Arachnophobes view at your own risk

[RocketMan]

Just finished harvesting a few strawberries, and Mr(s) Spider did not grab me and pull me into the patch.  It probably beat feet yesterday after I released it.

[MrsSmith]

Roo_ster and Physics! Could have gone all day without those!

I don't know Rocketman - is that really you or has the spider consumed you and learned to type?

Regolith - I can handle scorpions and snakes all day long. Spiders? Not so much.

[InfidelSerf]

Either way, it's passed on. That spider is no more. It has ceased to be. It's expired and gone to meet its maker. It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace. If I hadn't nailed it with a piece of wood it'd be pushing up the daisies. Its metabolic processes are now history. It's off the twig. It's kicked the bucket, it's shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile. It is an ex-spider.

Did you burn her, bury her, or dump her? 
Dump her ? In the Thames.

[RoadKingLarry]

Killed 7 Black Widows this morning, pictures forth coming.

[Jamisjockey]

Living in suburban bliss means no giant orb weavers.  Out in the country, sure.  I'd certainly go NFA and carry a sawed off if we had them. 

[RoadKingLarry]

Pictures as promised






I didn't take pictures of all of the ones I killed.
But-
All of them met an abrupt end

And here is a cute lizard that was in the parking lot a work the other night.

[Scout26]

^ Then cats to control the mice.  Then....?

Chinese !!!

Silverfish are about the size of about half a dime to a about a dime.  Around here, they occasionally will come out of a drain, but then head back in quickly as the piercing cry of the female folk drives them back into their lair.


Oh, and I will again point out that Northern Illinois is Hurricane, Volcano, Wild Fire, Tsunami, Lizard, Poisonous Snake, Giant Spider, Scorpion, and Poisonous Spider free.

[RocketMan]

Oh, and I will again point out that Northern Illinois is Hurricane, Volcano, Wild Fire, Tsunami, Lizard, Poisonous Snake, Giant Spider, Scorpion, and Poisonous Spider free.

Maybe not so much.  The references I've seen indicate the Black Widow and the Brown Recluse live throughout Illinois.

[lee n. field]

Chinese !!!

Silverfish are about the size of about half a dime to a about a dime.  Around here, they occasionally will come out of a drain, but then head back in quickly as the piercing cry of the female folk drives them back into their lair.


Oh, and I will again point out that Northern Illinois is Hurricane, Volcano, Wild Fire, Tsunami, Lizard, Poisonous Snake, Giant Spider, Scorpion, and Poisonous Spider free.

We do get coyotes, and rumors of big cats, though.  And, a bear that wandered down from Minnesota (I wonder how they knew that) 3 or 4 years ago.

[RoadKingLarry]

Oh, and I will again point out that Northern Illinois is Hurricane, Volcano, Wild Fire, Tsunami, Lizard, Poisonous Snake, Giant Spider, Scorpion, and Poisonous Spider free.

I'd much rather deal with all of that than what Illinois sent to the White House

[MechAg94]

Living in suburban bliss means no giant orb weavers.  Out in the country, sure.  I'd certainly go NFA and carry a sawed off if we had them. 

I think the orb weavers are what we call banana spiders, but maybe not.  They are all over the place down this week.  I'm sure they are in places near you also, but likely fewer since they build webs for flying stuff.  They are very docile and stay on their webs.  They are the type that if you only knock down the part of the web that is in they way, they will stop rebuilding that section after a day or two.  At the range I belong to near Brazoria, they are always out in great numbers in the late summer and fall. 



Where I grew up about an hour west of Houston, there were lots of Wolf Spiders.  They hung out in the grass around the house.  They don't build webs, but can get a 2 or 3 inches wide including legs.  They don't mess with stuff they don't eat as far as I know.  Never bothered us as kids and we generally didn't mess with them.

[MechAg94]

I had to look up Silverfish and this is what wiki shows:



Nope.  I definitely have House Centipedes and not Silverfish.

In fact, if I ever saw a Silverfish, I would have to set phasers to "kill" and be on the lookout for KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!

Silverfish are common down here on the Gulf Coast.  If you leave a stack of newspaper or cardboard in the garage, you will have silverfish in it soon.  They actually can eat paper.  They are harmless, but annoying.  If you leave boxes piled up, you will get them also.

[AJ Dual]

They're tiny though. Like 1/4" long. We have them here in Wisconsin too.

The worst part though is they live up to the "silver" part of their name. They're pretty frictionless when you try to squash them. Mostly harmless unless you have expensive rare books and paper goods though.

[freakazoid]

I think the orb weavers are what we call banana spiders, but maybe not

That looks like the garden spiders I use to see, very rarely. Even sort of has the zig-zag pattern in the center, although it doesn't look as zig-zaggy.

[Scout26]

We do get coyotes, and rumors of big cats, though.  And, a bear that wandered down from Minnesota (I wonder how they knew that) 3 or 4 years ago.

Coyotes, yes.  There have also been three wolves taken in Northern (north eastern Illinois) in the past year, and a bear that in Jo Davies (over by the Mississippi) a year or so ago. 

Brown recluses and what poisonous snakes includes rattlesnakes, cottonmouth, and water moccasins (I blame Monkeyleg) are in SOUTHERN Illinois.  Black widows a rare and only arrive here on the occasioned potted plant from somewhere else.  We have wolf spiders in the bushes and the occasional orb weaver in heavily wooded areas.

I do apologize on behalf of my fellow citizens for sending BHO, Dick Durbin, et, al to Washington.  Two-three counties screw up the state for the other 98-99 counties.  You're right, that is worse.

[Jamisjockey]

Chinese !!!

Silverfish are about the size of about half a dime to a about a dime.  Around here, they occasionally will come out of a drain, but then head back in quickly as the piercing cry of the female folk drives them back into their lair.


Oh, and I will again point out that Northern Illinois is Hurricane, Volcano, Wild Fire, Tsunami, Lizard, Poisonous Snake, Giant Spider, Scorpion, and Poisonous Spider free.

Yeah, but you people gave us Obama. 

[lee n. field]

Coyotes, yes.  There have also been three wolves taken in Northern (north eastern Illinois) in the past year, and a bear that in Jo Davies (over by the Mississippi) a year or so ago. 

That was the bear I was thinking of.  Ended up near Stockton, IRRC, which is within the area of my regular wandering.

And there are constant rumors of large cat.

Brown recluses and what poisonous snakes includes rattlesnakes, cottonmouth, and water moccasins (I blame Monkeyleg) are in SOUTHERN Illinois.

My grandfather, back in the day, was bit by a brown recluse, 25 miles from the WI border.

I do apologize on behalf of my fellow citizens for sending BHO, Dick Durbin, et, al to Washington.  Two-three counties screw up the state for the other 98-99 counties.  You're right, that is worse.

I remember showing up at a local Barry rally, when he was running for Senator. 

[lee n. field]

Yeah, but you people gave us Obama. 

Thank the Illinois Republican Death Wish Party for that.

They should never run anybody, ever, ever, ever, named Ryan.

[Ben]

Thank the Illinois Republican Death Wish Party for that.

They should never run anybody, ever, ever, ever, named Ryan.

Is that the Ryan that was Seven of Nine's husband?

[Scout26]

Thank the Illinois Republican Death Wish Party for that.

They should never run anybody, ever, ever, ever, named Ryan.

Is that the Ryan that was Seven of Nine's husband?

After we sent a Ryan that was Governor to Jail and a Ryan who was Republican State's Attorney entrapping lawful gun owners.

I met Mike Ditka not too long ago and told him that if the Illinois Republican party asks him to run for anything, to do it. (He was offered the Republican slot that Ryan, 7 of 9's ex, had won in the primary, after the allegedly Conservative Republican Newspaper, Chicago Tribune, managed to get sealed private divorce papers unsealed destroying Ryan's front running campaign against Obama, whom he probably would have handily beaten. This after the Illinois Stupid Party refused to back the incumbent Republican Senator Peter Fitzgerald, because he got George Bush to name Patrick Fitzgerald (no relation) as ass't AG, to go after the corruption of both parties in this state.,  Yeah, read that again, and you'll see Obama didn't climb to the top so much as others screwed up and he just happened to be in the right place at the right time.) 

Oh, and Dikta (who would have won in a landslide, as no one of any party here in Illinois would ever vote against him), after my comment above, said to me; "Every dipshit has his day."

[Scout26]

And we've seemed to have squared the circle on creepy characters that poison their victims.

[RocketMan]

I don't know Rocketman - is that really you or has the spider consumed you and learned to type?

Whatever do you mean?

[230RN]

@ Physics:

I suppose now is a good time to tell you guys that you can send me these spiders and I will image them in an electron microscope.  I even now have a procedure for doing false color images, although I haven't tried it yet.  The only catch is that they have to be dead when I receive them and not too damaged.

Q:  How do you pump down the electron microscope chamber with organic matter in it?  Doesn't gooey stuff like that make for a big virtual leak?  Just a big honkin' pump?  How far down (in Torr) do you have to pump?
 
Curious, 230RN

[Iain]

Saw the picture and was going to say that it looked exactly like the one I trapped scuttling across the lounge floor last week. Mine was perhaps not quite as big, but looks to be the same species as the giant house spider is a European import to the US. Sorry about that, but please don't send us black widows or brown recluses in return, the giant house spider might get big, but it is otherwise harmless. It is nice to know that, aside from tramping through heathland in the summer and being unlucky enough to startle an adder, there isn't anything else in the fauna of this country that can mess you up much. Well, there's the odd rampaging badger.

[Physics]

@ Physics:

Q:  How do you pump down the electron microscope chamber with organic matter in it?  Doesn't gooey stuff like that make for a big virtual leak?  Just a big honkin' pump?  How far down (in Torr) do you have to pump?
 
Curious, 230RN

Yeah, it outgasses like nobody's business, but I had no issues imaging.  We do have some pretty large pumps on that system, including a good sized diffusion pump.  IIRC, I think we're in the lower 10^-7 torr regime, but we could be at higher 10^-8 torr.  This machine is our lab workhorse, so I'm not too concerned with spraying bits of "stuff" all over.  I can open up the chamber and clean it easily enough if it builds up too much.  I've had to do it before when stupid people dropped their sample inside the chamber (yes, it has happened more than once).

Pretty much everyone in the SEM business also make variable pressure SEM's, which can operate at pretty close to atmospheric pressure.  There is also a brand new system I just heard about, where the sample is at atmospheric pressure.  Looks like JEOL makes it.