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What Local Animal Are You Most Afraid Of?
- Thread starter Mother Dragon
- Start Date
This time of year I really do not like slugs. They can be seen during the day under plants and near rocks, but at night they cover the grass in my yard. Big ones and little ones. (The grass is very dewy here at night in the summer).
Thank you, everyone, for all the very interesting postings about animals in your area.
Thank you, everyone, for all the very interesting postings about animals in your area.
They are gross. They get into the cats food.This time of year I really do not like slugs. They can be seen during the day under plants and near rocks, but at night they cover the grass in my yard. Big ones and little ones. (The grass is very dewy here at night in the summer).
Thank you, everyone, for all the very interesting postings about animals in your area.
I know, they are very slimy. I thought of googling tonight to learn more but don't know if I want to learn more.
Don't they die if you pour salt on them? Or is that a myth?I know, they are very slimy. I thought of googling tonight to learn more but don't know if I want to learn more.
The best way to get rid of them is beer traps. Take a paper cup, dig a hold in the ground for the cup to fit into so just a few cm of the rim is above ground. Half fill the cup with beer. Slugs can't resist it and they die happy.
A good stout or bitter works better than larger. Slugs prefer dark beer.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #207
It's disgusting to lift a piece of wood and find a slug hotel under it. Those things can chomp through plants as fast as they can move.
We put out a saucer of beer to get rid of slugs. Every morning, the beer would be gone, but we never saw a dead slug. One night we heard lapping and looked out to find the beagle drinking all the beer.
We put out a saucer of beer to get rid of slugs. Every morning, the beer would be gone, but we never saw a dead slug. One night we heard lapping and looked out to find the beagle drinking all the beer.
That is a cool looking snake. I would follow it to get more pictures, probably.kashmir64
I posted the Ratsnake photo on the company I work for website. That way people have click the link and it won't show on here to make people uncomfortable.
http://www.accessrigging.com/GrayRatsnake1.jpg
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #209
I forgot about wild rats. Pet rats and all mice don't bother me but wild rats, especially the big German wharf rats, are fearless, nasty creatures. A wharf rat will stand its ground, especially if there's food in the equation.
I'm changing my vote to wasps. One landed on my leg last night. I brushed it off without looking down to check what it was and the little bleeder stung me. OMG that hurt! I've been stung by wasps before but this was an all black one and was obviously much more venomous than wasps I've encountered in the past. Spent the evening alternately dipping my thumb in a glass of vinegar and wrapping it up in an ice cloth.
Evil wasps!
Evil wasps!
That sounds more like a hornet.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #212
OUCH! Those things hurt like fury. Two or three times a year our house is full of huge red wasps. We kill 10-15 per day. We think they're in the chimney.
I don't know if it's available there but you might find this on the internet. It's called AfterBite. It looks like a fat pen and the tip is saturated with something that immediately kills the pain. One of those red monsters popped Robert on the foot and he was hopping around and howling in pain. I found the AfterBite and daubed some on the bite. Within 15 seconds the pain was gone, as was the swelling. It didn't even get sore.
In the mean time you might try some ammonia.
Home
I don't know if it's available there but you might find this on the internet. It's called AfterBite. It looks like a fat pen and the tip is saturated with something that immediately kills the pain. One of those red monsters popped Robert on the foot and he was hopping around and howling in pain. I found the AfterBite and daubed some on the bite. Within 15 seconds the pain was gone, as was the swelling. It didn't even get sore.
In the mean time you might try some ammonia.
Home
We have them in Florida too. I detest them. DH used to take them back outside.
Not me. If they invade my personal space, they die.
The UK is pretty drab as far as exotic creatures go. We got rid of bears and wolves centuries ago. It always amazes me how others talk of alligators, cougars, rattlesnakes etc. etc. If an alligator was found in a back yard over here it would be an escapee from a zoo and would be on the national news!
There's always been an ongoing myth that is sometimes featured on the news over here that there may be some type of big cat/cats on Dartmoor but again they would be escapees. At least we can freely wander around forest areas without being eaten I suppose.
There's always been an ongoing myth that is sometimes featured on the news over here that there may be some type of big cat/cats on Dartmoor but again they would be escapees. At least we can freely wander around forest areas without being eaten I suppose.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #215
Come to Texas if you want to meet a variety of not-so-nice-but-interesting critters. Believe it or not, tarantulas are neither aggressive nor fatal. There are only a few species whose bite could cause problems. People here keep them as pets. I've been brave enough to let one crawl on me. It tickled.
I've also held a Peruvian hissing cockroach. It was huge, almost as big as the palm of my hand. They actually DO hiss. I think those would be a lot worse than the big cockroaches we have here.
Scorpions glow under blacklight. That's creepy! However, a lot of people put on shoes and carry blacklights when they get up at night. They check the shoes first. Why scorpions like stinky shoes is beyond me. There are a lot better dark places to hide.
I would much more prefer to deal with the things we have here than the ones in Australia!
I've also held a Peruvian hissing cockroach. It was huge, almost as big as the palm of my hand. They actually DO hiss. I think those would be a lot worse than the big cockroaches we have here.
Scorpions glow under blacklight. That's creepy! However, a lot of people put on shoes and carry blacklights when they get up at night. They check the shoes first. Why scorpions like stinky shoes is beyond me. There are a lot better dark places to hide.
I would much more prefer to deal with the things we have here than the ones in Australia!
Same with where I live. Not much in Ontario that is fatal to a human. Typically you would have to corner an animal with it's young to be attacked. There are rattle snakes but they are in a remote part of the province and not something a typical person would run into.
The mosquitoes are pests and lots of them this year as it was an extremely wet year. Was a lot of black flies in the spring this year as well. Huge clouds of black flies and they can do a real number on the back of your neck.
This reminds me of the time I got tagged by one. It was a big brown female. I was at the bus stop and she was crossing the open area where the bus and other parents drive. I ran over and scooped her up. I let her crawl over my hand until I got her back into the grass. I think she looked out and said "Hey, this is where I started" and got my hand as I lowered it.
My hand went completely numb. It was hysterical. I had the mark for a month though.
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Benadryl gel also works wonders if applied immediately. I saw a yellow jacket zip up my daughter's sleeve and she got stung. There was barely a mark by bedtime. To give you an idea of how long ago this was during a shopping trip far to the south during the post Hurricane Isabel aftermath, yet the mental trauma still has her terrified of things with stingers.
To be entirely accurate tarantulas do have poison, but with most species of tarantulas it rarely affects humans. Of course I heard one heck of a story about an expert tarantula owner when his very, very expensive and (whole species) very, very aggressive tarantula got loose and hid in the innards of the washing machine. He got bit about a dozen times while taking the washer apart to recapture it and the next day his arm was swollen to the shoulder and he felt somewhat sick. So it can somewhat affect humans.
But interesting fact, I have heard of three potentially fatal species of tarantulas, assuming the facts I read in a book on tarantulas are correct. There's some poisonous species in Australia that is a species of tarantula. The other two are more well known. Tarantulas are an evolutionary throwback, like pythons and boas, their anatomy is found farther back in the evolutionary timeline. The biggie is that their fangs are parallel, so they have to brute force a bite, where more recent evolution has re-spaced the fangs to intersect across from each other, like a pair of scissors, so strength is not really needed. And there are two common spiders that are technically tarantulas based on body anatomy - black widows and brown recluse.
Oh, if you ever go into a pet store that sell tarantulas, there is a common species sold to eager little kids that is actually considered not a good beginner owner species. It's called the pink toe tarantula, cute little thing, solid black except for its pink feet. It's docile as crap, which is why it is commonly sold, but it's a quick little sucker, not slow and lazy like some desert species. That potential for speed when loose is why it's not considered good for beginners. And I can attest to that, as I was in the kitchen cooking when my darling 15 month old daughter pushed her doll house up to the entertainment center, climbed on it and pulled the plastic cage onto the ground. I heard the crash, ran into the living room and saw her on her hands and knees reaching for the bottom rocker on the rocking chair...which the terrified spider had taken refuge under. I got her right before she squished it, scooped up the spider and next thing I knew it was dead center between my shoulder blades. Faster than if it had used a Star Trek transporter to travel. Getting it back into its cage involved the next door neighbor, stripping and a strawberry container. And the d***ed crickets that were in its cage got into the walls and chirped their hearts out for two weeks.
That would be more terrifying than any tarantula.
Ack, that was the worst part about having pet salamanders. I hate the little brown crickets that pet stores sell (oddly, I don't mind the black wild ones). I once bought a critter-keeper full of the crickets to keep the salamanders fed through the winter (with the pet store an hour away it's hard to keep them alive long enough to get home when it's 10 degrees out, even with heating packs) and I ended up having nightmares about creepy crawly things. And I'm not normally squeamish about bugs! No more cricket-eaters for me.
