Any Arachnophiles here?

[FloridaJudy]

I've been watching a spider do her thing in a remote corner of my bathroom for the past few weeks. I *like* spiders (I like anything that eats obnoxious bugs - the welcome mat is out for snakes and geckos too), but I can't figure out what the heck she is doing.

This is a smallish, nondescript gray and black spider who is doing something very strange to her web. Every once in a while she'll go to immense trouble to create a beige starburst-shaped, solid object the size of a sequin. Is it an egg-sack? The shrink-wrapped remains of a gnat stored for later? A lure to attract prey? There are at least eight of these things stuck in her web, and I haven't a clue what their purpose is.

And if you figure out that one...

I also have a spectacularly beautiful spider living in my gardenia bush. She has irridescent, day-glo orange markings that shine like jewels in the sun light. Anyone know which spider she is?

[WilliamPitt]

1. Smoosh

I *hate* spiders. Pretty much the only things on earth I am afraid of. Hence, I know a lot about them. The grey one inside is probably preparing an egg sac, considering the behavior...but it seems oddly out of season. The one in the bush can probably kill you by looking at you. :)

*shudder*

[LearnedHand]

5. If you think SPIDERS are yukky...

...check out THIS guy:




{{{shudder}}}

On edit: Oh, dammit! I cannot get my photos to show up!!! :grr:



Oh 2nd edit: How'd I do that???

[Ein]

6. AHH OMG! It's a spider ant.

I'd have a heart attack. One time in Florida when I was like 10, I got in my shower, turned it on, looked down, and there was a daddy longlegs and a cockroach in a deathmatch. I ran my naked ass out the shower and sliped on the tile and slid naked halfway across my house.

[Dookus]

ahh!

The Jerusalem Cricket!!

Scariest fucking bug on earth!

I first encountered one here in California when my cat caught one and brought it home. I thought it was a frog it was so big. When I got it away from him, i was horrified. I raced to the library (this was before the internet) to find out what it was, because it just LOOKED like it had to be poisonous. Found out it wasn't.

Then I decided that they ought to warn EVERY person who moves to California that they might encounter this monster. I've come across a few since the first time and have come to admire them. But that first encounter was nightmare-inducing for quite a while.

[LearnedHand]

9. Check out the website mentioned on the photo!

It's GROSS! Whole site devoted to the little bastards.

[FloridaJudy]

15. Jerusalem Crickets

We used to refer to those things as "Potato Bugs" when I was growing up in California. Actually, they're kinda cute in a nausea-inducing "fetal alien" way. They remind me of those plastic "cooties" that were all the rage when I was in elementary school.

Here in Florida we have Giant Mutant Cockroaches the size of Oldsmobiles that can fly *and* produce a horrific stink when threatened. The first time I encountered Gregor Samsa in my kitchen and tried to stomp it, it farted and flew in my face.

If I'd had any sense I would have turned right around and gone back to California. Little did I know that twenty years later an even more noxious insect called Jeb Bush would plague Florida...

Ooops! How could I have forgotten that California has its own plague of Biblical proportions these days? "OK, Moses, the first ones didn't do the trick. I think I'll send down an infestation of .... Republican candidates".

Potato bugs and cockroaches would be better.

[LearnedHand]

17. ROTFLMAO!!!

The first time I encountered Gregor Samsa in my kitchen and tried to stomp it, it farted and flew in my face.

I grew up in Houston! I KNOW these farting roaches. They used to land on my FACE at night when I was sleeping. GROSSSSS! I still get the shudders when I remember it.

[WilliamPitt]

10. Thanks. I just shit on myself. Thanks.

:scared:

[sasquatch]

2. Being a farmboy I love anything that eats bugs too

My favorite Arachnid is the Camel Spider. The Camel Spider lives in Iraq and when it bites it's victim it injects anastetic instead of venim. It does this so it can chew on it's victim without it knowing that it is there. One of our troops that is fighting in GWB oil war woke up with a hole in his arm all the way to the bone:puke:

We need to breed a spider that eats roches:)

[Ein]

8. That is freaky.

Hole in his arm? How big is that spider or how long was he asleep? Christ!

There's a spider up here in North East Pa that likes to hide in laundry piles and similar places. It's real small, it bit my co-worker on the ankle, she ignored it, and over the next 2 days the lower half of her body became numb. She went to the doctor, who gave her some anti-biotics and told her if she waiting until it got to her vital organs she would've been a goner.

I hate those things, man :(

[sasquatch]

12. The Camel Spider is the size of a baseball

n/t

[Ein]

13. After a quick search...

I just soiled my dainties!

http://www.ecologicproductions.com/video_projects/TSCK/endangered/TSCK_spider.html

[JackDragna]

3. Dedicated tarantula lover here

I've had several tarantulas as pets and enjoyed every one. They're not cuddly, but they're fascinating creatures and most can be handled if you do it right. I had one that was fond of crawling up my body and sitting on the top of my head if I put it on my shoulder - that was a great trick at parties.

[Dookus]

4. can't

help identify any of your spiders... but I love 'em!

I have a gorgeous Garden Spider that builds a web nightly near my back gate. I go out to watch her all the time. Her body is almost an inch long. I just love to watch her.

It's the little green spiders that drop down from the ceiling that give me the heebie-jeebies.

[Skittles]

7. I was scared of spiders until I lived on a farm

then I came to appreciate them. I got to where I could pick up wolf spiders and toss them outside (I wouldn't let the cats torment them). My favorite spider is the arigiope "zipper" spider - absolutely beautiful.

[SoCalDem]

11. I had a wolf spider in my greenhouse window above my sink

My boys were small and we spent a lot of time watching it..It was a great fly catcher.. The flies would head for the window thinking they could get out, and wham ..they would hit the web.. (a large funnel shaped web.. The spider would scurry up the thing and grab the fly and drag it down ..

My boys would bring their little friends over to see "Mom's spider" in action.. They would stun flies and flip them into the web..

Their friends were so impressed that their Mom had a spider :)

He must have died from old age, because he just disappeared.. He was pretty big and I doubt that any other "critter" could have taken him on :(

[calm_blue_ocean]

14. I live in the desert and we have a lot of spiders, and some scorpions

I found a giant spider thing with weird feelers! This one was dead, but there are quite a few live ones here. They run around very fast and use their feelers to grab bugs and eat them.

It's called a sun spider. I found one of these in my bathtub. They look scary, but are totally harmless to humans. They eat a lot of pest type bugs, including scorpions.

I like spiders and insects, and never kill them unless I have to.

On edit: I forgot to say that it was duers who helped me identify this beast. Thanks!

[WilliamPitt]

16. I repeat

Smoosh.