and feedback below and I'll be sure to implement them in future posts.
Here is a picture of a little toad a took from Tumblr: