Texas brown tarantula.
Posted on 05/22/2005 7:17:50 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
HARLINGEN, May 22, 2005 — As the sun sets on the Rio Grande Valley, car headlights splash shadows that crawl like black hands across the road.
When spring blooms in South Texas, it’s mating season for tarantulas.
From his front door, Bryant Williams sees the fat, furry spiders creep into the night.
“I see them mostly late at night, like around midnight under the street light, scurrying around,” said Williams, a U.S. Border Patrol agent who lives near the Arroyo Colorado, a nesting ground for the native Texas tan tarantula.
“A lot of people don’t like them because they look scary,” he said. “But they don’t bother me. I grew up in South Texas. We used to play with them as kids — catch them and keep them in aquariums. You’d keep them two or three days and turn them loose if you got a bigger one. Like a goldfish, we’d look at them and see what they do.”
In South Texas, mating season lures the Texas tan tarantula out of its winter burrow for about six weeks, said Genaro Lopez, an entomologist at the University of Texas at Brownsville.
“The males and females will come out of their tunnels and they’ll look for each other,” he said.
About eight years ago, Jacob Taylor’s grandmother gave him a tarantula that she captured in her garage.
Ever since, he’s kept tarantulas as pets.
“It took a little time to get used to the idea of handling them — you hope they don’t bite you,” said Taylor, 20, a computer science major who works at a Brownsville pet store. “Everybody’s afraid of them. It’s something that’s interesting — that people are afraid of them, but you don’t have to be.”
Like many tarantula species, the Texas tan spider is “docile,” Lopez said.
“When people try to mess with them, they’ll try to bite as a last resort,” he said.
While its fangs can leave “a little puncture wound,” the tarantula’s bite packs as much venom as a honeybee’s sting, he said.
Still, the 4-inch tarantula preys on man’s primal fears, Lopez said.
“It’s an arachnophobic type of stereotype,” he said of the spider’s mystique. “Instead of seeing them as creations with intrinsic beauty, tarantulas are taking it on the chin, with people driving over them or spraying them.”
When Brownsville’s resacas crawl with the spiders during mating season, about one in 10 of his customers in the area want him to kill tarantulas, said Sergio Cordova, field supervisor with Esparza Pest Control in Edinburg.
“Around this time, it’s the worst,” he said. “They climb up the walls and get into cracks or vents. Some people will see one and think they’re everywhere — and most of the time they’re right. Anybody who lives near the arroyo or a resaca — be prepared.”
While the tarantula strikes its share of terror, Lopez sees its beauty.
“I love them,” he said. “They’re part of creation. What would you rather have in your house — roaches or a tarantula?”
Ok
I had a skunk living under my shed.
At that time, I had a tame, trained rabbit.
I would let the rabbit out in the yard after dinner, and watch the rabbit interact with the skunk. My rabbit was trained to me and I would feed it by hand.
If I called my rabbit, it would come and eat. That darn skunk started mimicking it.
I ended up with a wild skunk that would eat from my hand.
That skunk ended up being a preg female.
A bit later, she would come out to play with my rabbit, the kits too.
She wouldn't let them anywhere near me. Sat them in a semi circle radius from me and bring them food from my hand.
BTW, everyone in my immediate neighbor was hit with this skunk. When I say immediate, remember, I'm from the Tri state. Everyone lives on top of one another. No property ;) So you can say, my whole block was skunked, but me :)
Texas brown tarantula.
Mark
Mark
I had a wasp do that to me.
I knew it was a wasp, and I knew it'd probably land on me. However, I told myself the old line, "If you don't bother them, they'll leave you alone." It bit into my wrist.
That "Old Line" works about as good as it does with terrorists and communists.
Perhaps wasps ARE commies.
My wife lives and works on our Ozark place while I'm still working in Texas to pay for it. We have two dogs to guard our goats, one is a female Anatolian called Gretchen that usually stays with the goats and the other is a male Great Pyrenees called Onslow that kind of patrols the area. One night when when they were good sized pups they got to raising a ruckus and wouldn't stop. I got the flashlight and went to see what the problem was. As I got to the drive here comes Gretchen with a skunk in her mouth and Onslow right beside her snapping at it. About that time the skunk let loose and hit poor ole' Onsie right in the face. Well Gretchen let and ran for cover, the skunk hit the ground and headed back for the road and poor Onslow took a nose dive into the dirt when he got up he was a little blinded still and kept running into bushes and such until he cleared up and ran off to hide. Nobody would pet those dogs for days.
You're braver than I am by far. I was standing behind a boy in line for dinner at UC Santa Cruz in its first year...he'd been out all day and had brought a tarantula which was climbing up and down his arm. It was all I could do not to take off posthaste, but I stood my ground and just watched. Nothing happened.
Uhmm ... That's not real clear. My understanding is it's the males that come out and travel for miles looking for mates. The females don't go beyond a couple of feet from their burrow.
ObSpiderPic: Goliath tarantula (Theraphosa blondi)
This one is a immature female at 6oz and 9 inch leg-span.
At maturity it'll tip the scales at 1/2 lb and 12-13 inches (a little larger than a full sized dinner plate).
In the fall of 1974, my husband got out of the military and we were going to Siloam Springs, AR, where he had been attending college before the military stint. As we were driving up Hgwy 59, I saw this huge black thing cross the road. My worst fears were confirmed when I asked, "What was that thing crossing the road?" My husband asnwered, "A tarantula, but don't worry, they don't hurt you!" Not being a native Arkansan, my first response was, "Just where are you taking me, anyway?" This THING was about 10-12 inches diameter.
I still don't like them!
I'm the opposite. As long as snakes are nonpoisonous, the more the better.
Hope you made it through the night.;^) Here's an article about the Butterfly Ranch near Swinney Switch, maybe you can read it this evening before going to bed?
http://butterflywebsite.com/Articles/Mike.htm
SS
Had really bad chest congestion or bronchitis when I was young. They tried everything to cure me, including mustard plasters that burned my skin. My trapper grandfather brought my mom a small jar of skunk grease that worked like a miracle drug! Don't know if it was an old Injun remedy or what. Now I remember him and that skunk grease whenever I smell a skunk.
LOL
That is why I get the heck out of there whenever I see a wasp or bee.
Yeah, most of the time they won't do anything unless you bug them, but BUGGING THEM is how THEY interpret it.
Just walking by 10 feet away may be a nuisance enough for them to come sting you.
I get the heck out of there.
We used to have a tarantula as a house pet.
My daughter used to get him out and play with him all the time. One time, while showing the tarantula to some neighborhood kids, she accidentally dropped him onto the pavement and killed him.
We were pretty upset about it. He was a good tarantula.
Around here the choice is scorpions or roaches, except you don't really have choice.
Well, at least we don't have roaches!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.