People often talk about swapping out plastic straws for other materials to help the ocean/fish and the environment, but they also complain about paper straws falling apart easily. Other alternatives that are slightly more sturdy like straws made of straw don’t seem very common.
But do we even need straws? My first reaction was that any liquid can be drunk directly from the vessel it’s in, and straws just add another level of convenience. If we don’t want to use plastic straws and the alternatives mostly suck (actually all straws suck 🤓), why not just ditch straws entirely?
Australia checking in…
I remember being taught in school to always use straws when you’re outside so you don’t swallow a bee or spider that’s fallen into your drink.
This is probably more of a baseless anxiety than an actual risk though I guess. I guess aluminium cans are problematic because you can’t see what’s in your drink. Bees do always stop to investigate sweet drinks so yeah I guess a sweet drink in a can might be an actual risk without a straw.
When I was a kid, a wasp went into my uncle’s beer can at a backyard BBQ. My uncle didn’t notice and when he took a drink he swallowed the wasp. It stung him 5 times on the inside of his throat and esophagus, and he had to be rushed to the hospital because his neck was swelling up. He wasn’t allergic or anything; I guess that can just happen if you are literally stung from the inside. He survived, but it was a very close call, according to the doctor.
Holy shit. 5 times!?
I know a person that have her mouth stung that way. I’m not from Australia, by the way, and it’s not common to teach this around here.
Anyway, at the country areas around here it’s common to teach people to use straws with cans because when cans are stored badly, touching them with your mouth can transmit diseases.
A family friend was sent to the hospital because, when at a church yard sale, he left his can of Sprite unattended and a bee got into it. When he picked it back up and drank from it he drank the bee, too, and it stung him in the throat.
So it’s probably not a common issue but I can confirm it’s happened at least once. I’m American, we don’t really have the spider problem in the same way. Thank god, I hate spiders.
I had a teacher in elementary school who swallowed a bee this way.
We had snap on caps that would go over cans so we could close them when we weren’t drinking out of them.
I mean, the safest way to swallow a bee or spider would probably be after it drowned. So that just makes no sense at all.
Hmm, insects don’t really down the same way mammals do. A layer of air gets trapped against their thorax, some spiders use this to hunt under water IIRC.
Other commenters have replied with accounts of this happening.
They are arachnids not insects, but fair point.
Diving-bell spiders are very specialised and rare spiders, the vast majority doesn’t have that ability.
I mean you shouldn’t swallow them, but I don’t think straws are needed to prevent that.
The majority of arachnids don’t hunt under water, but they also don’t drown easily. I’ve seen huntsman spiders float on water like it’s no big deal.
Oh yes, a few of them can walk on water, fishing spiders even catch small fish through the surface. But that requires careful manipulation of surface tension. But it seems rather unlikey a spider would fall or slip into a drink and land perfecly on the surface. Once they break through the surface tension it works against them and even fishing spiders can struggle to get out again. Most spiders will drown within a few minutes once submerged when there is nothing to climb out on. The straw might actually safe them in that case!
I’d still say it’s a rather minor risk and just checking your drink before taking a sip is probably simpler then using a straw. I ususally just put a coaster on my glass when outside during the summer.