File this under "Unwanted Guest"

[Mike Cruz]

Switching horses to different fields this evening. As I always do, I empty the water troughs in the fields they were just in, scrub them, then flip them over so they don't get rain filled. Moved on to the new pastures. As I always do, I flipped over the water trough in field 2, and WHOA! :eek: Wasn't expecting to see HER! 205372205378205376205375205374205377205373

Beautiful creature, but no place for her here on the farm. I don't suppose her name was Charlotte...

[jason thigpen]

I run in to black widows a few times a year as well. you are right, she is a beautiful creature. but man is she scary!!!

[Shawn Pixley]

I was bitten twice in the last twelve months by a Widow. Each time in addition to the pain, I got bad staph infections. Eventually, i found the mother load hiding in the trak of the sliding glass door. Be careful!

[Bruce Page]

You know they can jump..right?
They're not uncommon here in New Mexico. I snuff every one I see.

[Jeff Nicol]

Mike, Very cool! Pretty but evil little gem there for sure. I think there are a few around here, but I have never seen one but the brown recluse I have had in my presence and they are some nasty little buggers too!

You took some nice pictures of her also, but just wondering.....horses, skiing, turning, and I only can wonder what else you are into in your busy life!

Take care my friend,

Jeff

[Andrew Arndts]

"...And here my prize, the Black Widow. Isn't she lovely and so deadly. Her kiss is fifteen times more poisonous than that of Rattlesnake. you see her venom is highly nero-toxic. Which is to say that it attacks the central nervous system. Causing intense pain, profuse sweating, difficulty breathing, Loss of consciousness, violent convulsion and finally Death..." From off of "Black Widow" off "Welcome to my Nightmare" By Alice Cooper. How in the heck can I recall that... Maybe because it was Vincent Price..

[Mike Cruz]

Jeff, you can add golf, fishing, softball, and volleyball to the list. Actually, scratch volleyball and softball off the list. I've injured myself WAY too much playing at 100% at these two sports that I've had to give them up. Not that I do anything with less vigor, but those two have put me out of commission for 4+ weeks each. Softball with the game of my life...ending in two pulled groins, and back issues (wouldn't have traded those games for the world, though), and volleyball, landing on someone elses foot and spraining my ankle so bad I wished (and so did my Ortho) wished I had broken it. Out for 6 weeks, and over 6 months of rehab... Golf hasn't hurt me yet. Been doing that (along with skiing) since I was 9. Skiing has morphed into ski racing. My left knee can't handle moguls and the rigors of everyday skiing. But it takes no issue with racing. 30 second bursts are a-okay with it! Adrenaline rush, speed, and staying on sticks...gotta love it.

Bruce, don't think I wasn't thinking about that while I was taking the pics. My camera was on micro mode. So I was way closer then I wanted to be. In one pic that I didn't post, oh well, here it is, you can see the "ring" of my camera's lens in the widow's back. Not sure about that one pick where I have a grass stem, poking her. She let loose some juices. Obviously some defense mechanism. Not sure what it is...

Shaun, I too dispose of them with every opportunity. Really would like to avoid the bite...

[Brian Kent]

O come on Bruce, they don't jump. They just run away under your pant leg.

[Brian Ashton]

Around this area of the world we have quite the variety of poisonous spiders running about. The redback is very common and similar to the north american black widow... I tend to encourage the proliferation of the other spider varieties that prey on them but for the most part leave humans alone. Thus the house is full a tiny spider called daddy long legs, and we have quite a few huge (I regularly catch ones that are as big as my hand) wolf spider running about. And for the most part have seen only one redback in the 6 years I've been here and that was in the first month of us arriving.

[Dan Hintz]

Beauty!!!!

[Mike Cruz]

Brian K, that would make ME jump!

Brian A, we have lots of daddy long legs, too. I take no issue with them. They don't even creep me out. Wolf spiders, on the other hand...HATE them! And we don't even get the "hand sized" ones around here. 2-2.5" in diameter, yes, but hand sized, no. Glad for that...

[Mike Cruz]

Andrew, his voice has a way of "sticking with you", doesn't it?

[Charles Goodnight]

Hey, wait a second. All spiders are predators, and predators that specialize on insects are nothing but good for us. I understand that you need to kill ones in areas where people tend to be, but the reality is, regardless of how scary they are, you do yourself a favor by letting them be as much as possible. Black widows are big killers of flies and what have you, so if they are in a place that doesn't bother people and animals then let them be.

Disclaimer: We do research on spiders in my lab. It is not uncommon to have a dozen or more very large spiders hanging around. On one occasion we accidentally released a whole lot of spider food (read house flies) in the lab. The solution? Open all the spider cages and let them get fat and happy by cleaning up the lab.

205406 This is our favorite lab denizen, however this is a random picture off the web, not one from our lab.

[Mike Cruz]

Yeah, Charles, around a farm/the barn fly catchers are awesome. Of course, if I had as many spiders as I would need for all the flies, I'd need something for the spiders... I catch hundreds per day on fly strips...and we use everything from automatic fly sprayers to fly strips to fly predators (insects that attack fly larva). No matter how much you do to control the flies, when your neighbors don't do ANYTHING to control theirs, you WILL still have fly problems.

Anyway, as much as I understand your point, spiders that can harm me (Brown Recluse and Black Widow being two on the top of the list) are not welcome here. I keep telling them that, but they just don't listen...

[Ted Calver]

I recall 'der ssshpida man' from my college days. Often a guest lectures in one of my bio-sciences classes, this older gentleman spoke with a heavy German accent and really knew how to keep our attention. He used spiders to research the effects of various drugs by assessing changes in web patterns. Most impressive.

[Belinda Barfield]

Thank you all for giving me the creepy crawlies. :eek: A few years ago I participated in a medicinal plant walk along the Ogeechee Canal. I was so busy looking down I didn't look up . . . walked through a huge web with one of those big spiders like Charles has pictured. . . . and it was on me . . . and I was jumping around like I was doing some crazy dance and chanting "getitoffme, getitoffme getitoffme". The guide was laughing so hard he could help me. The dance was one of those where you just hop around in circles and the thing is still chasing you. I don't think he was a dancing spider.

[Dan Hintz]

205406
This is our favorite lab denizen, however this is a random picture off the web, not one from our lab.
Charles,

Is that a good ol' Golden Silk Orb Weaver (a.k.a. Banana Spider)? Had lots of those down in Florida... aggressive little buggers. Get too close and they would start violently shaking the web, even follow you a bit across their web.


I recall 'der ssshpida man' from my college days. Often a guest lectures in one of my bio-sciences classes, this older gentleman spoke with a heavy German accent and really knew how to keep our attention. He used spiders to research the effects of various drugs by assessing changes in web patterns. Most impressive.
Ted,

Do you mean something like this? :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc

[Mike Cruz]

Ironically, the spider was probably yelling "getmeoffit, getmeoffit, getmeoffit!!!!!!" :)

[Ted Calver]

Dan, That was hilarious!! Just as I remember it :) :)

[Belinda Barfield]

Ironically, the spider was probably yelling "getmeoffit, getmeoffit, getmeoffit!!!!!!" :)

I'm fairly certain that was exactly the way of it.

[Andrew Arndts]

Andrew, his voice has a way of "sticking with you", doesn't it?
Absolutely :D

[Gary Hodgin]

Not good. I hate spiders, especially those kind. I'd have to ask her to leave and never come back.

[Mike Cruz]

Oh, she, um "left", Gary. But she'll be around in pictures for quite some time. :)

[Gary Hodgin]

Good news. I'd introduced her to the bottom of my boot. BTW, I don't know if you took those pics or not, but they are really good.

[Mike Cruz]

Yes, Gary, I did. I have a Sanyo HD2 camera that takes 7 megapixel stills and 720 HD video. Great little camera. One feature I really like is that it takes great close ups. Yeah, it has 10X optical zoom, but zoom makes things unsteady and therefore blurs easily. Once you switch to macro mode (I think that is what it is called), you can get right up on stuff and get really clear shots. Focus can be on everything, or you can have focus only on the one spot and everything else is out of focus. Gives great detail to a specific part of the pic. Of course, this means that I was scarily close to that spider. The lens was within 2-3" of her...

[Jeff Monson]

Oh, she, um "left", Gary. But she'll be around in pictures for quite some time. :)

Those are some great pics Mike, I was hoping she had "left", or "right" whichever boot was closer I guess.

[Gary Hodgin]

You got closer than I would, but those are great pics. I'm sure your camera is a good one, but you know how to use it.

[Peter Elliott]

Her name is Nellie! that is a female - the posionous one. Males are not..
Won't kill you but will certainly hurt and a medflight to a major Infectious hospital.

Now I will go check our stash of wood from the Mike-land-of-blackwidows

[Bill Cunningham]

They seem to be moving north as well. My Son-inLaw found one in the back yard (50 miles north of Toronto Canada) He put it in a aquarium with a screen top, fed it crickets, and it lived for over a year. It was more of a curiosity than a menace up here I suppose

[Kevin W Johnson]

At the high point i snuffed about 14 black widows around the outside of the house one summer, with numbers ranging from 7-10 serveral other summers. I must have gotten all the mommies, as i haven't seen any for 2-3 years.

[Mike Cruz]

Peter, why would I want to go to an infecious hospital? I'd rather go to a clean one. :)

[Bill Cunningham]

At the high point i snuffed about 14 black widows around the outside of the house one summer, with numbers ranging from 7-10 serveral other summers. I must have gotten all the mommies, as i haven't seen any for 2-3 years.

The 'mommies' are the black ones.. The males are small and brown, and not around for long after they've been 'used' I hear..Hence the name...

[Callan Campbell]

Very impressive... And um, now of course a bit flattened..... Reminds me of the time I was playing in Texas as a kid in our front yard, and looked down at my feet to see a Tarantula spider carefully making its way across my shoe and off into the grass. We all stopped playing, and just watched it do its thing. Didn't kill it, too impressed by it as it was the largest spider I'd seen at the time. Most spiders don't bother me, Scorpions however, I will kill on sight. Family members have been hit by them, and I've almost gotten stung twice while living in Texas, but fast reflexes saved me both times. Whew......

[Callan Campbell]

Thank you all for giving me the creepy crawlies. :eek: A few years ago I participated in a medicinal plant walk along the Ogeechee Canal. I was so busy looking down I didn't look up . . . walked through a huge web with one of those big spiders like Charles has pictured. . . . and it was on me . . . and I was jumping around like I was doing some crazy dance and chanting "getitoffme, getitoffme getitoffme". The guide was laughing so hard he could help me. The dance was one of those where you just hop around in circles and the thing is still chasing you. I don't think he was a dancing spider.
My wife kept doing that in Florida in '94 while we were vacationing in St. Augustine. After the first 3 times, you get used to the screams and it becomes more of a nuisance... :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
The spiders may still have a ban on her from entering the County and destroying their webs. These days they have good lawyers...;)