Camping can easily become one of your passions in life, drawing you back to nature time and again. To keep it a great joy, before you set up your campsite and unroll your sleeping bags, become aware of which plants near where you plan to camp are poisonous to people or animals. Some plants harmless to people are lethal to pets and vice versa. Lethality is a survival trait for many plants and those plants need to be taken seriously.

As part of smart planning, call the local Poison Control Center where you plan to camp and learn of any local poisonous plants. Local Poison Control Center numbers can be found at THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF POISON CONTROL CENTERS (http://www.aapcc.org/DNN). Then Google the poisonous plants in your camping area, learn how they poison (absorption, ingestion or inhalation) and print out pictures for your camping group. CORNELL UNIVERSITY POISONOUS PLANTS INFORMATIONAL DATABASE offers an excellent on-line source for photos and details about poisonous plants.

Angels Trumpet, Azalea (aka Rhododendron), Belladonna (aka Deadly Nightshade), Black Laurel, Black Locust, Boxwood, Bracken Fern, Burning Bush, Caley Pea, Carolina Jessamine, Castor Bean, Celandine, Chinaberry, Christmas Rose, Cocklebur, Common Nightshade (aka Black Nightshade, Horse Nettle and Buffalo Bur), Corn Cockle, Cowbane (aka Water Hemlock), Cowhage, Crown Vetch, Daphne, Day or Night Blooming Jasmine, Death Camus, Delphiniums, Dogbane, Eastern Skunk Cabbage, Elderberry, Ergot, Foxglove, Golden Chain (aka Laburnum), Great Lobelia, Hairy Vetch, Henbane, Horse Chestnut (aka Buckeye), Hydrangea, Irises, Jack in the Pulpit, Japanese Pieris, Lantana (aka Red or Yellow Sage), Lambs Quarters, Larkspur, Laurel, Lily of the Valley, Lucerne, Lupines, Manchineel tree, Mandrake (aka Mayapple), Marijuana, Mesquite, Monkshood (aka Aconite or Wolfsbane), Moonseed, Mushrooms (not all mushrooms are poisonous but many are and can kill quickly with no antidote), Oleander, Pangi , Poinsettia, Poison Ivy, Poison Hemlock, Poison Oak, Poison Sumac, Pokeweed, Poppies, Privet, Rengas tree, Rhubarb, Rosemary Pea, Senecio (aka Groundsels and Ragworts), Star of Bethlehem , Stinging Nettle, Strychnine tree, Tree Tobacco , Trumpet Vine, Virginia creeper, White Snakeroot, Wisteria and Yew.

_{* Photos Courtesy of various sources including: CORNELL UNIVERSITY POISONOUS PLANTS and AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF POISON CONTROL CENTER, among others.}

Knowing how different plants protect themselves with their poison will help you know how to avoid them. Some plant poisons must be ingested (eating) while other plants deploy their poison through absorption (touching) or even inhalation (breathing).

Changes to heartbeats and breathing, comas, diarrhea, dizziness, dry mouth, hallucinations, itching, skin burning, reddening, swelling, and blistering, stomach cramps, headaches, nausea, unconsciousness and vomiting. Never go camping without knowing how to contact emergency help immediately! If someone in your camping group exhibits these symptoms, call for medical help and be prepared to induce vomiting and dilute remaining poison with large amounts of milk or water until help can arrive.

There are no easy rules regarding poisonous plants -- so bring what you eat during your camping outing and avoid eating or chewing any part of wild plants (especially mushrooms) and avoid touching plants needlessly. There are no easy rules because some parts of poison plants are poisonous while others may not be, some poisonous plants look similar to common and edible plants and some plants are poisonous during one part of their life-cycle but not others. Never use unknown plants to fuel your campfire because the smoke from burning poisonous plants may be poisonous. And remember -- what goes for you goes for your pet -- so keep them nearby, safe and happy!

"Of course there are spiders, but I doubt any will crawl into our sleeping bags tonight."

Living with someone with a newly developed passion for camping can teach you a lot about yourself. But since camping is a nice way to save money while still having a great vacation, I've learned to cope happily.

Here's what I learned about camping with the neighborhood's snakes and spiders. Most are harmless to people and, in fact, provide great benefits, such as keeping rodent and insect pest populations in check. So it is important - for our own sake -- to be good neighbors to local snakes and spiders.

Once you know where you plan to camp, learn about the poisonous snakes and spiders in the area. One of the best informational resources for photos and quick answers is venombyte.com. Venombyte.com offers free descriptions, locations and photos of every kind of poisonous snake and spider in the U.S.

Print out the appropriate photos so everyone, especially children, knows what to avoid and what to do if bitten. Any bite from a poisonous snake or spider should be regarded as a potential medical emergency so everyone in your camping group should have a number for emergency assistance available and know what to do until help arrives or until the person can be taken to a hospital. Even non-venomous snake bites should be treated because infections and allergic reactions are occasioned in some people.

Common-sense approaches regarding your new neighbors prevent most unwanted encounters. If you leave your campsite during the day, zip up your tent against things that crawl along the ground. If you do leave it unzipped, carefully check your tent's interior and shake your bedding before crawling inside.

Hike along established trails, step onto then off (rather than simply over) logs, avoid tall grass and be careful when picking up firewood or rocks for your campfire. When rock climbing, remember a snake may be sunning itself or waiting for prey on the ledge you're reaching for.

According to the NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE, every one of the lower 48 states, except Maine, has at least one poisonous snake species. Poisonous snakes in the U.S. include: (1) Copperheads (Broad-banded, Northern, Osage, Southern and Trans-Pecos), (2) Cottonmouths (Eastern, Florida and Western), (3) Rattlesnakes (Animas Ridgenose, Arizona Black, Arizona Ridgenose, Banded Rock, Carolina Pygmy, Colorado Desert Sidewinder, Desert Massasauga, Dusky Pygmy, Eastern Diamondback, Eastern Massasauga, Grand Canyon, Great Basin, Hopi, Midget Faded, Mojave Desert Sidewinder, Mojave, Mottled Rock, Northern Black-tailed, Northern Pacific, Panamint Speckled, Prairie, Sonoran Desert, Southern Pacific, Southwestern Speckled, Tiger, Timber, Western Diamondback, Western Massasauga, Western Pygmy and Western Twin Spotted) and (4) Coral Snakes (Arizona, Eastern and Texas).

_{* Photos Courtesy of various sources including: AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF POISON CONTROL CENTER and NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE, among others.}

If someone is bitten, some resources recommend keeping the bitten person's heart elevated higher than the bite until they can reach a hospital. If it will take more than 30 minutes to get a bite victim to a hospital, some resources suggest placing a suction device over the bite to help suck out the poison (commercial snake bite kits often include suction kits). But most medical authorities reportedly warn not to cut into the wound, use tourniquets or cool the bite area with ice.

While some poisonous snakes may inject little venom (venom injection is a voluntary act by the snake), others - like the Eastern Diamondbacks which live in the South - can inject large amounts of venom in a single strike. In those cases, antivenins may be the only treatment to save someone.

Don't place bare hands where you can not see and wear protective gloves when handling things like logs for your campfire or equipment, like a canoe, which has set overnight. Again, before slipping into your sleeping bag, it can't hurt to unzip it and give it a good shaking outside your tent.

While all spiders are venomous, only a tiny fraction of them can deliver dangerous bites to people. Black Widow, Brown Recluse and Hobo spiders, however, are dangerous and need to be recognized quickly in the wild. So learn what they look like and know where they hide and hunt. Black Widow venom is a neurotoxic protein which is an especially potent venom. Black Widow bites are immediately painful while Brown Recluse bites become painful after a few hours. Some resources' recommended treatment, until medical help is available, includes cooling the bite area with ice but to not apply suction or cut into the wound.

Poisonous spiders in the U.S. include: (1) Widows (Northern Black, Southern Black, Western Black, Brown and Red), (2) Recluses (Apache, Arizona, Baja, Big Bend, Brown, Chilean, Desert, Grand Canyon, Martha's, Mediterranean, Russell's, Texas and Tucson) and, (3) Hobo Spider. Yellow Sac Spiders, though not poisonous, can cause painful necrotic lesions -- so know what they look like as well.

_{* Photos Courtesy of various sources including: CORNELL UNIVERSITY POISONOUS PLANTS and AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF POISON CONTROL CENTER, among others.}

If someone is bitten, bring the spider to the doctor's office, when possible. When a doctor can identify which spider's venom is in play, effective antivenins can be administered for some bites like the Black Widow. Spider bites are hard to diagnose as many medical problems mimic identical symptoms, so bringing in the spider that bit someone could save valuable time.