Arrested Development - Ex-Pats Mexico

Saw a show yesterday with the bug guy "Dr. Mike" - he was featuring the most dangerous bugs and reptiles of Mexico. The two at the top of the list surprised me - because I had never heard of them before. The first was not dengue mosquitoes, or rattle snakes, but the 'kissing bug', which can spread a disease called "Chagas Disease".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagas_disease He said that over twenty million people had this in Latin America, which the Wiki confirms as:

"Chagas disease affects 16–18 million people as of 2008, with some 100 million (25% of the Latin American population) at risk of acquiring the disease, killing around 20,000 people annually."

This bug can sense C02 and you do not feel it on your skin. Dr. Mike lied on the ground and sure enough a bug found him within a few minutes. You are usualy bitten around your mouth or nostrils. The Chagas does not affect pets and other mammals. It is suspected that Charles Darwin died of this disease.

The second most deadly is the "beaded lizard" which he easily found in small park in Mexico City. It has a vice like grip which slowly pumps venom as it grips. Not thought to be deadly, but extremely painful.

Is this a typ-o... or a debate?

I see your point - deadly=death. He did say dangerous -maybe it is so painful that you wish you were dead. Overall the show was a bit overdramatic given the facts, I doubt very much if a typical tourist would ever encounter any of these beasties. The Mexican Beaded Lizard is protected because it is so rare, and is often killed because the superstitious believe it can cast lightning bolts with its tail, and if it looks at a pregnant woman, she will miscarry.

Didn't Pam have an unidentified lagartija in her Jardin not to long ago? I thought there was another word for lizard ??? Anybody know??

Fella sounds a bit like Steve Irwin... I used to like watching Crocodile Hunter... Irwin was hilarious

" Right...eres the second most deadliest snake in all the world..
Ooohh looks like he dunna like being poked with this big stick "

Chagas is encountered down here, the bug here is called a 'palapa bug' because they tend to live in the palapa roofs and drop on sleepers in their hammocks at night. It is poorer people who most often get bit but I would not sleep under a raw palapa because of this insect. By raw, I mean one without a concrete liner or a bed without a mosquito net between you and the open fronds of the palapa.

Rather like mad cow disease, you don't know you have it until many years after you got it and by then there is nothing that can be done. LIfe can be like that.

Yikes...that sounds nasty... we were never aware of anything like that.

Years ago, while holidaying on Isla Mujeres, several of us were holed up in a small condo near Playa Norte. One in our group had a terrible snoring problem, and after many sleepless nights, was moved to a hammock outside.

What you said reminds me of what happened next.

In the morning, when we checked on Dougie, there were streams of tiny little ants running up and down the tree ( and across Doug )
Poor Doug barely had a square inch that wasn't lumpy and bitten...

P.S. The next day, the neighbors were complaining about the noise... we had to move Doug again....

You got that right! At one point he finds an Earwig, which he explains is named from a false, ancient belief that they would burrow into your brain and lay eggs. To prove its not true, he captures one in a glass test tube and puts it in his ear. The poor bug tries to escape, no intention of going in the ear, "it tickles!" Dr. Mike declares.

Its a tragedy that the diseases which are devastating poor tropical countries have no vaccines on the horizon, or like HIV, would cost more than they could afford anyways. Meanwhile, NoB, millions of doses of H1N1 vaccines, at $20 a pop, are being rushed to the market in record time.

Here's an account of someone bitten by a baby beaded lizard (say that 20 times in a row!).
http://www.applegatereptiles.com/articles/beadedbite.html

Hmmm.. make you think twice about where you sleep,& Chagas can be avery disabling disease.I had a friend in South America who almost died from it...

These things are huge as lizards go... also the tail doesn't grow back and they are found in western Mexico.
So just guessing that would be from Chihuahua to Hermosillio. How far N & S does Western Mexico include?

I think I saw those two guys fighting at a biker bar! Maybe it was the black leather and tattoos.