Do toads cause warts?

the fact that I'm not wearing pants right now. I think I feel very free and easy, compass head and a little sweaty. Actually okay, then, so, Chuck, have you ever had warts? Did you have warts when your kid um? I have had two incidences of warts. Currently, I have a wart on my uh, sort of near my knee and it's been there a long time and it's not one of those real gnarly ones. It sticks up, you know, out into the universe. It's like pretty small and not

a big deal. And then I had planners wards when I was like fifteen. Have you ever had those? No? I have? These are the war dude, It's awful. Did they hurt really, really painful. Yeah, they grow up into your foot instead of out. And I think I caught it from my brother because he had it and when he was at Georgia Tech. Brother was dirty, dirty, dirty Scott. And uh it was the handsome one that Christina Ricci likes.

Oh yeah, like a male model, that guy. Um, it was great growing up in a shadow too, because he's like way smarter than me and slam and trim. It's great anyway. Uh and happy birthday by the way to my brother. Oh, happy birthday, Scott, and uh Molly Edmonds, Happy birthday, Molly Fellow writer that aside, I had planners words and it's really really painful, and I had them burned off and that was painful. Yeah, with the frozen liquid nitrogen. Yes, I have been through that experience too. Yeah.

I had warts on like my fingers on my elbows here there when I was a kid. Yeah, every once in a while, like they just kind of pop up, and my mom would be like, let's go to the I guess the dermatologists and quit picking up frogs. Yeah, we told that, not quite. I had a pretty good story. But yes, I have heard that toads specifically, cause wards I've heard that as well, that's not true, but it's

not let's start. Let's well, so wow, wow, every bit is segue just fell away like you just you just got rid of an entire page of this article with that. Well that's because we don't plan this stuff out. What do you want to talk about? Australia? Okay, alright, So Australia has a pretty big problem right now, right, probably more than one. But this this one we're talking about is well, yeah, they're in the grip of like a horrible drought still aren't aren't they? And it's hitting their

bread basket to basket. Um, yeah, what they have? This one problem is with the giant Kane toad Buffo marinus. And I love that buffo. It sounds like a giant Kane toad name right, So these things get to be like two pounds, which is pretty substantial for a toad. That would scare me. Well back in n um the the the Australian government imported a hundred and one uh giant kane toads from Hawaii. I love that it was one on one. Yeah, It's like they gathered a hundred

and then there must have been like one lucky frog day. Yeah, they're like, you come to come on, let's go to Australia, kid um. So yeah, they imported him to Queensland from Hawaii. And actually these things are indigenous to Central and South America, but apparently they can live in Hawaii to right. Um. And they they the reason they imported him was to fight this um giant cane beetle. No, not giant cane beetle,

just to play an old cane beetle. Uh. And apparently giant kane toads like to eat cane beetles, makes sense. So the Australia had a big infestation in their crop lands with these cane beetles, so they imported the giant kane toads, and the giant kane toads did absolutely nothing to eradicate the cane beetle. Right. I think a lot of times when you introduce a species and non native species to an area thinking it will accomplish some feet, it usually ends up backfiring. Yeah. Oh definitely, kind of

like kudzoo here in the South. Yeah, but that one wasn't that. That was a gift actually from our Japanese friends, thanks for that. In the thirties. Well, they keep in order control over there, but here in the South, it just it grows like kudzo. Right. Yeah, And for those friends of ours who are listening that have never been to the southeastern United States, this stuff can take over a hundred and fifty foot tall oak and kill it

of swallow it hole. It looks like it does never seen it looks a lot like but it also has this kind of creepy quality, like I'm killing this tree. Check it out. And you can't do anything to kill this stuff, and it's out of control. So I guess what we're trying to say is please help us, send help. Um. So, anyway, the giant kane to did nothing to eradicate the cane beetle.

And even worse, they apparently are olific lovers because since that hundred and one original cane toads turned into the billions, there are billions of cane toads in Australia now literally overran the entire country. Yeah, in continent. Here's the most unsettling part. They are slowly hopping toward civilization Perth and then Sydney, And I mean, isn't that just a creepy thought. Billions of toads like slowly coming your way? Have you

ever seen the documentary? No, there was an awesome documentary it's really old um called Cane Toads and Unnatural History by a documentary named Mark Lewis, and it's kind of one of these classic documentaries. Yes, we're like Grey Gardens just taken on like this cult following Yes, which is our producer Jerry's favorite movie of all time, Greg Gardens. Yeah, really, you didn't know that. We've had like this conversation eight times.

I don't remember that. I just watched that this past weekend, though for the first time I've never seen it either. It was unsettling, I thought a bit long. And I'm looking forward to the HBO movie starting one Miss Drew Barrymore and one Miss Jessica Lain right right, And this is so like such a segue. But well, let me say this, since we're not a tangent, this is highly tangential.

And this is a tangent on a tangent. One of my friends named bo kelly Um actually apparently had a ring that he lent to the people who made this HBO remake and the guy whoever the characters that plays as the piano for the women a lot. He wears the ring in most of these scenes. That is weird, isn't it weird? I just found that out yesterday and I don't know how it pertains to anything, but there

you go. Okay, So back to giant kane to billions of them is where we left off, and they are moving towards the big city, right and uh, the problem is they have no natural predators right right, which is and even worse, the the predators that are around Australia haven't figured out that they shouldn't mess with these kane toes because what happens is the giant kane toes are highly toxic um. They emit a cocktail of four keene toxins um from the warts on their back, which are

actually glands. Right, that's right, that's we should say that again. The warts on a frog are glands. War but that's where you get the impression that toad can give you wards. Yeah. So anyway, so things like crocodiles, dingoes, all sorts of other animals are being killed by picking up these giant kane todes. You get scared, secrete this toxin, and then all of a sudden, some alligator's belly up. And I'm sure a two pound cane toad looks like a nice meal for I don't think so. Yeah, we're I'm not

aware of their toxins. I need one, I cook it first, but sure. Um So, anyway, as big a problem as these cane toads are posing, uh the Australians right now, um, one thing they're not going to do is cause wards. There was our segue that you ruined earlier, but now it's it's all good, right, Am I for given? Yeah? Okay, So toads absolutely do not cause warts. We can say

that with factual Yeah. And you know how we know that? Um? Science? Science? Sure, well what science has told us is that, um, since toads don't actually have warts, they have glands, and we know that actually it's the human Pavlova virus that causes warts HPV, better known as hpp uh. And since toads don't secrete HPV, toads can't give you wards. There you go. Yeah, so that's it. Should we just pack it up? No?

Should we talk about HPV. Let's talk about HPV, which may ring a bell for people because there was a there's been a huge push but it was really prominent in two thousand and six and two thousand seven to get mandatory inoculations for young girls against HPV. Yeah, I mean it's it's a lot of people are affected by HPV. Um. They estimate twenty million people in the US alone are

effected with some form of HPV. And there are about one hundred different types of HPV, right, and some of them are worse than others, Like the HPV inoculation that that um that the government was the state governments are pushing forth inoculates against the strain that gives you cervical cancer, which is the biggest threat HPV poses a person. There's slightly lesser ones like genital awards, which won't kill you, but it's not pleasant and good luck finding a partner

for that one. Yeah, I mean those two words together don't make people feel good in general. That's why I was glad you said your reward was near your knee. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it can cause general awards, and of course HPV can also cause good old fashioned regular awards, but that can I say a little aside about that push for HPV inoculations and this interesting Yeah, I think so.

Thanks for the voted confidence UM. But basically in two thousand and six seven that huge push to get UM girls inoculated as part of like the mom's rubella, if you want to go to school, you have to get an HPV inoculation. UM. At the forefront of this push was a group called Women in Government Yes, and they are this huge assemblage of female elected officials, which is fine, and they took up the cause. So far, so good, right, UM.

The problem is it was revealed that a large proportion of WHIGS funding was coming from Merk Mark's the pharmaceutical company, and they are the only ones who have an FDA approved HPV inoculation on the market. So if all fifty states started passing mandatory HPV inoculation legislation, then Mark stands again quite a bit because there's no competition for that

kind of set things back a little bit. But as of I think the two thousand eight there are forty one different state legislation natures that had bills on the floor, if not already passed, mandating that girls have to get HPV inoculations, and nineteen states have already enacted them. Good enough there, so the same thing that can give you cervical cancer can also give you wards. Right. Most people can walk around with HPV and not even know it, may not even have common wards. Right, but if you

do get common wars, what's what's going on there? Chuck? Well, I mean usually their words are going to be on your hands and fingers. Um. And aside from the way it looks, because words kind of have a negative connotation physically, but aside from the aesthetics of it, there's really no threat that they pose. They're not cancerus, which is weird because all cancers is uncontrolled growth and all award is is uncontrolled cellular growth. It is weird. But they eventually

stopped growing. I guess a tumor never stops growing until it's dealt with. And worts can absolutely spread from one person to another, even through shared objects. Yeah, you don't have to go like if you had a word on your cheek. I don't have to go and lick your your wart right now to get it. All you have to do is come in contact with your dirty older brother and bam, you got warts. Yeah. I totally caught

it from him. It's weird. You can even get it off of sharing a bath toel with somebody with warts, it's a it's a hardy virus. Yeah. Um. So the other problem is is although warts do eventually stopped growing, when they die, they slough off and which spreads. So like, if you ever have warts like a warda on your finger, you can probably look forward to getting warts on other fingers nearby or very close by. This life cycle, it's um, it's not never ending. Eventually your body will produce the

anybody's needed to work off the warts. But sometimes you have to wait longer, longer times than others. But they will eventually go away, which is good to know. So what do you What do you do if you want to get rid of your warts? You don't feel like waiting around for your body to catch up and get rid of them? Right, Well, you can take some nail clippers, I'm just kidding about. What you can do is what we were talking about earlier. You can freeze them off.

It's called croywd therapy and that's when they use the liquid nitrogen. And there are also some over the counter home remedies that have sell sellocyclics how you pronounce it, sellocyclic acid as the active ingredient. And both of these methods basically will create a blister around the area of the ward, and then that will be shed once the blister falls off. So the blister falls off, and basically what you're doing is you're making your skin react in such a way that it covers up the war so

it can't spread. And then when the blister falls off, because it goes underneath the war and over the ward and along the sides, basically encapsulates it. Then your blister eventually goes away, but it takes the wart with it. That's kind of gross. It is gross, and it's really simple and basic works and it's it's kind of elegant and it's simplicity, and I know, uh, if if it's really bad, you can opt for laser surgery, UM and prescription treatments. If if you have genital warts, you might

want to go that right. Well, no, if you if your common warts don't work very well, if you have general awards, they're gonna give you prescription medicine. But if your common warts aren't responding to like cryotherapy or anything, that may give you the prescription for genital awards. Because hardcore stuff, I imagine a laser they do for everything nowadays. I love that. Just hit it, just hit it with blaser over the best. Right. There's also something called a

blister beetle, and it lives up to its name. Right. So they figured out how to extract a certain toxin from the blister beetle, which causes a blister reaction in human skin, and basically it does the same thing is, um, you know whatever. What was the first thing you said that creates a blister that cryotherapy? Yeah? Yeah, so it's the same thing, except it's it's natural because it's a beetle extracture. And some people are into that, like Spanish fly,

which is not good forwards or anything. So check let's see. Uh oh, did you want to mention that one? That one old wives tale what to do if you have warts? Yeah, I've never heard this actually, so good on you. Um. Apparently burying a cat at midnight is one of the wives tales that you could And does that mean bearing a live cat? I check that out and no, it's a dead cat. Okay, so bearing a dead cat at

midnight we'll get rid of your warts. Obviously this isn't true bearing a live cat well, I mean it's like, I don't know, yeah, this won't really work, right, But I mean, where would you find a dead cat as well? I mean that's yeah, I guess you could. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The whole thing is just not true. This is kind of unsettling, And that's one of the old wives. That's like a billion frogs approaching its civilization unsettling, like how do you get a dead cat? You should watch that documentary.

It's I totally will it's really gonna go watch it after this because I don't feel like working any longer today. So I guess that's about it. Oh. Even though, even though uh, toads won't give you warts, you probably shouldn't pick them up anyway, because toads like the pe all over your hand, which might not hurt you, but it's kind of gross. So you should probably just leave the toads alone unless they're hallucinogenic, and then you can lick

them do your heart's content. Yeah, I think every time I've picked up a frog or a toad, it's pete in my hand. Really, you're not gonna c o a on the hallucinogenic toad endorsement. No. I like frogs and stuffing. They're kind of cool, Okay, have it. I won't lick them though, Oh you want? Okay, all right, so that's it. Go forth and tell everyone actually punch someone in the neck the next time they tell you toads can give you words unless it's your mother, and then you should

show more respect than that. Absolutely. So you want to do a little pluggy plug, Sure, let's do it. Okay, Um, shall we plug the audio spoken word we've been doing We've been doing it like that first and then the blog. So let's just do the blog and then do the book word. Switch it up a little bit, pal, And you're blowing my mind. By now, most of you probably know we have a blog, a weblog on our internet

site how Stuffworks dot com. You can find it on the right side of the home page and it's called Stuff you Should Know. And Josh and I post and we talked about cool things, and we've been interacting with the fans and it's been a good experience and I hope it continues to grow. We've got some great fans, don't we. We do really smart people. And it's one of the few blogs I've seen so far where the comments don't take a a bad turn and people don't

start fighting with each other. And we've only had one right that Nazi referenced. Oh he has some crack. So it's all very above board and we're real pleased about that. Good nicely, don't Chucks. And now you want me to do the spoken word thing. So if you don't know by now, Chuck and I and Jerry produced our first spoken word album, uh. And it is called The Stuff You Should Know super Stuff Guide to the Economy, and it is jam packed with information about the economy, all

sorts of bells and whistles. There's chickens, there's um cows, there's grocery stores. We go to New York, we go to China. Yeah, it's it's amazing. It's amazing. Um yeah, I like it, Chuck, I have to say I like it. Yea. I was terrified that it was going to be awful. Um and it came out really well, I think. And

it's up. It's up for sale on iTunes for three dollars and cents, just type of super stuffed into the iTunes store search bar and that that should be the first thing that comes up and you want to download it. That's cool with us. Um, yeah, it is cool. The more people who downloaded, the more likely it's going to be that we'll be able to do another one, which we're hoping to do very soon, so keeping out for

that too. And um, I guess that's it right. Well, we got a little uh listen to all right, listener mail Okay, Chuck, what you got, buddy? I have two quick emails, uh, And I'm just gonna call this funny fans, Okay, And let me add real quick that for those of you who email in, I respond to your emails, and if you have not gotten an answer from me, and it's been more than a couple of weeks, and that means it has gone into a junk mail uh situation.

And I apologize. I don't know why that happens. That it's my junk male settings, but I'm not ignoring you. So if you feel like sending it again, please do when I'll get back nice. Having said that, Uh, this was a great one from Alex in Germany. Hey, guys, I'm a student from Germany and I really enjoy your podcast. Last year I went to college in California and listening to explain stuff makes me very nostalgic on top of

much smarter. On numerous occasions. However, you have mentioned the Germans. Germans, I have nothing to complain about historic facts, but as an avid learner of the English language, I feel made fun of. It's true that I am obese, I wear later hosen, and I have a huge mustache, but my pronunciation of th h is flawless. Greetings from Zamzeland, Alex Gym So. Alex had a very good sense of humor about that. Yeah, and we should probably say that's a

reference to what snatch? Right? Oh? Is it? Are you serious? You haven't known what I was doing the whole time. Now, I had no idea. How have you not seen Snatch? Yeah, it's been a while, you know. Jason Statham, Uh, yeah, his his character. He says that he goes, yes, it's a German's and I do a terrible impression of it. But that's what I'm doing, So I'm learning. Yeah, I feel mis understood, all right. And this is our other funny fan are very strange friend, our oddball crack pot

friend from Seattle. And this isn't even his real name, so I can say it. Martin s van Nostrin a k A king buck, a fart? Is this hijaka looka yeah nice and he he is awesome. And this guy writes is quite a bit, and he's made songs for us and I checked out his website, which she didn't want us to plug, so I won't. Can we talk about that? Can we mention this song? Um? I think we can mention the song? He He made a song fourteen seconds long a time on his album right, it's

called He's called Stuff you Should Know. And it's awesome. Yeah, it's awesome. And this guy is just one of the great strange folks that have been in contact with him. We love oddballs because we're out balls, so he writes in this is just one of his emails. I really do prefer stuff from your pod rather than the rest. Maybe it's your sterling personality or maybe it's your aluminum wit. No offense to the other pods, but they seem to be the entertainment equivalent of rice cakes. You know, they're

good for you, but they're too dang dry. Thanks for the excellent show. That's that is all I listened to. Now, well that and Mongolian throat singing, which is a real thing. But yeah, you can do like two different tones at once. Pretty cool. They can keep up with good work and don't be ashamed of your rainbow suspenders. If you could do me one favor, and we usually don't do this, so please don't write in and ask us to say

hi to people, but we are in this case. If you could tell my old lady Leah that she's the best around on air, that'd be cool, but please sing it like the song from The Karate Kid by Joe Esposito called You're the Best Around is totally cheese ball and U chuck to it. You remember the song I have the MP three, So Leah, old Lady of ben Nostron yelled the best around. Nothing's ever gonna keep you down. So that's it. That's all we will do. And you are one of our favorite fans and a really cool

funny guy. Yeah, thank you to everybody for writing in. Whether we've read your fan mail or not your letters, your correspondence means a lot to us. It does. And uh, if you want to write us again and you lost our email or you have never tried it before and your fingers are feeling froggy, you can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com? Brought to you by

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