6ftpythonsgirl
Well-Known Member
i learnt two things today this and that the people i work with are real losers
What makes you like/hate spiders?
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6ftpythonsgirl
Well-Known Member
this was by far more of a suprise
A few years back my Father discovered a huntsman on the grill of his car, being the big hero he can be when spiders grin at him, he took off his shoe, screwed up his eyes and threw it in the general direction of the car from a safe distance away. The spider promply snickered, stepped sideways away from the shoe and disappeared into the engine bay. My Father figured this was pretty ok, as by his reckoning the spider would likely cook on the long drive home.
I borrowed the car a week later and my Stepmother and I went to do some serious shopping. Stopping at the service station to fill up, I went to get back into the car and discovered this giagnormous huntsman on the door hinge. Well, I screamed like the girl I am and this great muscly knight in greasy armour came running out to help. Of course, he screamed like the girl I am too and bolted back to the safety of his workshop when he saw the spider.
I borrowed a broom and instead of bravely sweeping this huntsman off the hinge and onto the ground, my look of fear at the prospect of the job ahead succeeded admirably in scaring it back into the car, where it carefully chose the most attractive spot available to it's sense of humour and it promptly scurried on its many legs up into the hole above the clutch pedal.
That day I discovered I was capable of driving a manual sports vehicle with one foot tucked under me and no clutch as, with an evil grin, I delivered the car and the huntsman safely back to my Father.
I borrowed the car a week later and my Stepmother and I went to do some serious shopping. Stopping at the service station to fill up, I went to get back into the car and discovered this giagnormous huntsman on the door hinge. Well, I screamed like the girl I am and this great muscly knight in greasy armour came running out to help. Of course, he screamed like the girl I am too and bolted back to the safety of his workshop when he saw the spider.
I borrowed a broom and instead of bravely sweeping this huntsman off the hinge and onto the ground, my look of fear at the prospect of the job ahead succeeded admirably in scaring it back into the car, where it carefully chose the most attractive spot available to it's sense of humour and it promptly scurried on its many legs up into the hole above the clutch pedal.
That day I discovered I was capable of driving a manual sports vehicle with one foot tucked under me and no clutch as, with an evil grin, I delivered the car and the huntsman safely back to my Father.
azza74
Active Member
a previous girlfriend used to keeping a massive bird eating spider in her bedroom, ON MY SIDE OF THE BED, it got out a few times and believe it or not its fang actually chipped the top of the tank (or so she told me)..
3years without sleep!!!!!!!
dont think ill ever get over it
3years without sleep!!!!!!!
dont think ill ever get over it
no way could i ever sleep next to a spider. i couldn't sleep if i knew one was running around in the house. nor could i sleep if a cockie was around either. when i first moved into the house i'm in now, i woke up 2 or 3 nights in a row with the biggest cockie i have seen flying through my room. the owners of the house had a pest control company out the day before so everything was getting flushed out.
Spiders? Just another bug really, I find them interesting, but don't hate or like them any more than beetles, hoppers etc. I don't like walking into webs at night, but you get that. I'd rather walk into a spider web than put my foot down a bandicoot hole and break my leg.
Of course, those ocean spiders we call crabs.. mmmmmmm tasty.
Of course, those ocean spiders we call crabs.. mmmmmmm tasty.
slim6y
Almost Legendary
Well, you learn something new everyday.
Harvestmen are not found in houses. And they don't spin webs. The long-legged spider-like thing we see in bathrooms that we call Daddy Long Legs is a spider. It's venom is relatively weak and pathetic and is not a threat.
This is a species introduced from Europe and is now cosmoplitan.
Harvestmen are an arachnid found throughout the world, and overseas they are commonly known as Daddy Long Legs. This is where the confusion lies.
Hix
Hey Hix... I watched a doco on harvestmen... actually when I was doing a 'biocontrol' topic at uni.. they're amazing creatures believe it or not. These look suprisingly similar to daddy long legs. I often see them when I am gardening or doing some domestic chore somewhere...
What do they do... well... they collect things such as eggs off of other creatures. They aren't venomous... I just found this in a quick research of the net:
Harvestmen eat a wide variety of foods, including: aphids, caterpillars, leafhoppers, beetles, flies, mites, small slugs, snails, earthworms, spiders, other harvestmen, decaying plant and animal matter, bird poop, fungus gills, and many types of other insects, both adult and larval forms.
Predators include birds and many of the same creatures that eat spiders.
Harvetmen release a foul-smelling odor as a defense against predators.
But before I go back to work.. I want to leave you with the most fascinating fact about one of our very own spiders: The jumping spider or portia species.
This group of spiders has an amazing set of eyes... Not compound like other insects... But in fact binocular and has the second best sight of any animal on earth (behind that of raptors I believe).
These are the spiders that are just slightly larger than your finger nail...
Now it has been said that a wedgetail eagle could read the headline of a newspaper (if it could read) up to 2 km away! I would be amazed to see if the portia species could be anywhere as similar!
Now class... Go write an essay on "If I was a portia..."
jeramie85
Very Well-Known Member
yet
i still believe one day they will be able to break our skin as everything is evolving
i admire how spiders make there webs
but i wont go near one unless it is a danger to my daughter then it will be removed from the property
same as bugs they just get on my nerves but i can handle them better than spiders
carpetsnake
Well-Known Member
spiders r great i like the furry ones huntsmen bird spiders
slim6y
Almost Legendary
yet
i still believe one day they will be able to break our skin as everything is evolving
i admire how spiders make there webs
but i wont go near one unless it is a danger to my daughter then it will be removed from the property
same as bugs they just get on my nerves but i can handle them better than spiders
Note: Daddy Long Legs (common house spiders) are not venomous. They encapsulate their prey and tend to 'rip' them apart with their strong jaws. On saying that I have read they're 'slightly' venomous but it is 'weak and pathetic'.
So even if a daddy long legs could bite a human it could do little or no damage... evolution takes millions of years... daddy long legs have well evolved and adapted to domesticated living.. which is why you will find one in almost EVERY house in the world.
I read that they were a major predator of insects and without Harvestmen there would be a lot more.
But I want to be a lamborghini...............
Hix
jeramie85
Very Well-Known Member
havnt you watched xmen slim6y?
evolution can jump
(sorry couldnt help it my brother just put x men on)
evolution can jump
(sorry couldnt help it my brother just put x men on)
slim6y
Almost Legendary
hey... Hix... That's why I was watching a doco dedicated to the harvestman in Bio-control... Seeing as you should encourage these critters to your garden without them crops could be devestated! The problem is broad spectrum pesticides kill spiders... But without spiders pest numbers get out of control. The idea is a balance between pest and predator... teh harvestman is a fantastic (and free) control agent of not only living insects, but also their eggs and larvae!!!
Here is an essay written by someone already about Portia:
Wily Portia
Most spiders are not cannibals, but a few do specialize in eating other spiders. One group of spider-eaters is the genus of jumping spiders called Portia, whose 15 species live in Africa, Asia, and Australia.
The high level of skill and trickery that Portia uses to lure other spiders into its jaws is startling. "The more you study this spider, the more impressed you get," says Stim Wilcox, an associate professor at the State University of New York at Binghamton.
Portia produces irresistible "music" to catch some species of its arachnid prey. It plucks the web of the host spider, producing a variety of frequencies and patterns. Portia tries different signals until the host spider responds by turning or moving toward it. The crafty predator then abandons the musical variety show and continues only with the signal that produced the response. Says Wilcox, "Portia clearly has cognitive ability. It has evolved to learn in circumstances where learning enables it to be a better hunter." But Portia's hunting style can be dangerous, too. One slip in its technique, and Portia can become the prey instead of the predator.
Wilcox has studied Portia for more than 15 years, ever since he was approached at a meeting by "Mr. Jumping Spider of the World," Robert Jackson of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Jackson had recently observed Portia in the wild ("Robert's always looking at spider webs and poking at them," says Wilcox) and wanted someone to help study Portia's web-plucking vibrations. Wilcox was a natural—he's known for his studies of ripple signals produced by water striders. The two scientists have been working together ever since. To study Portia's vibrations, Wilcox attaches a stylus (picture a record-player needle) to a web. The stylus picks up the vibrations and transmits them to a tape recorder. The vibrations are then analyzed by computer.
Perhaps even more amazing than Portia's web-plucking strategies are its detouring tactics. Sometimes, in order to surprise its prey, Portia sneaks around the back way—even if it loses sight of its goal for a couple of hours. For example, Portia may spend an hour going around a tree trunk to reach its meal, but stay on task and on track the whole time.
To test Portia's detouring abilities, Robert Jackson and graduate student Michael Tarsitano recently designed some obstacle courses in the lab. They set up a series of scaffolds, placing a prey spider as a lure somewhere at the top where Portia could see it. Time and again, Portia chose the correct scaffold to reach its prey, even if that meant first traveling away from the lure spider or out of sight of it.
"Man, that's an intelligent little hunter," says Wilcox. "Other spiders can learn and solve problems and do detouring. The thing that distinguishes Portia is that it's better, more versatile, and has a greater range of tactics. It's cleverer."
End editorial:
Now isn't that interesting - a spider, cognitive???
Here is an essay written by someone already about Portia:
Wily Portia
Most spiders are not cannibals, but a few do specialize in eating other spiders. One group of spider-eaters is the genus of jumping spiders called Portia, whose 15 species live in Africa, Asia, and Australia.
The high level of skill and trickery that Portia uses to lure other spiders into its jaws is startling. "The more you study this spider, the more impressed you get," says Stim Wilcox, an associate professor at the State University of New York at Binghamton.
Portia produces irresistible "music" to catch some species of its arachnid prey. It plucks the web of the host spider, producing a variety of frequencies and patterns. Portia tries different signals until the host spider responds by turning or moving toward it. The crafty predator then abandons the musical variety show and continues only with the signal that produced the response. Says Wilcox, "Portia clearly has cognitive ability. It has evolved to learn in circumstances where learning enables it to be a better hunter." But Portia's hunting style can be dangerous, too. One slip in its technique, and Portia can become the prey instead of the predator.
Wilcox has studied Portia for more than 15 years, ever since he was approached at a meeting by "Mr. Jumping Spider of the World," Robert Jackson of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Jackson had recently observed Portia in the wild ("Robert's always looking at spider webs and poking at them," says Wilcox) and wanted someone to help study Portia's web-plucking vibrations. Wilcox was a natural—he's known for his studies of ripple signals produced by water striders. The two scientists have been working together ever since. To study Portia's vibrations, Wilcox attaches a stylus (picture a record-player needle) to a web. The stylus picks up the vibrations and transmits them to a tape recorder. The vibrations are then analyzed by computer.
Perhaps even more amazing than Portia's web-plucking strategies are its detouring tactics. Sometimes, in order to surprise its prey, Portia sneaks around the back way—even if it loses sight of its goal for a couple of hours. For example, Portia may spend an hour going around a tree trunk to reach its meal, but stay on task and on track the whole time.
To test Portia's detouring abilities, Robert Jackson and graduate student Michael Tarsitano recently designed some obstacle courses in the lab. They set up a series of scaffolds, placing a prey spider as a lure somewhere at the top where Portia could see it. Time and again, Portia chose the correct scaffold to reach its prey, even if that meant first traveling away from the lure spider or out of sight of it.
"Man, that's an intelligent little hunter," says Wilcox. "Other spiders can learn and solve problems and do detouring. The thing that distinguishes Portia is that it's better, more versatile, and has a greater range of tactics. It's cleverer."
End editorial:
Now isn't that interesting - a spider, cognitive???
What you need to do is make her lose her unjustified fear of spiders the best way to to this is to place one on her face while she is asleep then when she wakes up she will no longer have an unjustified fear of them
jeramie85
Very Well-Known Member
no harm in trying it at least once
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