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I'm smack dab in the middle of South Carolina.
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Apr 29, 2020 14:53
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the yeti posted:Cardiovorax, is that a hacklemesh weaver?
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Apr 29, 2020 14:53
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Potential BFF posted:I'm smack dab in the middle of South Carolina. Yeah def eastern in that case, I thought it might be Pantherophis spiloides but in SC P. alleghaniensis is what you got.
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Apr 29, 2020 15:14
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the yeti posted:Yeah def eastern in that case, I thought it might be Pantherophis spiloides but in SC P. alleghaniensis is what you got. Cool. I was reasonably certain it was an Eastern Rat because it was in that kinked posture they tend to put themselves in when I first spotted it. With bigger snakes, especially ones on the move I have trouble telling the Eastern Rat Snake, The Gray Rat Snake (Pantherophis spiloides), and the Pine Snake (Pituophis melanoleucus) apart. I guess the latter is typically of a heavier build and the head is "angrier" looking.
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Apr 29, 2020 16:01
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Yeah on the move it can be tough but pines have a blunter heavier head whereas ratsnakes have a pretty squared off face and are generally lighter build.
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Apr 29, 2020 16:38
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Okay, as a 'recovering' arachnophobe I have to ask - How the hell do you hold a spider without them biting you? Is there a trick to it? I've been bitten by more spiders than I've tried to handle, so I'm a bit wary of the idea. But there's definitely some that I find chill enough that I want to try to help get over my fear. In return I should have some buzzy friends and some other birds to give the thread after today's shift.
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Apr 29, 2020 17:02
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Chaosfeather posted:Okay, as a 'recovering' arachnophobe I have to ask - How the hell do you hold a spider without them biting you? Is there a trick to it? You just hold them! Spiders aren't out to get you and unless they're an aggressive tarantula species or something they don't have any interest in biting you at all even when you get up in their business. Just don't pin or grasp them and you're golden. Let them walk onto your hand and crawl around on it. Let them walk back off. What kind of spiders are you trying to handle? How did you manage to get bitten by multiple spiders without trying to handle them? Mak0rz fucked around with this message at 17:12 on Apr 29, 2020 |
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Apr 29, 2020 17:09
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Mak0rz posted:You just hold them! Spiders aren't out to get you and unless they're an aggressive tarantula species or something they don't have any interest in biting you at all even when you get up in their business. The ones I find chill are typically house spiders, sometimes I find jumping spiders that I find cute but I don't want to scare them. I'm not super good at IDing spiders beyond that. I used to have an apartment that had a serious spider problem. No matter what I would do they would end up in my bed, in my bathroom, etc. I was full-blown terrified of them so I was just absolutely mortified whenever it rained and they all decided to come indoors for the day, or when it seemed like the babies were starting to emerge from wherever they came from. Most of these bites would be in my bed, or on my couch, but one notable one was on my toilet paper roll. That one nearly sent me to the hospital, I'm convinced it was a desert recluse with how bad the toxins felt in my arm, but to be honest I don't know what it was. I have a scar from where that one bit me. Being the idiot teenager at the time I didn't realize that the thing that 'felt like dying' on the inside of my arm going to my chest probably should have been checked on instead of knocking myself out with benadryl. The bite itself festered a little for a day but outside of that I had no lasting damage. It was brown and I killed it with great vengeance. (I live in southern california so it couldn't have been a brown recluse). Edit: Oddly enough tarantulas, at least the wild ones around here, typically move slowly enough that I am not super scared of them. They are like big fuzzy friends. Chaosfeather fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Apr 29, 2020 |
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Apr 29, 2020 17:20
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Chaosfeather posted:The ones I find chill are typically house spiders, sometimes I find jumping spiders that I find cute but I don't want to scare them. I'm not super good at IDing spiders beyond that. Yeah those things should be fine to handle. Just coax them on to your hands. Sometimes they'll get spooked and run away though, especially the jumpers. In your region (assuming you're still there) be mindful of desert recluses and black widows, but those are easy enough to identify without issue if you look it up. Note that these spiders are no more likely to bite you than any of the others, it's just that if they do things can go Bad. Chaosfeather posted:spider fun house Yikes! I love those leggy boys and even I would hate that. Chaosfeather posted:Edit: Oddly enough tarantulas, at least the wild ones around here, typically move slowly enough that I am not super scared of them. They are like big fuzzy friends. Oh yeah, the nasty tarantulas are found in Africa and India. American species are typically chill.
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Apr 29, 2020 17:46
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Chaosfeather posted:Okay, as a 'recovering' arachnophobe I have to ask - How the hell do you hold a spider without them biting you? Is there a trick to it? Otherwise, I suppose I would recommend avoiding top-down pressure, it makes them feel trapped and more likely to bite where they would normally try to flee.
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Apr 29, 2020 18:20
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Tarantulas do not scare me but I have been bitten by house spiders and it DOES suck
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Apr 29, 2020 18:29
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It's supposed to be only as bad as a bee sting, but I've never managed to get myself bitten by one of these, and I handle them pretty routinely - they do hang around the house and wander during mating time. Not everything people call a "house spider" is actually the same kind of spider, though, even if they look very similar. It's always worth looking up what you're dealing with before you touch it.
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Apr 29, 2020 18:38
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A nesting dove, just outside my front door. Grateful for social distancing, no doubt.
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Apr 29, 2020 18:52
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 We have a mantis boarder in the coleas.
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Apr 29, 2020 21:21
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Didn't want to scare this fellow. Long boi crossed our path, while hiking Lime Ridge Open Space (bay area, california: disturbed chaparral).    As soon as I got closer to try and get better photos, the feller scarpered. Pacific Gophersnake, if I'm not mistaken. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 23:39 on Apr 29, 2020 |
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Apr 29, 2020 23:36
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I have never been bitten by a spider, and find the idea slightly hard to imagine. If I have to relocate a spider friend I will usually just grab it bare-handed, take it outside, and let it jump off or walk off my hand onto something if it is more chill. There is an upper size limit to what I will grab, but I have handled some pretty big spiders this way and never had a problem. 
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Apr 29, 2020 23:38
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Some spiders, and I mean this from a scientific standpoint, not the colloquial definition, are jerks
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Apr 29, 2020 23:48
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Chaosfeather posted:Okay, as a 'recovering' arachnophobe I have to ask - How the hell do you hold a spider without them biting you? Is there a trick to it? hornets are just total fuckers, though. really, the biggest step is recognizing that just because something is "icky", doesn't mean it's dangerous. sure a spider may look creepy, but they more often consider your outstretched hand in their way as an obstacle to climb over rather than something to bite, and even if you spook them and they freak out and start moving really fast, note they're almost always trying to actively escape rather than fight you. they're not interested in an altercation at all with something a thousand times their size. the only time I have been explicitly bitten by a spider was when I found a dime-sized jumping spider in the walking path at a graveyard and decided to try and save it from getting trampled. I had nothing to coax it onto, so I had to get it to go on my hand, which it was NOT INTERESTED IN DOING, and I poked it in the butt to get it to jump...instead it whirled around and chomped my finger because it felt cornered. hurt a bit, less than a bee sting or whatever of course, but I eventually got it off the path to live another day. you really gotta remember they have brains the size of a literal pinhead in a lot of cases, so patience is important in dealing with and handling them. edit: this doesn't mean don't be cautious because something may still have dangerous venom/etc, just that if it's like, a wolf spider in your basement or a paper wasp chilling on a leaf, it's not plotting to murder you except hornets, they're always plotting to murder you.
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Apr 29, 2020 23:49
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When I grab one I scoop up it up with my fingers and close my hand around it, so it is a little aggressive. It's easier when I grab them out of the air, but I'm just careful to be gentle when I am having to grab them from the wall or floor. If any of them have tried to bite me then it wasn't hard enough to break the skin or even cause me any sensation at all.
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Apr 29, 2020 23:52
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We've had some Honorary Essential Employees in the store I work at in the past few days. Big long boy (or girl), it was slowly trucking across an aisle. Luckily before we opened, I wrangled it onto a piece of paper and found it a nice corner to live in.  This was my favorite, just today. Found him sitting in the parking lot when we were taking the trash out. I thought it was a rock until I noticed a long tail. Juvenile snapping turtle. Two days previous one of the other managers found a large fully grown snapper wandering onto our sidewalk. Odd since we're about a quarter mile away from any water that isn't a crummy drainage ditch. She managed to track down someone that deals with turtles that came to pick up the visitor to be relocated to the river. So we contacted the same people to come give the baby a ride to the same location.
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Apr 30, 2020 00:25
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From my experience of handling spiders including giant house spiders, im more surprised when people actually get bit by them (without squeezing or violently handling them). Has never happened to me so far, not doubting that some of you have had some bad luck however.
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Apr 30, 2020 01:51
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I think snappers tend to go out of their way to lay eggs. We had a couple gigantic ones come up our tiny creek when I was growing up (and a bloom of tiny snoppers everywhere after), and I once ran into a very large one while doing geology fieldwork just hanging out in the middle of a path quite a ways away from the one creek. Eta: this handsome front door skink  
Scarodactyl fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Apr 30, 2020 |
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Apr 30, 2020 03:11
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I woke up one morning with the curious sensation of not being able to fully close my left hand. The top of it was swollen and a bit red, and in the center were two tiny puncture marks. Had something similar but milder years later. Unless there are tiny vampires running around Los Angeles I don't know what else might have done that.
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Apr 30, 2020 03:22
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Scarodactyl posted:I think snappers tend to go out of their way to lay eggs. We had a couple gigantic ones come up our tiny creek when I was growing up (and a bloom of tiny snoppers everywhere after), and I once ran into a very large one while doing geology fieldwork just hanging out in the middle of a path quite a ways away from the one creek. gosh! 
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Apr 30, 2020 03:26
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Thank you for all of the spider advice! Like I mentioned most of my interactions were clearly accidental (I reached over to the tp without looking and got bit, was bit when sleeping, etc). I know it was a spider bite because as Dick Trauma describes they look like itty bitty vampire bites. They typically didn't hurt much it was just annoying and more upsetting when I was super scared of them. So I didn't take pictures of everything I encountered today, because I encountered a lot of very interesting corpses. This includes a Great Blue Heron, a sad but sizable Garter Snake that had been previously run over, and an extremely fat squirrel. I only took pictures of the corpses on the traps for the biologists to log, I can include them in another post if someone is interested (song sparrow, common ground dove). I just figured it was more a live critter thread. The snake was relocated to some grass nearby so the birds that were eyeing it could eat without fear of the cars. Here are the living friends from this week. First some unknown (to me) buzzy friends.  Sorry for the blur, they wouldn't stop moving but were at least the size of a quarter.  This friend spent long enough on the flowers I could get some snaps!    Some lovely milk thistle. I shamelessly plucked one to dry. I like thistle.   Birds that I shamelessly bothered! Here we have a handful of female and male House Finches!     Very timid and flighty, these were a bit more difficult to chase in the larger trap.   "Ugh, humans" I just loved the loving scowl some of them had.  They were not amused that I lined this picture up. Don't worry I let them go super fast afterwards.   There was just a swarm of these birds at once, we let them go and closed the trap. Haven't seen them since.  Next we have another species we manage, House Sparrows  The males are brightly colored and super noticable.   I've caught a couple of them now, all males except one.    She is so done with my poo poo.  And lastly, a new species for me! Period! These are (both female) Yellow-headed blackbirds!   We had two ladies chilling with a flock of cowbirds. This one was pretty chill.   However... Her friend gave me the fury that I'm used to getting from blackbirds. If she wasn't biting me, she was yelling at me.  I love this little shithead. Thanks for joining me! I hope to have some decent arachnid photos for you folks soon. I never find the hairy ones when I am looking for them, sadly... 
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Apr 30, 2020 04:27
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Enos Shenk posted:We've had some Honorary Essential Employees in the store I work at in the past few days.  My wife recused this Red Eared Slider hatchling from the outdoor cats, so it got a photoshoot before being placed a little further away from the house.      
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Apr 30, 2020 05:25
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Captain Invictus posted:really, the biggest step is recognizing that just because something is "icky", doesn't mean it's dangerous. sure a spider may look creepy, but they more often consider your outstretched hand in their way as an obstacle to climb over rather than something to bite, and even if you spook them and they freak out and start moving really fast, note they're almost always trying to actively escape rather than fight you. they're not interested in an altercation at all with something a thousand times their size. And really, who tries to bite a landscape, even when it annoys you?
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Apr 30, 2020 10:30
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Hyalophora cecropia caterpillars, Day 1, Hour 1.
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May 1, 2020 01:30
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They start out so small! How many instars (am I using that right?) will they have?
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May 1, 2020 12:57
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The Red Queen posted:They start out so small! How many instars (am I using that right?) will they have?
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May 1, 2020 16:06
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I was out on a night walk yesterday and I saw this spooky click beetle doing click beetle things, such as hanging out on trees and bumping into my headlamp.
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May 1, 2020 16:24
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Aw yeah. The male she called in was way smaller than the one that hatched the other day, but putting in the work.
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May 2, 2020 00:55
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Captain Invictus posted:the only time I have been explicitly bitten by a spider was when I found a dime-sized jumping spider in the walking path at a graveyard and decided to try and save it from getting trampled. I had nothing to coax it onto, so I had to get it to go on my hand, which it was NOT INTERESTED IN DOING, and I poked it in the butt to get it to jump...instead it whirled around and chomped my finger because it felt cornered. hurt a bit, less than a bee sting or whatever of course, but I eventually got it off the path to live another day. you really gotta remember they have brains the size of a literal pinhead in a lot of cases, so patience is important in dealing with and handling them. Sort of related, jumping spiders are actually what helped me get over my phobia of spiders in general. I think it's the way they look, like a puppy in spider form where you don't immediately see it as threatening. They're such neat little buggers & adorable to boot
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May 2, 2020 03:48
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they are incredibly good hunters though, they're cute to us but super dangerous to anything their size. used to feed one that lived on my windowsill in the hallway yellowjackets. it'd tackle them like some kind of action movie hero wrestling a tiger.
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May 2, 2020 05:26
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Kaiju Cage Match posted:I was out on a night walk yesterday and I saw this spooky click beetle doing click beetle things, such as hanging out on trees and bumping into my headlamp. This looks so much like something peering at me out of a hole. I can see being confused by this if I were a predator.
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May 2, 2020 05:30
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Jumping spiders are tiny eight-legged cats
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May 2, 2020 06:27
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Enos Shenk posted:
Oh the indignity! Just gimme a few years and try to pick me up then--I'll bite your fingers off!
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May 4, 2020 05:27
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I saw some deer on my morning run. This is only the second time it's happened in three years on the current route!
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May 8, 2020 15:58
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Sorry, the image quality is not the greatest, but here, have a mated pair of Egyptian Nile Geese and their little goslings. They're kind of jerks and they shout at me every time I try to make some good photos.     
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May 8, 2020 16:31
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Speaking of geese, Imagine looking out your 15th floor apartment window to see that.
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May 8, 2020 16:43
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