Spanish Fly: The Deadly Aphrodisiac

billboards come every February. We're talking about Spanish fly, an aphrodisi act that is at once kind of mythic and kind of has all this these fictional airs about it, but at the same time is a definite real thing that is fascinating in its own right, and often in ways that you might not expect. Yeah, I mean, people associate fish fly with afrotusi acts, right, this idea that you know, someone just needs to have a bit of it and all of a sudden they will fill amorous

and we'll discuss that. But yeah, you're right there. The the the actual implications of Spanish fly itself very differently. When is the earliest you ever heard any inkling of Spanish fly, You know, I don't. I want to say, like middle school is I have an idea of that. And I also have an idea of tequila in the worm at the end of the bot or the bottom of the bottle is being part and parcel of that, which I don't think exists either. Yeah, I feel like and maybe

you can relate to this. I feel like it might have been referenced in kind of an off color reference in some old timey cartoons, like I don't know if it was something that I had some exposure to, and because I feel like there was maybe a moment where somebody had had a bottle labeled Spanish fly and it showed up as a gag and something in another you know, like it was that level of of unbelievable that it's just some sort of like magic juice that that somebody

gives to another person and it makes them, uh you know, wild and randy or something. Well, it's back I think in the collective conscience because uh, as we know, Bill Cosby allegedly has been accused of um giving his giving people certain drugs um and then raping them and uh he has a routine I believe in the sixties, Yeah, from his sixty nine comedy album It's True, It's True. And he also talks about it in his childhood yes, um. And he he has referenced rufies or some sort of

rufies before and other interviews and someone and so forth. Um. But he talks specifically about Spanish fly in this one

routine from the album It's True, It's True. Yeah, if I remember correctly, in the bit he's he's talking about as a kid hearing about it, which is very relatable because I, you know, my earliest memories of hearing about this thing are also in childhood, and and from a childhood perspective, it sounds kind of just fanciful and weird and maybe even attractive on some level, you know, like, oh, this is this thing, and you know, and though off, you give it to somebody and then suddenly they're all

lovey devy, like that's the very unreal version of it. But then you you take it and you put it into reality, you put it into an adult reality, and you're talking about something that's really rather horrible and and in in in the case with the allegations against Bill Cosby. You also see that that that story of childhood taken and then and then what happens when you look at it from a very real adult standpoint. I mean it's a it's just deplorable. Yeah, I mean, the the actual

thing that he says. He says, go to a party, see five girls standing alone and that boy. If I had a whole jug of Spanish way, I'd light that corner up over there. Ha ha ha. So right, it's a you know, hearing it now is it's a little bit disconcerting, but it brings up the whole idea of the Spanish fly and whether or not it's actually a

true aphrodisiac and what the deal is with it. And I just want to point out that FDA study proved that the chemical had no sexual effects on men or women, and yet the myth of this continues to persist, and how you define sexual effects kind of differs, and we'll talk more about that later. All right, So what is it? People are probably wondering, what is the Spanish fly? Is it an actual fly? No, but it is. It is a beetle, technically a blister beetle. To be a specific

They're about different species of blister beetle. But we tend to collect this. Uh, this agent cantharadin from two specific species. There's a European blister beetle called light of Asigatoria and there's a North African blister beetle known as my lab risk kikori. And uh, they secrete this. They secrete cantharit and as a self defense, as a chemical weapon to keep things from eating them. And this is the type of insect that's it's brightly colored, long body, bright greens,

blue wing cover stripes. It's sending a clear message to potential predators. Hey, if you eat me, bad things are going to happen because I'm just laden with chemical weapons. Yeah. And that canthar it in. It's a it's a turpin and organic chemical compound. And they secrete it. The beatle secrete it as this kind of milky looking fluid from the joints in their legs. Very convenient. Yeah. Now this is this doesn't have much to do with canthartin, but

it's pretty interesting as a side note. Um, these blister bugs, they the adults lay eggs near the nest of the solitary b and then these larval b lice as they call them, feed on the eggs and food stores, and they eventually grow into adulthood dropped to the ground, feed on vegetation. And it's in this life then that they have the full protection of the canthard and to keep

things from from meeting, most things from eating them. Because it's worth noting that there are um some birds such as the meadow lark, such as the bluebird scissor tailed flycatcher, that are conferred and resistant and uh and make them a part of their diet. Yeah. And there are accounts though of some livestock eating them and actually being poisoned by them. So most most animals steer clear, but as you say, some of them can actually stave off the

effects of conferait in. Now we should probably talk about how conferred in works in terms of the Beatles reproductive life. This is very interesting. Yeah, And then in this we get right into the Valentine's Day theme, like legitimately and not in a weird creepy way, because of course Valentine's is about, hey, here's a gift for the person I love, you know, or failing that, the person that I want

to mate with. That sort of thing you know. Yeah, like here's a box of chocolate, right, and is essentially a pre nuptial offering, as we call it in the animal world. I feel like we've we've talked about this in the talked about this with orb weaving spiders, where they say, here, here, here's a gift. Here's a here's a gift that shows my you know, to anthropomorphize a bit. Here, here's a gift that shows my my support for you.

Here is some some energy in the form of some food or whatnot that will help you survive and help our our offspring survive. Yeah, it's like, hey, we'll we'll mate, right, here's a little bit of energy. In the case of pyrochroid beetles, they're doing somewhat of the same thing as as the male or weaving spiders. They're presenting a gift, not so much for energy though, is more like protection.

And what happens is that the male beetles essentially hand over a packet of sperm to the female when they're mating, and she will fertilize her eggs and she can kind of take her sweet time with whether or she does this right. Um, the females can discard the packets that don't please them, right, there's just not please me, bring

me another. Um. So, what crafty private chroid beetles do to ensure that their gift of spirm is like really highly prized and received, is that they produce bonus packs of camper ridden and this this camphor written will allow the females to cover her eggs with it, and then that keeps those eggs safe for predators. So it's kind of like if you were to give your your your sweetie a handgun for Valentine's Day and say, here, take this, protect yourself and our offspring with this lovely handgun. I

think they call that a Texas Valentine. A Texas Valentine, yes, I mean it's probably a Georgia Valentine too for that matter. So is the mating ritual kicks off? The pyrochoid male actually secretes this gooey substance from a groove like structure in its forehead. Uh. And then the female of course tastes the gooy since and if she detects canthardin, then she knows that this is the this is the guy for her. If it's if it's not there, well then

then maybe she'll pass. Yeah. That's what I think is so great about this is that, you know, maybe the beetle titles up and says, hey, I've got a little camphor it in package here for you, and she's like, prove it, prove that you can secrete this, and then out of his forehead it uzes and then she sniffed them. It's great. This is good like Valentine's drama right here. So, I mean, that's kind of hard the beat in terms

of a mating ritual. If you want to learn more about that, check out this article Spanish flies a lure ardor or armor by Janet Rolla from Science News. So we're talking about canthardon that that powder you derive from grinding up the the booster beetles essentially a chemical weapon devised for the creature's defense. But as as we've discussed before, humans are all about taking another creature's chemical weapon and

using it for their own advantage. We do it, and everything from the spices on our food to indeed some questionable aphrods as in the form of Spanish fly. Hippocrates prescribed ground blister beetles as a treatment for dropsy. And then you also have traditional Chinese medicine, using bliss for beetles to treat piles, alterers and brabies and even warts. There's another as far as it to use as um

an aphrodeziac or at least it's it's more recreational uses. Um, there's there's some some interesting details from the life of the Marquis assad Um s eighteen fourteen, if anyone who's not familiar with him, French aristocrat, revolutionary, politician, philosopher and writer. He was a free thinker, a free doer. He was randy, he was he liked the ladies, he liked the men. He uh, he liked everything. Uh and uh then he had a lot of of course, a lot of scandals

in his life. Um, you know, pretty much constantly in the In seventeen seventy two, Um, there was an incident where he had engaged his uh, his servant latour to find him some some prostitutes, and apparently the women in question helped themselves to the marquees uh personal stash of Spanish fly laden candies. And uh, since suddenly they're you know, they're suffering upset stomachs. Uh, they fear they've been poisoned

and uh. Meanwhile, Dessad and the Littour flee the estates of the king of Sardinia who wanted to have him arrested, and that they end up being executed in effigy for for this this crime. But essentially at the case, these women are poisoned by the Spanish fly. Yeah, and they survived. But I mean, as we'll discuss it a little bit, they probably had they probably suffered pretty greatly depending on the amount that he gave them. I mean, after all,

he was um sentenced to death or attempted murder. Yeah. Yeah, So just that's just sort of an idea of just how potent this is. I mean, it's a you know, it's again it's the it's the the insects chemical weapon, and if taken in small doses, presumably it's not gonna kill anybody, but it's apparently very easy to to reach

that threshold of serious harm with this particular agent. Now, this was also used in terminating pregnancy and um If you look at the long history of um of abortion, particularly before it was legalized, and you will see that there are all sorts of accounts of different things that may induce pregnancy termination. In the article leeches lie in

Spanish Fly by Kate Manning in the New York Times. Um, she says, quote and talking about this sort of secret coda of terminating and pregnancy, she says, quote French periodical pills warranted to have the desired effect in all cases. Was one such knowing ad that appeared in the Boston Daily Times. In those ads spoke euphemistically of curing female

complaint or renovating or unblocking the womb. So what's interesting about that is, and we'll talk more about the effects on the human body, is that there was a sort of wink, wink, Hey, this is this is a substance that you could use if you have these sort of female complaints. Yeah. Now, just to go back to Marquis Assad for a moment, um, there was there's at least one account that Marquis Assad would would would encourage prostitutes to partake of these Spanish fly cookies because it would

make them a little gassy, and that he was into that. Um, he was into gassy sexual relations. I mean, he was into a lot of things. So I guess that was you know, that's on the menu. Um, but these are not this is not the primary desired of fact with Spanish fly. Most of the accounts that you see generally, the idea is that it's supposed to to fire up one's lust or to provide a mail with an erection when they're having difficulty achieving or sustaining that state. And

it does. But I feel like it's an erection that you would never want if you if you haven't to look at the descriptions of this. And let's just start just even with, um, what it's like to have skin contact with Spanish fly, because it's not called blister beetle for nothing, right, Um, you get blisters, estering ones. If you have contact with your eyes, it can cause blindness. A deadly dose is only thirty milligrams, and one gram

is enough to cause symptoms in five thousand people. And when you ingest it, that camphor it in inflames the gastro intestinal tract, and that maybe we're decide was trying to take advantage of the side effects here of Spanish by and then depending on the dose, it can completely strip away the stomach lining. Yeah, there's a lot of burning and uh. And when you're talking about an overdose, you're talking about abdominal pain. Respiratory and heart problems, renal failure,

bloody urine convulsions, coma, and possibly death. Yeah, I think about it making its way through the rest of the body, not just the stomach um. It can affect the lining of the uterus and it irritates that lining. But it's that your irritation is sort of negligible when you compare it to men, in whom it causes a great deal

of swelling. And that's where the erection comes into play. Yeah, basically we're talking an allergic hell direction, we're talking a non sexual priapism, so as you end up dealing with with a lot of burning swelling down there that results in an erection, but not really the kind of erection that I feel like anybody reasonably wants to have. No. I mean, it's like an anaphloctic response for your keenness, right that can't be at all romantic or even you know, essential,

I mean, barely functional. I'm thinking, you know, like it's just it's just it's a bad idea anyway anyway to shake it. Yeah, and even a minor overdose of canard and can lead to erections long enough to need medical intervention. To uh to put them down. But you know what it does for enough that there's actually one species that is taking it so that they may secure some more amorous flings in the future. And what I'm talking about

here is the male bustard bird. Oh yes, this is a This is one of one of the birds that that has some degree of of resistance to the canthard and but uses it in a most interesting manner. The males actually pick the blister beetles out, you know, of array of possible food choices, and they do it to reduce STDs and more importantly, to reduce to to to watch away the appearance of STDs when picking out mates,

because they wanted to appear clean and disease free. According to Discovery Magazines, uh seriously, Science blog quote, a white, clean cloaca with no infection symptoms is an honest signal of both resistance to canthardin and absence of parasites, and represents a reliable indicator of the male quality to the extremely choosy females. That's right, because the lady bustards actually examine the male busterds cloaca before deciding to mate with him.

A little look, you know, under the hood. As it were. Yeah, yeah, before taking it for a test run. So so there you go. We just wanted to go out on a positive note there and let you know that the male bustards are are using it in the appropriate way are probably the only ones who should be using besides the actual beetles themselves. Um. And we wanted to do a little public service announcement. If you're we're thinking about Spanish blood,

please do not. I cannot use it unless you are a bustard bird looking to clean your kloeaka a bit uh. In those cases, go ahead, um, or if you yourself or a blister bug, I mean you should naturally occurring chemical weapons as you see fit. Yeah. You know, we talked about STD posters a while back, and I can't help but think if animals, if the Animal Kingdom had their own PR campaigns, what might those posters look like, especially from the bustard birds. Keep your chloeca clean, yeah,

I would guess so. And for the rest of you, yeah, just don't do Spanish flag because it's either this horrible chemical irritant or it's just a bunch of vitamin B three jens ng uh. And you know, maybe a little horny goat we packaged in some sort of scandalous packaging or at a very least like sugar and some dust. Yeah, so it's there are better ways to go about curing what ails. You. You know, the best way is that

using your noggin. Oh, you already know, like if you're if you're trying to get in the mood, like wining and dining your own mind is probably the way to go. Indeed, and hey, if you would like to wine and dine that brain of yours, I want to go to Stuff to Pull your Mind dot com. That's where you'll find all of our podcast episodes, including all of our Valentine's

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