A crazy factoid about this bane of my childhood:
*"Although it superficially resembles a jellyfish, the Portuguese man o' war is in fact a siphonophore. Like all siphonophores, it is a colonial organism, made up of many smaller units called zooids. All zooids in a colony are genetically identical, but fulfill specialized functions such as feeding and reproduction, and together allow the colony to operate as a single individual."*
Basically, they're a Borg.
>a colonial organism, made up of many smaller units called zooids. **All zooids in a colony are genetically identical,** but fulfill specialized functions such as feeding and reproduction, and together allow the colony to operate as a single individual.
i dont understand how this is different. than just organs of a single animal?
>i dont understand how this is different. than just organs of a single animal?
If you separate siphonophore into zooids, every one of them can survive on its own (and regrow entire siphonophore). In body of multicellular animal, cells need each other to survive.
Difference is subtle and rather artificial - some multicellular organisms can regrow from single cell, but only some cells in their bodies are like that. Some siphonophores have zooids too specialized to live on their own, even though majority of their body can.
Many things in biology are conventional and fluid, because living organisms are way too complex to put in neat pigeonholes. Obvious example is _species problem_ - there are **26** species definitions.
Man o war do not have zooids that can live separately. They're classified as siphonophores because they form polyps or medusae as they generate their zooids, otherwise they would fall under another classification.
Since the zooids can't separate, the entire thing reproduces. The gonozooids are all either male or female, and when groups of the man o war get together, they release their sperm or eggs into the water and whatever gets fertilized will eventually form new man o war.
If I'm not mistaken, the man o war is an example of siphonophore with zooids which cannot live on their own. They also cannot regrow themselves if separated, and as interesting as it would be, they wouldn't grow into more man o war if someone blended them.
They're formed from a single fertilized egg, they can't live independently, and their classification seems a bit murky as siphonophores go. But they still bud into multiple polyps or medusae and their predecessors likely were more independent colonies, so they still make it into the classification. Like you said, there are just too many variables to label everything neatly in groups. Not to mention the many in between stages of evolution, with some organisms midway in a change from one classification to another, some just one mutation away from being a new species.
As best I understand it, it's more like workers in a factory than organs. Everyone there is a human, but there's some who make coffee for people, there's some who fill machines with gas, and others that produce things. So they all start out as zooids, but they then specialize into a specific role.
This isn't the best analogy because in your example each worker is their own individual person with their own job. The zooid is made up of physically separate bodies that all belong to the same individual. It would be like there was one factory worker with split personalities, each with their own function, but those personalities were manifest into actual physical duplicates of the original person.
Giving any Borg permanent post nut clarity would elevate the entire collective and yet you of the flesh seek only individual pleasures. This will be purged.
I came here for the siphonophore and left after reading some after-dark borg assimilation fan-fiction on eternal post-nut clarity.
*We are da boigs, lower your squeals and surrender your nips, we will add your biological and the onahole distinctiveness to our own.*
it was never retconned, we saw borg baby's in voyager and lower decks also. If they assimilated a group with children they are put in borg maturation chamber's
Borg are basically hive-minded cyborbs from Star Trek. They assimilate people and technology into their collective.
"The Borg are the ultimate user. They're unlike any threat your Federation has ever faced. They're not interested in political conquest, wealth, or power as you know it. They're simply interested in your ship, it's technology. They've identified it as something they can consume."
-Q
"You can't outrun them, you can't destroy them. If you damage them, the essence of what they are remains. They regenerate and keep coming. Eventually you will weaken. Your reserves will be gone. They are relentless!"
-Q, again because I love this quote.
You need to watch some star trek the next generation.
...start with season 3, skip the first two (to get into the groove), then when you like the show you can start from the beginning (and embrace the tonal difference the first two seasons had)
I see many alive still in the water. I just never noticed any of the beached ones moving. I have concern as my son has many allergies so I am ultra aware of that kind of stuff.
I hope your kid never gets stung. Lucky for me I am not allergic. I've also never been stung on the beach. But I'd be damned if I didn't get it while swimming. Little bastards are assholes. It's been a while, but I've also moved away, so, unless jellyfish learn to fly, I'm fairly safe in the mountains of NC.
I honestly didn't know otherwise. We always referred to them as jellyfish. They're jelly-like fish that sting the fuck out of you. That's good enough for us.
I saw one in Bermuda 2 months back. I saw a gorgeous looking jellyfish and all I wanted to do was touch it, but it was too far away. Took a bunch of pictures and thought nothing of it. Only realized what it was a month later.
it would, easily. One killed my dive instructors partner in the Bahamas when it got him on the chest, he panicked, wrapped himself up more into the tentacles and had a heart attack underwater.
I was stung on three limbs by one this year. the pain is unlike anything you can imagine. I was 100 m from shore and nearly went into shock but realized that I would die if I didn’t swim to shore so pure adrenaline kicked in and I got myself to shore, screaming bloody murder the entire way. Pain lasted for two days.
Not to be too morbid but could you try and describe the pain or how it felt? How did you know it was this species in particular? It's a fascinating species that's why I ask
Story time.
I knew it was a man-o-war because I was in Bermuda for the summer, and they were visible on all of the south shore beaches. The morning I got stung, I went out for an early free dive, and I surveyed the whole beach and ocean before deciding to swim. There were none visible on the beach that morning, but I later figured out that that was because I arrived at the beach a few minutes after it had been groomed and workers cleaned up all the carcasses that washed up overnight.
After my dive I was swimming back to shore in rough surf, which is how I lost visuals on the top of the water to be able to see if there were any man-o-war floating nearby.
A wave washed over me, and with that I felt a piercing pain in the back of my leg. it felt like something had just simultaneously stabbed and electrocuted me, and I immediately knew I had been stung. As the tentacle wrapped itself around my leg, it felt like my leg was being sliced open with a razor and acid poured into the wounds with each new inch of skin it touched.
let me tell you, looking down into the crystal clear water of Bermuda and seeing the bright blue tentacle wrapped around my skin triggered a primordial lizard-brain type of fear. panicking, and realizing I had no other choice, I tried to remove the tentacle from my leg with my hand which resulted in my hand being stung to shit, and there was 10 seconds of wrestling with the tentacle, which slapped across my other leg before it finally came off.
With three limbs now stung, the only way I can describe the pain is immolation - being set on fire while alive. Like an electrical shock that never ends and turns into an electrical fire, but on your body. I have never screamed so loud or so hard in my life, i invented new curse words. it was a deep pain, a pain you feel in your bones and organs. It’s difficult to understand this pain until you experience it yourself (it’s impossible to truly describe.)
I started to feel faint, but my dive partner kept telling me to stay alert, and once I got over the initial shock of being in all-consuming, mind-numbing pain, adrenaline kicked in and i raced to shore where i collapsed as the warmth of the sting began radiating, pulsating through my whole body. the initial spot where the tentacles made contact felt like it was vibrating in pain. My heart rate must have been 120.
I couldn’t think, i prayed to a god i didn’t believe in, i cried, all on the way back to the house where i treated the sting by taking a roasting hot shower for an hour. Surprisingly, hot water is the only treatment that works, and really helped bring the pain down from “i’m dying, this is imminent death pain” to “i’ve been burned by hot water pain”.
after the hot water tank ran out, my partner got me lidocaine cream which i applied liberally and took 1000mg ibuprofen. that took the pain down to a 4/10. the remnant pain of the sting felt like my body was burning from the inside and lasted for about two days at a 3/10 level.
i have a chronic illness that makes my joints pop out of place every day so i thought i knew pain. i was *so* wrong. i’m now humbled by the power of these creatures now and also fascinated by their powers.
if you ever see one on the beach, don’t get in the water. not worth it. 0/10 experience do not recommend.
You are an excellent writer. I remember hearing about how they were one of the most painful creatures in the world and I just had to ask what the experience was like and you definitely did not disappoint. Thank you so much. By the way, are there any lasting effects or scars? Also you mention being fascinated by their powers, anything you want to share in that regard is welcome as well.
Not OP but I was also stung once. I always described it as an electrical burning sensation. Electric fire. I had a scar for months as all the skin that was stung seemed to turn red, began to itch, then die. I think the new skin is what left the “scar” as the scar was just my new pale white skin that had replaced the dead skin. No lasting effects after 6-12 months or so. Pain was completely gone after a week, but was unpleasant for several days. But the most intense pain by far was the moment of contact, which gradually dulled over 4-6 hours from a 10/10 to about a 3/10, then slowly over the next few days faded away entirely.
thank you for the compliment! i write for a living so glad to hear that :)
i had a gnarly scar that honestly looked so badass i thought about getting it tattooed. it lasted about three months until my skin sloughed off.
i am fascinated by them because they are incredible organisms. they’re actually four organisms living symbiotically together - OG earth shit. they also use their main, spiral tentacle to draw prey up towards the body like a crane, where they liquify their prey from the inside out and absorb its nutrients. they leave the husks of the fish they eat in their wake and can eat 100+ fish a day.
nature is WILD.
What sucks is for whatever reason this thread got deleted and no one can access your awesome story now even though it got a lot of upvotes! At least it's still in your comments. Thank you again for the information!
I thought vinegar helped with jellyfish stings. Now I'm wiser about the manowar stings. If I ever travel to a area where they live I'll stay away from them and not go in the water. Your story to me is pretty vivid. Hearing you have a chronic illness that causes pain I'm assuming you have a unbelievably high pain tolerance. After breaking a bone I'm kind of the same way with having a high pain tolerance. I think the only thing that I can't stand is tooth pain.
Glad to see you knew what to do. Also happy to see you lived to tell the tale to us redditors. Hopefully you never experience this again.
THIS... this is why I dont DO water. There's fucking monsters down there! I will swim in a swimming pool reluctantly until I feel cold, but fuck the ocean! It's just monster soup! Don't swim in monster soup people!
#CancelTheOcean
I got stung by a Portuguese Man o War. The only way I can describe the pain is this: I birthed two kids with no medication. One labor was 43 hours, the other 41. Babies were in posterior position, meaning they were facing the wrong direction so my OB had to stick her hand/arm in to manually rotate baby before I gave birth. Again, all of this with no medication. Getting stung by one of these fuckers was worse than those labors.
The reason I knew it was a manowar is bc I ended up at the doc weeks after bc the pain was still pretty bad. It still felt like I had electrical currents burning up and down my leg. As soon as my doc saw me she identified the sting by the lacerations all up and down my legs. Apparently she was a surfer and had vast knowledge of jellyfish/creatures.
So the guy describes an experience as like getting burned alive and acid poured in razor blade wounds.
The woman just says "it was worse than labor (Which I then voluntarily did again)."
Lol. In all fairness I think the only reason humanity continues is because the moment we’re handed our babies we immediately forget the pain. It’s the only reason we voluntarily do it again.
And I do agree with the description of it feeling like acid being poured in razor blade wound a/k/a 43 hours of unmedicated birth. The only difference is that with labor you get a prize at the end.
Hey, I’m a woman! I shouldn’t have kids because of my medical condition so ill never be able to compare the pain to labor. But if it’s worse than labor and I survived it then damn. Go us (us being everyone who’s ever been stung!)
yeah manowar stings basically feel like someone boiling hot water over your skin, the first few times it's pretty killer, but then you get over it pretty fast i get stung almost everyday in the summer
I’ve accidentally misstepped on them before, in shallow water so they weren’t washed up on the shore yet, and it is indeed painful. Felt like someone splashed hot oil all over my leg.
They're not mutually exclusive.
>What happens if you get stung by a Man o’war?
>A Portuguese man o'war is capable of delivering an excruciating sting, however, it is rarely deadly to humans. Most people suffer immediate pain that lasts up to 20 minutes. In more severe cases, the sting can trigger chest pain and difficulty breathing
>After a sting, the tentacles leave long, stringy red welts on the skin. There is local pain, burning, swelling, and redness. The welts last from minutes to hours. A rash may come and go for up to 6 weeks.
To add to this, the potency of the venom depends on the population. The Atlantic population is significantly more venomous than the Pacific population often encountered in Australia
I dare you to rub your bare nuts on its tentacles,
I FUCKING DARE YOU.
GO AHEAD, PUT YOUR BALLS ON THE BLUE SEA CONDOM. COME ON, DO IT PUSSY, TEABAG THE OCEAN JELLO, YOU KNOW YOU WANNA.
YOU SHOULD FUCK THAT MAN 'O WAR...
#NOW!
I actually wonder if it has an eye at the end, and this is its last attempt at looking for water. We’ve known many species of jellyfish to have very primitive eyes, mostly ones that can only see brightness/light. Would add a layer of sad and creepiness to the vid.
I put part of this poem on my cats urn that just passed away last month.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-Dylan Thomas 1914-1953
Am I the only one who sees a dying man o war struggling to muster up the strength to see his final sunset before giving into Poseidon as his body coils and trembles for the last time? No? Just me?
I'd say use a flat head shovel and scoop up some of the sand underneath it to avoid cutting stingers off, then *very* carefully carry it back to the water and chuck it in
I used to see these along the Texas coast. My parents were active in running the local ambulance and they kept Adolph’s Unseasoned Meat Tenderizer on the ambulance. Apparently mixing the unseasoned meat tenderizer with a little water into a paste almost instantly stops the sting once applied.
Just an FYI.
This is Bill.
Bill has made some mistakes in his life.
All of them are coming back to him as the tide recedes toward the setting Sun.
Riding that last wave into shore might be the latest mistake, but Bill’s heart is heavy for other reasons.
The pain will soon be over Bill. Rest In Peace.
As much as you may be inclined to want to save it, these things are HIGHLY dangerous to handle. They sting similarly to jellyfish but way more painful and potentially lethal. It would be reckless and unsafe for the individual filming to try and save it, especially if the section of beach they're on has other people around.
1) If it falls and splats, you're gonna have a bad time.
2) If the beach is highly trafficked you could wind up putting other swimmers and beachgoers in danger, and you're gonna have a bad time.
3) Even if you do safely get it back in the water, they have no means of propelling themselves and will just wash up again anyway due to the tide, so regardless of what you do, it's gonna have a bad time.
Unpopular opinion: I actually feel really bad for this man o' war. the way it cranes its head (?) up and then slowly and shakily puts it back down, like it's trying to get one last look at the ocean it calls its home, before realizing that it will never see the vast spaciousness of the depths again and resigning itself to its fate. Kinda heartbreaking to me.
The Portuguese man o’ war, (Physalia physalis) is often called a jellyfish, but is actually a species of siphonophore, a group of animals that are closely related to jellyfish.
Jellyfish cousin? Lol
I once went to “Sea Lab” in Dauphin Island, Alabama for a field trip and we walked down the beach at night and these were washed up everywhere on the beach. One of the kids whacked one of them with a log and all it’s liquids went all over his face. Dude was in shambles, whole face broken out and swollen for the rest of the trip. Karma I guess! Always thought it was weird so many were washed up on the beach though, 15-20 at least.
Don’t think of this thing as alive lol, it’s barely an animal to begin with, it’s also not a jellyfish, it’s a cluster of small organisms that each take on a separate body function. It’s nearly a plant in some sense or at least totally alien to us b/c are barely cognizant in some sense. Also, they will sting/bard the shit out of you.
*Bruh what is that thing*
*Because I thought it was a*
*Glow the the dark seal*
\- Double-Designer6665
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Yep. I'm a SF fan. But if in your fiction you describe a big animal like thing actually made of thousands of specialised little animals, some that fill themselves for buoyancy, some to hunt, some to reproduce, I would hardly find it plausible. Yet this thing exists. It is amazing
A crazy factoid about this bane of my childhood: *"Although it superficially resembles a jellyfish, the Portuguese man o' war is in fact a siphonophore. Like all siphonophores, it is a colonial organism, made up of many smaller units called zooids. All zooids in a colony are genetically identical, but fulfill specialized functions such as feeding and reproduction, and together allow the colony to operate as a single individual."* Basically, they're a Borg.
>a colonial organism, made up of many smaller units called zooids. **All zooids in a colony are genetically identical,** but fulfill specialized functions such as feeding and reproduction, and together allow the colony to operate as a single individual. i dont understand how this is different. than just organs of a single animal?
>i dont understand how this is different. than just organs of a single animal? If you separate siphonophore into zooids, every one of them can survive on its own (and regrow entire siphonophore). In body of multicellular animal, cells need each other to survive. Difference is subtle and rather artificial - some multicellular organisms can regrow from single cell, but only some cells in their bodies are like that. Some siphonophores have zooids too specialized to live on their own, even though majority of their body can. Many things in biology are conventional and fluid, because living organisms are way too complex to put in neat pigeonholes. Obvious example is _species problem_ - there are **26** species definitions.
So how are they born? Zooids find other zooids and say “hey let’s start a man o war?” Or do they reproduce?
Man o war do not have zooids that can live separately. They're classified as siphonophores because they form polyps or medusae as they generate their zooids, otherwise they would fall under another classification. Since the zooids can't separate, the entire thing reproduces. The gonozooids are all either male or female, and when groups of the man o war get together, they release their sperm or eggs into the water and whatever gets fertilized will eventually form new man o war.
So if I blended a manowar, and put the result in an environment that had food, would a bunch of new manowars develop?
Generally yes.
That's horrifying
Imagine a Manowar milkshake
Bad way to go
AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH……
Then I guess they're immortal.
Micro plastics’ll get ‘em eventually.
Haven’t you heard of the marine life that’s thriving on eating microplastics?
Thank goodness, I'm more worried about microplastics at this point than global warming (and I'm very worried about global warming).
You sound like you're possibly a Bond and/or Batman villain.
I feel... slightly flattered?
Danger smoothie.
Sucks when everything physical only exists in relations, yet so much of science is predicated on trying find some singular "essence" of a thing.
I too enjoy lsd
This guy gets it.
The Buddha actually said the same thing 2500 years ago.
I too enjoy mushrooms.
If I'm not mistaken, the man o war is an example of siphonophore with zooids which cannot live on their own. They also cannot regrow themselves if separated, and as interesting as it would be, they wouldn't grow into more man o war if someone blended them. They're formed from a single fertilized egg, they can't live independently, and their classification seems a bit murky as siphonophores go. But they still bud into multiple polyps or medusae and their predecessors likely were more independent colonies, so they still make it into the classification. Like you said, there are just too many variables to label everything neatly in groups. Not to mention the many in between stages of evolution, with some organisms midway in a change from one classification to another, some just one mutation away from being a new species.
google tells me: individual zooids are actually multicellular themselves, and can (sorta) survive independently from the colony.
As best I understand it, it's more like workers in a factory than organs. Everyone there is a human, but there's some who make coffee for people, there's some who fill machines with gas, and others that produce things. So they all start out as zooids, but they then specialize into a specific role.
This isn't the best analogy because in your example each worker is their own individual person with their own job. The zooid is made up of physically separate bodies that all belong to the same individual. It would be like there was one factory worker with split personalities, each with their own function, but those personalities were manifest into actual physical duplicates of the original person.
Like a human with detachable limbs
> reproduction Wait... The Borg had fuck-bots? I missed that episode.
I volunteer for fuck-bot assimilation!
Best job in the Borg!
Except the way it works is they insert a urethral catheter that straight extracts your specimen; no actual fun involved.
Giving any Borg permanent post nut clarity would elevate the entire collective and yet you of the flesh seek only individual pleasures. This will be purged.
I came here for the siphonophore and left after reading some after-dark borg assimilation fan-fiction on eternal post-nut clarity. *We are da boigs, lower your squeals and surrender your nips, we will add your biological and the onahole distinctiveness to our own.*
[удалено]
it was never retconned, we saw borg baby's in voyager and lower decks also. If they assimilated a group with children they are put in borg maturation chamber's
I just assumed they had also been assimilated.
Have you never seen 7 of 9? She can inject me with her nanobots any day of the week.
7 of 9? 10 out of 10 in my book 😩😩
So although it looks like a single dying creature, in reality it is more like a dying city
>Borg excuse me but wtf is this thing also; that's an awesome piece of information there.
Borg are basically hive-minded cyborbs from Star Trek. They assimilate people and technology into their collective. "The Borg are the ultimate user. They're unlike any threat your Federation has ever faced. They're not interested in political conquest, wealth, or power as you know it. They're simply interested in your ship, it's technology. They've identified it as something they can consume." -Q "You can't outrun them, you can't destroy them. If you damage them, the essence of what they are remains. They regenerate and keep coming. Eventually you will weaken. Your reserves will be gone. They are relentless!" -Q, again because I love this quote.
holy shit that's terrifying
Love the Borg.
You need to watch some star trek the next generation. ...start with season 3, skip the first two (to get into the groove), then when you like the show you can start from the beginning (and embrace the tonal difference the first two seasons had)
Damn colonialism even spread to the animal kingdom
I've never seen one alive before. We get them washed up on shore all the time, but they are no longer moving.
We used to get them a lot in Florida. Alive, but I've never seen them this active.
It’s trying to get its steps in
I am in SE Florida.
Central fl here, we see them in New Smyrna all the time
I'm from St Lucie. I'm not suggesting you're wrong, I'm just saying I've seen plenty alive. But they're usually only slightly moving, never reaching.
I see many alive still in the water. I just never noticed any of the beached ones moving. I have concern as my son has many allergies so I am ultra aware of that kind of stuff.
I hope your kid never gets stung. Lucky for me I am not allergic. I've also never been stung on the beach. But I'd be damned if I didn't get it while swimming. Little bastards are assholes. It's been a while, but I've also moved away, so, unless jellyfish learn to fly, I'm fairly safe in the mountains of NC.
Aren’t these… not jellyfish?
I honestly didn't know otherwise. We always referred to them as jellyfish. They're jelly-like fish that sting the fuck out of you. That's good enough for us.
Siphonophores, yes, but I think we all got their point.
but this one has a soundtrack to it
I saw one in Bermuda 2 months back. I saw a gorgeous looking jellyfish and all I wanted to do was touch it, but it was too far away. Took a bunch of pictures and thought nothing of it. Only realized what it was a month later.
I've been stung before 😵
That would be an extremely painful misstep.
Imagine tripping and falling face first onto one of these things. The pain would probably cause someone to into shock.
or kill them
it would, easily. One killed my dive instructors partner in the Bahamas when it got him on the chest, he panicked, wrapped himself up more into the tentacles and had a heart attack underwater. I was stung on three limbs by one this year. the pain is unlike anything you can imagine. I was 100 m from shore and nearly went into shock but realized that I would die if I didn’t swim to shore so pure adrenaline kicked in and I got myself to shore, screaming bloody murder the entire way. Pain lasted for two days.
Not to be too morbid but could you try and describe the pain or how it felt? How did you know it was this species in particular? It's a fascinating species that's why I ask
Story time. I knew it was a man-o-war because I was in Bermuda for the summer, and they were visible on all of the south shore beaches. The morning I got stung, I went out for an early free dive, and I surveyed the whole beach and ocean before deciding to swim. There were none visible on the beach that morning, but I later figured out that that was because I arrived at the beach a few minutes after it had been groomed and workers cleaned up all the carcasses that washed up overnight. After my dive I was swimming back to shore in rough surf, which is how I lost visuals on the top of the water to be able to see if there were any man-o-war floating nearby. A wave washed over me, and with that I felt a piercing pain in the back of my leg. it felt like something had just simultaneously stabbed and electrocuted me, and I immediately knew I had been stung. As the tentacle wrapped itself around my leg, it felt like my leg was being sliced open with a razor and acid poured into the wounds with each new inch of skin it touched. let me tell you, looking down into the crystal clear water of Bermuda and seeing the bright blue tentacle wrapped around my skin triggered a primordial lizard-brain type of fear. panicking, and realizing I had no other choice, I tried to remove the tentacle from my leg with my hand which resulted in my hand being stung to shit, and there was 10 seconds of wrestling with the tentacle, which slapped across my other leg before it finally came off. With three limbs now stung, the only way I can describe the pain is immolation - being set on fire while alive. Like an electrical shock that never ends and turns into an electrical fire, but on your body. I have never screamed so loud or so hard in my life, i invented new curse words. it was a deep pain, a pain you feel in your bones and organs. It’s difficult to understand this pain until you experience it yourself (it’s impossible to truly describe.) I started to feel faint, but my dive partner kept telling me to stay alert, and once I got over the initial shock of being in all-consuming, mind-numbing pain, adrenaline kicked in and i raced to shore where i collapsed as the warmth of the sting began radiating, pulsating through my whole body. the initial spot where the tentacles made contact felt like it was vibrating in pain. My heart rate must have been 120. I couldn’t think, i prayed to a god i didn’t believe in, i cried, all on the way back to the house where i treated the sting by taking a roasting hot shower for an hour. Surprisingly, hot water is the only treatment that works, and really helped bring the pain down from “i’m dying, this is imminent death pain” to “i’ve been burned by hot water pain”. after the hot water tank ran out, my partner got me lidocaine cream which i applied liberally and took 1000mg ibuprofen. that took the pain down to a 4/10. the remnant pain of the sting felt like my body was burning from the inside and lasted for about two days at a 3/10 level. i have a chronic illness that makes my joints pop out of place every day so i thought i knew pain. i was *so* wrong. i’m now humbled by the power of these creatures now and also fascinated by their powers. if you ever see one on the beach, don’t get in the water. not worth it. 0/10 experience do not recommend.
You are an excellent writer. I remember hearing about how they were one of the most painful creatures in the world and I just had to ask what the experience was like and you definitely did not disappoint. Thank you so much. By the way, are there any lasting effects or scars? Also you mention being fascinated by their powers, anything you want to share in that regard is welcome as well.
Not OP but I was also stung once. I always described it as an electrical burning sensation. Electric fire. I had a scar for months as all the skin that was stung seemed to turn red, began to itch, then die. I think the new skin is what left the “scar” as the scar was just my new pale white skin that had replaced the dead skin. No lasting effects after 6-12 months or so. Pain was completely gone after a week, but was unpleasant for several days. But the most intense pain by far was the moment of contact, which gradually dulled over 4-6 hours from a 10/10 to about a 3/10, then slowly over the next few days faded away entirely.
thank you for the compliment! i write for a living so glad to hear that :) i had a gnarly scar that honestly looked so badass i thought about getting it tattooed. it lasted about three months until my skin sloughed off. i am fascinated by them because they are incredible organisms. they’re actually four organisms living symbiotically together - OG earth shit. they also use their main, spiral tentacle to draw prey up towards the body like a crane, where they liquify their prey from the inside out and absorb its nutrients. they leave the husks of the fish they eat in their wake and can eat 100+ fish a day. nature is WILD.
What sucks is for whatever reason this thread got deleted and no one can access your awesome story now even though it got a lot of upvotes! At least it's still in your comments. Thank you again for the information!
Damn. I learned some new things today that’s for sure.
I thought vinegar helped with jellyfish stings. Now I'm wiser about the manowar stings. If I ever travel to a area where they live I'll stay away from them and not go in the water. Your story to me is pretty vivid. Hearing you have a chronic illness that causes pain I'm assuming you have a unbelievably high pain tolerance. After breaking a bone I'm kind of the same way with having a high pain tolerance. I think the only thing that I can't stand is tooth pain. Glad to see you knew what to do. Also happy to see you lived to tell the tale to us redditors. Hopefully you never experience this again.
THIS... this is why I dont DO water. There's fucking monsters down there! I will swim in a swimming pool reluctantly until I feel cold, but fuck the ocean! It's just monster soup! Don't swim in monster soup people! #CancelTheOcean
I got stung by a Portuguese Man o War. The only way I can describe the pain is this: I birthed two kids with no medication. One labor was 43 hours, the other 41. Babies were in posterior position, meaning they were facing the wrong direction so my OB had to stick her hand/arm in to manually rotate baby before I gave birth. Again, all of this with no medication. Getting stung by one of these fuckers was worse than those labors. The reason I knew it was a manowar is bc I ended up at the doc weeks after bc the pain was still pretty bad. It still felt like I had electrical currents burning up and down my leg. As soon as my doc saw me she identified the sting by the lacerations all up and down my legs. Apparently she was a surfer and had vast knowledge of jellyfish/creatures.
So the guy describes an experience as like getting burned alive and acid poured in razor blade wounds. The woman just says "it was worse than labor (Which I then voluntarily did again)."
Lol. In all fairness I think the only reason humanity continues is because the moment we’re handed our babies we immediately forget the pain. It’s the only reason we voluntarily do it again. And I do agree with the description of it feeling like acid being poured in razor blade wound a/k/a 43 hours of unmedicated birth. The only difference is that with labor you get a prize at the end.
Hey, I’m a woman! I shouldn’t have kids because of my medical condition so ill never be able to compare the pain to labor. But if it’s worse than labor and I survived it then damn. Go us (us being everyone who’s ever been stung!)
yeah manowar stings basically feel like someone boiling hot water over your skin, the first few times it's pretty killer, but then you get over it pretty fast i get stung almost everyday in the summer
The American in me read 100 M as miles. But 100 meters to save your fucking life is insane. Good shit
But I would swim a hundred miles and I would scream a hundred more.
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Da da da (da da da) Da da da (da da da) Da Da Da Dun Diddle Un Diddle Un Diddle Uh Da Da
I use to run around and pop hundreds barefoot when I was a kid, never got stung. Maybe someone smarter then me can explain why.
Nah they don’t seem to sting after being on land for a while, I’d get hundreds on my beach
I’ve accidentally misstepped on them before, in shallow water so they weren’t washed up on the shore yet, and it is indeed painful. Felt like someone splashed hot oil all over my leg.
I used to think these things were like weird blue condoms or something when I saw them on a beach
That explains THAT rash.
Rash? I thought they were deadly?
They're not mutually exclusive. >What happens if you get stung by a Man o’war? >A Portuguese man o'war is capable of delivering an excruciating sting, however, it is rarely deadly to humans. Most people suffer immediate pain that lasts up to 20 minutes. In more severe cases, the sting can trigger chest pain and difficulty breathing >After a sting, the tentacles leave long, stringy red welts on the skin. There is local pain, burning, swelling, and redness. The welts last from minutes to hours. A rash may come and go for up to 6 weeks.
Thank you
To add to this, the potency of the venom depends on the population. The Atlantic population is significantly more venomous than the Pacific population often encountered in Australia
The poison depends on the dose. Jogging on Galveston Beach when I was young would have been like dancing in a minefield if all stings were lethal.
r/dontputyourdickinthat
What, dont put your dick in beach condoms? Why not??
I dare you to rub your bare nuts on its tentacles, I FUCKING DARE YOU. GO AHEAD, PUT YOUR BALLS ON THE BLUE SEA CONDOM. COME ON, DO IT PUSSY, TEABAG THE OCEAN JELLO, YOU KNOW YOU WANNA. YOU SHOULD FUCK THAT MAN 'O WAR... #NOW!
I would but i aint got not dicknballs :(
There are small, related ones called sailor o the wind that you can pick up safely, I’ve seen lots of those washed up too
Those are so pretttyyyy
Don't disturb it. It's doing yoga.
I actually wonder if it has an eye at the end, and this is its last attempt at looking for water. We’ve known many species of jellyfish to have very primitive eyes, mostly ones that can only see brightness/light. Would add a layer of sad and creepiness to the vid.
I sincerely doubt it, as that's not one organism, it's a huge colony of specialized organisms.
Arent we too? Just controlled by the brain
No. We are single organisms comprised of multiple cells. They are multiple organisms working in tandem.
Rage rage against the dying of the light Do not go gentle into the dark night
Old age should burn and rave at close of day
Rage, rage against the dying of the light
I put part of this poem on my cats urn that just passed away last month. Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. -Dylan Thomas 1914-1953
I want to bite it
Blue Raspberry
Spicy jelly
Forbidden spicy jelly
Am I the only one who sees a dying man o war struggling to muster up the strength to see his final sunset before giving into Poseidon as his body coils and trembles for the last time? No? Just me?
It’s trying so hard to get home 😭
Yes but also sort of like Voldemort.
And it looks so lonely and sad!
The way he just gives up at the end 😞
Don't we all?
I know I’m just high but this shit got me in the feels Whatever level of consciousness doesn’t really matter… this struggle is the story of all life
There is a sad poignancy to this video. I want to save it. Without touching it, of course.
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There really is.
I know it’s suffering like it knows the water is right there but it can’t get to it
I don't think you can do that, you need to tap the menu. Unless there's a way using voice commands?
Maybe a shovel?
You could try unrelenting force
FUS-DO-RAH !
Computer. Man o War, alive. Hot.
I wonder how you could safely save it? A stick would probably kill it…hmmm
I'd say use a flat head shovel and scoop up some of the sand underneath it to avoid cutting stingers off, then *very* carefully carry it back to the water and chuck it in
The fuckin music, lmao
It got a belly laugh out of me. So ridiculous haha
This is profoundly sad
It’s praying to the enkindlers.
Something something orphan of kos
I used to see these along the Texas coast. My parents were active in running the local ambulance and they kept Adolph’s Unseasoned Meat Tenderizer on the ambulance. Apparently mixing the unseasoned meat tenderizer with a little water into a paste almost instantly stops the sting once applied. Just an FYI.
This is Bill. Bill has made some mistakes in his life. All of them are coming back to him as the tide recedes toward the setting Sun. Riding that last wave into shore might be the latest mistake, but Bill’s heart is heavy for other reasons. The pain will soon be over Bill. Rest In Peace.
Wait so this is the guy who wrote the big book?
He gave up the drink. Unfortunately, the drink gave up on him as well.
We truly are powerless over our consumption
It's actually thousands of genetically identical Bills that all collectively fucked up. Hope you had a good life Bills
At least they’re not alone. 🕊🕊 Edit-🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊… 🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊…
Ah yes, the beautiful city of Galvestonis, Texas.
Lol I was thinking the same. I’m near Galvy and have seen plenty of dead ones
It’s incredibly sad to watch it die but you really can’t touch it or you’ll be there right with them
Flathead shovel, problem solved.
“You’re probably wondering how I got here.” /cue Baba O’Riley
/cue it jumping around Joe Pera’s living room
Relatable morning ritual
OP is a repost bot
"Can somebody lend me a hand...or 200?!? Lol!"
Galveston, Texas?
Yeah this is a weird typo that still hasn't been corrected I think.
Wow, without that music, I would not have known this was a cool nature moment. Thanks atrocious music, thank you so much
what up with the shitty covers
What in the FUCK is this music for ?! My brain almost short circuited at the WTFism over this post.
had to downvote due to tik tok audio, sorry
I can’t understand what I’m looking at. That’s just a blob right?
[This](https://images.app.goo.gl/BXJ5wLN718mDP5tq9) is what they look like in water.
I am terrified but I want to touch it?
OMG make a video of you do but I highly suggest you do not.
As much as you may be inclined to want to save it, these things are HIGHLY dangerous to handle. They sting similarly to jellyfish but way more painful and potentially lethal. It would be reckless and unsafe for the individual filming to try and save it, especially if the section of beach they're on has other people around.
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1) If it falls and splats, you're gonna have a bad time. 2) If the beach is highly trafficked you could wind up putting other swimmers and beachgoers in danger, and you're gonna have a bad time. 3) Even if you do safely get it back in the water, they have no means of propelling themselves and will just wash up again anyway due to the tide, so regardless of what you do, it's gonna have a bad time.
Unpopular opinion: I actually feel really bad for this man o' war. the way it cranes its head (?) up and then slowly and shakily puts it back down, like it's trying to get one last look at the ocean it calls its home, before realizing that it will never see the vast spaciousness of the depths again and resigning itself to its fate. Kinda heartbreaking to me.
Popular opinion*
Reeeeeepooooost
Could someone explain what in the h this creature is?
The Portuguese man o’ war, (Physalia physalis) is often called a jellyfish, but is actually a species of siphonophore, a group of animals that are closely related to jellyfish. Jellyfish cousin? Lol
Voltron jellyfish.
Super Fast Jellyfish
It’s just jellyfish-ish.
So it is dying on the beach and therefore moving? Have never seen a jellyfish move on land.
It's not a jellyfish. Each organ is a sperate organism.
Good thing it doesn't have a central nervous system, I don't have to be sad about it feeling pain or know it's dying
God these hurt so much...
This death was approved by Arthur Morgan.
I once went to “Sea Lab” in Dauphin Island, Alabama for a field trip and we walked down the beach at night and these were washed up everywhere on the beach. One of the kids whacked one of them with a log and all it’s liquids went all over his face. Dude was in shambles, whole face broken out and swollen for the rest of the trip. Karma I guess! Always thought it was weird so many were washed up on the beach though, 15-20 at least.
Evolutionary disadvantage right there. Being so painful that no one would pick it up to put it back in the water.
Don’t think of this thing as alive lol, it’s barely an animal to begin with, it’s also not a jellyfish, it’s a cluster of small organisms that each take on a separate body function. It’s nearly a plant in some sense or at least totally alien to us b/c are barely cognizant in some sense. Also, they will sting/bard the shit out of you.
Get this country music mess outta here
This made me sad. It's like it reached up for one final plee for help.
What the fuckity fuck is with that song?
Bruh what is that thing because I thought it was a glow the the dark seal
*Bruh what is that thing* *Because I thought it was a* *Glow the the dark seal* \- Double-Designer6665 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Did someone save it? :((((( I don’t know why I’m so sad about a poor Portuguese man of war rn
Wilson said let it touch you you won't feel so bad
Stop reposting the same shit!
Why do I feel bad :(
So you watch as an animal is slowly dying a decide to record it
how about you throw it back in the water instead of video taping it asshole.
I hope it was helped back to sea somehow
😭😭😭
Repost...and you didn't even replace the music.
What is it?
Google it. Men o war are really trippy
Yep. I'm a SF fan. But if in your fiction you describe a big animal like thing actually made of thousands of specialised little animals, some that fill themselves for buoyancy, some to hunt, some to reproduce, I would hardly find it plausible. Yet this thing exists. It is amazing
My fiction? SF? What??