WoW Petopia Community

/gasp --now I want Goliath beetle pets!

*does quick and dirty internetz research*

Hmm, not one of the easier beetles to breed; maybe I'll just stick with mealworms.

LupisDarkmoon wrote:Snakes are <3.

*ponders posting snake photos*

Cooked Spiders.

Slapperfish wrote:
I've secretly wanted to have a beetle grub for a pet. Preferrably this one:

Oh my god, I want one!! It would be like a giant maggot pet. AWESOME.

Aeladrine wrote:Don't forget camel spiders, people! They're the absolute grossest things I have ever seen!



These ugly buggers look like some freakish mix between an ant and a scorpion, but they're a spider. A nasty, mean, sneaky spider. These buggers will sit somewhere for days, not moving at all, and then, when you go to dump them outside, they'll attack. Scariest thing of my life. >:1

Edit: Image stretched the page lots. Found a new one. Current and previous images were both found via Google.

Google "Iraq soldier giant spider" /shudder The thing is HUGE!

zedxrgal wrote:*ponders posting snake photos*

Teo:

OMG that looks exactly like my old snake Chicofski. He died of cancer a few years ago He was the best snake ever. When I'd come back to my dorm from classes he'd raise up in his cage as high as he could waiting to be picked up. I'd pick him up, kiss him on the head and lay on the bed with him and he'd fall asleep. I miss him.

.

Big snakes are cool

(deleted)

I have a friend who once had a good-natured Boa constrictor. I enjoyed getting to hold it, but I think he was !@#$%&^ crazy to let such a big snake sleep with him!

@Corpsebryde: Sounds like Chicofski was a real sweetie.

(deleted)

I read that book when I was little. It was one of my favorites. It was by the same author as the one who wrote Stellaluna

zedxrgal wrote:Just as an FYI to those who watch the video. That snake IS NOT the world's largest snake. That record was held by Fluffy (also a reticulated python).
The snake in the video only measured 21 foot long. The keepers had come up with all sorts of excuses as to why "Fragrant Flower" miraculously shrunk. Misleading video.

I loved Fluffy!!! I actually cried when she died. Was one of the main reasons I went to the zoo. (Yes I live in ohio lol)

The 'Iraqi camel spider' photo is...well, not a hoax, but incredibly misleading. If you look at the cuff of the soldier holding them (yes them, there's two hanging onto each other) you can see the real scale of the arachnids. First of all, there's two of them (count the legs) and secondly they're being held up SUPER CLOSE to the camera so what's 4-5 inches long (which I'll give you is a big bug) looks like it's four feet long.

Cameras don't 'see' in true perspective; it's an old trick to make things look bigger. Also see: Lord of the Rings, where Frodo is often made to seem smaller than Gandalf by putting him on a cunningly shaped wagon seat to move him farther away from the camera.

WHAT KINDA SPIDER IS IT?! IS IT GONNA KEEL MEEEE? *CRIES AND PANICS*

It was in my sketch book thats why its missing two or thee legs and the butt thing is almost white.

Based on the last photo, I can say this: That is not a Brown Recluse or Black Widow. It is -probably- a common cobweb spider (based on the exaggerated size of the abdomen and head). If it's in your sketchbook, just carry the sketchbook outside and shake it to knock it off.

My personal take on spiders? I live in Oklahoma, where both Brown Recluse and Black Widows are common. As a child I remember my father being bitten by one that had gotten inside his coveralls and having to have a section of his inner thigh surgically removed because of it, so I have a healthy respect for them. I find them sometimes in my closet. Since I have two little boys that have an uncanny habit for attracting insects of all sorts if I can't identify the spider on sight, it gets killed. If I can, however, if gets caught, carried outside, and set loose.

The most common spider in my house is the jumping spider, which I adore. Since I have a small window herb garden, I sometimes catch those and simply move them there instead of taking them outside, which means that they can catch the small insects that try to eat my herbs and entertain me. I used to have one that would stand on a leaf of the sage and 'dance' while he captured and ate gnats.

That said, I'm terrified of centipedes and scorpions. Scorpions it's due to the memory of opening a large garbage can filled with dog food that had gone bad and finding tons of them within, all albino. Centipedes, I suspect it's the combination of movement (the nearly blind wriggling) and the massive jaws.

On final note: I have no idea why, but I mean it when I say the twins attract insects. I regularly have to go into their room to remove moths, katydids, etc that have slipped in through the small cracks around their air conditioner. One has been stung twice by a wasp (which was one of the insects that got in their room) and twice by bees (a large colony of carpenter bees set up shop outside the house and was upset by the car engine). He also had a praying mantis get in their room, roost on his shoulder and swat at his ear repeatedly until I 'rescued' him from it. His brother has been stung by a wasp while standing outside and watching us grill. They are terrified of all insects at this point, which I hope that they grow out of eventually.

Yeahh... *squints*... that's just a small orb spider.

If it doesn't look like:


or:


or I suppose:


then you haven't got anything to worry about no matter how big it is.
(Note, this doesn't apply if you live in Australia where everything is horribly toxic and out to get you.)

Also... just as a 'fyi'. Most "spider bites" as reported to various ERs around the country are NOT spider bites at all. Many are from other insects (anything from bedbugs to kissing insects, which are bad enough) but also may be small MRSA skin infections. MRSA (methycillin resistant staphylococcus aureus) is an increasingly common problem in hospitals and in other high density populations. If you're healthy, you USUALLY fight them off, but they can go septic and even kill you. I'll spare you guys the worst of the photos of MRSA skin lesions, but you can see in this one why people blow them off as 'spider bites'.



Basically, if you haven't seen the spider attached to your skin, what you have is probably not a spider bite.