Mating season lures Texas tarantula from burrows

Valley Morning Star ^ | May 22, 2005 | FERNANDO DEL VALLE

[Calpernia]

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 :)

[Bullish]

Texas brown tarantula.

[MarkL]

I'd rather have the tarantula than roaches, although smaller spiders bother me a bit. Something that I've come to realize is that quite often, it's the little critters that pack the biggest punch, when it comes to venom. Bigger critters can often overpower their prey. That's the case with some of the nastyer spiders, like the wolf and brown recluse, as well as with scorpions. If a scorpion's got big pincers, it's probably not as venomous as one with smaller pincers.

Mark

[MarkL]

Oh, and I also LOVE to watch the little jumping spiders. They're tiny, but often colored really brilliantly. They're just fun to watch.

Mark

[RandallFlagg]

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.

[fella]

Well that's better than the one I have.

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.

[ArmyTeach]

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.

[dread78645]

“The males and females will come out of their tunnels and they’ll look for each other,” he said.

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).

[Shery]

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!

[libstripper]

I'm the opposite. As long as snakes are nonpoisonous, the more the better.

[SwinneySwitch]

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

[Iwo Jima]

I threw shoes until I killed them all.

I sense that this is just an excuse for women to own more shoes. "It's for the children."

[SwinneySwitch]

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.

[tiki]

LOL

[rwfromkansas]

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.

[Skooz]

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.

[Redbob]

Around here the choice is scorpions or roaches, except you don't really have choice.

Well, at least we don't have roaches!