DEADLIEST of all jellyfish is this sea wasp, found in the
Pacific. Other species called sea nettles plague American
beaches in warm months, driving hathers from the water with
their poisonous stings. Researchers are trying to develop a
serum that will protect swimmers from the jellyfish venom.
Jellyfish Victims Get No Serum, Tenderizer
Grocers in seaside communities have learned to stock
extra supplies of meat tenderizer in the summertime.
Warm weather always means more cookouts across
the nation, but demand for meat tenderizer rises in
coastal towns for another reason: first aid for swimmers
stung by jellyfish.
In a painful coincidence, the sunny mapths that bring
vacationers to the seashore are often tne months that
bring invasions of jellyfish, or sea nettles, drifting in to
the beaches.
Each year armadas of the translucent nettles bobbing
in the waves drive bathers from the water. Beaches are
forced to close until the troublesome creatures wash
away with the tide.
Hair-trigger Stingers
Floating nettles resemble shimmering umbrellas,
their tentacles dangling limply from the fringes. But
spotted around the pulsating umbrella and along the
tentacles are thousands of tiny cups packed with venom.
Each cup contains a tightly coiled, barbed thread
attached to a trigger hair on the animal's skin. When the
trigger is touched, the hollow thread springs out and
injects poison into whatever it pierces, the National
Geographic Society says.
A person brushing against a jellyfish receives stings
that can vary from a severe itch to sharp burning. The
most soothing remedy seems to be meat tenderizer.
"When people get stung they should apply meat
tenderizer to the wound," advises Charles Bell, a
chemistry professor at Virginia's Old Dominion University.
"It hydrolyzes the protein in the toxin and brings
relief."
Hydrolysis is a chemical decomposition that occurs in
interaction with water. Commercial meat tenderizers
contain papaya, which breaks down the protein.
Marine biologists have known the effectiveness of
meat tenderizer for years. Applied to the area of the
stings quickly enough, moistened with water and rubbed
in so that the enzyme in the preparation is in contact with
the poison, then rinsed off, it causes the painful welts to
disappear.
Under a Sea Grant project sponsored by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, researchers
at the University of South Florida are working to develop
a serum that could provide immunity from the stings of
jellyfish.
"Most people who are stung are not killed," explained
Dr. David Hessinger in Tampa. "But the sting is
excruciatingly painful and, if stung badly enough, a
person may go into shock, drown, or succumb to a heart
attack."
Dr. Hessinger notes that the poison of the Portuguese
Man-of-War, a seagoing relative of the smaller nettles
that plague bathing beaches, is as strong as cobra venom
and poses a threat to fishermen and divers.
He thinks a method will be found to inject these people
with a non-toxic venom, so they will form antibodies and
become immune. A serum containing the antibodies
could be produced to be given to beachgoers who are
stung, he predicts.
Residue Is Cause
Of Pest Problems
Good after-harvest cleanup
is recommended for
vegetable gardens in North
Carolina as a means of
limiting disease, insect and
weed buildups for the 1978
garden.
Old plants and crop
residue left in the field
become havens for all kinds
of crop pests, according to
North Carolina State University
agricultural extension
specialists.
The roots ot plants allow
nematodes to thrive and
multiply long after the plant
has served its purpose and
its production has been
harvested. By disking or
plowing out these roots, the
nematodes are exposed to
sun and wind. The drying
action kills them.
Disease organisms also
continue to multiply and
insects continue to feed and
reproduce on the residue
that remains after harvest.
One of the biggest pests of
all - weeds - continues to develop
toward its ultimate
goal, which is the production
of seed by which it
reproduces itself.
Some of the worst weeds
produce tremendous numbers
of seeds. These seed,
once they mature and fall to
the ground, can infest the
soil for years to come. One
of the surest ways of
limiting the weed problem
in the garden is to keep the
garden clean, and that
includes after harvest is
cohipleted.
Some gardeners plow
under the residue and all( w
it to enrich the soil. It can be
hauled off and put into a
compost pile. In the country,
pea vines that are free of
pesticides can be fed to
livestock, and so can corn
stalks.
Seeding a cover crop, such
as rye, can help hold the soil
in place during the fall and
winter. If you want to get a
head start on next year's
garden, why not go ahead
and fix some rows for earlyplanted
crops?
Big Lake
Loch Ness, scoured by
glaciers in the last Ice Age,
covers 24 miles of the Great
Glen, a geologic rift cutting
across Scotland. The lake,
up to 975 feet deep, holds
more water than any other
in Britain, National Geographic
says.