Britain has "leaves on the tracks", Japan has...millipedes(!)

[bikkuri bahn]

Quite disgusting, though I have read about periodic outbreaks in past railway history (yasude):

 

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20101122p2a00m0na004000c.html

[ToniBabelony]

Those are some weird ass creatures! They gas you when you make them mad...

[KenS]

And "hydrocyannic acid" gas at that!

 

I'll take the leaves, thank you.  They don't fight back. 

[Tecchan]

When I was on Shikoku this summer, we stayed with a friend in a small guesthouse where an american family stayed too.

 

In the end of the evening, my friend and I were chatting in the living room when the small kid (maybe 12 or 13 yo) came very seriously and frightened and just said to us: "I've just been bitten on the balls by a giant centipede!".

 

:grin :grin :grin

 

I was expecting a GIANT centipede, but wen we caught it eventually, it was "only" about 10 centimeter long. Still impressive when you come from Switzerland and the biggest insect we have there is maybe a hornet, but not giant.

The small kid wouldn't get back on his futon and he ended up sleeping in a chair grabbing his balls all night! ^^,,,

 

I knew thos could bit hard and even be dangerous but I wouldn't expect it to be stronger than a train!!

[marknewton]

Poor bloody kid! 

 

I've had similiar experiences at work with plants and critters - though I've never been bitten on the balls!

 

Out in the west of NSW there are regular locust plagues, and when they swarm over the tracks they can bring trains to a stand. Even on a loco equipped with sand you eventually lose traction and slip uncontrollably, as the sheer number of locusts overwhelm the sanders. If you're on a railcar or DMU, you can forget about going anywhere until the locusts are gone.

 

If it isn't locusts, the other big problem at certain times of the year is a plant known as "star grass". It blows across the track and gets crushed under the wheels and causes slipping, but it can also get wadded up in the traction motors and cause fires. Great stuff...

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[to2leo]

Yikes there's no place like home....

[Guest ___]

Those are some weird ass creatures! They gas you when you make them mad...

 

Just like my father! Of course he does that too when he's happy, watching the History channel or at the dinner tables, especially if that dinner table is the Red Lobster.