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Speaking of unwelcome guests...

Pam

Pam

We have the worst garbage service around here. The list of things they won't haul off is huge. So, once a year they have a "Clean Sweep" day when they'll haul off anything you can get to the street.

The man who owned this house before I did loved to build things; things with concrete and welding scraps, no less. And sheds, he liked to build sheds. I've mentioned my sheds, haven't I? You know, the Seven Sheds of Pam? He had 7 sheds on a half acre lot. Anyway, five years on in this house, and I'm still tearing things down and digging things up. Last Clean Sweep Day I tore down the rotted carport, and was in the middle of smashing up one of the two brick barbecues when the Clean Sweepers came by. There never give you much warning when they're going to have one of these. Anyway, for the last year and half I've had a pile of old bricks and morter in the backyard.

This morning I started hauling it to the street and I discovered an unwelcome visitor.

BW3967.jpg


After ungraciously showing her the downside of living in a pile of shifty bricks, I want and got some heavy gloves and a crow bar to turn over the rest of the brick slabs. Good thing, too.

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I shall be temporarily abandoning my organic gardening principles in favor of some potent organophosphates.
 
ahhh the good old Red Back Spider - are they rare in your part of the world? I could go into our yard right now and find one within ten minutes. in summer there's even more of them. they will make you pretty sick but we've got lots more biteys here in Oz that are a lot more dangerous than that little f-er. they do love living in piles of bricks and rocks. just wear riggers gloves and you'll be ok. wait until you see a funnel web or two, then you'll get scared - those bastards rear up at you... scared the shit outta me!
 
From what I understand, a black widow bite won't kill you, it just makes you wish it would. You can only take the anti-venom once in your life, so most doctors suggest you try and ride out the pain in the hospital on morphine.
 
imaguitargod said:
Ah the black widow spider. Nasty little f-er if there ever was one. At least you didn't get bit.......
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No, I didn't, for which I am duly thankful. I sprayed the area with an outdoor ant and roach spray, and used a bug bomb in two of my three remaining sheds. I was afraid to use one in the barbecue shack (the screened in shed built around a brick barbecue) because it's so close to my milkweed. And I'm glad I didn't, there was a monarch butterfly outside this morning laying eggs in the milkweed.
 
those widows are prolific breeders. i've never kept any myself but know of plenty people that have. seems whenever i see them they are female and have one or two egg sacs around.

my friend up in a more northern area of florida has tons of brown widows all over their house.
 
xgrafcorex said:
those widows are prolific breeders. i've never kept any myself but know of plenty people that have. seems whenever i see them they are female and have one or two egg sacs around...
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the males have a much smaller booty section than the females (I'm sure you can advise the scientific name XG). they are a beaut looking spider, and you're right Pam, their bite shouldn't prove to be fatal.
 
Boy am I glad I live on LI. No Black Widows and I can pay my garbage men and they will gladly take ANYTHING at ANY TIME :lol:
 
chilliman64 said:
the males have a much smaller booty section than the females (I'm sure you can advise the scientific name XG). they are a beaut looking spider, and you're right Pam, their bite shouldn't prove to be fatal.
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there are different species within the genus (Latrodectus). i think the one most people think of, with the red hour glass, is L. mactans.

they certainly are beautiful spiders. lots of subtle differences in their colorations...and some not so subtle ones. i can never believe the size differences from the male and females. the male basically climbs onto the underside of her abdomen to mate. :lol:

if any of you are interested, bored at work, or whatever.. here is a thread on a forum i post at that is just for pics of widows. http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=4898&page=1 there is a lot of non picture posts, but still plenty with pics.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/26336
 
I just had a redback close encounter.

the beautiful chilliwoman and myself just went out and bought some buxus hedge plants, twenty of them in eight-inch pots. we loaded them into the boot of the Camry and drove them home. while she was indoors getting changed into gardening clothes I, being the ever-dutiful (and obedient) husband, proceeded to unload the pots.

when they were all unloaded, I leant back into the boot to remove the protective sheet that we had laid down to catch the dropped soil, when I saw a nice fat little female running at a good speed in my direction. well, I killed it! I and probably the missus had handled the pot that contained the spider, luckily we weren't bitten otherwise I would have been able to comment on certain items contained in some of the posts above. this is the 15th day of Spring so I expect to see many, many more before Summer is over.
 
so, in order to continue with this theme (or vein as it were), I am posting the lyrics to a song which I have known since childhood. I don't know if it known outside of Australia but I can remember singing it in primary school and also hearing it on the radio and tv at various times:

THE REDBACK ON THE TOILET SEAT
by Slim Newton
There was a redback on the toilet seat
When I was there last night.
I didn't see him in the dark,
But boy I felt his bite.

I jumped high up into the air
And when I hit the ground,
That crafty redback spider
Wasn't nowhere to be found.

I rushed into the missus,
Told her just where I'd been bit.
She grabbed a cut-throat razor-blade
And I nearly took a fit.

I said, "Just forget what's on your mind
And call a doctor please,
'Cause I got a feeling that your cure
Is worse than the disease."

There was a redback on the toilet seat
When I was there last night.
I didn't see him in the dark,
But boy I felt his bite.

And now I'm here in hospital
A sad and sorry sight,
And I curse the redback spider
On the toilet seat last night.

I can't lie down, I can't sit up
And I don't know what to do,
And all the nurses think it's funny
But that's not my point of view.

I tell you its embarassing,
And that's to say the least,
That I'm too sick to eat a bit
While that spider had a feast.

And when I get back home again
I tell you what I'll do,
I'll make that redback suffer
For the pain I'm going through.

I've had so many needles
That I'm looking like a sieve,
And I promise you that spider
Hasn't very long to live.

There was a redback on the toilet seat
When I was there last night.
I didn't see him in the dark,
But boy I felt his bite.

But now I'm here in hospital
A sad and sorry sight,
And I curse the redback spider
On the toilet seat last night.
 
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