In the eyes of many people, the gecko is a poisonous species, it and scorpions, snakes, centipedes, geckos, toads and called "five poisonous things", it seems that as long as the gecko has been in contact with the place are poisonous, and once humans come into contact with what the gecko touched, there will be skin rot, so is this statement correct?
Why is the gecko one of the "five poisons" a species?
In the hot summer evening, when people are cool outside the house, they will always find the figure of geckos on the walls, they are the most common reptiles in human life, geckos belong to a kind of "lizard", also known as "shougong". So what does "keeping the palace" mean? This word first appeared in china's famous dictionary ancestor "Erya", "palace" in ancient times not only refers to the palace, but also refers to the house, the room, gecko often likes to attach to the wall, by the ancient ancestors as the beast of the palace room, so the name "shougong".
The gecko is about 11 cm long, the entire body of the back is mainly brown, the body is covered with scales, the gecko's feet are like a strong sticky hook, no matter how rough and uneven the wall, it can attach to it. With these special physiological structures, geckos can move freely through the walls. Day and night, many hidden cabinets and corners can see the figure of geckos. In the process of predation, geckos are mainly mosquitoes, flies, etc. In the face of life threats, the broken tail survival is the killer skill and housekeeping skill of the gecko, and after about three months, the gecko will grow a new tail. In many remote mountain villages, geckos have the meaning of "warding off disasters".
However, in the eyes of human beings, geckos are extremely toxic creatures, such as encountering gecko urine, there will be a whole body rot. If the gecko's urine enters the eye, it will cause blindness, and if it enters the ear, it will become deaf. All in all, when exposed to geckos, the light will only have subcutaneous hemorrhage, edema, and the heavy will cause damage to the brain nervous system, cause spinal cord changes, and even respiratory paralysis to death. Because of these gossip and strange claims, geckos have gradually become one of the five poisonous species, and we have no way of verifying when they were included.
Geckos are not a simple species: they come with two "artifacts"
Geckos are widely distributed, in addition to deserts, jungles and some warm areas, such as tropical and subtropical areas have gecko tracks. Geckos are "temperature-type" animals, and if they are below 10 degrees Celsius, they cannot survive, so every winter, geckos will hide in a corner and hibernate, which is why we rarely see geckos in cold areas.
1. Gecko's broken tail survival skill - "tail"
The gecko's tail has a lot of nerves, and when it encounters a crisis, the gecko will break its tail on its own, distract the enemy through the tail, and then take the opportunity to slip away. The gecko's tail plays an important role in climbing or sliding, acting as the gecko's fifth "foot" to prevent the gecko from falling down during the crawl. If one of the gecko's feet is "injured," the tail clings to the surface, allowing the gecko's other feet to cling to the wall.
"Broken tail regeneration" is also a skill for geckos, the tail of the gecko is a tail vertebrae without sections, when encountering enemy attacks, its muscles contract violently, so that the tail is broken. It is as if after human beings have suffered accidental injuries, if they do not amputate their limbs, there will be secondary infections, and even life-threatening, and only amputations can save their lives. But comparatively speaking, geckos are relatively lucky, after 2-3 months, they will grow again.
2, geckos can "fly cornices to walk the wall" skill - feet
No matter how transparent and smooth the glass is, it can't stop the gecko from moving forward, so how is the gecko's "cornice walking" magic skill trained? In fact, the biggest secret is the gecko's feet, under microscope magnification, the gecko's paw surface is covered with a lot of mucus, this mucus is generated from the glands of the gecko's paw grooves, when the gecko touches the wall or other smooth surface objects, these liquids play a role in the adhesion mechanism, known as "wet adhesion", so that the gecko's climbing ability is more stable.
Generally speaking, the adsorption force of one of the geckos' paws can withstand the gravity of the gecko's whole body. Some netizens can't help but ask: "The gecko's foot adsorption is so strong, how does it move?" "The gecko will do a special action before taking a step, that is, flip upwards, only in this way can the entire foot of the gecko be able to smoothly detach from the surface, which is like when we change the wall paper, we need to open the previous wall paper, and the premise of opening as long as it is pried open from the corner, it can be removed with a slight force, and the foot lifting action is also such a principle."
Are geckos beneficial or pests?
As a reptile, geckos will hide in very dark and hidden places such as wall cracks and tile eaves during the day, and when it is night, they will be very active to come out and act, according to the structural characteristics of the gecko and its feeding habits, we infer that it is beneficial and harmless.
1. It has high medicinal value
Chinese medicine is China's traditional medicine, Chinese medicine culture has a long history, unique Chinese medicine theory, a bowl of soup medicine, a silver needle will play an immediate effect. The most commonly used by ancient ancestors in the fight against diseases was Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the composition of Chinese medicinal materials is also recorded in many classics. Among them, the gecko is a reptile with very high medicinal value, its whole body is a treasure, and the gecko's feet, tail, and internal organs are all medicinal materials.
In Chinese medicine, the gecko, also known as the "Tianlong", contains a variety of biological components, and it is recorded in ancient Chinese medicine books that the gecko is a very valuable Chinese medicinal material. It is salty, cold, with loose knot detoxification, hands and feet do not lift, pediatric chancre, tetanus, lean blood, cough and asthma, effective anti-wind and alarm, etc., in the "Compendium of Materia Medica" also mentioned that geckos have anti-cancer effect, can be used to treat clinical esophageal cancer, leukemia and other cancerous tumors wind fever poison knots, in addition, Li Shizhen for the first time advocated geckos fried into the medicine as the main drug of choking diaphragm.
2, there is economic value, the market prospects are considerable
Generally speaking, the market economy is based on subjective values, and geckos have extremely high medicinal value, so naturally it exists in the market economy. In many rural remote areas, many farmers in order to increase their income, began to catch geckos, and then sell it as a medicinal material, in the market, the price of geckos is about 40 yuan to 200 yuan per kilogram, the profit prospects are very impressive.
However, because wild geckos are not easy to catch and the market price is very high, many people think of breeding geckos. Casual idle space, suitable temperature can breed geckos, coupled with the gecko's food is very small, and it is mainly "live" insects, and it is not easy to get sick, so geckos are very easy to breed, for farmers' economic development to broaden the road.
The picture shows the medicinal herb "Tianlong"
3, geckos are commonly known as "avoiding disasters", can descend demons and exorcise demons, has an auspicious meaning
The I Ching is the source of Chinese culture, it mainly expounds yin and yang, so in the long history of China, many people pay great attention to the balance of yin and yang, bagua, five elements and so on. Therefore, there has always been a saying in the folk that geckos have the meaning of "avoiding disasters and sheltering". In the highway, we will see that many car owners will paste the "gecko" model animal on the tail of the car, its meaning is to pray that driving on the road can be safe, all traffic accidents can be away from themselves, try to be at ease.
Regardless of whether the gecko can "avoid disasters", in the eyes of people, it is an auspicious thing and a kind of spiritual sustenance. In the countryside, many children like to chase after the gecko, every time the adults in the family see it, they will definitely stop it loudly, because in everyone's eyes, the gecko is a visit to the gods, if it appears in the walls of the home, then it means that the family should be lucky, of course, this is a superstitious statement.
4. Geckos are made into "shougong sand", which can identify women's chastity
Ancient society, economic development lags behind, people think feudal, ancient ancestors attach great importance to women's chastity, especially when we watch some costume TV series, we will see that the elders will give the girl's arm a red mole, this red mole represents the woman's chastity, if the red mole disappears, the woman is no longer pure. This red mole is called "Shougong Sand", which is the symbol used by the ancients to mark the "virginity" of unmarried women, and the magic of the red mole is its evolution process, and the production method of Shougong Sand adds gecko herbs.
In the Jin Dynasty's "Natural History", it is recorded that geckos were fed with cinnabar from an early age, and geckos would slowly turn red because of cinnabar. When a gecko eats seven pounds of cinnabar, it is taken to make shogunate sand. Regardless of whether there is a scientific basis for this method, geckos have a great role in the development of ancient ancestors.
The picture shows the shogunate sand and the gecko
5. Geckos can catch mosquitoes in the summer and eliminate pests for the people
Summer in the remote mountain village area, is the place with the most mosquitoes, if the gecko appeared in its own home, it also means that there are many mosquitoes here, at the same time, the gecko is a mosquito fly, cockroach and other insects as the main food source, they can help humans eat a lot of pests, for the people to eliminate the pest.
From the current point of view, geckos are beneficial and harmless reptiles, and the reason why it is included in the "five poisons", in people's view, the biggest toxin of the gecko is its "urine", into the eyes will become blind, into the ears will become deaf, the skin is stuck to its mucus, it will all rot, so in ancient times it was included in the list of "five poisons".
However, in fact, the gecko is not toxic, but its urine is corrosive, after humans encounter, the skin will appear rash, itching, etc., but the gecko often hides in a hidden place, so its urine is not harmful to humans, and it is a mild species, when not threatened is not actively attacking humans, it can be seen that for such a species, we have misunderstood it for many years, and now we can finally help the gecko "sink the snow", it is beneficial insects and not pests.