Valdis,
Re #16:
I once had a neighbour who walked out into her front garden one sunny morning and found her 3 year old son playing happily in the dirt with what looked like short black straggly things hanging from the corner of his mouth. She thought he might have eaten the leaves of a small plant and some of the stringy stems were hanging on. On closer inspection she discovered he'd eaten a live red-back spider! (true story)
