(Newser) – There may not be guns involved, but mushroom hunting can be deadly: Eighteen Italians have died while searching for mushrooms in a little more than a week. Eager to cash in on an abundant harvest, a growing number of people have been heading for the hills. Unfortunately, many lack proper training and equipment, and have died not from accidentally eating poisonous ones, but in accidents. In the most recent case, a 65-year-old wild mushroom hunter plunged 40 meters to her death.



Others get lost in remote locales: "There are always a few people who want to search out remote bits of woodland which no one else knows,” one mountain rescuer tells the Telegraph. (Click here to read about the health benefits of 'magic' mushrooms.)



