The logical flaws in Mike Rowe’s statements show an absolute ignorance of nature. Based his rationale, you would need to remove anything dangerously venomous. So that includes Black Snakes, Tigers, Copperheads, Death Adders or whatever dangerous vens are found in the area. But don’t stop there, for you also need to get rid of the Funnel Web and Red-backed Spiders. You can leave the centipedes and scorpions, for while they give a nasty bite they are not deadly. Same for a range of other spiders. However, bees, wasps and bull ants have to go, due to danger allergic reactions. He might also want to consider ridding the areas of ticks. When you start sanitising nature, it is no longer natural! However, there a solution – sanitised and relatively safe. It called the local municipal swimming pool.
I spent the greater part of my childhood weekends down the local creek and bushland or a little further afield, chasing herps and climbing trees and checking bird’s nests, chasing eels and fish with our bare hands and generally checking out anything that moved. I might have seen one or tail ends of decent sized vens in all those years. Once my interests turned to include larger venomous snakes, it required a very set of approaches to locate them. Unfortunately too many movies show snakes crawling into someone towel while they are running around frolicking in the water. Not exactly an accurate refection of reality but unfortunately the like of Mike Rowe do not have the experience, knowledge or understanding to distinguish between fact and fantasy in this respect. So they blithely promulgate the fallacy without regard to verification or the mis-education of others.
Blue