Summer is a restless season for all things, and all kinds of animals and plants have become more active, some of which have many benefits for human life, but others are not necessarily, such as cockroaches, mice, mosquitoes and so on that we hate. These creatures have lived with humans for tens of millions of years and have become accustomed to our way of life.
Although people have come up with all kinds of ways to eliminate these harmful animals, the vitality of these creatures is beyond our imagination, and even humans who have developed to this level cannot do anything with these creatures. Some scholars even believe that after the "nuclear winter", cockroaches can survive in harsh environments.
However, although these creatures will bring trouble to our lives, what people hate most is a creature that will directly harm us - mosquitoes. Mosquitoes not only suck our blood, but also make our skin red and swollen, itchy, disturb our sleep at night with buzzing, and carry a variety of bacteria and viruses.
But of course, the natural world is "one thing drops one thing", and the mosquitoes we hate also have many natural enemies in the world, one of which is a small creature that we often see and are familiar with, the gecko. Geckos often haunt the shade and corners of the room, eating the disturbing mosquitoes for us.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > gecko listed as one of the "five poisons"</h1>
If we look at it from this point of view alone, if geckos do not steal human food and want to eliminate pests for humans, wouldn't it be of great help to our lives and deserve to be welcomed by people? But in traditional Chinese culture, the gecko is not an auspicious animal, and it is even listed as one of the "five poisons".
Friends who often watch martial arts literary and artistic works will know that the "five poisons" refer to five kinds of creatures, centipedes, scorpions, snakes, toads and geckos, and legend has it that they are all highly poisonous, and can even be used as weapons to attack people after training, taking people's lives unconsciously.
Now in the Customs of the Dragon Boat Festival in some places, there is also the custom of "driving away the five poisons", that is, the images of these five animals are made into paper cuts and pasted on the doors, praying that the new year can be free from diseases.
However, the gecko listed among the "five poisons" does seem to have some wrongs, because centipedes, scorpions, snakes and toads are all identified poisonous creatures, and even take the initiative to attack people. But geckos not only do not actively contact people, but also have no toxicity at all, it is simply harmless to humans and animals, why is it listed as one of the "five poisons" for no reason? In fact, there is a great meaning in this, and the ancients did this for their own reasons.
what kind of animal is a gecko <h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >? </h1>
Geckos are a collective name for the geckos of the lizard order Gecko suborder Gecko family, which are distributed all over the world, especially in warm and humid places, so friends in the south will see some geckos more often.
Geckos are diverse, but in general, they have a relatively soft, fat and short body and flexible limbs, and there are glandular hairs with adhesion ability on the toes, so they can freely crawl around the ceiling, walls, etc., hence the name "gecko". In general, wild geckos are cautious by nature and do not actively contact people, in addition to mosquitoes, geckos also prey on small insects such as flies, moths and spiders.
Geckos in ancient China is also known as "shougong", in recent years, the popular breeding of leopard print shougong, fat tail shougong, etc., in fact, belongs to the gecko category.
In addition to feeding habits, the most well-known characteristic of the gecko is that it can regenerate its tail, and when it encounters danger, the gecko will choose to cut off part of its tail, and the tail that is left behind will twist and bounce on its own to attract the attention of predators, and it can buy time to escape. This behavior is biologically called "self-cutting", and the gecko's tail is not "disposable", after the tail is broken, the gecko will gradually grow a new tail.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the ancient understanding of geckos</h1>
After a preliminary understanding of the habits of geckos, we can find that geckos are not only unrelated to "poison", but also a small animal that has almost no ability to fight back in front of humans, so why should humans list it as one of the "five poisons"? We can find through the data that the ancients did not think so, but also believed that geckos have a high degree of poison.
In particular, geckos' bodily fluids, such as urine and semen, are considered to be corrosive and highly toxic, and can even turn a whole person into a pool of blood. The ancients believed that the gecko's urine was untouchable, and if the eyes or ears came into contact with the gecko's urine, it would inevitably lose its function.
Even in the Qing Dynasty's Zhiwei novel "Zi Bu Whisper", it is written that overnight tea cannot be drunk, because there may be urine or semen left by geckos when they are infested, and after drinking, people will be poisoned and die immediately.
However, after scientific research on geckos, we have found that geckos do not have any toxins in their excreta and reproductive system, and at most because they are weakly acidic, they will make the part of the skin directly exposed to become red, swollen and itchy, but it is not fatal. So why did the ancients say that the gecko was a poisonous creature?
In fact, there are two main reasons, one is because the houses inhabited by the ancients are not as well sealed as in modern society, so the time for geckos to haunt their homes will become more, and there will naturally be more time to contact gecko excrement.
The ancients did not know that the excrement of geckos was corrosive, and only generally thought that it was "poisonous"; second, because the ancients saw geckos devouring poisonous insects such as caterpillars and spiders, they naturally thought that the toxins in these foods would accumulate in the body of the gecko, like "raising clams" to make the toxicity of the gecko more and more powerful. Of course, this is all unfounded speculation that geckos are actually non-toxic.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > "hidden" gecko</h1>
In addition to these reasons, in fact, geckos and other members of the "five poisons" also have one thing in common, that is, they can be medicated. In China's traditional medicine, not only all kinds of plants have strange curative effects, but also many of the body parts of various animals, insects and even excrement that can be medicated, such as "earth dragon", "toad crisp", "phoenix clothes", "cicada metamorphosis", etc., in fact, are all medicinal materials from animals.
Whether it is a snake, a centipede, a scorpion, or a toad, their venom is medicinal, as the saying goes, "attacking poison with poison". Geckos are also a chinese herbal medicine, which are mainly three kinds of warty geckos, webbed geckos, and moleless geckos.
As a medicinal herb, geckos can be used throughout the body, and their role is mainly to dispel wind, activate the network, etc., and even be used to treat some difficult diseases. Because of the efficacy of the gecko, the ancients easily put it together with other poisonous medicinal materials, so the gecko can be listed as one of the "five poisons" and become an important animal in our traditional culture.
This is where the gecko "hides deeply", but it also shows that the ancients believed that the efficacy of the gecko came from its toxins, not other parts, which has proved to be not true in modern times, and our concepts need to be updated at any time.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > protect geckos</h1>
From this point of view, geckos are not only not a "poisonous insect" that is harmful to human beings, but can help humans in all aspects and are our "good friends". But unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer geckos in nature today, and some species have even reached the point of endangerment.
In fact, mainly because human urban construction destroys a lot of vegetation, geckos can not find a suitable habitat to reproduce, the natural number will decline. Moreover, although geckos are not directly killed, the insecticides and other items we put at other pests and pests will also injure geckos by mistake at some times.
After we understand the quiet, shy little creatures of geckos, we should also let go of our preconceptions and stop seeing them as a scourge, because maybe they are diligently eating the flies and mosquitoes in your house! Therefore, when we see geckos at home and in the wild, don't disturb or hurt them, let them live freely in nature!
And now many geckos have entered the list of protected animals in our country, if you hurt and catch them at will, it is likely to be investigated for legal responsibility, so we must pay attention to it, can not be "desperate to take risks".
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
Geckos have been living in symbiosis with humans for thousands of years, and the environment in which we live should not be gradually deserted with the construction of cities, we need the company of other creatures to survive, and humans are not a species that lives in isolation.
Once the overall environment in which we live is destroyed, it is very likely that nature will also "retaliate" against humans, and everything we do will eventually return to ourselves in another form, which is very likely to happen in the future. Therefore, whether it is for water resources, atmosphere, land, or many wild animals and plants, we need to pay enough attention to it.
Let us recall that those small animals that often accompanied us in childhood, unconsciously, have not been seen for a long time? In the summer of the metropolis, even the cicadas are much less chirping, the dragonflies are almost invisible, and our lives are becoming more and more monotonous and homogeneous.
Only when everyone takes action and contributes their own strength to environmental protection can we regain the vitality and vitality of nature in the future, so that our entire race can continue, and will not be ruined by their own temporary development. Hopefully, in the future, we will be able to see a world full of life again.