Here's lookin' at ya! (warning, do not open if you suffer from arachnophobia)

[Kali]

we've been getting a little rain and the critters are starting to wake up
more pix tomorrow
good night:hi:

[MilesColtrane]

1. Sweet Gibbering Jesus!

[hyphenate]

2. Strangely enough

my fear of bugs doesn't cover spiders. I think it was reading Charlotte's Web that helped in that.

I DO hate anything crawly, whether it's insects, worms, caterpillars, slugs, snails.......just not spiders.


(A quick anecdote from my past. When I began working at Universal Studios (a long time ago, in a place far, far away), our office dealt with Amblin' and other producers at the studio, and Frank Marshall, who had worked with Spielberg on quite a few projects had begun to work on Arachniphobia. One day, I snuck in a few of the small plastic spiders (the kind you get for Halloween, with the massive webby stuff) into an envelope for his office. He called later and laughed about it.)

[Kali]

9. I have an irrational fear of caterpillars.

Hate 'em.:scared:

[velvet]

3. Thanks for the warning

I'm not unduly bothered by spiders but it's best to know beforehand with one that scary. What is it?

My dad worked in pest control when I was a kid. At one stage he did a two-year course in entymology. He absolutely loved it, he'd always had a deep interest in science but hitherto no opportunity for formal study. He had to collect insects for the course and I'd help him catch butterflies and pin beetles into glass-topped boxes. I learnt which spiders were dangerous and which weren't. A Funnel-Web or a Redback in a jar in the kitchen was a common sight.

Funnel-Web spiders are fierce. Big, black and hairy, highly poisonous. They lived in holes in our backyard. My mum had her own form of pest control: she'd throw some kerosene down the hole, then a lighted match. The funnel-web would run out and she'd slam it with a shovel.

I know someone who is arachnophobic. Bad childhood experience left a lasting wound. Now there used to be a chest of drawers at work where night staff kept personal belongings, each had their own drawer. One time this woman opened hers, screamed and ran into the staffroom red-faced, shaking and livid with anger. "Who did it? How could you! Get rid of it!" She couldn't say what it was and I was nearest the door so I went to see. Lying in the open drawer was a book, on the cover was a big photo of a tarantula in the prime of its scariness. She was so shocked and very angry, she thought someone had put it in her drawer deliberately to upset her, but it turned out to be just a mistake, it was a novel someone had been reading and absent-mindedly put in the wrong drawer.

[Kali]

4. tarantula

probably a male - this time of year they come out at night and wander around looking for females. the females generally stay in their burrows - they dig or appropriate a hole and make a little trap door to cover it. Then the leave a little "trip wire" of web out on the ground near the hole and wait for prey to come by.

They have two large fangs behind the two vertical furry structures at the front of their faces and supposedly can inflict a fairly painful, but not very poisonous bite. I have handled them all my life and never been bitten. another interesting defense they have is to rub some of the hairs off their abdomen with their back legs and kick them into the eyes of predators - supposed to be very irritating, again I have never seen it - they usually either take to being handled or try to run away - if you pick up a scared one they can jump out of you hand and damage themselves - in this environment a cracked exoskeleton means dehydration and death. This guy was a little skittish so I didn't try to pick him up. Somewhere in the archives from a year or two ago is a picture of one on my hand - it had been wandering around in the house.

here is a more conventional view from above

[velvet]

21. Flinging hairs in the eyes of their enemies!

Amazing tactic.

I went looking for info on Funnel Webs and I see you have them in Arizona but they're a different family from the Sydney Funnel Web, and not dangerous to humans.

[GCP]

5. Here's looking at YOU

[Kali]

10. cool!

wish I had a better camera and could get that kind of detail. Love the scraggly black "eyebrow" hairs!

[lunatica]

15. My first thought was they were gorgeous eyelashes!

offsetting all those eyes!

[Rhiannon12866]

6. I just spotted one (not that big, LOL) running under the couch...

I've got to capture him and take him outside before the cats see him... x(

[Kali]

11. why do cats like to eat spiders?

they should make spider flavored cat food.

[Rhiannon12866]

14. Or "moth..."

:rofl:

[hyphenate]

18. I've been waiting for years for them to start selling

mouse-flavored food.

Someone once told me that the reason cats get the flavors they currently get is because of the human owners. The aesthetic is to make the food sound palatable to the humans, even to excluding the kinds of foods the cat might enjoy most.

"Mouse pieces" "cockroach bits" and "songbird delites" aren't on the human menu, so it's not on the cats' menu, either.

[InvisibleTouch]

7. He's beautiful! Thanks for the pic. :)

My passion for arachnids runs more to scorpions, but I'm fond of spiders as well.

[Kali]

12. here is another interesting little arachnid

velvet mite



I was just reading about these guys, larvae are predatory on grasshoppers (yay) and adults emerge and feed on flying termites when they fly - at the beginning of the monsoon. Took this yesterday after our first good rain and yes there were clouds of termites yesterday.

We have centroides (spell?) and some other fat tailed scorpion. I am not overly fond of the centroides as they climb and it is a bitch when they fall in your bed.:eyes:

[InvisibleTouch]

16. Centruroides, the bark scorpion.

Yeah, they are Buthids and so are quite toxic. You probably also have the larger desert hairies (Hadrurus), who are pretty inoffensive.

Good on those velvet mites for eating termites!

[Kali]

17. I've only seen one of the big hairy guys in my life

and it was in my parents house in the Phx area
there is another around here (common name devil scorpion, I think) but I have only been stung by the centroides as far as I know - painful and zingy like an electric shock - very wierd sensation but not usually debilitating to me anyway.

The termites are pretty much harmless desert varieties that live in the soil - the desert's version of earthworms. While they do eat wood, these colonies are out away from any buildings for the most part.

[Kali]

24. don't know why I cant get that little "ru"

into my centruroides:crazy:

[MiddleFingerMom]

19. Is that natural coloration or is he/she...

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...a diehard U of A fan?
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[Kali]

22. actually they are usually solid red

I have never seen them with the white spots, that is why I took the picture.

[MiddleFingerMom]

8. One of the COOLEST zoos I've ever been to was the West Berlin Zoo...

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...an amazing place, EXPECIALLY considering about 25 years before I was
there, people were eating the zoo animals to survive.
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It had an entire two-story house that was an INSECTARIUM -- with a very
cool room devoted entirely to tarantulas.
.
.

[Kali]

13. this house could probably qualify as a wildlife museum.

there was a big centipede running around out on the porch the other night, I used to get excited and try to catch them or shoo them out - they just don't bother me anymore - and besides maybe it was after the god damn black crickets that have come in for some reason. arrrgggg - hate those loud bastards echoing in the hallway when I'm trying to sleep - they are even louder than the fan on high!

[Mugu]

20. I remember those furry guys from many years ago.

Today I live much further north and only see tiny little fellows. This one lives outside a window on the side of my house and is smaller than a dime.

[Kali]

23. ah Mugu, I do love your close up pix!

wish I had a camera capable of doing that!

[Flaxbee]

25. did you take that picture? It's really neat! I like the lighting, and the

background sky. And the handsome fella saying hello.

I have no problem whatsoever with spiders or insects, I have a strong 'fling' response when they're on me. Unfortunately. I escort insects and spiders I find in the house outside, but usually with the help of a piece of cardboard and some clear plastic cups...