[murbot]

I found this big bastard at the office today. So of course, I tossed a grasshopper into the web. Spider moved like a flash, blasted out some web, and rolled this hopper over like a rotisserie while it covered it in sticky death cloth.

Like I said. Spiders are cool.



You can see the "why, asshole, why??!!!" look in the poor grasshopper's eyes. Or maybe that's just the look you get when you're wrapped in web and have some sharp spider bits shoved in your guts.

[sunrain]

Fast food. ...but not fast enough.

[709]

Ack.

Creepy as all fuck.

I've got *2* of those fucking beasts outside my office windows. I intentionally work without the lights on at night just so the little monsters get no errant moth or whatnot entangled from my fourth-floor glow. Move your friggin traps you evil little fucks.

Ugh.

I loathe spiders.

[ast3r3x]

Psh that wasn't bad. I thought all my spider fears would be brought up again...as some so happily did in my spider thread a couple weeks ago

[Moogs]

Murbot you are one evil bastard....

*shudder*

PS - at our work today we saw a spider get plucked OFF its web and maimed by a huge black hornet. It was impressive.

[wretched]

I hate spiders. I really really hate spiders. But I think I prefer spiders over cockroaches. I think... Yes i Do. I hate cockroaches. Really really hate...

[Mac+]

Originally Posted by ast3r3x Psh that wasn't bad. I thought all my spider fears would be brought up again...as some so happily did in my spider thread a couple weeks ago

Agreed - I hated that thread ... and I knew this one would have an image - but I still had to look. (go figure)
Not too confrontational - but it still doesn't change the fact that I can't stand the f*ckers!

[Chinney]

I really like spiders. Don't bug them and they won't bug you. Some huge suckers live under our dock at the cottage (right near the snakes...no kidding) and never once have they bothered us, even though we step, splash and climb right near their territory. Also, they eat many of the insects that very much deserve to be caught (horseflies and deer-flies being the worst of that lot). And I love their technology.

Beautiful things.

[alcimedes]

Saw this guy the other day. Not sure what kind of spider it is exactly, but it was cool looking.

[Brad]

Oh, that's beautiful, alcimedes. I forgot... where do you live that you come across such splendors of nature?

[thegelding]

jewel spider...last year, pawley's island, SC


many years ago i was a lifeguard...one year i worked at a pool that was surrounded by a metal fence...living in between the fence posts where two types of spiders...one made beautiful orb webs, the other made very messy, disorganized webs...now, due to the abundance of water and dropped chips and soda and stuff, there were plenty of ants running about for me to grab and throw into the webs every now and then...the orb building spiders would dash down, give one quick bite and then quickly spin the ant into a web covered ball and then leave them for a later snack...the messy web spiders would dash down and grab the ant and just repeatedly bite and bite and bite the ant...very nasty killing, brutal and not at all elegant and beautiful and seemly full of grace as the orb web spiders...i stopped giving ants to the messy web spiders...just didn't seem right

g

[thedustin]

I like to use WD40 and a lighter to get rid of those fuckers. Dangerous, sic, twisted, demented, yes. Completely satisfying, Heck Yes! Will they find me in my bed to get back at me, probably. At-least I won't see them anymore. Oh yeah, I hate spiders.

_thedustin

[alcimedes]

that spider was on my back porch, here in MN. aside from dock spiders, probably one of the larger ones i've seen. i'm assuming it's some kind of wolf spider, but i've never seen one like this before.

[wretched]

Why, Oh why, did I check this thread again? :: shudders ::

[Luca]

I like spiders. They're not harmful to people, usually, because they won't attack. They just mind their own business. I really hate hornets and wasps though. THOSE guys are evil. They're all twitchy and will attack at the slightest provocation. Plus they're big and ugly, and unlike spiders (which feast on irritating, smaller bugs like deer flies), they bring nothing to this world other than more hornets. Honey bees are fine, I'll usually shy away from them at first glance but they're a lot more mellow and of course they produce honey. But I can just picture a large hornet crawling on my arm to get the adrenaline flowing. Just imagine it in my head, and I get a rush. Damn.

[Windswept]

I've never actually seen a hornet.

One day I was reaching to turn on the outdoor faucet, when from the corner of my eye, I caught movement on the sprinkler-box cover in the ground just below me.

I watched as an iridescent black/purplish wasp moved along the ground dragging a paralyzed spider. She dragged him along, and then she disappeared through the keyhole of the sprinkler box. With a final tug, she pulled the spider through the opening.

Since that day, I have never considered opening the sprinkler box. *eek* I keep imagining that black wasp laying her eggs on the paralyzed spider, so they can hatch out and consume the fluids from his still living, but immobilized, body. ACK!!!!

And to think that such horrors are part of nature and the natural 'scheme of things'. *shiver*

[murbot]

Carol, if you think that was a bad hornet experience... check THIS shit out.

30 Giant Hornets vs. 30,000 Honeybees - Massacre in the Hive

[thedustin]

Originally Posted by murbot Carol, if you think that was a bad hornet experience... check THIS shit out. [/url]

Sweet! What a bunch of bad-asses! I love the helicopter efx.

_thedustin

[Eugene]

Frogs are cool.

LINK: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp..._animals_frogs

PARIS (AFP) - Spanish zoologists have discovered that male frogs who are losers in love get their revenge by spreading their sperm over eggs that have been left by a pair of romancing amphibians.

[Moogs]

Carol, that purplish thing you saw probably *was* a hornet. There is some freakishly large breed I've seen in more recent years that are about 2.5x the size of a normal hornet, and have that shimmery black appearance.

Somehow I get the feeling a sting from one of those would feel like a booster-shot. I haven't been stung in a long time but the little yellow jackets and stuff usually hurt more after they sting than during. But these black bees of death... *shudder*. They even make me freak out and I'm the kind of guy that just let's bees buzz around me without swinging at 'em.

[thegelding]

we have tons of these around here (and if carol is from where i think she is, she also has them)...



state insect of new mexico

never been stung by one because they are much too busy looking for spiders than to be concerned with humans...but i hear that if you bug one enough that it will sting you and that you just want to lay down and die because it is quite quite painful



g

the ones here are quite large and all have striking blue bodies with orange wings...hard to miss...

but some info about other types:

A spider wasp quickly subdues the spider it preys on. The wasp's sting affects the spider's central nervous system, paralyzing but not killing the spider. Often the spider is too large to carry in flight and the wasp must drag it to the nest. Some species bite off the spider's legs to make it easier to drag and may drink blood that leaks from the wounds. The spider wasp places a single spider in each nest, which is often constructed after catching the prey. Some species specialize on trap-door spiders and tarantulas, using the spider's own burrow for a nest. The wasp lays an egg on the paralyzed spider, which is eventually eaten by the wasp's larva.

The tarantula hawk is a large, metallic blue-black spider wasp, with violet or bright reddish-orange wings. Tarantula hawks are often seen foraging for nectar on milkweed flowers. These wasps enter a tarantula's burrow and may risk death in a fierce battle. The wasp usually wins even though the tarantula has poisonous fangs and is much larger than the wasp.

Scientific classification: Spider wasps comprise the family Pompilidae in the order Hymenoptera, which includes bees, ants, and other wasps. Tarantula hawks are in the genus Pepsis.

nice photos here

[ast3r3x]

Well that video made me hate hornets.

I'll gladly raid a spider till it's hanging from it's web dying, and practice my old baseball swing with a bat and send it flying, but I feel bad for those bees!

There is a big garden spider out in front of my front window that I haven't killed yet. It's time will come, but since I only see it sit there, and it didn't even move when I mowed within 3' of it, I'll let it go for a bit.

[alcimedes]

i never understood people killing spiders. aside from the very few poisonous ones, all spiders do is sit around all day and eat insects. a lot of the insects they eat are annoying little shits that plan/live by biting humans. to me the more spiders the merrier (within reason). they cut down on the crap bugs, and pretty much stay in one place, so you know where they are.

cockroaches, mosquitos, centipedes, horseflys, deer fly etc. i know why people hate them.

all spiders do is sit around, eating nasty bugs listed above. they rule.

[Kickaha]

For the most part, I let spiders live wherever they want. Two kinds I don't abide in the house: those in obvious places, and jumpers. Those little fsckers get into the furniture and bite.

Ask Carol about her couch trying to eat her bosom.

[murbot]

You guys killing spiders are whacked. The big ones in my yard eat grasshoppers, so I LOVE THEM.

In fact, I have a little family of 5 right now, in different spots. Same as the one I posted above, but a few are pretty young. Every day after work I catch a grasshopper for each of them and toss it into the web (after pulling the back legs off). I go around later and check usually, just to see that they have their supper nice and wound up. If one hopper happened to escape, I toss another on.

I think I might name them.