My very own Diamond in the Web!

[fire&ice]

I took these pics yesterday while de-webbing our house. Could disturb these two & the prettier webs.

I have no idea what kind of spiders they are; but, they are way cool! Not for the arachnid challenged though.

 

[fire&ice]

Another way cool one. ....

 

[WinkHPD]

----------------
On 7/5/2004 10:34:02 AM fire&ice wrote:

Another way cool one. ....----------------

Way Cool! Let the nightmares begin...

Wink Arachnidally challenged

 

[Diamondsbybree]

I think spiders are ok to look at, but at a HUGE distance..... To creepy for me.

 

[glitterata]

Oh, how gorgeous! I love those colors! Spiders can be so beautiful.

 

[valeria101]

I sure hope those were not that big

Florida ?

 

[sevens one]

Glitterata/ F&I sorry but I think you guys have issues.

I would rather look at the webs they make.

 

[moremoremore]

OMG- that should have come with a warning...I didn't read the message until it was too late and I saw the spiders. omg, I need to take an anxiety pill now.

 

[pqcollectibles]

Those are some kewl pics, F&I.

 

[jenwill]

F&I-

These are most probably:
1) Black and Yellow garden spider
2) Some variation on the Crab Spider- there are more than 37 different colorations and body types, the most common trait is longer 'fore-arms' like crabs in the ocean. Also known for their flattened abdomens, sometimes with 'horns'.

Very cool pics by the way....nice to see that there are some other 'gee, nature sure is beautiful, let's not kill everything' people out there!

 

[Mara]

SCARY!!! I absolutely am petrified of spiders, in Hawaii we had some huge ones, one that was found inside our BATHROOM. I had the maintenance guy come get it, it looked like a tarantula but he called it a Cane spider. I was terrified for the next few nights, checking around the bathroom corners. YIKES. Greg also relocated a bunch of horrifying looking yellow and black ones, very large...around the house in Hawaii. Too many bugs there for my taste...

...and they didn't respect doors or windows!

I am a gardener so I respect spiders and bugs in the garden for the most part but if they come inside, they are fair game for a killin'! We most commonly here have the light brown garden spider, some wolf spiders at times, and then the black widows that you see very rarely (thank god!).

 

[glitterata]

My best friend, who lived upstairs from me at the time, got divorced and decided she needed a pet. No mammals, she said, they were too needy. She came home from a dinner party given by naturalists one evening with a mayonnaise jar containing Charlotte--a black widow.

All was well and good for a couple of weeks, until one day my friend came home from work to discover that Charlotte had spun an egg sac. There was no Mr. Charlotte in the mayonnaise jar, but apparently female black widows store sperm to use later, at their leisure. And newly hatched spiderlets (spiderlings?) are small enough to get out through the air holes we'd poked in the jar lid. I told her one black widow in a mayonnaise jar was one thing, but thousands of baby black widows overrunning the building was quite another.

We called our friend the park ranger, who told us we couldn't just remove the egg sac--Charlotte would only make a new one. Instead, we had to take the egg sac out of the jar, freeze it to kill the eggs, and then put it back to fool Charlotte into thinking it was still viable.

Well, turns out the egg sac was pretty well stuck in the jar. Sticky stuff, spider web. We spent an exciting hour trying to pry it out without letting Charlotte loose. Finally we gave up and handed the whole thing over to our park ranger friend, who set Charlotte free in a terrarium in an educational center.

Lonely and once more petless, my friend settled for a dozen crickets.

Charlotte was beautiful--shiny black, with a scarlet hourglass mark on her abdomen.

 

[Mara]

----------------
On 7/5/2004 11:10:25 PM glitterata wrote:





Charlotte was beautiful--shiny black, with a scarlet hourglass mark on her abdomen.
----------------

 

[valeria101]

are you sure those crickets are not poisonous in some way, just for extra interest ?

 

[researcher]

Ahhhhh! I was thinking this thread was in reference to some jewelry you had made to match your pin!!! I scream when there's a Daddy Longlegs in my house--I don't know what I'd do if I found one of those!!!

 

[fire&ice]

Funny everyone. I didn't know I should have put a warning label on this thread. I wonder what Gov. Ag. would come after me?

No, these spiders were tiny, Ana. I used my Macro. Mid Southeast USA - NOT FL

.

And, yes, a bit creepy for the first shot as the spider was scurrying his/her web. I had to get pretty close up. The first guys web resisted a violent thunderstorm. Crab spider makes sense for the second one as he didn't have a visable web. He was shimeying up our column.

Yes, I marvel in nature. How can anyone be scared of something so beautiful and captivating.

Funny about the black widow story. We have actually had them nest in our house. Mara, we don't usually kill the small spiders as they help w/ the bad bug (ain't livin in the country grand - we have our very own eco-system). We did have to kill the black widows. BUT, it's my understanding that they are not that poisionous.

Okay - Okay, next time I will post some jewelry. Gosh, at least I'm glad some think nature is just as beautiful!! That's one reason I love gemstones.

 

[moremoremore]

"but if they come inside, they are fair game for a killin'!" ...

LOL... I agree... I did spare a lady bug the other day though..she was KINDA cute...so I let it slide...but any bigger than that...and they are dead meat...bugs get me every time.. Mice, snakes,......they are cute to me...but I can't deal with bugs...When I moved to Queens (NYC) I discovered what I call "Tom Selleck's Moustche with legs"...those things are FAST....OMG
I am getting the creaps just thinking about it.

 

[Kamuelamom]

F&I, those are way cool.

I wouldn't wanna touch them or take them for a walk or anything, but they sure look cool.

 

[kpebbles]

speaking of spiders..

we just found a black widow residing in our garage yesterday! boy was she big and a shiny black color..

i felt bad about killing it, so i told my boyfriend to throw it in the garbage can..hmm.. is their bite venomous enough to kill a person? scary if it is..first time i've seen one of those.

 

[Shay37]

kpebbles, because I watch way too much Animal Planet and Venom ER is a particular favorite of mine,

(and having a photographic memory doesn't hurt either) here goes. Black widows are venomous. Usually in a healthy person, the envenomation is not of the fatal variety. What it does, is cause astonishingly bad muscle cramps. Every muscle in the body that can cramp, does. It is VERY painful. It can last from a few days to weeks. The 13 year-old boy that I saw bitten on the show had been given iv pain meds (morphine I think) and was still writhing in pain and crying out if someone touched him. It will go away by itself. There is an antivenom that will stop all symptoms immediately upon being administered. That's the good news. Bad news: 1 in 2 (approximately, I think they said) people will have a severe reaction to the antivenom called anaphylaxis. This is BAD. Extremely young children can be at risk of dying from a bad bite, also people who are just unhealthy or elderly. However, most people can ride out the effects just fine. (okay, it hurts like crazy) Good news about this bite is that when it's over all the symptoms go away.

File this under more info than I ever wanted to know about a black widow spider. I'm a total geek. It's a good thing I all ready know I'm a geek. LOL

Shay