Two weeks and counting

May 06, 2008 16:25

It's been two weeks since the spiders invaded my car, in the form of ( Read more... )

spiders, holes in the bug ocean, signs of summer

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autumnraina May 7 2008, 02:43:54 UTC
How big, and of what variety are these invaders? We get a lot of "daddy long legs" here, which don't bother me too much, but we also get some smaller, but more hardy-looking variety that creeps me out much more.

We have the invasion of the "sugar ants", the tiny little, harmless black ants that get everywhere.

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bec_87rb May 7 2008, 16:05:26 UTC
The ants tend to remain outside, but we are like grass spider/funnel weaver heaven here. There are a group of quite blond grass spiders that get into the house, and I saw one in the trunk of the car already. Not sure what fell on my head, although it didn't look too gruesome, once it wasn't crawling around on my body.

As spider season really kicks in, there will be an influx of house spiders, grass spiders, and those patroller spiders who fall into the tub and can't get out. Harvestmen almost never get into the house, even though they like the brickwork near the door - are your daddy long legs the harvestmen, or the true spiders with disorganized webs and super thin legs?

I just get tired of having to handle the laundry so carefully in summer, because they like to nap there. Maybe if I set the laundry baskets on a table? I dunno.

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autumnraina May 8 2008, 14:31:24 UTC
well, I had to wiki to see the difference and I'm still kind of confused, and since I don't really look that closely at them, I'd just say that the very spindly legged picture of the brown thing on the Harvestmen page looked most like what we get, so I guess that's what we have. :) Mostly they are in the garage, but I do see 'em in the house on rainy days. Haven't noticed webs, try to avoid seeing them. :)

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scary bugs bec_87rb May 8 2008, 19:10:08 UTC
More pictures:

http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/spidermyth/myths/daddyvenom.html

We called those guys with bodies that look like discs, like pills, no web, like to sit in the brickwork, daddy long legs, even though sites like this one say they're harvestmen. It's all confusing.

The harvestman in the photo is too gray to be local to us - we get super thin black legs on ours, like nylon bristle, almost, none of this gray coloring. Some of them are wider than my hand.

The site says they don't have venom. We used to play with them as kids, so they must not do too much biting even without venom. :)

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Re: scary bugs suegypt May 8 2008, 19:56:29 UTC
Here (Georgia) the Harvestman is the one we call Daddy Long Legs. The Crane fly you sometimes hear called a Mosquito Hawk; and I have a bunch of those Pholcid house spiders in my house. They're actually kind of placid. No, I've never heard of a Daddy Long Legs biting, but they've always creeped me out, partly because they'll kinda poke-poke at you, and it's easy to pull their legs off by accident (gross)

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Re: tiny mandibles bec_87rb May 8 2008, 20:47:49 UTC
*thin whispy voice*

suuuuue, suuuuue, are you edible? are you ... tasty? *poke-a-poke with a feathery leg* can I have a ...nibble?

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Re: tiny mandibles suegypt May 8 2008, 20:54:02 UTC
AAAHHH!!!!!!1! get off me you*@!* Oh!! sorry about your legs!! AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!1!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH1111!

*seriously, bec, that creeped me*

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Re: tiny voices bec_87rb May 8 2008, 21:41:40 UTC
Oops, sorry. :/

"they'll kinda poke-poke at you" gave me a little mental movie? 'Cause that is exactly what they do.

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mental movies suegypt May 8 2008, 21:53:40 UTC
Yeah, now I'm gonna hear/feel Daddy LL in my sleep!

*sniffs*

*hopes you're happy now*

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Re: scary bugs autumnraina May 8 2008, 20:00:10 UTC
Almost everything out here is gray or brown to blend in with our desert-ness. :) And we get all kinds of fun stuff around here, vinegaroon scorpions being one of the more exciting/creepy ones. But mostly it's just the spiders, ants, beetles, and the like.

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Re: scary arthropodia bec_87rb May 8 2008, 20:44:09 UTC
mmmmm SCORPIONS. Dang, that sounds entirely too exciting for me. As in, if you leave your shoes on the floor overnight, scorpions will crawl into them? And sting your little toes when you put the shoes on?

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Re: scary arthropodia autumnraina May 8 2008, 22:54:20 UTC
Naw, I've only ever seen them outside. I suppose if you were camping, though, you'd want to check the shoes for toe-stingers.

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Re: scary bugs suegypt May 8 2008, 20:49:06 UTC
We get scorpions, too, little ones. Oooh, they're nasty. They favor cat boxes in my house, for some reason?

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Re: scary bugs bec_87rb May 8 2008, 21:33:45 UTC
Do cats try and play with them?

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Re: scary bugs suegypt May 8 2008, 21:55:41 UTC
yep, but only once.

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Re: scary bugs suegypt May 8 2008, 20:56:53 UTC
I had to Google vinegaroon because it sounded so cool....Gah! That's one UGLY critter!

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