8
   

Roger's Spider Stronghold is now open!

 
 
vonny
 
  2  
Reply Wed 8 Oct, 2014 12:45 pm
@tsarstepan,
Invasion of the cannibal spiders:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/10/03/1412334960549_wps_33_An_army_of_100_green_fang.jpg

An army of green-fanged cannibal spiders is invading Britain - gobbling up smaller arachnids as they set up nests in homes across the country.

The eight-legged creatures are believed to be tube spiders - one of the largest types in the UK - and their bite is like a bee sting.

Their thick black bodies range from between 1.5cm to 2.2cm wide, their fangs shine menacingly green, and they are known to eat their own mothers.

Blink, and you'd miss it - but this hungry tube web spider makes light work of wolfing down its prey as it leaps from its lair and devours another arachnid in Wales.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/10/07/1412679856588_wps_21_PIC_FROM_CATERS_NEWS_PICT.jpg

Mike Rance first spotted an eight-legged beast when he was outside his friend's house in Newport, South Wales, and neighbours pointed out clusters all down the street. Mr Rance, 41 from Cwmbran, said: 'I spotted this one on the wall and shined a light on to it and could see its fangs.'

'They only seemed to want to eat smaller ones, I guess they must be easier prey Mr Rance, 41 from Cwmbran, said: 'I spotted this one on the wall and shined a light on to it and could see its fangs. 'It was devouring another smaller spider – they're proper little cannibals. 'We tried to feed it a woodlouse but it wasn't interested. 'We then tried a normal sized spider but it didn't want to know.'

Originally from southern Europe, adults can be found from June to November and create a tube-shaped web with trip-lines radiating out.
Tube-web spiders are one of the largest spiders in Europe and are nocturnal hunters that prey on cockroaches, moths, bees and wasps.

They sow distinctive tube-shaped webs in cracks and holes and wait by the entrance for prey to touch the strands. They first entered the UK 150 years ago from continental Europe, arriving on ships docking in ports. The females tend to be larger than males and can reach a body length of up to 22mm.
0 Replies
 
vonny
 
  1  
Reply Sun 19 Oct, 2014 02:27 pm
Brazilian Wandering Spider

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03077/Brazilian_Wanderer_3077923b.jpg

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11172553/Brazilian-Wandering-spider-delivered-in-Waitrose-online-shopping.html

0 Replies
 
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Sun 19 Oct, 2014 03:00 pm
Some of these things keep stringing webs where I walk in the yard. Every time I encounter one, I bring down its web, but it puts it right back up.
http://bugguide.net/images/cache/KZVLXZBLHZHHMRFZSRHHPRLH8R0H7RELYLOZKR2LSZBLIZVLYLWLIREL0RHH5RTZLZPLIRPLRZDL8RQHMRTZMRYZYL.jpg
vonny
 
  1  
Reply Sun 19 Oct, 2014 03:08 pm
@edgarblythe,
It looks like a liquorice allsort!
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Sun 19 Oct, 2014 04:33 pm
@vonny,
The one that posted the pic didn't know what to call it.
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Sun 19 Oct, 2014 04:37 pm
Anybody post one of these yet?
http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/fee34fd28ec4399d78a3a651536c6ab338a38b63/c=0-13-3284-2482&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/USATODAY/None/2014/10/19/635493224106748789-AFP-GERMANY-ANIMALS-GOLIATH-BIRDEATER.jpg
he creature was actually a Goliath birdeater spider, LiveScience reports — the world's biggest type of spider, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It can weigh up to 6 ounces. For comparison, National Geographic reports a black widow weighs roughly .035 ounces; that's 170 times lighter.

Scientist Piotr Naskrecki writes its weight is "about as much as a young puppy," while its leg span can be a foot long, comparable with a kid's forearm, notes LiveScience. The body itself is fist-sized, Naskrecki says. The fangs? Two inches long. The thing won't kill you, but its bite feels "like driving a nail through your hand."

And when it rubs its legs on its body, it can fire out hairs carrying tiny barbs, which can really hurt and itch if they get you in the eyes. Ultimately, however, it seems the spider is just unpleasant, and not too common: "A chicken can probably do more damage," Naskrecki notes, adding that he's only seen one three times in as many as 15 years spent working in South America.

Though MNN reports the spider was given the "birdeater" name after being discovered while eating a hummingbird, "they rarely have a chance to [kill birds] while scouring the forest floor at night," Naskrecki writes on his blog. "Rather, they seem to be feeding on what is available in this moist and warm habitat, and what is available is earthworms — lots of them."

(A possibly freakier spider story: A spider burrowed into a man's chest for three days.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: Scientist Stumbles Upon Spider as Big as a Puppy

Newser is a USA TODAY
0 Replies
 
vonny
 
  1  
Reply Mon 20 Oct, 2014 03:16 am
@edgarblythe,
I looked under Spiders of Louisiana and found this - vaguely similar?

http://1-ps.googleusercontent.com/h/www.spiders.us/files/xargiope-trifasciata-5-150x150.jpg.pagespeed.ic.wsGapkG51n.jpg

Argiope trifasciata (Banded Garden Spider) Summary Females are large, silvery spiders with legs banded in black and yellow. Look for this species in late summer and fall in fields, prairies, gardens, and meadows. The circular webs are built close to the ground amid tall grasses and weeds, often with a zigzag band of silk running through the center.
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Mon 20 Oct, 2014 04:20 am
@vonny,
I have seen similar spiders in Texas. But that's not the one in my yard.
vonny
 
  1  
Reply Mon 20 Oct, 2014 04:34 am
@edgarblythe,
Our UK spiders are a pretty boring lot. Sweet - I do like spiders - but nothing like those in the USA or Australia.

This is the most exotic spider I've ever found in our garden - pretty bog standard!

http://i1331.photobucket.com/albums/w588/vonny8/acacb9b4-8765-4f91-b224-e0c1e7549d13_zps5afdfabb.jpg
tsarstepan
 
  1  
Reply Thu 23 Oct, 2014 06:06 am
@vonny,
http://i58.tinypic.com/2eg446v.jpg
http://www.savagechickens.com/2014/10/afraid.html
0 Replies
 
vonny
 
  1  
Reply Tue 28 Oct, 2014 03:55 pm
http://cdn.themetapicture.com/media/funny-spiders-science-fact.gif
tsarstepan
 
  1  
Reply Mon 3 Nov, 2014 11:28 am
@vonny,
http://i61.tinypic.com/20gefyq.png
http://io9.com/researcher-who-found-puppy-sized-spider-received-death-1653805087
vonny
 
  2  
Reply Mon 3 Nov, 2014 02:53 pm
@tsarstepan,
Halloween week is traditionally a time for creepy tales, but pop star Katie Melua has a real-life horror story to top the lot.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/11/01/1414870893698_Image_galleryImage_BERLIN_GERMANY_JULY_09_Si.JPG

The 30-year-old had been bugged by a scratching noise – and when she went to the doctor’s to get it checked out, she discovered to her shock that it was caused by a spider living inside her ear.

Even more alarmingly, it had been there for a week.
Creature discomforts: Katie Melua, pictured during a concert, noticed a rustling noise after using earphones on a flight.

Grisly proof: Ms Melua posted this image of her unwanted guest after it had been 'hoovered' out of her ear by a hearing specialist.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/11/01/1414870870593_Image_galleryImage_Katie_Melua_had_a_spider_.JPG

Melua – who once released a single called Spider’s Web – believes the creature had previously been living in a pair of earbud headphones she recently used. Once the doctor had removed the creature with a suction device, Ms Melua posted pictures of the unnerving find on Instagram.

She wrote alongside the picture: ‘Basically I used these old in-ear monitors to block out sound on a flight, a little spider must have been in them and crawled inside my ear and stayed there for the week.

‘Though the thing looked terrifying up-close on the doctor’s camera, once he took him out (using a micro-hoover) it was pretty small, and now it’s in this little test tube, alive and seemingly fine.’ And showing a surprising sang-froid, she added: ‘It was no hassle at all, apart from the occasional shuffling noises.’

A spokeswoman for the star, best known for hits such as Nine Million Bicycles and The Closest Thing To Crazy, said: ‘The ear specialist said he’d never in his career taken out a live bug before. Plenty of dead ones. When it was out it was pretty tiny.

‘Katie kept it in the test tube and released it in her garden when she got home. Apart from shuffling and random noises in her ear, the spider was no bother for the entire week it lived there. She was relieved it was what it was as she was worried she was losing her hearing.’
Miss Melua told her followers on Twitter and Instagram about the arachnid that was removed from her ear

Ms Melua’s intruder was identified as a member of the salticidae – or jumping spider – family. They are common worldwide, but in Britain they rarely grow bigger than half an inch. Experts were, however, divided about how the spider might have survived for so long.

Dr Tim Cockerill, who presents the BBC series Spider House, said: ‘I have never heard of this before.

‘But lots of spiders don’t need to feed as frequently as you think. At this time of year spiders have been eating flies and are very well fed so they can survive weeks and weeks without food.

‘I don’t think there is anything in anybody’s ear that spiders would like to feed on.’

tsarstepan
 
  1  
Reply Mon 10 Nov, 2014 08:11 am
@vonny,
vonny wrote:

The 30-year-old had been bugged by a scratching noise – and when she went to the doctor’s to get it checked out, she discovered to her shock that it was caused by a spider living inside her ear.

Embarrassed Embarrassed Embarrassed Embarrassed WTF?! Embarrassed WTF?! Embarrassed Embarrassed Embarrassed Embarrassed Shocked Sad

Something less scarier:
http://i59.tinypic.com/2n08wb9.png
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jobarrow/soft-kitty-warm-kitty?sub=3504701_4204974
Did I say less scarier. I meant more scarier! Mad
vonny
 
  2  
Reply Mon 10 Nov, 2014 02:32 pm
@tsarstepan,
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Bq6icEFR9ic/TI_A2TLWbsI/AAAAAAAAASI/QxrMfkRagn0/s400/temp+spider+web.jpg
tsarstepan
 
  1  
Reply Tue 11 Nov, 2014 10:41 am
@vonny,
http://i61.tinypic.com/mlrxpz.jpg
Springfield wildlife....
vonny
 
  2  
Reply Tue 11 Nov, 2014 03:05 pm
@tsarstepan,
Boo!

http://2.media.collegehumor.cvcdn.com/44/20/af6837f08f031186928e7c87c3fd0ade.gif
0 Replies
 
vonny
 
  2  
Reply Tue 11 Nov, 2014 03:08 pm
@tsarstepan,
http://www.gifsplosion.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/spider-attacks-insect.gif
tsarstepan
 
  1  
Reply Wed 19 Nov, 2014 01:50 pm
@vonny,
http://i59.tinypic.com/20pujig.jpg
http://tapastic.com/episode/49658
www.thingsinsquares.com
0 Replies
 
roger
 
  2  
Reply Wed 19 Nov, 2014 06:43 pm
Looks like I lost another spider. I playfully poked the web of the one living behind the toilet bowl, and she ran down to the floor, left the web, and disappeared. At least this time I had the foresight not to give her a name.

When will I learn how sensitive some spiders can be?
 

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