View Full Version : Fly Agaric
Motorbike Man
17-10-2004, 19:23
Hi Folks,
While out on a few wanders over the last few weeks or so, I can't help but notice the seeming explosion in the amount of Fly Agaric all over the place. I've seen them every where, even down the sides of dual carriageways. Here's a couple I photographed
this one (http://tinypic.com/d495x)
and
this one (http://tinypic.com/d4955)
Was just wondering if it was a local thing, or if anyone else had spotted the same thing?
P.S. These were NOT photographed at the side of a dual carriage way, by the way :yikes:
Ive seen loads of them myself over the last month,especialy down Worcester.
TheViking
17-10-2004, 19:28
The fungi of the Berserks! :wink: Viking warriors (berserks) ate this to go into a berserkerrage which made them wild and barbaric. :shock:
The downside was that they got i'll when the battle was over. That's what the stories tell, but of course we can't know what they did 1000 years ago. :biggthump
Paganwolf
17-10-2004, 19:34
funny you should say that if found a load today
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/jlamour1/Picture1056.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/jlamour1/Picture1057.jpg
Fly agaric (Amantia muscaria)
also found these
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/jlamour1/Picture1065.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/jlamour1/Picture1064.jpg
false death cap, (Amantia citrina)
The Amanita family are very dangerous and includes the Destroying angel (Amanita virosa) and Death cap (Amanita phalloides)these mushrooms can fatal to human beings and all this family should be treated with extreme caution, and not touched ,beautifull to observe potentially deadly if eaten..
Tantalus
17-10-2004, 19:36
re : TheViking
never tried em myself and i wouldnt reccomend anyone else to try them either
i understand a "death like coma" is more like the effect of this fungus tho
not something i would mess with
Tant
TheViking
17-10-2004, 19:38
It's not directly deadly toxic from what I've heard, but no: don't eat the thing. :wink:
Motorbike Man
17-10-2004, 19:48
I did know of someone who cut one up with a pocket knife to see what it was like on the inside and didn't clean his knife off properly. He used the same knife later to eat a meal and ended up tripping his little cotton socks off :yikes: for about 36 hours :roll:
Paganwolf
17-10-2004, 19:52
Could have been a fatal error :yikes: this family is well dangerous guys and should be treated with extreme caution.
Motorbike Man
17-10-2004, 19:55
Pagan Wolf posted
Could have been a fatal error
Absolutely!!!! Didn't to sound like I was tempted or anything, these things KILL :nono: was just curious about the sudden proliferation as I seem to remember them being a bit more rare that this year
Paganwolf
17-10-2004, 20:01
They are quite common in the woods which i frequent, we have milder autumn/winter weather now in the UK and the weather is shroom weather at the mo,or perhaps you have now greater bushcraft vision and are noticing them more :naughty:
TheViking
17-10-2004, 20:05
As it turns out the Vikings were lucky that they didn't have to endure a lot of nasty side effects. In many parts of the world these mushrooms also contain toxins that make a person violently ill. This substance is apparently metabolized by the body while the hallucinogens are passed through the body unchanged. For that reason, some people used to drink the urine of other people (or animals) who had ingested the mushrooms, to get high without any of those nasty side effects. Some specimens contain a great deal of the chemical that makes you sick and very little of the hallucinogen. It can also be easily mistaken for Amanita pantherina or other Amanita species that are deadly poisonous. For these reasons I do NOT recommend recreational use of this mushroom and claim no responsibility if you foolishly decide to do so. (how's that for a disclaimer?)
Quote from http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/dec99.html
Motorbike Man
17-10-2004, 20:10
Pagan Wolf posted
or perhaps you have now greater bushcraft vision and are noticing them more
Of course!!!, that must be the obvious answer :wink: :o):
Paganwolf
17-10-2004, 20:19
:rolmao: the bushcraft force grows within you :rolmao:
I've seen more than usual around too.
There's an awful lot of russulas around this year too, and clouded agarics ( clitocybe somethingorother ). Is it only me that's had a bad year for edible fungi?
Relgar
Deffinatly not on the edible list.... a nice looking fungi and great photo oppertunity but best left well alone in my opion.... especially when there are other tasty edible fungi out there at this time of year :biggthump
Ed
Right guys under no circumstances eat one of these, they are poisonous, they are hallucinogens.
The records do not show how many people that this has killed, including vikings or shaman. Since none of us are either, I would suggest that any more discussion on the edibillity of this species cease NOW.
Remember we have younger people that view this site as well and they could be influenced by what you talk about.
Motorbike Man
17-10-2004, 21:38
Sorry Boss, never intended it to be a discussion on edibility :cry:
Paganwolf
17-10-2004, 22:01
Cant see when we did :?: As i said dangerous family which will make you die! one more time :roll:
re : TheViking
never tried em myself and i wouldnt reccomend anyone else to try them either
i understand a "death like coma" is more like the effect of this fungus tho
not something i would mess with
Tant
YOU HAVE TO DRY THEM OUT TO GET RID OF THE BAD STUFF THEN JUST HAVE AROUND 5 GRAMS TO HAVE THAT SHAMAN FEELING
:chill:
I did know of someone who cut one up with a pocket knife to see what it was like on the inside and didn't clean his knife off properly. He used the same knife later to eat a meal and ended up tripping his little cotton socks off :yikes: for about 36 hours :roll:
You sure he wasn't pulling your leg Jon? ;)
They are common round here too this time of year and difficult to miss, whether the vikings used them to induce berserker rages is debated by the experts, the latest thinking seems to be that they probably didn't, they're more likely to put you into a stupor than an invincible rage.
Jason
Cant see when we did
Thats because the posts have been deleted along with posts describing how to prepare them for drug use.... We don't want people getting the wrong idea and poisoning themselves so they were taken off.
Ed
Paganwolf
18-10-2004, 06:34
[QUOTE=jason01]You sure he wasn't pulling your leg Jon? ;)
No he wasnt was he :wink:
Yep, same here - seen plenty of 'em, though it's perfect season for all kinds of shrooming at the moment.
As for eating them - haven't tried myself, but I know a man who has ... though wouldn't recommend it to anyone (my mate didn't have a good time of it at all ...! :shock: ).
The agarics can actually be fatal to a small percentage of people, though the biggest danger in eating them is (obviously ...) in confusing them with other members of the amanita family - especialy when the fly agarics get old, they can be easily confused with Panther Caps (amanita pantherosa?) which are natural born killers ... nasty business, for sure! (slow death from liver failure over 24 hours, then just when you start to feel better, you kick the bucket. Nature has a sense of humour, albeit very dark!).
As for handling amanita shrooms ... I've picked quite a few Death Caps in the past for demonstration amongst friends/colleagues, etc, and have yet to drop dead! You have to consume roughly 50g of the shroom for it to be fatal, so the residue from a knife blade is unlikely to cause you harm, but PLEASE don't take ANYTHING you read in this thread (or any other, for that matter!) as the gospel truth, especially when dealing with things like this. You might as well be playing with loaded guns ...
And on a lighter note ... isn't there some historical link between the colour scheme of Santa Claus' outfit (ie. red & white) and the colour of the fly agaric shrooms? Or is that an urban myth?
Big bloke with beard, zooming round the sky on a sled pulled by flying reindeer. Nah, nothing trippy about that at all ... !
G :-)
Aye you’d be crazy to try the old fly.
The strength is not always constant and depending on which part you eat, the stage of development, where it is Etc. It can all vary quite a bit. So what could be ok for one fly could be fatal for another.
:puppy_dog
A.pantheriana is no more dangerous than A.muscaria - however there are a lot more things that look like patherina - most of them containing phallotoxins.
Anyone tried using muscaria as a fly killer? The basic method is to soak the sliced caps in milk and leave them where the flies can get to them. No flies in the house at the moment or I'd try it.
There were a lot of blushers around here a few weeks ago - in principle edible but if not cooked properly or you happen to be susceptible then they can cause severe anaemia. Not playing that game.
Whilst we're on the subject, taste is listed in many books as a way of identifying mushrooms ( the idea being you spit the stuff out ), are there any that even tasting is likely to cause you some problems.
The worst case I've ever heard of was a doctor that was convinced he'd found an antidote for deathcap - tried it on himself with no trouble so had a few friends round and cooked them a meal ( death cap is supposed to taste exquisite ) only to find out 24h later that due to a genetic quirk he was immune and that he'd just killed off most of his friends and family.
Trust the medical profession? of course I would, I just wouldn't execpt a dinner invite off them...
One of the main symptoms if stomach cramps and vomiting before the psycoactivness kicks in.
I would suggest that any more discussion on the edibillity of this species cease NOW.
Come on guys.... you've already been asked not to talk about the edibility of this species (or making it edible) or eating it for any reason.... It can be nasty so leave alone on the food front!!!!
Remember we are a familily forum and as far as I am concerned, the psychoactive properties are not a topic for the young. We do ask that this forum keep 'family friendly' (please see the rules). Please stay off this topic....
Sorry to seem a bit miffed but I've spent all morning deleting drug references from this thread and pm'ing people..... and more users are just comming along and posting the same thing.
You have been asked not to do it, so please.... don't.
If anymore Drug/psychoactive disscussion appears, I'll simply lock the thread.
Thank you for your time. :biggthump
Ed
I'd go further than that ed, people have had more than enough polite requests from moderators, which seem to have been ignored with impunity. I've got better things to do with my time than chase people round deleting posts. So the polite request is now an instruction. If you ignore it, you'll get a 24 hour ban.
So... who's gonna be first?
TheViking
18-10-2004, 14:27
I'd go further than that ed, people have had more than enough polite requests from moderators, which seem to have been ignored with impunity. I've got better things to do with my time than chase people round deleting posts. So the polite request is now an instruction. If you ignore it, you'll get a 24 hour ban.
So... who's gonna be first?
It is no secret that I have got a PM. I have wrote to the guy who PM'ed me and taken what he said into account. I didn't think twice before I posted the first thing but I also mentioned that PEOPLE MUST NOT EAT THIS FUNGI! There can hardly be any doubt now.
My Pm got send last night and I turned the computer off early so I didn't see it before now when getting home from school. :wink: It hasn't been ignored.
No worries Andy :biggthump The comments are not aimed at anyone in particular, just to the thread as a whole as there have been problems. If you have been moderated, please don't take it personally.... we are here to keep it clean and family friendly and to help you guys and gals when problems arise.....
Ed
Andy, the subject is closed. It's not up for debate. I dont want to read "but I only.." or anything else on the matter. The moderators here are increadibly tolerent, we all try to keep this community friendly and informal, but we also have a responsibility to Tony and the readers of this site. We will accept some negotiation, but when repeated requests from numerous moderators are ignored, you are on very thin ice. Discuss mushrooms all you like, but I will give the next person to mention the edibility of Fly-Agaric, in any context, a 24 hour ban from the site.
TheViking
18-10-2004, 14:40
No worries Andy :biggthump The comments are not aimed at anyone in particular, just to the thread as a whole as there have been problems. If you have been moderated, please don't take it personally.... we are here to keep it clean and family friendly and to help you guys and gals when problems arise.....
Ed
:biggthump
Sorry guys.
Didn't mean to imply that it was OK to try them - more the opposit. There are a very, very bad idea.
Plus they tend to be full of horrible looking magots.
Right guys under no circumstances eat one of these, they are poisonous, they are hallucinogens.
The records do not show how many people that this has killed, including vikings or shaman. Since none of us are either, I would suggest that any more discussion on the edibillity of this species cease NOW.
Remember we have younger people that view this site as well and they could be influenced by what you talk about.
sorry wont carry on
Why not just close the thread? 'Nuff has been said about the subject anyway. And kind of expected that people would get on to the subject of (in)edibility at some point ... kinda goes with this particular territory.
Not trying to antagonise here ... !!!
G
PS: I appreciate there's an issue of young people accessing this information, but I'd be careful here, as this logic could quite easily be applied to the knives/sharp pointy things forum. Not by me, it has to be said. But someone could argue that to a "young, impressionable mind," that maybe pictures of 'cool' knives, and people talking enthusiastically about them, could have some kind of ill effect?
Can. Worms. Opened? I hope not - just playing Devil's Advocate here. No disrespect whatsoever to the moderators, you folks do a stirling job! Just think it's always better to inform people, rather than hide things away and let them find out for themselves, or from somewhere else. After all, I'd imagine that most young people using this site would be doing so for a 'good' and sensible reason, as there's much more 'dangerous' content on the web to tantalise the foolhardy ... !
Sorry.
Mondays.
I'll shut up now.
:wave:
Why not just close the thread?
Because the subject of Fly-Agaric is perfectly OK. We would prefer people acknowledge the wishes of the mods and steer clear of discussions of it's edibility (other than a simple statement of "it's poisonous and potentially lethal"). Providing they do that, there is no reason why the thread should be closed.
Of course much worse can be read elsewhere on the net, but we have a remit for the kind of site BcUK should be - and it doesnt include the consumption of poinsonous mushrooms (for the record, all of the posts containing recipies and "how to prepare" ...have been deleted from this thread). Granted, discussion of knives can (and probably is) viewed with concern, but we take great steps to make sure such discussions are in the context of knives as tools. The moderators take a lot of time and care to try and keep discussions here, responsible, not necessarily PC, but definitely responsible. We take a similar approach to the hunting, trapping and killing of game. We dont refuse to tackle sensitive issues, but we do try and make sure the issues are handled responsibly. Our decisions in this respect, are final and not negotaible.
However I agree, to leave the thread open now, would seem pointless as the discussion has drifted irretrievably off topic.
Thread closed (before I end up banning someone :roll: ).