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Super! Nature Notes
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  • Vote Up0Vote Down iuventusiuventus
    Posts: 5,377
    Whickwithy said:

    But, just like any animal, you don't back them into a corner. I agree, I'd be quite freaked out about one in my house.


    I was bitten a few years ago while sitting on a chair in my garden. I guess I sat on her, or something. Although they're great bug killers, the danger of having her in the house is the possibility of 300+ babies hatching. I'd be sure to run into a venom-filled fang if that happened.

    They're a bit of a problem here because my landlord collects just the type of junk that the bitches prefer to inhabit. Last summer and fall, I hunted down hundreds of them, mostly in his yard and carport. That, plus the extremely cold winter, cut down on this year's populations.
    If I were dead, could I do this?
  • Vote Up0Vote Down WhickwithyWhickwithy
    Posts: 5,154
    iuventus said:


    I was bitten a few years ago while sitting on a chair in my garden. .... the possibility of 300+ babies hatching. ...Last summer and fall, I hunted down hundreds of them



    Wow!  I mean, WOW!  How bad was the bite?  Does the landlord have no fear??!?!  When I was a fairly young teenager, I remember going to take a shower and, being as I wore glasses, which I had taken off, I saw something funny in the bottom of the tub, so went and got glasses.  Hundreds of baby spiders.  Yikes!  They weren't even black widows or anything but, still.... YIKES!!!  So, what do you do?  I would bug bomb or something?  Sheesh, I think it would be a sure thing I would bomb like once a month or something.  Maybe that sounds mean or non-environmental to some but, YIKES!!!
    Post edited by Whickwithy at 2013-07-15 21:23:04
    The Sentient Struggle For Transformation

    https://www.amazon.com/Sentient-Struggle-Transformation-Whickwithy/dp/1734822147/
  • Vote Up0Vote Down WhickwithyWhickwithy
    Posts: 5,154
    So, I've kinda created this fern forest next to my house.  I have this pretty small section next to the yard that, when I first moved in, was pretty much just all kinds of stuff and there was some pretty agressive plant that was just taking over like crazy.  So, I started taking out all of the crap growing in there (you know, the ones that act like those aggressive @$$holes one always finds in a work environment.  Keeping that thought in mind really made the job quite enjoyable!).  Now, there's just ferns and trees (mostly hardwoods in there).  Some of the ferns are getting close to six feet high.  I have little trails going all through it.  Sometimes, it just seems kinda silly because the trails are, some, about three feet apart.  But, it's fun to wander out there.  And, also, without my help, those ferns would be all about, maybe, one foot tall.  Poor little boobies.  :)  Probably the best thing I've discovered is the smell from the ferns is really fragrant and exhilarating.  My place is really getting pretty feng shui.  Not so much on purpose.  It just kinda happened that way.  And, then, one day I was studying (because that's what I do) feng shui and found that what I was doing was just that!  Evergreens, running water, and ferns.  Even the house orientation!  Good stuff!
    Post edited by Whickwithy at 2013-07-15 21:43:00
    The Sentient Struggle For Transformation

    https://www.amazon.com/Sentient-Struggle-Transformation-Whickwithy/dp/1734822147/
  • Vote Up0Vote Down iuventusiuventus
    Posts: 5,377
    I'd never spray insecticides in my home. I'll track her down. I put together a black widow hunting kit three years ago.

    The bites aren't nearly as bad as people think; though, besides vomiting twice, I had nerve pain at a site far from the bite for about 6 months.
    Post edited by iuventus at 2013-07-16 04:24:34
    If I were dead, could I do this?
  • Vote Up0Vote Down WhickwithyWhickwithy
    Posts: 5,154
    iuventus said:

    I'd never spray insecticides on my home. I'll track her down. I put together a black widow hunting kit three yeats ago.

    The bites aren't nearly as bad as people think; though, besides vomiting twice, I had nerve pain at a site far from the bite for about 6 months.



    Brave of you...
    The Sentient Struggle For Transformation

    https://www.amazon.com/Sentient-Struggle-Transformation-Whickwithy/dp/1734822147/
  • Vote Up0Vote Down CervusCervus
    Posts: 1,624
    iuventus said:

    I've a black widow hiding somewhere in my house--unless she's died, or something.



    They make quite expansive haphazard looking webs don't they?
    '' Sometimes I think I've felt everything I'm ever going to feel and from here on out I'm not going to feel anything new, just lesser versions of what I've already felt ''
  • Vote Up0Vote Down iuventusiuventus
    Posts: 5,377
    Whickwithy said:

    Brave of you...


    Got her.

    If I were dead, could I do this?
  • Vote Up0Vote Down iuventusiuventus
    Posts: 5,377
    Cervus said:

    They make quite expansive haphazard looking webs don't they?


    Yulp, great tangled messes, and strong. The way I can tell them from the webs of the Pholcidae that I cultivate in the yard is that they make a crinkling sound when you pull or tear them.

    The other day, I swept up her web, and she disappeared behind the range (Actually, I had never seen her, but knew what she was by the web.). This morning, I noticed a small tangle at the back of the oven; so, I was pretty sure she was rebuilding there. I just now nabbed a moth that was flying about my computer and tossed it into the web. When the lamia darted out to grab her meal, I made mincemeat of her with my slipper. I caught sight of her for just a second. She was still a fairly young one with the white and brown stripes.

    *shivers*

    If I were dead, could I do this?
  • Vote Up0Vote Down CervusCervus
    Posts: 1,624
    At least you have got this one sorted out then.

    Have one of these little devils screaming his head off at the mo...along with the Chiffchaff..lovely though.


    Post edited by Cervus at 2013-07-16 04:52:48
    '' Sometimes I think I've felt everything I'm ever going to feel and from here on out I'm not going to feel anything new, just lesser versions of what I've already felt ''
  • Vote Up0Vote Down iuventusiuventus
    Posts: 5,377
    Cervus said:

    Have one of these little devils screaming his head off at the mo...along with the Chiffchaff..lovely though.


    I've had a mockingbird in the vicinity of my bedroom window for about a week now. It was charming for about a day, but now he's going on half the night. Must be a fancy dame in the area.

    If I were dead, could I do this?
  • Vote Up0Vote Down CervusCervus
    Posts: 1,624
    There are many things I could say however I shall refrain from saying them....hehehe
    '' Sometimes I think I've felt everything I'm ever going to feel and from here on out I'm not going to feel anything new, just lesser versions of what I've already felt ''
  • Vote Up0Vote Down iuventusiuventus
    Posts: 5,377
    Cervus said:

    There are many things I could say however I shall refrain from saying them....hehehe



    Oh, please, do!
    If I were dead, could I do this?
  • Vote Up0Vote Down CervusCervus
    Posts: 1,624
    :)
    '' Sometimes I think I've felt everything I'm ever going to feel and from here on out I'm not going to feel anything new, just lesser versions of what I've already felt ''
  • Vote Up0Vote Down WhickwithyWhickwithy
    Posts: 5,154
    Congrats on catching it!

    Now, waitaminute, you're saying you cultivate spiders?!?!  Why would you do that?

    And, what what that spider-catching kit you menitoned?

    Sorry, if that all seems too nosey, just ignore.  Just curious..
    The Sentient Struggle For Transformation

    https://www.amazon.com/Sentient-Struggle-Transformation-Whickwithy/dp/1734822147/
  • Vote Up0Vote Down iuventusiuventus
    Posts: 5,377
    I've cultivated Pholcidae, which are commonly known as basement or daddy longlegs spiders, because they are harmless to humans and are a natural predator of black widows.

    My kit consists of goggles, gloves, a grill-lighting torch, matches & kindling, a retractable three-pronged gripper, a mirror on a bendable telescopic handle, a flashlight, and a stick. As I mentioned before, tonight's kill was perpetrated with a captured moth and a bedroom slipper. By the way, the moth survived.
    Post edited by iuventus at 2013-07-16 08:45:59
    If I were dead, could I do this?
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