mgbinspect Posted March 1, 2006 Report Posted March 1, 2006 I was confirming some suspected decayed sill plate and header joist when I ran across this ole' girl. She's twice as big as any black widow I've ever seen before in over 8700 home inspections! Her abdomen alone is approximately 3/8" to 7/16" and her leg span is approximately 1" to 1 1/8" Fortunately, the cold has her in slow motion so she was easy to photograph. Download Attachment: A Black Widow.jpg 556.64 KB
homnspector Posted March 2, 2006 Report Posted March 2, 2006 Shoot, thats a black-baby around here! I pulled up the lid of a water meter box this morning and pissed one off royally.
mgbinspect Posted March 2, 2006 Author Report Posted March 2, 2006 Interesting! This is big for Richmond! So, just how big do they get out there in AZ, Fritz?
homnspector Posted March 2, 2006 Report Posted March 2, 2006 Well, the last big one I saw was completely blocking the crawl scuttle. I had to get out my 3mil c.p. spotlight to get her to move.
DonTx Posted March 2, 2006 Report Posted March 2, 2006 Originally posted by mgbinspect Fortunately, the cold has her in slow motion so she was easy to photograph. I'll assume then that she was easy to smash?[:-splat] Of course, from what I hear, out in AZ they'll take your flashlight away from you and abuse you with it....[:-fight]
mgbinspect Posted March 2, 2006 Author Report Posted March 2, 2006 Sheesh! Sounds like you could enter a crawlspace and find your long lost competitor at the base of a spider web! Unbelievable! Guess I've thankfully lived a sheltered life here.
BADAIR Posted March 3, 2006 Report Posted March 3, 2006 The orange sac to the left of MGB's photo is her egg sac 25-900 younguns per lay. I've watched and counted 357 coming out of a pinhole in the sac, one by one, until it was empty. Mama laying the eggs and spinning the sac takes about 1 1/2 hours. Fellas meet ROXANN, ROXANN meet the fellas. Had her since summer '05. She's had over 1,500 offspring that have devoured one another down to her and 2 other females. Download Attachment: ROXANN.JPG 94.65 KB
BADAIR Posted March 3, 2006 Report Posted March 3, 2006 Absofrickinlutely I have a friend that is an Entomologist with the local university we be buggin’ A note to all please do not think or be fooled that cold weather has slowed these critters down. When in attack mode like you entering their space they may look stunned, slow acting, but beware they have the ability to strike quickly remember that’s how the survive. It has only gotten down to +17F this winter and ROXANN had a cricket that morning, hadn’t seen her move an inch for days, then BAM hit that sucker from a foot away in the blink of an eye. Brown recluse are the really bad boys on the block much harder to spot and the bites cause flesh-eating wounds that take weeks or months to heal, very nasty.
BADAIR Posted March 5, 2006 Report Posted March 5, 2006 She's at it again! Started this at 7 am CST this is an hour and twenty minutes of her effort. 300+ eggs again. The sac to the right is from last year, it's empty. I'll try to catch the spiderlings exiting in 20-30 days. Download Attachment: RoxannEggSac03-05-06.JPG 74.16 KB
BADAIR Posted March 7, 2006 Report Posted March 7, 2006 No sir, by definition the lady of the house holds title to that position. See 1 a-b Main Entry: pet Pronunciation: 'pet Function: noun Etymology: perhaps back-formation from Middle English pety small -- more at PETTY 1 a : a pampered and usually spoiled child b : a person who is treated with unusual kindness or consideration : DARLING 2 : a domesticated animal kept for pleasure rather than utility Actually Roxann is more of an interest or hobby I have with observing all things in nature and in no way meets the domesticated requirements for 2.
BADAIR Posted May 4, 2006 Report Posted May 4, 2006 Roxann died today, memorial donations accepted. Download Attachment: RIP_Roxann05-03-2006.JPG 126.73 KB Yep, that my standard size Zippo she's on.
wingfoot Posted May 4, 2006 Report Posted May 4, 2006 She's probably faking, then Bam! You're toast. I probably wont be able to sleep tonite after seeing these pictures.
homnspector Posted May 4, 2006 Report Posted May 4, 2006 Not to drift (haha), my Dad was into gold plating for awhile, making earrings and other jewelry out of odd things and asked me to get him a scorpion to plate. I found one and since it would be awhile till I saw him, I put it in a container and stuck it in the freezer. 6-8 months later I flew out to see him and brought it with me . I opened the container and ... you guessed it, it was moving and alive! Never assume a bug is dead.
homnspector Posted May 9, 2006 Report Posted May 9, 2006 Ha, I got this yesterday. I suspected it was a recluse but wasn't sure. I took it home and froze it (sorry badair) so I could safely photograph it. The violin pattern really wasnt visible until after freezing. I put it back in the jar in case it comes back alive! Download Attachment: IMGP5817.JPG 57.95 KB
BADAIR Posted May 10, 2006 Report Posted May 10, 2006 FK, No apology necessary. ââ¬ÅFear and respect to one may be folly to another.ââ¬
homnspector Posted May 10, 2006 Report Posted May 10, 2006 I would say the spider is about the size of a quarter. The butt about the size of a small pea. Feel free to use the picture. I took about a dozen, that one was the best but I will e-mail you others if you want. I just used my little Pentax Optio WP (waterproof). I really like that it is water and dust proof but don't like the fact it doesn't have an optical view finder. There are so many good cameras out there. Here is a list of what I would look for: Uses SD cards (they are cheap, I just bought several 64MB at Fry's for $3.99 each) Used AA batteries Has at least 3x optical zoom. More is nice but the cameras are physically bigger. Has a large display. Clients like to look at the pictures at the inspection. Office Max has pretty good sale prices weekly.
BADAIR Posted May 13, 2006 Report Posted May 13, 2006 FK, thanx for use of the recluse photo and camera info
homnspector Posted September 7, 2006 Report Posted September 7, 2006 Crickey!! Discovered this at an inspection today at the base of the steps. He/she was kindly relocated. Download Attachment: Massasauga.jpg 96.36 KB
hausdok Posted September 7, 2006 Report Posted September 7, 2006 Hi, Good for you! Most people react by killing them for no justifiable reason. They were here first and are only doing what comes natural to them. It's easy to get them going in the right direction and to scoot them off into the brush or to simply put them into a container and take them to a non-populated area and then drop them off, but everyone has been conditioned to fear them, so their first reaction is to kill 'em. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike
swarga Posted September 8, 2006 Report Posted September 8, 2006 That's right, Kill them first Then skin them, Then eat them. They get real mean if you don't do it in that order.
gbrasseur Posted February 1, 2007 Report Posted February 1, 2007 Wow! i would not want to run onto that
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