Hello-Hello! Welcome back to another edition of the BigAppleSchool podcast, where the goal of this show is to help you learn English through listening. My name is Benjamin, and today we have two wonderful guests with us. Today we have..
Hello guys. I'm Ugur and I'm from Istanbul, Turkey. And I have been living in Novosibirsk for four months and this is my first time in Russia. So..
Yeah, we have our first time, our first episod with Ugur..
And this is my first time.
Welcome to the show, and we have a well known colleague..
My name's Gary and I'm from the United States.
Yes. And welcome back on the show, Gary. So today we have quite an interesting topic. Don't forget guys to leave your comments and ask questions. We'd love to hear from you guys. So today's topic is pests. So quite an interesting topic. This is a topic that is dear to my heart. That's close to my heart. For some reason, in many of my lessons, we end up talking about pests. For some reason, it always comes up. So yeah, what we'll do is we'll talk about all different experiences with pests in different regions. So, Ugur, I guess in Turkey, you have a lot of different insects, a lot of different wild life. And well, let's let's just summarize what are the main pests that we know from our various regions? So what are the main pests that you encounter in Turkey?
In Turkey, mostly in Istanbul we have all kinds of small insects like mosquitoes, like the fix and everything like we all have around the world. And we also have like the big kind of insects like we discussed, mostly like big cockroaches, like worms. So these are the main pests like we have in Turkey, in Istanbul.
And of course, Turkey is famous for its cats, as well. Every tourist that goes to Turkey loves to play with the cats. So, basically, you have the mosquitoes. You have cockroaches, cats. Do you have foxes?
Yeah, we have wildlife. Mostly, it's located in the southern part of Turkey and in the western part of Turkey. So we have foxes in the in their natural habitat, but not in the city centers or close to the city centers.
Ok, so we will discuss all these various animals in detail throughout this episode. So Gary, from Ohio.
What pests do we have in Ohio?
Well, the usual routine pests like.. We've got cockroaches. We've got.. We've got mosquitoes. We've got.. I mean, all the all your favorites are represented. Yeah, it's I mean, just the typical, really no different from Russia, for example, is really the pests, I would say are exactly the same.
Well, the reason why I'm asking is because in England, we just.. I've never really seen cockroaches. Maybe they do exist, but we just don't have them. But we have a lot of foxes in cities and..
We will talk about this in depth..
I didn't realize this was such a problem, but OK.
It's a huge.. Well, obviously.. Or do you have raccoons in Ohio?
We do have raccoons. Yes, we do.
And do you consider them to be pests?
So yeah, we'll talk about them.
Many lovely creatures, but it's not where people are living. Yes.
Because I've watched a few Russian TV shows, namely "Кто в доме хозяин?" , which is a show about people and their problems with pets, not pests, but pets. And I've heard that raccoons are not native to.. to Russia, but some.. I've seen some people keep raccoons as pets, not as pests. So..
Yeah, yeah. We don't have them in..
Their new world. Are they new world?
Maybe. I mean, I think it's from the Americas. I don't know if they're in South America. I'm not sure. Well, some of you may know I grew up.. I spent my early childhood in Brazil, and there we had a whole whole. I would say, encyclopedia of animals, of insects. And yeah, for better or for worse, we had everything there, from cockroaches to stick insects, to lizards. I mean, I remember as a little child in my apartments, we had lizards that would just crawl up the walls. And this is not in the Amazon. This was in Sao Paulo, which is many, many thousands of miles away from forests.
Yeah, from the rainforest. So we even there, we had stick insects and all these strange animals. But anyway, what would you say is the absolute worst pest in your opinion? Yeah. My opinion, absolute worst.. Well, I'm struggling to choose between rats and cockroaches. What would be the worst for you?
I would go for rats, I guess. Rats are the most kind of disgusting animals, especially their tiny tails. So I would go for rats.
And what do you think of people who keep rats as pets? Well, not of people. But would you ever keep.. Because I'm sure there are some nice.. I'm sure we have some nice ratonists.
Let's just get down here what do we think about people who keep rats.
I never witness any person who keeps rats as.. As their pets, but I had a couple of neighbors back in Southeast Asia who were kind of into eating rats. So I.. I would say rats are not kind of my kind of pets. So...
I was gonna ask at the end of a show. I was going to talk about pests and food habits. So we're going to talk about that bit later. But yeah, so..
So hold on to that. Hold on to let that go. Yeah, I'm sure we'll want to hear all about that.
Saturday lunch special kind of.
That's right. That's right. Lunch and lunch time special.
Lunch time special. Yeah.
So, yeah, but.. OK. So rats, I think. Would you agree, Gary?
Yeah, I'm.. I would say rats are the nastiest. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, the nastiest. And have you been to a aqua-zoo centre, a pet shop here in Novosibirsk? Cose there are many around town.
Oh my God, because you guys are missing out. I've been to so many pet shops in Novosibirsk and you can look at all these amazing little animals. It's like a little zoo in.. In a little shop and there are some fish. But if you go on the other side of the river nearby Karl Marks' square. There's this great pet shop. I forgot the name of it, but they have so many different types of fish, and there's another pet shop around Октябрькая metro. Which is not far from, yeah, from where we are here. And they have a great pet shop with snakes and.. And all sorts of..
Exotics. Kind of exotic animals.
Exotics, yeah. What.. How would you define a pest? What make something an animal? Well, let's just say what would you consider to be a domesticated animal or none that you would keep at home? And what makes a pest? Because sometimes rats are pets, and sometimes they're pests. What is the line? How would you define what a pest is?
Well, I guess a pest is something you don't want. Right, so like if you want a rat, for example, and we're not gonna talk about people who want rats because we decided earlier to do that.
So what if you don't like your neighbor's dog? Is the dog a pest?
The dog is.. Well as being a pest, is being a pest. But dogs are man's best friend, I believe and so.
An interesting English point we have here. The English language point. We have 'being a pest'. So, 'to be a pest' will 'being' specifically. So the way we use.. The way we use this gerund is quite interesting. So, for instance, the difference between 'you are stupid' and 'you are being stupid'. What's the difference between?
A fine, a fine line. Yes, right. Yes, they are related. They are connected. Yes.
But.. But 'you are stupid', present simple. That just means you are stupid in general.
That you're being stupid right now.
The specific, yeah. Right now.
Exactly. Yeah. So, right now, 'being'. So, yeah. Your dog can be 'being'. Your dog is being a pest, or maybe..
Which is not a pest as a type of a creature. Dogs.. Dogs are usually pretty good pets.
Oh, let me ask you. So, in Turkey, are cats considered pests by locals?
Actually, no. So, they're kind of domestic animals. People are kind of into them in a way. So, they are.. They're kind of like.. Man's best friend is dog in Turkey. As well cats are kind of the best friends to people. Mostly for lonely people.
Not so.. Not so much dogs.
Yeah, not.. Not that much. I have.. I have a dog. But most people prefer to have cats than dogs.
Yeah. Well, in some cultures, dogs are considered to be unclean.
Yeah, I've heard that. Yeah, some people wouldn't keep dogs because they... Yeah.
Cats are clean. I mean, in that sense, they clean themselves, right?
They are licking the fur and everything. And the pawes and everything. Yeah.
Well, I have two pet rabbits. I don't know. Well, I think Ugur knows. I have a pet rabbits. They are, actually, surprisingly some of the cleanest animals that you ever.. I think that even cleaner then cats. The poo is brilliant. They.. It's so easy to clean. Ans it's..
I think, you know.. I'm really.. This enthusiasm that Ben has for this topic. I don't know. I mean, he's defending those people that have rats. Did you notice that?
I'm not defending. I'm sorry. I'm not defending it.. But I just don't wonna be..
Picking up a pattern here Ben.
I don't wanna be too judgement.
We'll be tracking this going forward. Right? We'll see. We'll see if this grows into something out of control, perhaps before.
But my enthusiasm for this comes from have my experience in Las Vega. Where I lived in an apartment and unfortunately had a cockroach problem. And I couldn't sleep at night because I was trying to figure out how to eliminate, exterminate these pests. And it became almost a hobby of mine. Thinking in different ways.
OK. Another point, or I'm counting, but just connecting the this
year I pick something up.
If everything fails in my life, I would love to become a pest exterminator.
All right, it's a last resort.
But yeah..Have you ever had a cockroach problem or a bug problem in any of your flats or houses?
Not cockroach or any any specific bug. But in summertime, mostly mosquitoes are kind of bothering me a lot. So, not that cockroach specific thing. It never happened.
And what measures would you take to prevent mosquitoes from getting into your house?
I usually try personal sprays to cover your body in order to just get rid of the mosquitoes.
Even at night, would you.. Would you just spray yourself every night.
When I was living in South.. Southeast Asia I used to, but I haven't experienced the summertime in here yet, so.
So in Southeast Asia you didn't have any like insect infestations in your house. Seriously? That's a surprise. Because it's a big problem, isn't it?
Most of the time people are trying to get rid of the things out of their house by using traditional techniques, and so they put some powder on the entrances of the houses or they just set traps for the bigger animals. And then they're going to use that animal, kind of for different purposes.
And this powder, by the way, is quite interesting. So maybe, Gary, maybe you've heard about this. In New York. Obviously. Well, you lived in New York for a little bit, didn't you? Did you hear that in New York there was a specific type of.. I think it was rat poison that was banned. Well, you've heard of this before.
Yeah, I guess they were still using back in... Yes, Southeast Asia to kill that kind of animals. But I didn't know that it was kind of banned.
It was banned in New York. Not because of New Yorkers love rats. I mean, everyone hates the street rats in New York. But because it's so powerful and the local.. I would guess the environmental authorities believe that rats could evolve to.. Too big.. To develop a resilience against.. Against this powder. So it was banned from New York, but people illegally bought this, this powder. Have you heard anything about this?
I did not have a cockroach problem in New York. I have had cockroache problems.
Well, this is actually rat poison.
Ok, rat. Yeah. No, I did.. Definitely didn't have rats. I mean. If I had rats, I'd be.. I'd be changing addresses. Yeah. Sudden change of address. Yeah, because, you know, you just shouldn't have a house with rats in it. You know, bad, bad choice. Some bad choices get you there. Yeah. No. But cockroaches, I have had and.. But I was renting apartments and you know, the landlords don't want me either. But, u.. You know, it's interesting that in Cleveland, in Ohio, which is like in the northern part of the country, we had a name for these. We didn't.. I didn't even know they were cockroaches. We call them water bugs.
I think it is. Yeah. And in Florida, where my mother lives in, where I have spent some time. They have a.. Same, same insect, right? But it's called a palmetto bug.
And palmetto is a kind of a palm tree. It's a variety of palm tree. And so it kind of has romance, you know, palmetto bug. That's not a cockroach, man. That is a palmetto bug itself.
Sophisticated neighbor kind of.
Yeah, it is. Yeah, I felt a lot better about it, but they're big, you know. They're big honking things and you know, you got to get rid of them. So, when I was in.. In Ohio, then you.. I mean, you just have a landlord. They just had to spray and, you know, but until they did or, you know, whatever, then you had to just battle with them.
So how would you personally battle with them? Did you have to buy..?
Oh, geez, I don't even remember. Well, I mean, I didn't use any.. I didn't use chemicals. I would just like, you know, when I saw them, I would deal with them. Which I think I did with maybe like a fly swatter or a wet newspaper or I don't know. I don't even remember what I did, except..
Sticky fly paper or whatever.
Oh, the stiky stuff is absolutely horrible. So another reason why I have this passion for pests is because when I lived in London.. When I rented my first apartment in London, it had mice all over it. And usually people think of mice as being these adorable little creatures. They're not actually really creepy when you enter your kitchen at night and you see your bread nibbled at and other food. So, I had to take it upon myself to.. To try to do something about this.
And what did you.. What were you.. What did you do?
So the very first thing I did was I went to the there was this kind of hardware shop below my apartment. It was actually not directly below, but that doesn't matter.
Oh, come on, we wanna know how far is it from directly..
They had a wonderful ... Of pest control or pest control products, including mouse traps, sticky paper.
Yeah, you just mentioned. Glue traps, and I put a glue trap just thinking, Oh, I didn't really think about. I just bought glue traps. And left them around. And then one night.
I found these two mice screaming... In this glue trap, and I thought.. I thought this trap was supposed to kill the mice, not tortured.
You can hear them.. Hear their pain.
I just had the most horrible screaming in my kitchen at night and.. And you can't just like, throw the mice out.
And .. Your revolver and shoot them.
But that would be if you were in New York. Well, not in New York. It would be in Texas. If you you're in Texas.
I couldn't just peel the mouse off of the glue trap. You can't just do it because it was extremely strong, so they wouldn't. So..
But they are still alive, you know...
They're still alive. And you don't want to kill them, but you have to. So...
Got out the old big encyclopedia and...
Being a man of letters. First time we use the encyclopedia for years in the apartment. First time to open that book just to make sure there was still anything valuable insights. You can throw it out when you..
And you kill with this encyclopedia.
Unfortunately, I had to, but it was.. It was a quick.
Yeah, yeah. It's a sudden death.
Yeah, and then.. And then I thought about acquiring of a trap. So I got a mouse trap as well, because those are supposed to be quick. They're not as quick as you think, but they..
They do. They do their job.
Yeah, they definitely hurt your fingers a lot.
Well, not to talk too.. Too graphically.
Well, pets, pests are quite graphic thing anyway. So, yeah. So mice.. And then.. Eventually, I tried to use more natural approaches. So I got .. Bay leaves. You know bay leaves?
Bay leaves. That is naturale.
Bay leaf — it's a type of leaf that you using cooking. And I heard that these mice hate bay leaves. By the way, I think it was лавровый лист.
But they are.. So I heard that these would deter mice. But there was this.. This infamous hole in my house where mice would peep out of, and I put about five leaves next to this hole and nighttime ... I would just quitly.. Just watch the hole and..
Ben, did you ever think of closing the hole?
Yes, we did. Eventually, yeah, yeah.
Ok, yeah. After three months. Yeah, we decided, you know...
But but these mice would just dig, dig through the holes and.. And have all this information about bay leaves on the internet. They did absolutely nothing.
Yeah, I think maybe the mice even ate the leaves.
Yeah, and kind of enjoyed it.
Yeah, so.. What made it even worse? I said before there was a hardware shop, not quite directly below my apartment..
We never did find out exactly.
Was directly below my apartment.. Was a Chinese restaurant.
Oh, no. That solves a lot of problems for you. We've got your solution to all the problems, of every kind. Don't even worry about it.
Yes, and they had this vents, which.. Well, the restaurant had this vent, which would.. Which would expel all the gases and.. Waste gases from it, from the restaurant. And guess what? You open my window and they would come through my window to the apartment, and I think the mice loved this. They absolutely adored it. But did you know that mice and rats can't live together?
Yeah. They don't like each other. Well, I think the rat just eat the mice.
The mice don't feel so bad about it until...
Yeah, so.. So at least I didn't have a rat problems. If you have a mouse or a mice problem, by the way, mouse and mice — plural. If you have a mice problem in your flat, at least, you know, you probably most likely don't have a rat problem. Which is.. What would you choose? Mice or rats if you had too choose in your apartment.
Deffinetely mice, yeah. But what problems do mice.. What are the problems that mice cause? Why do we not like mice and rats? What problems do they cause?
Well, they destroy things. They they eat your food. As you've already mentioned, the nibble on your bread. You leave a couple of slices of bread out on a table like you do and...
Any pieces or your books. They can also just eat the paper.
Yes. And even my rabbits sometimes do this. Yeah. So sometimes they are pests as well. Well, actually, some people consider maybe rabbits, but definitely hares to be pests. So rabbits and hares... Have you had any hares in Turkey?
Yeah. Do you guys eat them?
H-A-R-E is the rabbit like animal. But you do eat rabbits?
Come to my apartment for dinner soon.
Now Ugur is getting enthusiastic. That probably are normal. Yes. Just saying.
Well, are there any pests that you would eat in Ohio?
Oh, no. I mean, no. I mean, well, I mean, if you call rabbits. People do eat rabbit. Yeah. Not overly much. But yeah...
Well, actually, I was going to talk about food a bit later, so maybe we should hold off on that. I've got a question here. So in England. This is an interesting issue, which was a very hot topic, I think about 10 years ago. So do you know anything about fox hunting in the UK? Or fox hunting in general.
I just know what's a thing, right? You know, it's a sport, it's a..
I know the fur is kind of as.. Special.
Yes, it's special fur. So this was a really controversial topic in the UK because as many people, many listeners might know in the UK we had this.. Well is still illegally have this tradition of getting dressed up in red suits, getting the local village together and.. And getting all dogs together and chasing a fox.
Is this something that ordinary people do or is this like an upper aristocratic class thing?
Do you know what? Originally it was quite an aristocratic thing to do, but a lot of.. Not so aristocratic people enjoyed the tradition of it, and they enjoyed getting dressed up. And as..
Who, who doesn't get enjoy of getting dressed up in a red suit, right?
And of course we have animal rights activists. Of course, who are absolutely outraged by it. And you have people who still engage in fox hunting. They say, Oh, it's a local tradition. It's been going on for hundreds of years. And a lot of people who go fox hunting say, Well, the foxes have to be killed anyway because they caused so much damage to farms and sometimes spread disease. And that actually using a shotgun is actually sometimes worse than using dogs. Because the dogs go straight for the neck and they kill the animal immediately or not.. Sorry not immediately. They.. Yeah, it's horrible. They have to.. It is a tradition. It's a British tradition.
It's OK if you put on.. If you put on the red suit and it all makes sense. It's...
But if you shoot a fox... It's going quite often. They don't die immediately. They.. Takes a while for them to.. To go. So whereas if you
Yes, used the dogs, they go for the neck. And sure, it's a horrible sight. But..
Yeah. Do you have any similar kind of traditions in Turkey. Well, is hunting the thing in Turkey?
The regular game, like all the birds and rabbits, so it's all allowed. And of course, the animal rights kind of organizations are kind of against for that. But, apparently, no one cares for it. It's going on now. So .. A game is going on and they're hunting.
And was there any kind of..?
Yeah, there was. I mean, there was no foxes, but I don't even think there are..
No, you don't hunt raccoons like that. Although actually people do hunt raccoons, they're nocturnal. And so you have to.. You go out and.. You do go coon hunting, as we say. Yeah, down in southern Ohio. And by the way, a shout out to our many listeners in Columbus, Ohio.
All right. Those mystery listeners. Yes, but no. There's a deer season. I was.. I had my church was in the country. And so country people.. And it was for real that there was deer season. In a beginning of deer season was a big deal. And you know, it's a limited time and you have to buy a license and they can only kill so many of them. And you know, but it's sport.
Because they can't.. Because deer can't ba considered as pests.
Oh deer.. Deer are extremely dangerous. I mean, they kill. Just by crossing roadways. And, you know, by the time you even see them, you know, they freak out when there's a car coming. Yeah. And they jump onto the car under the windshield. And they're.. They're gigantic animals.
And yeah, you know, they're.. They're not rodent.. Little rodent.
Does car insurance.. Well, can a lot of car insurance policies in America protect against?
I think it's.. Yeah, I think it's.. It's considered. It would be a thing that's covered, you know, but it's also just.. I mean, it kills people because you're going at, you know, it's on highways and remote areas. And so you're going at, you know, 50 miles an hour or, you know, eighty eighty five kilometers an hour. And.. And you know, this giant deer jumps, you know, jumps from five, you know, from two meters off the side of the road onto your car. I mean, you're not going to have time to react.
It's even worse when a deer doesn't have insurance.
Yeah, right, yeah. That's right. And then you have to just pay for it yourself. That's right. So many uninsured deer. That's a major problem. We're trying to work it out.
Yes. In London, actually, Richmond Park, which is, I think, is the biggest park in London, in southwest London. There we have a lot of deer, which is really.. They're, actually, really beautiful and they're kind of desensitized to.. To people. So you can actually go.. The deer sometimes even come up to you, which is really interesting.
It's so strange, yeah. I had a deer come up to me and started licking me, and I thought.. I thought deer was supposed to be scared of people. And.. Yeah, but I think the reason why they lick it is because they want salt. And I think that's why. That's what I've heard.
It's really not affection and they.. They wanted your salt.
Yeah, that's what I heard.
Just guy looks like a salty.. You looks like a salty human.
Exactly. Because they need the salt. But it was the sweetest thing, and I thought, Oh, I love venison. It's really nice meat, but I can't eat this deer anymore because that's such a nice animal. Yeah. And you have to be particularly careful if you have big dogs in Richmond Park. I've never had a big dog, but I had a friend who had a a German pointer. Have you heard of this dog before? Beautiful dog. Really intelligent. Um, yeah, very.. They're pretty big. They're not the biggest, but the pretty big dogs and it's a hunting dog and my, well, my brother's friend took this dog out to the park at night and he just left the dog off the leash and it killed a deer.
I would imagine that would be like a.. Like a legal situation.
Exactly. That's why it's difficult. And, well, coming to the next point is.. Well, I guess you could kill cockroaches. You wouldn't have too much of a problem killing cockroaches.
Which.. What kind of animal is more difficult to kill? What kind of pest is more difficult ti kill?
Anything that's bigger than you are, for example. Like.. The size.
What about pigeons, for instance? Because, let's say, if you have pigeons in your..Well, pigeons destroy your car with the white..
Well, I think pigeons, you just live with them, if you're living in the city, you just live with them.
Because pigeons are considered to be pests.
But a lot of people love pigeons. Especially, well, if you go to the central market here and in Novosibirsk, you'll notice next to.. Well, there's a запорожец, which is a little red car, which is vintage car. I don't.. Have you seen this car? It's next to the market, next to the запорожец just a load of pigeons and old ladies who like to feed the pigeons. Yeah. I have never seen the attraction of feeding pigeons. Why do people feed pigeons?
I don't know. But it's also famous in Turkey. We have specific places around the mosques, so people are just throwing seeds for the pigeons and they love feeding pigeons, but I don't see any point to do that. So.. What is.. What is that?
Because they are flying rats.
And they can.. They carry a lot of disease and stuff.
Yeah, they're.. They're nasty. But you know, I think it's just.. If you're.. If you're lonely, I guess there's something and you want to have..
Well, I like feeding the ducks. Because the ducks are sweet animals and.. Yeah, the nice.. I understand, like going to a pond and feeding the ducks, or maybe geese.
Oh, swans. Yeah, we have them all over England. Do you have them in.. In Turkey?
Not that many, but in like zoos or that kind of reservation area.
What about Ohio? Do you have?
Swans... Not so much. I mean, there's.. There's probably geese. There's ducks. You know, to some degree, but..
Because swans in England. Did you know interesting facts? All swans are property of the Queen?
You heard it too, yeah. So you can't.. You can never, ever, ever kill a swan in England because, yeah.
Well, that explains why there's so many swans in England.
I don't know when this became a law. When the Queen decided. Maybe that wasn't the queen. Maybe it was, well, before the Queen, but someone decided to.. Someone in the royal family decided.
I mean, they're beautiful creatures, right?
But why not geese too? Why not?
Have you ever dealt with geese?
They're nasty customers, yeah. They are not.. Yeah, but they actually hiss as well, which is the funniest. Has a geese ever hissed at you?
Yeah, I remember when.. When I was a child, so they were kind of chasing like hysterically. Kind of thing.. I know.. I know what you're saying. Yeah, yeah.
And they stick their tongue out on you. I would go as far to say that sometimes they are pests, but they are borderline pests because of the beautiful. And some people like, well.. Some, well, some people eat them. Well, a lot of people eat them. And I think France, Italy, et cetera, not so much in England.
Well, wasn't it a traditional like Christmas Eve goose?
Yeah, Christmas goose. I think we had another podcast episode at some point where we talked about.. Maybe I was on it, maybe I wasn't. But I've definitely talked about goose on.. Yeah, some kind of BigAppleSchool function. We've talked about goose for Christmas.
Yes, any time we get together, we're talking. Sooner or later, we're going to talk about this.
Yeah, the geese chase you and they can, actually, be really dangerous. And did you know that swans can, like, break your arm?
Because they are kind of bigger than dogs and just heavy animals.
Yeah, their necks are exceptionally strong and they can.. If you have little children or a little dog. Be careful around the swans. Seriously, I used to live in a park.. In nearby park in London and there was a pond and the swans everywhere. And, yeah, when.. When I was like a little teenager, we would like walk around and play around with the geese and they would chase you and you have to be really careful. Yeah, because they can.. Damage.
So yeah. Well, what else I was going to talk about? Yeah, foxes. So coming back to foxes, we were talking about fox hunting. So, in London we have a lot of these foxes
Just roaming at night. Absolutely amazing, at night. They just roam the cities and they..
They make exceptionaly scary noises at night, when they're trying to..
Like screaming kind of...
Screaming noise at the middle of the night. This is a way of attracting, attracting each other. I just don't understand how this noise attracts. Um. Well, I think it's the female foxes that make noise.
Well, hopefully. Who knows? Yeah, that's right. So confused time. Yes. Foxes, they'll just to track anything. Yeah.
Yes. And they do make really loude noises at night. And yeah, it's, yeah. And it's actually surprisingly difficult to sleep.
I mean, this actually.. You..
All the time, all the time. Yeah. And it's actually really surprising if you spend a few nights in suburban London or just outside the very center of a city, you will definitely at some point.. If you stay there for a week, almost definitely you'll hear a fox at some point and sometimes at daytime you see them roaming around the streets like little zombies.
Stink? What about the authorities? Do they do any kind of...?
There's not much they can do. There's not much they can do because the foxes are very clever and they hide.
They can hide in the.. Yeah, they have..
They call burrows. So burrows and.. Yeah, they cause a lot of problems and.. But at least I think they eat rats. I don't know.
Okay. Well, that's.. That's a plus,
Which is definitely a plus. All right. What else? Seagulls.
Seagulls. We have lots of in Istanbul. And people are kind of into right there. They're feeding them when they are on the ferry and they just throw kind of small bread. So it's kind of a specific thing for Istanbul to do. You just get on the ferry.
So people feed the seagulls?
Look, because we don't feed the seagulls in England. They feed themselves with our food. Yeah, I remember when I was a little boy. When I went to, I think it was Brighton. I can't remember where it was. Brighton's on the south coast of England and I had a hot dog and.. Actually, no, it wasn't Brighton. It was Brighton Beach in New York.
Oh, Brighton Beach in New York. OK, different continent.
It was Brighton Beach. Yeah, so..
OK, Brighton Beach. Yeah, well, Brighton Beach would have.. Seagulls are everywhere.
Yeah, and I was a little boy really happy with this hot.. Was it hot dog or ice cream? I can't remember, but I remember I was really happy with this meal. So ready to get started and out of nowhere the seagull came in...
Yeah, yeah. It just absolutely swooped it out of my hand.
Well, it's those famous Coney Island dogs, hot dogs. They've heard the rap and they want to.. We're going to check this out. This child looks.. Looks a little like he's a little spaced out. All right.
Yeah. OK, Seagulls are not particularly nice. It's legal to.. Some reasons illegal to control them in England, so you can't kill them in England. Even if they're causing a lot of problems for you. So, I don't think they are.. Because in England the law is interesting. You're allowed to, of course, kill a cockroach, even though they don't really exist. Be allowed to kill rats, I think, in your house, if you have mice or rats.
Oh, that's nice of them to allow you to do that.
But you can't kill pigeons and seagulls, although you used to. Um... Also, another interesting animal. Um, well, there's two I was going to mention. Ticks
Ticks. Summertime...mostly.
Here in Siberia. They're very, very big issue and people take out insurance specifically for ticks. Do you have this problem in Turkey?
Yeah, especially in summertime. We have the problem, mostly in the rural areas where people are suffering a lot. Ticks and.. But I don't remember any kind of insurance policy for covering the..
Diseases they cause are absolutely debilitating.
Yeah. Well, in England we have Lyme disease. L-Y-M-E.
Yeah, that's in the United States as well.
So, do you know anyone who's had Lyme disease?
I have heard people on podcast talk about Lyme disease that have had it, and it's very serious and it's really spreading. It's really increasing. I don't think it was in the United States in like the 50s, maybe. And then it's.. It is like an invasion.
So it started in the 50s?
I believe, yeah. I don't think it.. I don't think it was around until a certain point. Of course, they I don't think they had diagnosed it maybe.
Because I heard.. I heard somewhere that, I mean, obviously this is an conspirasy theory, but that it was a bioweapon developed by the Japanese in the Second World War. I heard that somewhere I can't remember, but it would make sense. In the fift.. if it appeared in the fifties in America, it would make sense.
I don't know. I think that it's not our historica.. You know, what happens with Lyme disease, it's all of these diseases are communicated by animals to humans when they're too close. And like one of the ways that Lyme disease, of course, it's from the ticks. I guess it's from deer. Rght, the deer have the ticks and.. And then.. And then smaller creatures get it from the.. And then they get into your house like fly squirrels that can enter your house and things like that. Yeah. So anyway, it's a big problem. And here it's encephalitis. That's the..
What's the difference? Is there a difference between Lyme disease and encephalitis?
I mean, encephalitis, I think is, you know, is more of a clearly. It like.. And you know, your syphilis is your brain and it's.. It's like an inflammation of the brain. And Lyme disease is harder to diagnose and it's longer term and it's not.. I mean, it's a.. It's a bad thing as well, but it's just.. It's just whatever the probably the deer or whoever there is a carrier, they call it a vector, right? And so there's some creatures carrying it and then other creature eats it and then or gets it and then carries it to human and It gets transmitted.
It's not a nice one. Other animal I was going to mention were hornets. I think in Turkey must have hornets, don't you, yeah? Because I remember kind of a funny story, not really that funny, but that it was kind of funny. We went on holiday to Greece, my family many years ago. We rented this tiny.. Well, this pretty small little house or villa, as you call it, in Greece, and it had a really nice small swimming pool. And there was a stone wall next to the swimming pool and it had a hornet's nest behind the stone wall. And we went to this.. Me, my brother, and we had some friends with us who are our age. And we were playing with.. We decided to agitate the whole..
With the stick. And then we would dive in the pool and all the hornets would swarm around and could hide from it. It was for some reason..
That was a whole series of bad choices. Yeah, but let's stir them up and then we're going to go on. Right. What do you say guys? And the guy said, Man, I man, let's do it.
Will be here in the water.
... as a teenage boy. It was a really fun. Stupid but fun activity.
I would agree and both counts. Actually, I'd even take the fun away and just stay, but hang on to that stupid part.
And so we would do it and then the hornets would come out and then they would retreat after two minutes and we would get our adrenaline rush. It was really fun. And we did it again a few times and my brother..
And we got a little slow getting in the water that fourth time.
So yes, you're right. So my brother's friend was a little slow and he got stung on his eyelid. Luckily, it wasn't his eye, but it was his eyelid and he had
This huge bubble on the side of his face for.. For a whole two weeks. And luckily it was OK, but.. And really luckily he was okay. He was alive. It was funny watching him walk around with this huge..
For hanging around with us. Yeah. Dumb little kid? Right?
Oh, it was brilliant. And the funniest thing was.. This was in Corfu, in Greece. A great place, by the way. And.. And obviously my mom was really worried about my brother's friend and she took him to the doctor. And this doctor was the only doctor around. And we went to.. We went to this.. We went to this doctor's office and it did not look like a doctor's office. It was just really weird rooms, kind of sketchy looking place. And my mom said..
It's said right above it a doctor.
So, yeah, and this doctor was this like.. Yeah, he was this like, kind of macho, Greek dude. He wa.. He was quite fun. It was.. My, my mom.. Obviously, she cared really and.. She cared a lot. This was not her kid, and this kid was in her custody and she didn't want to see anything bad happen to him. And she said.. She was really worried and in her kind of, I wouldn't say panic. But in her worried concernes state of mind, she asked the doctor.. Do you have a doctor's license?
I think it was. I think it was. Yeah, in hindsight was probably one of the worst things. But I understand why she did it because it was dodgy looking doctor and this being this macho guy... He said, Get out of here. You're not allowed to.. Get out of my studio. And my mom..
Yes, can't you see this is the doctor studio? He's sitting there making oil paintings, you know..
Well, I would even call it clinic. It was just like some damn pro.. With a fan.
And yeah, so.. So luckily, he.. He gave in and felt bad for my brother's friends, who gave him some kind of..
Showing that he's.. He's a real doctor. Yeah, at least that you're right.
Yeah, I understand why my mother was concerned. ... In hindsight. To ask macho Greek doctor for his license.
Yeah, yeah. Let's see that diploma. You all looking a little ...here. Yeah.
Yeah, I understand why she did it. But anyway, was.. But yeah, so hornets are pretty big pests. And yeah. I don't know, how do you deal with them in Turkey? Because Greece, Turkey, not far from each other. I guess you had.. Did you have them in Istanbul?
Istanbul and in the western coast. On the western coast of Turkey, like where the holiday the resorts are. So we have the same problem like in Greece. So when you're swimming, suddenly, the hornets may come and just sting you in a way. So it was a normal.
Was it like a locals hobby to mess with the nests and...
No, no, no, no. It's kind of dangerous, you know? It is kind dangerous, you know...
And bees can cause problems but hornets are just the whole of...
And do you have wasps in Turkey or was it just hornets and bees?
Yeah, we have. We have wasps.
Did you have any in your childhood or..?
I mean, they were.. They were around, you know.. I mean, they were scary. Yeah, they were.. They're kind of.. They're bigger. Not so many hornets.. Hornets that I'm used to are small.
Oh, right. Because I always thought hornets were big, yeah.
OK, maybe I'm not.. Maybe I don't know what I'm looking at, but wasps are big. You know, you got a big, segmented body, you know, and.. And they're scary and.. They but you can see their nest. They nest on this. You know, they make these nests on the surface of things, wood or whatever. And so you can see that and you have to.. You.. I mean, you can deal with them, kind of. I haven't ever done it, but you can do it.
Well, bees obviously make honey, and that's a very useful animals. They're very nice animals in general, unless you mess with them. Wasps. Why do they exist? Why do hornets and mosquitoes and all these little animals and insects insist? What purpose do they serve? I guess they feed some kind of animal. But what animal eats wasps?
I'm sure that.. I'm sure what birds eat them or, you know, whatever. Yeah, I mean..
Their eggs. I don't know.
The fish maybe eat their eggs. On the surfac of the water.
They're not at the top of the food chain, you know, and then they're getting eaten by something. You know, this gigantic wasp..
Well, I can't really imagine a bird trying to eat a wasp and then his face getting like my brother's friend...
Well, I mean, I don't know who else. Somebody's got to be doing it, because otherwise.
Yeah, supply and demand, there's got to be..
Yeah, there's gt to be.. There's got to be somebody there to eat them.
All right. Well, speaking of eating... To wrap up the show
If you had to choose one pest to eat, what would it be? So what are your pests?
Yeah, this is like the lunchtime extravaganza.
That's right. That's right. The mention of it earlier was the appetizer. Now is the main course.
So, actually, I have tried a couple of pests like cockroaches or kind of coconut worms like the fried wilds in Southeast Asia, in Vietnam and Thailand.
No, no. Rat was kind of, yeah.. It's kind of disgusting.
But I tried caiman, like alligator kind of.
Oh, that's nice. Was it like chicken?
Yes. It's like chicken. That's better. Better than chicken. The meat is so tender, you know? So, I tried twice. That was OK.
And what the cockroach is like?
You know what, cockroach, think.. Think about the cockroach like very, very salty potato crisp.
Yeah, it's full of flavor in a way. You just have a bite. You crunch it.
Yes, we can imagine. So a wonderful crunch.
That was allright. So it was a kind of a daily item is included and..
It's salty. Yeah. So they they served the cockroaches and the coconut worms like fried in deep.. Deep oil, and it's the kind of appetizer. You start before your meal lunch or main dinner. So you just go ahead and you eat them as quick as possible and then, yeah, you eat them as quick as possible. And then you start your main course. That was kind of thing. So...
Because I was absolutely traumatized by cockroaches having lived in Vegas and Brazil, and I just can't ever imagine eating them. Was this specific type of cockroach?
I mean, they're big, right?
They are big, yeah. They like this big. So if you like, you can remove the..
Well, like the exoskeleton.
Yeah, kind of. Some.. Some people prefer to just lick them in a way. So I'm just.. It's disgusting. I'm so sorry, but it's mainly consumed with one bite.
After saying.. Because when I lived in Vegas, I had a toilet and it was horrible because these cockroaches would literally come out of the toilet.
Oh, OK. Well, this really is a special sort of..
Hearing people eat cockroaches. I just...
... I just tried it. That's it. So I like it.
You had them coming in for.. At lunchtime?
When I first moved into the apartment in Vegas, there was.. I couldn't really see any cockroaches and then my neighbors moved out of the apartment.
And all of a sudden, these cockroaches, they must have been disturbed by moving furniture or something. And they started coming into my apartment and it was, yeah, it was literally like biblical proportions.
Yeah, it was absolutely horrible. And I just..
Did you have a landlord? I mean..
Yes, I did. And, obviously, I demanded that they sort out the issue. But I couldn't just cancel my rental agreement because that would incur fees. Not just fees like you'd have to pay like the remaining six months of the contract.
... And yeah, and I wasn't going to do that. And, yeah. So cockroaches..
Not that bad. Not that bad.
I guess if you breed them and you keep them in a cage.. Not cage, in aquarium or whatever.
Yeah, that they were kind of.. Yeah.. Producing them into the farm like thing. So it's kind of, yeah, the kind of mass production results in a way. So it's.. And they sell it to the restaurants.
If you go to the pet shops here in Novosibirsk, you'll see them. Because they.. People have pet snake, some people have snakes or other people.. I think. I think it' snakes. They eat them.
Snakes, Yeah. By the way, snakes are tasty, too.
Yeah. Oh yeah, you must have tried them.
Yeah, yeah. I tried Cobra. King Cobra.
Oh cool. Did you try the vodka with this?
In Mekong Delta. In Saigon, yeah.
And is the snake still alive?
As we say.. As we say in the kitchen.
Yes. Recently deceased. So you can.
Yeah, you can smell that ... Kind of.. Smell that animal flesh while you're drinking it.
In Japan and a lot of people eat animals alive.
I know, I know, it's right. Cooked, at least.
All right. So cockroaches are very brave of you. What would you eat?
I would... With reluctance, probably, go cockroaches. But you know, I'm not really an..
Ugur's description is not.. Is not increasing my desire.
Well, if I have eat a pest, I'm going to eat a deer.
Easy option. Or pigeon or something. Maybe not street pigeon, but yeah. Right, guys. Well, we're interested to hear what you want to eat. Let us know which pest you would choose to eat and why. And, yeah, if you've had any pest adventures, we also want to hear about your pest adventures. So be sure to subscribe to our channel. Follow us on our social media platforms, including vk.com and Telegram, et cetera. Or visit our website BigAppleSchool.com, where we have a wide range of articles and other podcast shows like this one. So that's it for today, guys. Thank you very much for participating, and we'll see you next time.
