Stuff You Should Know - Do toads cause warts?

Episode Date: April 16, 2009

Toads have a reputation as wart-spreaders, but they're not actually to blame for the unsightly growths. Viruses are. Tune in to this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com to get the skinny on toads, warts and viruses. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flooring contractors agree. When looking for the best to care for hardwood floors, use Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner. The residue-free, fast drying solution is specially designed for hardwood floors, delivering the safe and effective clean you trust. Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner is available at most retailers where floor cleaning products are sold and on Amazon. Also available for your other hard surface floors like Stone, Tile, Laminate, Vinyl, and LVT. For cleaning tips and exclusive offers, visit bona.com slash Bona Clean. On the new podcast, The Turning Room of Mirrors, we look beneath the delicate veneer of American ballet and the culture formed by its most influential figure, George Balangene. He used to say, what are you looking at, dear? You can't see you,

only I can see you. What you're doing is larger than yourself, almost like a religion. Like, he was a god. Listen to The Turning Room of Mirrors on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me as always is one Mr. Charles W. Luscious Bryant. We call him Chuckers. He calls me Compass Head, and this is Stuff You Should Know. Welcome. How's it going, Chuck? Dude, that may be the best intro ever. Thank you. It's 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? Do you have warts when you were kid? I have had two incidences of warts. Currently, I have a wart on my, sort of near my knee. Oh, I'm so glad you said 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 planner's warts when I was, like, 15. Have you ever had those? No, I haven't. These are the warts. Do they make it tough to walk? Oh, dude, it's awful. Do they hurt? Really, really painful. I didn't know that. Yeah, they grow up into your foot instead of out. And I think I called it for my brother, because he had it when he was at Georgia Tech. Your brother was dirty. Dirty, dirty. Scott.

And it was... Wait, the handsome one that Christina Ricci likes? Oh, yeah. Okay. Like a male model, that guy. It was great growing up in the shadow, too, because he's, like, way smarter than me, and slim and trim. It's great. Anyway, and happy birthday, by the way, to my brother. Oh, happy birthday, Scott. Can I say that? And Molly Edmonds. Happy birthday, Molly. Fellow writer. Yeah. That aside, I had planner's warts, and it's really, really painful, and I had them burned off, and that was painful. Yeah, with the frozen liquid nitrogen. Yes, sir. I haven't been through that experience, too. Yeah. I had warts on, like, my fingers, on my elbows here, there, when I was a kid. Really? 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 dermatologist. Right. And quit picking up frogs. Yeah. Were you told that? Not quite. I had a pretty good story, but yes, I have heard that codes specifically cause warts. I've heard that as well. It's not true. No, it is not. Let's start, let's, well, so, wow, wow, every bit of segue just fell away. Like, you just got rid of an entire page of this article with that. Well, that's because we don't plan this stuff out. Well, do you want to talk about Australia? Yeah. Okay. All right. 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 they? Oh, really? Oh, yeah.

And it's hitting their bread basket, too. Right in the bread basket. Yeah, what they have, this one problem is with the giant cane toad, right? Buffalo Marinus. And I love that. It sounds like a giant cane toad name, right? Sure. So these things get to be like two pounds, which is pretty substantial for a toad. Yeah, that would scare me. Well, back in 1935, the Australian government imported 101 giant cane toads from Hawaii. I love that it was one-on-one. Yeah. It's like they gathered 100, and then there must have been like one lucky frog. Yeah, they're like, you come to, come on. Right. Let's go to Australia, kid. So yeah, they imported them to Queensland from Hawaii. And actually, these things are indigenous to Central and South America,

but apparently they can live in Hawaii, too, right? And they, the reason they imported them was to fight this giant cane beetle. No, not giant cane beetle, just a plain old cane beetle. Sure. And apparently giant cane toads like to eat cane beetles. Makes sense. So Australia had a big infestation in their croplands with these cane beetles, so they imported the giant cane toads, and the giant cane toads did absolutely nothing to eradicate the cane beetle. Right. I think a lot of times when you introduce a species, a non-native species to an area, thinking it will accomplish some feat, it usually ends up backfiring. Yeah. Oh, definitely. Kind of like kudzu here in the South. Yeah. But that one wasn't, that was a gift, actually, from our Japanese friends. Well,

thanks for that. In the 30s. Well, they keep it under control over there, but here in the South, it just grows like kudzu. It grows like kudzu, 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 150-foot tall oak and kill it, swallow it whole. It looks like ivy, if you've never seen it. It looks a lot like ivy. But it also has this kind of creepy quality like, I'm killing this tree. Check it out. Right. And you can't do anything to kill this stuff. Yeah. And it's out of control. So I guess what we're trying to say is, please help us. Send help. So anyway, the giant cane toad did nothing to eradicate the cane beetle. And even worse, they apparently are prolific lovers. Yes.

Because since 1935, that 101 original cane toads turned into the billions. There are billions of cane toads in Australia now. Literally overran the entire country. Yeah. And continent. Here's the most unsettling part. They are slowly hopping toward civilization. Right. Perth and then Sydney. And I mean, isn't that just a creepy thought? Billions of toads slowly coming your way. Have you ever seen the documentary? No. There was an awesome documentary. It's really old called cane toads and a natural history by a documentary named Mark Lewis. And it's kind of one of these classic documentaries now. Yeah. It's really like Grey Gardens is taken on like this cult following. Yes. Which is our producer Jerry's favorite movie of all time. Grey Gardens. Yeah. Really. He 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. Starring one Ms. Drew Barrymore and one Ms. Jessica Lang, right? Right. And this is so like such a segue, but anyway. Well, let me say this since we're not a segue, but a sidebar. Tangent. Yes. This is highly tangential. And this is a tangent on a tangent. One of my friends named Bo Kelly actually apparently had a ring that he lent to the people who made this HBO remake. Really? And the guy, whoever the characters that plays 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 cane toes. Right. Billions of them is where we left off and they are moving toward the big city. Right. And the problem is they have no natural predators, right? Right. Which is even worse that the predators that are around Australia haven't figured out that they shouldn't mess with these cane toes. Right. Because what happens is that the giant cane toes are highly toxic. Yes. They emit a cocktail of 14 toxins. Right. From the warts on their back, which are actually glands, right? That's right. We should say that again. The warts on a frog are glands. They're not warts. Right. But that's where you get the

impression that a toe can give you warts. Sure. Yeah. So anyway, so things like crocodiles, dingos, all sorts of other animals are being killed by picking up these giant cane toes. Right. You get scared. It's to create this toxin and then all of a sudden some alligators belly up. Yeah. And I'm sure a two pound cane toad looks like a nice meal for a year ago. Oh, I would think so. Yeah. Were I not aware of their toxins? I'd eat one. Sure. I'd cook it first, but sure. Oh, yeah. So anyway, as big a problem as these cane toads are posing the Australians right now. One thing they're not going to do is cause warts. There is our segue that you ruined earlier, but now it's all good. In 1968, five black girls dressed in oversized military fatigues

were picked up by the police in Montgomery, Alabama. I was tired and just didn't want to take it anymore. The girls had run away from a reform school called the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, and they were determined to tell someone about the abuse they'd suffered there. Picture the worst environment for children that you possibly can. I believe Mount Megs was patterned after slavery. I didn't understand why I had to go through what I was going through and for what. I'm writer and reporter, Josie Duffy Rice. And in a new podcast, I investigate how this reform school went from being a safe haven for black kids to a nightmare and how those five black girls changed everything. All that on unreformed. Listen to unreformed on the I Heart

Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1980, cocaine was captivating and corrupting Miami. Miami had become the murder capital of the United States. They were making millions of dollars. I would categorize it as the Wild Wild West. Unleashing a wave of violence. My God, talk about walking into the devil's den. The car sales. They just killed everybody that was home. They start pulling out pictures of Clay Williams' body taken out in the Everglades. A world orbiting around a mysterious man with a controversial claim. This drug pilot, by the name of Lamora Chester. He never ran anything but grass until I turned over that load of coke to him on the island. Chester would claim he did it all for the CIA. Pulling many into a

sprawling federal investigation. So Clay wasn't the only person who was murdered? Oh no, not by a long shot. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco. Join me for murder in Miami. Listen to murder in Miami on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Right, am I forgiven? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So toads absolutely do not cause warts. We can say that with 100% factual. Yeah. And do you know how we know that? Science? Science. Sure. Well, what science has told us is that since toads don't actually have warts, they have glands. Right. And we know that actually it's the human pavlova virus that causes warts. HPV, better known as HPV. Yeah. And since toads don't secrete HPV, toads can't give you warts. 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's been a huge push, but it was really prominent in 2006 and 2007 to get mandatory inoculations for young girls. Right. Against HPV. Yeah. I mean, it's a lot of people are affected by HPV. They estimate 20 million people in the U.S. alone are infected with some form of HPV, and there are about 100 different types of HPV. Right. And some of them are worse than others. Like the HPV inoculation that the government was, or the state governments are pushing for inoculates against the strain that gives you cervical cancer, which is the biggest threat HPV poses of a person. Right. There's slightly lesser ones like general warts, 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 wart was near your knee. Yes. Yeah. So yeah, it can cause general warts. And of course, HPV can also cause good old fashioned regular warts. Yes. But that, can I say a little aside about that push for HPV inoculations? Oh, well, yeah, I think you know. Isn't this interesting? Yeah, I think so. Thanks for the vote of confidence. Basically, in 2006, 2007, that huge push to get girls inoculated as part of like the month's rubella, if you want to go to school, you have to get an HPV inoculation. At the forefront of this push was a group called Women

in Government. Right, WIG. 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. The problem is it was revealed that a large proportion of WIG's funding was coming from Merck. Merck's the pharmaceutical company. And they are the only ones who have an FDA approved HPV inoculation on the market. Right. Gardasil. So if all 50 states started passing mandatory HPV inoculation legislation, then Merck stands to gain quite a bit because there's no competition. Yeah, there you have it. That kind of set things back a little bit. But as of I think 2008, there were 41 different state legislatures that had bills on the floor, if not already passed, mandating that girls have to get

HPV inoculations. Right. And 19 states have already enacted them. Good enough. There you go. Absolutely. So the same thing that can give you cervical cancer can also give you warts. Right. Most people can walk around with HPV and not even know it. May not even have common warts, right? Right. But if you do get common warts, what's going on there, Chuck? Well, I mean, usually their warts are going to be on your hands and fingers. And aside from the way it looks, because warts kind of have a negative connotation. Sure. Physically. But aside from the aesthetics of it, there's really no threat that they pose. They're not cancerous. Which is weird because all cancer is uncontrolled growth. Right. And all award is is uncontrolled cellular growth.

Yeah, it is weird. But they eventually stop growing. I guess a tumor never stops growing until it's dealt with. Right. And warts can absolutely spread from one person to another, even through shared objects. Yeah. You don't have to go like if you had a wart on your cheek, I don't have to go and lick your, your wart right now for me to get it. All you have to do is come in contact with your dirty older brother and bam, you got warts. Right. Yeah. I totally got it from him. It's weird. You can even get it off of sharing a bath towel with somebody with warts. It's a, it's a hearty virus. Yeah. So the other problem is, although warts do eventually stop growing when they die, they slough off and which spreads. So like if you ever have warts,

like a wart on your finger, you can probably look forward to getting warts on other fingers nearby or very close by this life cycle. It's not never ending. Eventually your body will produce the antibodies needed to ward off the warts, but sometimes you have to wait longer, longer times than others. Right. 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. Absolutely. What you can do is what we were talking about earlier, you can freeze them off. It's called cryotherapy. And that's when they use the liquid nitrogen.

And there are also some over the counter home remedies that have salicylic, is that how you pronounce that? Yeah, that's how I say it. Salicylic acid is the active ingredient. And both of these methods basically will create a blister around the area of the wart. 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 wart so it can't spread. Right. And then when the blister falls off, because it goes underneath the wart and over the wart and along the sides, it basically encapsulates it, then your blister eventually goes away, but it takes the wart

with it. Right. It's kind of gross. It is gross. And it's really simple and basic. It is very basic. It works. And it's kind of elegant in its simplicity. Sure. And I know if it's really bad, you can opt for laser surgery and prescription treatments. If you have genital warts, you might want to go that route. Well, no, if your common warts don't work very well, if you have genital warts, they're going to give you prescription medicine. Right. But if your common warts aren't responding to like cryotherapy or anything, they may give you the prescription for genital warts, because it's hardcore stuff, I imagine. Or zap them with a laser. Right. Or... Which they do for everything nowadays. I love that. Just hit it with a laser. Just hit it with a laser and over

the vest, right? Yeah. In 1968, five black girls, dressed in oversized military fatigues, were picked up by the police in Montgomery, Alabama. I was tired and just didn't want to take it anymore. The girls had run away from a reform school called the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children. And they were determined to tell someone about the abuse they'd suffered there. Picture the worst environment for children that you possibly can. I believe Mount Megs was patterned after slavery. I didn't understand why I had to go through what I was going through and for what. I'm writer and reporter Josie Duffy Rice. And in a new podcast, I investigate how this reform school went from being a safe haven for black kids to a nightmare, and how those five

black girls changed everything. All that on unreformed. Listen to unreformed on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1980, cocaine was captivating and corrupting Miami. Miami had become the murder capital of the United States. They were making millions of dollars. I would categorize it as the Wild Wild West. Unleashing a wave of violence. My God, talk about walking into the devil's den. The car fells. They just killed everybody that was home. They start pulling out pictures of Clay Williams' body taken out in the Everglades. A world orbiting around a mysterious man with a controversial claim. This drug pilot by the name of Lamar Chester. He never ran anything but grass until I turned over that load of coke to

him on the island. Chester would claim he did it all for the CIA. Pulling many into a sprawling federal investigation. So Clay wasn't the only person who was murdered? Oh no, not by a long shot. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco. Join me for Murder in Miami. Listen to Murder in Miami on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's also something called the blister beetle. And it lives up to its name, right? So they figured out how to extract the certain toxin from the blister beetle, which causes a blister reaction in human skin. And basically it does the same thing as, you know, whatever. What was the first thing you said that creates a blister, the cryotherapy? Yeah, yeah. So it's the same thing except it's,

it's natural, right? Because it's a beetle extract. Sure. And some people are into that. Like Spanish fly. Yes, which is not good for warts. No, or anything. No. So, uh, check, let's see. Yeah. Oh, did you want to mention that one, that one, a wives tale, what to do if you have warts? Yeah, I'd never heard of this actually. So good on you. Thanks. Apparently, burying a cat at midnight is one of the wives tales that you could, and does that mean burying a live cat? I checked that out. And no, it's a dead cat. Okay, so burying a dead cat at midnight will get rid of your warts. Obviously, this isn't true. Burying a live cat? Well, I mean, it's like meow, no, meow. This won't really work. No, yeah. But I mean, where would you find a dead

cat as well? I mean, that's, I guess you could, yeah, yeah. The whole thing is just not true. It's just silly. It's kind of unsettling. And that's one of the old wives. That's like a billion frogs approaching its civilization unsettling. Yeah. Like how do you get a dead cat? You should watch the documentary. It's awesome. I totally will go watch it after this because I don't feel like working any longer today. Me neither. So I guess that's about it. Oh, even though, even though toads won't give you warts, you probably shouldn't pick them up anyway. Oh, yeah. Because toads like to pee 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 to your heart's content. Yeah, I think every time I've picked up a frog or a toad, it's peed in my hand. Really? You're not going to see away on that hallucinogenic toad endorsement? No, I like frogs and stuffing. They're kind of cool. Okay. I'll pick them up. There you have it. I won't lick them though. Oh, you won't. Okay. New. 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 warts. 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. 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 spoken words. 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 web blog on our internet site, howstuffworks.com. You can find it on the right side of the homepage and it's called Stuff You Should Know. And Josh and I post and we talk 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 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 bad turn and people don't start fighting with each other. No, we've only had one, right? That one Nazi reference. Yeah. What was that? Oh, he's some crack bottom. So it's all

very above board and we're real pleased about that. Gotcha. Good. Nicely done, Chuck. Thanks. And now you want me to do the spoken word thing? Yes. So if you don't know by now, Chuck and I and Jerry produced our first spoken word album and it is called the Stuff You Should Know Super Stuff Guide to the Economy and it is jam packed with information about economics, the economy, all sorts of bells and whistles. There's chickens. There's cows. There's grocery stores. We go to New York. We go to China. Yeah, it's amazing. It's amazing. Yeah, I like it, Chuck. I have to say I like it. Yeah, I was terrified that it was going to be awful and it came out really well, I think. And it's up for sale on iTunes for $3.99. Just type Super Stuffed into the iTunes Store

search bar and that should be the first thing that comes up and you want to download it. That's cool with us. Yeah, it is cool. The more people who download it, 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 I guess that's it, right? Well, we got a little chimey time. All right, listen to our mail. Okay, Chuck, what you got, buddy? I have two quick emails and I'm just going to 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 situation. And I apologize. I don't know why

that happens if it's my junk mail settings, but I'm not ignoring you. So if you feel like sending it again, please do. And I'll get back here. Nice, Chuck. Having said that, 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 you explain stuff makes me very nostalgic on top of much smarter. On numerous occasions, however, you have mentioned the Germans. The 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 laterhosen and I have a huge moustache. But my pronunciation of th is flawless. Greetings from the mausoleum to Alex.

The Germans. 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? No, I had no idea. Have you not seen snatch? Yeah, it's been a while. You know, Jason Statham. Uh huh. Yeah, his character. He says that. He goes, yes, the Germans. I do a terrible impression of it, but that's what I'm doing. I'm learning. Yeah, I feel misunderstood. All right. And this is our other funny fan, our very strange friend, our oddball crackpot friend from Seattle. And this isn't even his real name, so I can say it. Martin S. Van Nostren, a.k.a. King Buck A. Fart. Is this hijackalope guy? Yeah. Nice. And he is awesome.

This guy writes us quite a bit and he's made songs for us and checked out his website, which he didn't want us to plug, so I won't. Can we talk about it? Can we mention the song? I think we can mention the song. He made a song 14 seconds long inside his album, right? It's called Stuff You Should Know and it's awesome. It is. It's awesome. And this guy is just one of the great, strange folks that I've been in contact with and we love oddballs because we're oddballs. 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 listen to now. Well, that and Mongolian throat singing, which is a real thing. Oh yeah, you can do like two different tones at once. Pretty cool. Well, they can. Keep up the 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. It's totally cheeseball. And you remember the song? I have the mp3. So,

Leah, old lady of Ben Nostrin. You're 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 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 stuffpodcastathowstuffworks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you?

On the new podcast, The Turning, Room of Mirrors, we look beneath the delicate veneer of American ballet and the culture formed by its most influential figure, George Balangene. He used to say, what are you looking at, dear? You can't see you, only I can see you. What you're doing is larger than yourself, almost like a religion. Like he was a god. Listen to The Turning, Room of Mirrors on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The War on Drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops, are they just like looting?

Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to The War on Drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.