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Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 3:25 am
by Jenk
We don't get any decent bugs/invertebrates here

Best we can muster up is a Black Widow which is damned rare (I'm yet to see one outside of a reptile+spider house.)
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 5:25 am
by Mordred
The camera is really smurfy (the blur has
nothing to do with my hands shaking, nosiree

) so not much detail in it, but the coat hanger should serve as a size reference. Scared me smurfless, I thought it was an exotic kind having run off his terrarium, but it turned out to be a "common" subspecies of
house spider, only it usually lives in cellars etc dark and dank places. Must have been out looking for chicks
Still, I find it disturbingly big spider for a country in the temperate climate zone *shudder*
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 7:54 am
by Jenk
Speaking of size, we have some seriously big (for their species) size house spiders this year, all because of the weather increasing the breed rate of the Crane Fly to a record high, giving the spiders plenty of food.
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 8:48 am
by GM
I get scorpions in my house every now and again. The ones found in Italy are only slightly poisonous, so they don't worry me overmuch. The biggest ones only get to about 5 cm in length.
Black Widows (Malmignatta in Italian), however, are not all that rare here. I've yet to see one myself, but I've heard that their favoured habitat looks quite a lot like my back garden...
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:21 am
by John Cartwright
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:38 am
by Burrito
nice one jcart....although I prefer your free-hand drawings

Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:43 am
by RobertGonzalez
I actually laughed out loud Jcart. That was good stuff.
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:46 am
by John Cartwright
Burrito wrote:nice one jcart....although I prefer your free-hand drawings

HAhaha, you still got me on that one.
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:54 am
by Luke
Everah wrote:I am so glad I don't live in Arizona. I'd bet you wouldn't find too many of those in Suburban California.

I find them all the time... in fact my brother was stung by one a few years back. Little tiny things though... not like the ones in the desert. I don't live in suburban California, but I do live in Oaky California.
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 11:01 am
by RobertGonzalez
The Ninja Space Goat wrote:... but I do live in Oaky California.
That explains a lot.
/ sorry, I couldn't resist
I still have yet to see a scorpion in the natural. Granted, I spend most of my time in suburban residential (or sometimes industrial) California, where it seems that these little varmints don't like to wander.
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 11:35 am
by Cameri
I live in the caribbean, and bugs thrive with life here... The other night I was watching a movie at my best mate's and a mantis (not any mantis) flew over next to where I was sitting, man that <span style='color:blue' title='I'm naughty, are you naughty?'>smurf</span> was scary. It's called here 'Maria Palito' and it looks like a long stick from a tree (just like any other mantis), but this one, it's said that it's really poisonous.
Far back from my backyard, there are snakes, mostly small (but once we saw the skin of a really long one), tarantulas, but those are everywhere.
The same day after a hurricane, I went to sleep on my bed right, and when my father came to say good night he saw a small scorpion over our sheets. Frightening.
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 12:00 pm
by Burrito
we've got a mess of tarantulas too. I have some very amusing stories which I wont' share at this time

Next time I see a good sized one, I'll snap a pic and put it up here.
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:45 pm
by John Cartwright
I've always wanted to guy a pet tarantula, although I think I'd be pretty scared to see one in the wild.

Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:49 pm
by RobertGonzalez
I saw one for real only once in my life. But it only had seven legs. I think it got attacked or something because it was unusually docile. I ended up calling campus security to deal with it, but it was quote a sight to see.
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:52 pm
by Burrito
apparently they have extremely fine hairs on their bodies. They are so fine in fact that if they get in your eyes, they blind you somehow.
...this is information from my neighbor so most definitely must be taken with a very large grain of salt.
I'll research though and follow up shortly.