First Time (SURPRISE!)

[CaveCreekRay]

A first for me in 30+ years of living in the Southwest...

I open up my garage this time of year to let it cool off in the morning. Went out this morning to open the doors only to find one of these little creatures (5" dia) inside, sitting on the floor...

I am not a spider fan but, years ago when I learned that Tarantula's were the arch enemy of scorpions and, I actually was lucky enough to witness the two in battle, the Tarantula became a friend. Plus, they are gigantic and intelligent creatures that don't bite unless provoked. But that is not why I posted this on Orange.

The Tarantula is a hydraulic machine. I watched a show on them years back and was amazed.

Their heart is a hydraulic pump. Our heart is a circulatory pump but high pressure kills us over time. The Tarantula arms are essentially articulated backhoe arms that run off high hydraulic pressure generated by the animals heart. The arms don't have muscles, like we do. They work off the hydraulic pressure provided by the heart, and have control valves that actuate their legs as needed. The mind blower is how fast these can move, for short periods as needed. Normally they are pretty slow.

I coaxed this guy into a box and hauled him out to the edge of the driveway and let him go.

There was a lady here in Cave Creek who had a tarantula walk in her open back door. She was interested and watched the spider build a nest in a basket by the fireplace. After a few days, the lady noticed little Tarantula's on the spider's back. One day, the lady saw the Tarantula head toward the back door with her little one's riding along. The creature left her home and disappeared into the desert -until the following year! This spider returned to the lady's home over several seasons and borrowed the same basket to have her kids. True story! It was in the local paper.

Its a jungle out there...

 

[mickeyd]

When we lived in Tucson, AZ we saw a lot of them and just gave them a wide berth.

When my youngest daughter was in middle school, she won the Science Fair by raising one. How she won was by not feeding it for a few weeks before the Fair so that it would molt during the Fair and then feeding it a scorpion just before the judges came by. All the judges stayed and watched as it devoured the scorpion.

The guy who built his own Dark Room and usually won, said she cheated. She said no, I am just smarter than you....

 

[CaveCreekRay]

The guy who built his own Dark Room and usually won, said she cheated. She said no, I am just smarter than you....

That's hilarious! Smart girl... LOL.

Very infrequently, we see them out on the street when walking the dogs. You can get right up to them and they don't seem to mind. What they HATE is if you blow on them. They HATE wind ruffling their fur.

 

[sheepfarmer]

Ray, spiders and other arthropods are really cool! I didn't remember how much they used the hydraulic mechanism for locomotion, but did remember some studies on leg muscles, so I had to look it up, but they do have both. It is the extensor muscles in some of the leg joints that are replaced by release of the hydraulic pressure. So the control of the "valves" is still muscle and the nervous system. The other cool thing they and insects use is the elasticity of the external skeleton. The muscles bend it and then the stored energy can be released eg in flight. Imagine an airplane with a flexible hinge at the junction between the wing and the fuselage....

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Thanks for the excellent explanation! (Better than the TV version... why does that not surprise me? LOL!)

Yeah, little "big" spiders still kinda spook me but Tarantulas don't bother me at all, as long as they are outside my garage, LOL...

The night my wife and daughter and I were on our back porch we got to see a scorpion run from the darkness onto our patio cement. When they are in a hurry, a scorpion can out-run a man. We pulled our feet up to watch this good-sized scorpion and after a minute or two, out of the darkness a big Tarantula slowly crept up on the scorpion. Knowing the Tarantula was there and about to strike, the scorpion hauled butt at full speed back into the darkness and the Tarantula slowly followed it back into the night. I bet she got it later on. (Female Tarantulas are the bigger of the males, often twice as large.)

All the fun stuff that goes on at night while you are asleep.

 

[pendoreille]

Nice photo Ray, I enjoyed it. Now I don't think it will increase my appetite for curds and whey!

 

[sheepfarmer]

For viewing entertainment maybe you could outfit the edge of your patio with black lights, supposedly the scorpions will glow in the dark...

 

[CaveCreekRay]

The barn at my new house was infested with black widows and scorpions. The building had light switches in the corners and that is where the black widows would make their webs. Also, near the two door chains for the roll-up doors. Even with the lights on, it was hard to see them. Something had to be done.

I did some 'Net research and found Cykick, which was 4.8-star rated against scorpions and spiders. It has cured my problem completely. I had a problem on the roof with carpenter bees boring holes in the foam in Spring. Cykick solved that problem too.

Black lights are great for making scorpions fluoresce. Two or three times a summer I scan the house with a UV light at night to see if anything made it inside. So far, nothing found. But, I'd like to keep them away from the buildings as much as possible. Don't like using pesticides any more than absolutely necessary.

 

[Ike]

When I was at Ft Hood Texas the kids living on post would catch them and tie a string around their leg. When they pulled on the string the spider would jump. They can jump a long ways. We were going to the local on post watering hole one night and one jumped off the flowers and landed on the guy with me. I never heard anyone scream that loud before. My sister lived in Denton and my BIL showed me where they were combining grain the road was solid spiders. That was enough to creep me out

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

The smaller the scorpion the worse the sting, the tiny bark scorpions are really bad, they don't know how to control there venom the way larger/older ones do.
We had our 5th Wheel camped out in a park up at Pine and we seen quite a few Tarantulas up there, , little unnerving as I'm not a spider fan, but they left me alone I left them alone.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

There is a place in SoCal inland between a couple mountain ranges where the Tarantulas migrate one night. People go lay out in sleeping bags on the ground with flash lights and watch the spiders crawl over them coming and going to mate.

Did I mention that was in California?

 

[skeets]

Ahhhhhhh ,,,NO

 

[mickeyd]

The barn at my new house was infested with black widows and scorpions. The building had light switches in the corners and that is where the black widows would make their webs. Also, near the two door chains for the roll-up doors. Even with the lights on, it was hard to see them. Something had to be done.

I did some 'Net research and found Cykick, which was 4.8-star rated against scorpions and spiders. It has cured my problem completely. I had a problem on the roof with carpenter bees boring holes in the foam in Spring. Cykick solved that problem too.

Black lights are great for making scorpions fluoresce. Two or three times a summer I scan the house with a UV light at night to see if anything made it inside. So far, nothing found. But, I'd like to keep them away from the buildings as much as possible. Don't like using pesticides any more than absolutely necessary.

Yes, we have a lot of black widows around here. Before picking up anything we have to check for them. They love to nest in the water shutoff box. I will checkout Cykick. Thanks.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/cykick-cs-p-250.html

A pint will do my house and barn for a couple years. Spray the entrances to your buildings, lower threshold, a couple feet either side of doorways, thresholds of garage doors and up either side about 2 feet. Rain/snow tends to lessen it effectiveness over time. It will definitely take care of your water shutoff box.

 

[mickeyd]

It is not cheap but if it does the job it will be worth it.