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Coffee House => Coffee House Boards => CH / General => Topic started by: X-ray on September 04, 2005, 11:13:54 PM
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There is a good-sized spider here in my room. I noticed it out of the corner of my eye crawling up the wall behind the TV. At full stretch its legs span the mouth of a coffee mug and it is a slightly furry dark brown. :nervous:
Now here is the problem: this being London, I am inclined to give this dude a break as he is not likely to be poisonous (he might like to nip though). Also, he has gone back down behind some units and although I can see him, I can't get at him for the purposes of evicting him. I could probably kill him, but I wouldn't feel good about it.
But then again, I don't want to wake up to the sensation of spider legs on my face tonight...
What to do?
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Hum,
you got mosquito netting handy to put around your bed?
Just in case it’s a funnel web or something nasty imported with a box of bananas...
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Sounds like a house spider (Tegenaria gigantea): I remember seeing a few in my old house in the middle of the province in the Netherlands. They are indeed quite big and will scare the living daylights out of many people. Google Images has quite a few nice pictures. They have fangs, but are not poisonous to humans. However, be careful if you live in the northwest of the US: there T. agrestis, the hobo spider, is much more common, and their bites are much more unpleasant, sometimes even leading to necrosis :-o!
I wouldn't worry about spider legs on your face, although there is a statistic which says that on average, people eat three spiders a year in their sleep because the hapless arachnids chose to crawl over a pillow, or came too close to people's faces while dangling from a silk strand.
Let's just say you'll know what is going on if you wake to faint tickling sensations on your face :-D .
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Aaaaaaaarrgghh!!
You two have NOT made me feel cool about this dude being here, and to make things worse, I can't find him anymore!!!!
I don't know where he is...
...and thanks to Blobzie's imported spider theory I reckon I am going to have no sleep tonight.
Right, I gotta get this spider outta here, now.
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During the Summer months, you could stand in my front yard and easily count around 10 or so similar spiders (Huntsman) climbing up my outside walls. Thens there's the Red Backs that live in my compost bins and the White Tails that frequent my living areas. To top things off, we have Tiger snakes living by the creek that flows past the back of my place. How does that make you feel X-ray? :nervous:
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X-ray wrote:
Aaaaaaaarrgghh!!
You two have NOT made me feel cool about this dude being here, and to make things worse, I can't find him anymore!!!!
I don't know where he is...
...and thanks to Blobzie's imported spider theory I reckon I am going to have no sleep tonight.
Right, I gotta get this spider outta here, now.
Ignore it. fire up your Amiga and let the Spider do it's job of eating flies... I'm terrorfied of flies, I love spiders for the sole reason that they eat flies!
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"...How does that make you feel X-ray?..."
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It would make me feel like this :-o :nervous: :shocked:
Ja, you guys have the worst crawlies, I would say worse even than the critters we get in SA.
@ Bloodline
Why so scared of flies?
edit: if it is a tsetse fly (http://www.roberth.u-net.com/tsetse.htm) then fair enough, be afraid, but those are only in Africa.
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X-ray
You should get a picture of this little fella.
We've been having mild winters and warm damp summers in the UK now for a while, so many non-indigenous species are making a home here. In Highbury there is a colony of parakeets estimated to number in the range of four thousand, plus a Leatherback Turtle was spotted swimming off the coast of Suffolk.
Which makes me wonder how many non-native arachnids there are populating the warmer parts of the UK...
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@ Bloodline
Why so scared of flies?
I have no idea... it's just and irrational fear, similar to your dislike of spiders I guess :-)
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bloodline wrote:
Ignore it. fire up your Amiga and let the Spider do it's job of eating flies... I'm terrorfied of flies, I love spiders for the sole reason that they eat flies!
I'm not afraid of flies, I just detest the filthy little buggers. All day crawling on garbage, dogsh*t and any other fetid stuff they can find, then it's in through your window to crawl all over your fruit, crockery or whatever.
For that reason I'm pro spider too :-)
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We have something in the UK that vaguely resembles your Aussie flies...
They're usually found reporting for "The Sun".
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PMC wrote:
We have something in the UK that vaguely resembles your Aussie flies...
They're usually found reporting for "The Sun".
Can't say I've had any aussie flies here. Do they sound different or only hang around barbeques or empty beer cans? :-D
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Doh! Sorry Karlos, I had you mixed up with ADZ. Must be something to do with your avatars!
Perhaps I should lay off the barbies and beer myself...
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There can only be one Aussie fly of note... (http://www.cricketbatwillow.com.au/images/Merv%20Hughes.jpg)
Even if it is a fruit-fly :-)
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PMC wrote:
Doh! Sorry Karlos, I had you mixed up with ADZ. Must be something to do with your avatars!
Perhaps I should lay off the barbies and beer myself...
That's quite OK. I take it you have normal colour vision? If you were of one of us, you'd actually see mine has a higher blue saturation ;-)
(http://www.amiga.org/uploads/cavt431ca7f6975f5.jpg) <- me
(http://www.amiga.org/uploads/cavt429d0e366dded.jpg) <- adz
See? Totally different :-D
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:lol:
Are you sure that you and ADZ aren't one and the same? Has anyone here seen Karlos and ADZ in the same photo?
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Hmmm. That could be tricky, but if the Sydney curry night ever happens, you never know :-D
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Karlos wrote:
See? Totally different :-D
Ah..I always wondered why you had a pink avatar.. ;-)
Anyway..back to the topic..
My biggest problem right now is 2 wasp nests close to the window by my computers, and it's so damn hot (for an overgrown Ewok like me) I gotta have the window wide open and a fan on full blast to get any hope of getting some work done.
The other night, coding away at 3am I went for a coffee and smoke break,making the mistake of leaving the light on. Came back after 20 mins and found more wasps than I could count buzzing around the spotlights.
Maybe I should mention this room is only 7'x12' with desks along 3 walls so nowhere to run really, I grabbed a can of Raid and a rolled up newspaper for a game of wasp tennis, Doobrey 14 ,Wasps 0 8-)
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Does it looks like this one?
(http://www.spiderzrule.com/spiderphotos/nursery%20web%20close%20up.JPG)
Or this one:\
(http://www.foxies.nl/images/camel_spider_web.jpg)
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Phew those are mean looking sumbishes, man!
There was a thread about those 'sun spiders' a while ago, if I recall T-Bone in particular was not keen on them!
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You got a problem with BBQ's and beer cans??? :lol:
Have you guys ever seen a March Fly? Like a fly on steroids plus a nasty blood sucking sting to boot.
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PMC wrote:
:lol:
Are you sure that you and ADZ aren't one and the same? Has anyone here seen Karlos and ADZ in the same photo?
Hmmm...not likely, unless Karlos flies to Melbourne, or I fly to Manchester. Or we could just gene splice and produce a hybrid...nah, it would be too twisted and evil...muahahahahaha :evilgrin:
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X-ray wrote:
Phew those are mean looking sumbishes, man!
There was a thread about those 'sun spiders' a while ago, if I recall T-Bone in particular was not keen on them!
The latter are camel spiders.
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Well, if we must be precise, then they are Solifugids (from the order Solifugae), and they are not spiders at all. The latin derivation of Solifugid is 'fleeing from the sun'. There are quite a few names for these: sun spider, camel spider and wind spider are just a few. We are talking about the same thing (http://www.museums.org.za/bio/arachnids/solifugae.htm) though.
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Am I just tired, or did it have 10 legs?
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"...Solifugids appear to have 10 legs but in fact, the first pair of appendages are the pedipalps that are very strong and are used for various functions such as drinking, fighting, feeding and mating..."
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Don't they belong to the same family group as scorpions?
My father told me a story about when he was based in Iraq during his national service in the 1950s. He was a radio operator in the RAF and was alarmed to discover a camel spider in his tent which mysteriously disappeared.
A sleepless night followed as dad was understandably quite nervous about sharing a tent with the spider, which seemed to have vanished into thin air.
The next morning, my groggy father turned on his radio set for a test and was rewarded with a loud crackle and plumes of black smoke pouring out of the rear. It turned out that the camel spider chose a very unwise place to spend the night....
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PMC wrote:
Don't they belong to the same family group as scorpions?
Spiders and scorpions are both of the arachnid family, so technically all spiders and all scorpions are related :-)
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Aren't scorpions part of the same family/group in which lobsters/crabs/centipedes belong?
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Here's some news from the BBC today that might actually relax you:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4218436.stm
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odin wrote:
Aren't scorpions part of the same family/group in which lobsters/crabs/centipedes belong?
Not quite.
Explanation (http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/arachnids/Arachnidprintouts.shtml)
Basically scorpions, harvestmen and spiders are arachnids - exoskeleton and 8 legs.
Crabs and lobsters have a shell, not an exoskeleton.
And a centipede is just a creepy-crawlie :-P
--edit--
Actually, from this page (http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/invertebrates/arthropod/Arthropodprintouts.shtml)
Arachnids (Spiders, scorpions, mites, ticks) and Meristomata (Horseshoe crabs) are both Chelicerates, so they are connected in a way.
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@ Darrin
Yup, that's the beauty we are dealing with here (the picture in your link is almost exactly like my new room-mate).
Looks like we are going to be sharing for a while, because I can't find him/her. Pickings will be slim though, because apart from the occasional bee that comes in and then leaves after a few minutes, I can't imagine what that spider will be eating.
Maybe I'll get it a kebab tonight, or a rack of ribs or something.
:idea: if I end up catching it, maybe I can mail it to Odin so that it can feast on his bed-bugs :-P
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Harmless or not, thats not the sort of thing I want crawling around my house, if I can "catch'n'release" I will, otherwise its stompville.
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RIGHT. WHO'S THE PRICK THAT POSTED THE SPIDER PICTURES?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!? :madashell: :pissed: :ak47: :destroy: :flame: :quickdraw:
I jumped like in my desk, if you know what I mean :-x
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hehehehehehe (http://www.amiga.org/images/subject/icon26.gif) (http://www.amiga.org/images/subject/icon26.gif) (http://www.amiga.org/images/subject/icon26.gif)
(http://www.usq.edu.au/spider/info/images/paraxialfangs.jpg)
(http://www.spiderzrule.com/spiderphotos/IMG_0367_Spider.jpg)
(http://www.anti-matter.co.za/The_World_Up_Close/640x426/Rainspider_02.jpg)
:laughing:
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{bleep}!
Totally gave me the sh*ts there :-x
Strange thing is - I wasn't that bothered about the first pics you posted even though I'm arachnophobic :-?
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"...Strange thing is - I wasn't that bothered about the first pics you posted even though I'm arachnophobic..."
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Let's buy Vince a tarantula,
Vincent wants a tarantula,
Let's get Vince a tarantula...
:evilgrin:
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I guess the biggest arachnophobic here is me.
Despite these being outrageous fascinating animals.
Also a strange thing is, the spider in the middle has 10 legs, while, really being a spider, isn't it?
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@speel
BAH! :bigcry:
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@Bodie_CI5
If your that scared of spiders it may comfort you to know that no matter where you go, one of your 8 legged friends is never more than 1.5 metres away :-D
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X-ray wrote:
Let's buy Vince a tarantula,
Vincent wants a tarantula,
Let's get Vince a tarantula...
:evilgrin:
:hammer: on stand-by!
The state you were in when you started this post I think you'd be more scared of it than me :-P
Let's all buy X-Ray a Brazilian Wandering Spider :evilgrin:
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There's only one sort of Brazillian X-Ray is interested in...
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I thought she was Scottish? :-P
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"...There's only one sort of Brazillian X-Ray is interested in..."
"...I thought she was Scottish..."
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Well, gentlemen, both statements could be true :-)
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@ Vince
I saw an episode of Fear Factor that made my hair stand on end. They had two perspex boxes with elasticated T-shirt neck openings at the bottom. These boxes were side by side and shared a common division in the middle. On the inside of Box 1 was a keyrack with 4 keys, and there was a small opening in the perspex divider between the two boxes.
Okay, two boxes, one with keys, both obviously designed to have the contestants poke their heads through the T-shirts so that there was a head in each box. The object of the exercise was for person A to remove each key from the rack in Box A, using his mouth only, and then transfer it to the opening in the divider, where person B would receive the key and then spit it down a glass funnel in the front of Box B, where the key would appear in Person B's hands waiting underneath. All this to unlock 4 locks in the fastest time (it was a paired contestant game).
But hang on....haven't I missed something?
Ja.
The shed-loads of assorted tarantulas and other spiders that were in the boxes!!
At one point, Person A couldn't get at one of the keys without getting a spider in his mouth, and his sister (Person B) was squealing no-end because one of those pink-kneed tarantulas was on her head :-o
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adz wrote:
@Bodie_CI5
If your that scared of spiders it may comfort you to know that no matter where you go, one of your 8 legged friends is never more than 1.5 metres away :-D
Yeah, thanks mate... :pissed:
( :lol: )
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X-ray wrote:
I saw an episode of Fear Factor that made my hair stand on end.
I knew that one was going to be on the TV so I purposely avoided it :-D
There was a programme on ITV a few months back about "chicken eating tarantulas" that I also knew about (from Fortean Times and another sciency mag). I saw pictures in the other science mag and it was freakin huge! It could easily stand as tall as the Queens' corgis! It was also jet black with very long spindly legs. :shudder:
Apparently there are even bigger ones in the jungles in Africa.
I think I'll have to go hug Obi now (the cute fluffball in my avatar) to calm me down :-)
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Hasn't Obi been acting a bit strange lately?
Yes, he has. You feel the nape of his neck there...what's that...it's like little wisps of something. You part the hairs and there you see little spines growing out of Obi's neck, running all the way down his back.
He is sullen, more squat, and has a glazed look in his eyes.
You go to pet him again and...RRRRRRRIIIIIP!!!!!
His skin splits down his back and out from his carcass jumps a huge bloodthirsty spider and bowls you clean over.
The last thing you see is fangs descending on you, the little globules of venom glistening at their tips...
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@Vincent
Spiders taste like prawns
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@ Blobzie
Please don't tell me you can verify that :-o
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blobrana wrote:
@Vincent
Spiders taste like prawns
Don't like the taste of prawns :-P
I know that deep fried spiders (tarantulas mainly) are a delicacy. And tribes regularly go on the hunt for spiders to eat. Sometimes it's even seen as a rite of passage.
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...and on tonights menu...
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House spiders are a menace. They bit like hell too... (for the record, ALL arachnids are poisonous)
I've killed three this week...
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Well, this new friend of mine has been keeping a low profile. No legs on the face, no little nips, nothing like that. This must be a well-behaved spider, possibly a lady of good breeding.
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Well-behaved spider, eh? Can it do any tricks?
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"...Can it do any tricks?..."
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Yes!!
It can be invisible if it wants to. And right now it wants to.
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Maybe it's hiding because it saw your x-ray stuff and doesn't want to be a radiated spider.
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"...Maybe it's hiding because it saw your x-ray stuff and doesn't want to be a radiated spider..."
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Hey, I hadn't thought of that. I would definitely encourage a few nips then, 'cos then I would become Spiderman!
And lemme tell you, there would be high jinks around here if that happened :evilgrin:
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X-ray wrote:
I would definitely encourage a few nips then, 'cos then I would become Spiderman!
You mean you wanna be able to shoot white sticky stuff with just a flick of the wrist ? ;-)
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:roflmao:
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Doobrey wrote:
X-ray wrote:
I would definitely encourage a few nips then, 'cos then I would become Spiderman!
You mean you wanna be able to shoot white sticky stuff with just a flick of the wrist ? ;-)
ROFLMAO!
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Doobrey wrote:
X-ray wrote:
I would definitely encourage a few nips then, 'cos then I would become Spiderman!
You mean you wanna be able to shoot white sticky stuff with just a flick of the wrist ? ;-)
:laughing:
That's the best quip I've heard in ages!
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Ja, I would say it is easily the best this year.
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Agreed. The spirit of the sock strikes again!
:roflmao:
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Now all we need is ASCII in a Spiderman suit...
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\ | | /
X-D o
/ | | \
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:lol:
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@ Toy Boy
:lol:
That was good
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Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
\ | | /
X-D o
/ | | \
It's mah fly! Mah fly! Ah did'nae wait here in yon web made o' mah sticky fluids fer three feckin hoors just so ye bahstards could come and hoover it up, y' bahstards!
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Karlos wrote:
It's mah fly! Mah fly! Ah did'nae wait here in yon web made o' mah sticky fluids fer three feckin hoors just so ye bahstards could come and hoover it up, y' bahstards!
:lol: There's only one who can make ASCII alive...
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Gaah!
My mind hurts! :lol:
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Shall I compose an ode to relieve the pain?
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X-ray wrote:
Shall I compose an ode to relieve the pain?
Compound, don'tcha mean? ;-)
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...For she invented medicinal compound
Most efficacious in every case...
All together now, Karlos:
We'll drink a drink a drink
To Lily the Pink the Pink the Pink...
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Oh well, at least I no longer have Crazy Frog going round and round in my ickle brain...erm, ta X-ray :angry:
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Soooooooooooooooo weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'll
Drink :pint: a drink :pint: a drink :pint:
to Lily the Pink :hat: the pink :hat: the pink :hat:
The saviour ooooooooooooooooooooooof
the human raaaaaace...
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So...
How is the little bugger then?
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Vincent wrote:
So...
How is the little bugger then?
He's moved out of X-Ray's place and made for Maldon in Essex:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/4300796.stm
(apologies for the long link, but I'm no HTML buff).
Ol' Leggy is now just 15 miles from my home town :-o
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Hum,
So i take it you`re not offering to give it a home?
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Hell, I'll take that Huntsman in. I'll breed it with Big Bertha here and make a new species. Then I'll wait for Arachnophobia 2 to come out, collect about 25 of these big spiders into a tog bag and go to the cinema. Then half-way through the movie, I will let all my little maties loose :evilgrin:
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Dammit!
I'm going to the UGC on Friday...
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"...Dammit! I'm going to the UGC on Friday..."
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Nothing like reaching for some popcorn and feeling the scuttling of legs and bristles against your hand, then a sly little nip of your finger, eh?
All in the dark too....woooooooooooooooo, they're everywhere!
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X-ray wrote:
"...Dammit! I'm going to the UGC on Friday..."
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Nothing like reaching for some popcorn and feeling the scuttling of legs and bristles against your hand, then a sly little nip of your finger, eh?
All in the dark too....woooooooooooooooo, they're everywhere!
ARGH!!!! B@stard!!! You just made my light bill go up!!! :lol:
8 legs = eeeevilll!
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6 legs is way more evil, and more than 8 legs is even eviller(er).
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But the evilest most dangerous heinous macabre thing has only 2 legs...and a pair of boobs :-P
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:lol:
Anyone in particular or just woman kind in general?
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:lol:
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I had a vinagroon crawl into my bed one time. Not a pleasant experience. Not dangerous but freaked me out :crazy:. Get all sorts of creepy crawlies where I live. Wolf spiders, tarantulas. Praying mantisis are my favorite though.
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You mean a vinegaroon. (http://mamba.bio.uci.edu/~pjbryant/biodiv/spiders/Mastigoproctus.htm)
Ja that looks scary, definitely not a bedmate!
I agree the praying mantis is the best insect around. We used to get them quite big: about the length of a CD, and if they spread their wings they looked quite formidable. They would take on any spider but were frequently outmatched by the geckos.