This cracks me up.
People are afraid to swim in FLA lakes because of gators and bug that might get into their brains.
I'm a native Floridian who spent almost everyday in the summer swimming in FLA lakes. They pulled gators out of the lake we used to swim. Course we used to have muck fights too. Who knows what wee nasty things were in the muck scooped up from the bottom of the lake.
If you look at the number of people who have actually gotten the bug its a pretty small risk. We had a greater risk of drowning that getting killed by a brain burrowing water bug. Or getting bit by a poisonous snake getting to the lake. Want the hear the story about almost stepping on a huge copperhead sleeping at the end of the walkway? In bare feet?
About the time I moved away from FLA there were three attacks on people by gators. In two cases the people bitten eventually admitted they were messing with the gator. In the third case a boy died.
We happened to kayak down the spring fed river where the attack happened. When we were putting the kayaks in the water the trapper was about to head downstream and get the gator. Somewhere I have a very fuzzy picture of the gator that was about to be take out by the trapper. There is NO WAY that the boy could have been killed by a gator that was unseen by the family unless they were blind. The water in this section of river is crystal clear. We have 16 and 17 foot kayaks that had trouble taking the curves in the river because the river is so narrow in this section.
The odds are that family was feeding or harrassing the gator and the kid got killed. The reports at them time mentioned the family splashing in the water. Just no way you could not see this gator.
Most people attacked by gators are harassing or feeding the gators. People don't realize that gators can move real fast for short distances. But they will try to feed them or get close to gators to show their kids. I once saw a mom with two little kids a couple of feet from the water pointing at a gator. Based on the size of the gator's head it was 8-10 feet long. The gator was 2-3 feet from the mother and children. I did have a talk to her about how large the gator was and how fast it could move. She moved.
Swimming in daytime is one thing. Swimming at night is a new ball game. The place the mother was offering her children up as gator food is full of gators. Its Holiday Park west of Ft. Lauderdale. You will not see many gators during the daytime. Go at night and shine a light and you will see hundreds and hundred of red eyes in the water. Those eyes ain't from frogs.
I would not swim there in daytime or night time.
Having said all of this but your chances of getting killed in the car going to WDW is higher than getting bit by a gator/snake or getting the bug while swimming in a FLA lake.
And I'm sure WDW signs against swimming are to minimize lawsuits if someone does go swimming and something happens. Though with the beaches and lines/floats in the water it sure looks like a place to go swim. The term attractive nuisance would seem to apply.
I'm not swimming the lakes at WDW cause I like clean water to swim in. I'm getting soft in my old age.
I don't like swimming in the ocean either but its not because a shark might get me either.
Later,
Dan
