Things you shouldn't tread on

[ZombieCake]

There are many things you shouldn't tread on. Lego pieces are probably the most well known to be best avoided, closely followed by regional access policies.
Anyway, I had a great idea of restoring, well, bringing up to speed an old outboard engine as there's not much to do since the world ended.  So I bought the various oils etc. Marine oils are different from normal oils because of the marketing and composition and price.
The thing about toothpaste is that comes in tubes and if you squeeze it hard enough it spurts everywhere.  The same principle applies to Mercury gearbox oil.  I put the oily stuff, with some other metal stuff, in the hall to move to the shed later.  Unfortunately,  I then inadvertently trod on the very large toothpaste tube of gear oil while bringing in shopping and it went everywhere.  Fortunately I have laminate flooring so wasn't too bad to mop up.
Thing is that the marine gear oil actually doesn't smell that bad, and way better than those horrible scented candles that give you a coughing fit each time they're lit.
Oh well, any other confessions of daftness?

[pwhole]

I accidentally trod on a steel HMS krab on a concrete floor in bare feet, five minutes before setting off on a long trip into Speedwell two summers ago. My foot was large and purple when I got back, and by the next day I was in sufficient pain for a friend to make me go to the hospital, whereupon I discovered I'd broken a bone. Lovely. I was warned it would take at least three months to heal properly but I ended up caving again in about three weeks, albeit with a limp. And prussicking was miserable for months. It seems OK now though.

[Pegasus]

Note to my horse not to tread on my foot, 'cos when he does it blummin well hurts!

[Ed W]

I can sympathise with Pegasus having my other half's 16.1 Irish Draft / thoroughbred cross treading on my foot.  The yell woke up half the village.

At the other end of the scale I came within a hair's breadth of stepping on a Diamond Back Rattle Snake in a cave in Mexico.

[JoshW]

when cleaning off your bike cassette be careful not to stand on the thick oily residue and walk it through the house, it doesn't make you very popular with the home owner.

[Roger W]

Cat poop.

[RobinGriffiths]

Integrated circuits. Had to prize one of these off my foot with a screwdriver once.

[Pegasus]

I can sympathise with Pegasus having my other half's 16.1 Irish Draft / thoroughbred cross treading on my foot.  The yell woke up half the village.

At the other end of the scale I came within a hair's breadth of stepping on a Diamond Back Rattle Snake in a cave in Mexico.

Tim nearly stood on a rattle snake once in Copper Canyon, Mexico!  In the middle of nowhere, makes me shudder to think about it 

[Fulk]

(My answer): A stingray.

(Miranda's answer): A dead mouse lurking in your shoe.

[JoshW]

Ahh I (think*) I stood on a sea urchin on a lads holiday years back. Was picking bits of spine out my toe for weeks.

* I may have consumed an above average number of units of alcohol that evening/night/morning

[Fulk]

I once got sea-urchin spines in the back of my hand, and the staff of the hotel where I was staying were full of bright ideas as to how to deal with this. The first suggestion was to get a bowl of oil, dip a wick in it, set fire to the wick and slap the back of my hand with it. He tried this and, glancing at my face, said ‘Hey, did that hurt?’; so there was I thinking ‘’Course it **†~§¶ did’. Meanwhile, someone suggested that I slather lemon juice on it, on the grounds that it was acidic, but was contradicted by someone else who said, ‘No, you need ammonia, ’cos that’s alkaline’. Then someone came up with what sounded like much more promising treatment: ‘You’ve got to drink lots of beer . . .  then piss all over your hand; that’ll neutralize it.’

By the time we’d tried all of these (except peeing on my hand) the spines had all fallen out, and the pain had gone. Of course, the guys all tried to take credit for ‘their’ cure!

[JoshW]

I once got sea-urchin spines in the back of my hand, and the staff of the hotel where I was staying were full of bright ideas as to how to deal with this. The first suggestion was to get a bowl of oil, dip a wick in it, set fire to the wick and slap the back of my hand with it. He tried this and, glancing at my face, said ‘Hey, did that hurt?’; so there was I thinking ‘’Course it **†~§¶ did’. Meanwhile, someone suggested that I slather lemon juice on it, on the grounds that it was acidic, but was contradicted by someone else who said, ‘No, you need ammonia, ’cos that’s alkaline’. Then someone came up with what sounded like much more promising treatment: ‘You’ve got to drink lots of beer . . .  then piss all over your hand; that’ll neutralize it.’

By the time we’d tried all of these (except peeing on my hand) the spines had all fallen out, and the pain had gone. Of course, the guys all tried to take credit for ‘their’ cure!

I don't know for sure it was sea urchin, but I remember being in the sea, and then I woke up with a lot of pain in my toe, due to having a load of little black spines embedded in it.

Beer definitely removed the pain the following day.

[Pitlamp]

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned "rope". 

[mikem]

Johnny Dawes wipes his feet on his in Stone Monkey...

[Pitlamp]

Great film that - especially the footage of The Quarryman set to an instrumental Zappa track.

Then again, I suppose his rope hadn't been injected with gritty mud like those used by us potholers.

[mikem]

After some of the whippers he took it was probably the best use for it!

[Pitlamp]

    

[Fjell]

You’ll probably only do it once.

[Fulk]

What's that? Lion Fish? Puffer Fish?

[Fjell]

What's that? Lion Fish? Puffer Fish?

Stone Fish. This is a Lion - taken a few metres away in fact if I recall. Not to be messed with either really.

It's a reef off Miri, so the water is always a bit hazy because of all the river outflow etc. These ones also collect rubbish, so they need cleaning trips. Always interesting picking up bits of rubbish when these guys are bobbing about.

[Fjell]

What's that? Lion Fish? Puffer Fish?

Stone Fish. This is a Lion - taken a few metres away in fact if I recall. Not to be messed with either really.

Or him now you mention it, just above the others.

[Pitlamp]

. . . and folk say sea diving is safer than cave diving . . .   

[JoshW]

What's that? Lion Fish? Puffer Fish?

Stone Fish. This is a Lion - taken a few metres away in fact if I recall. Not to be messed with either really.

Or him now you mention it, just above the others.

[Leclused]

Popcorn concretions while walking on your socks trying to conservate the cave floor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_popcorn

[wellyjen]

UK 3 pin domestic plugs. Pin side up, more painful than lego.