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Oh.. My.. god

8K views 66 replies 32 participants last post by  GDominy 
#1 ·
Ok.. I used to live in an area that had big bugs... But this was a surprise... I found this guy on the side of my house today!



*shudder*
 
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#27 ·
George Willms said:
Hmmm..from what I've heard the fur-de-lance is even nastier than the bushmaster. Much more agressive, they'll actually chase you for a long time, and if I remember right you die if you don't get the antidote within 90-120 minutes. Yeah the bot-fly is rather nasty. My teacher had one in his head one year. We were at La Selva, Monte Verde, Palo Verde, and Manuel Antonio. I absolutely loved Monte Verde, everything was rather warm for me.....:)

Heck I wouldn't want to be bitten by either!! I forgot about Palo Verde! That was a cool place but we were limited on what we could do for field projects besides herp surveys and stuff since a wildfire went through it while we were there. Tons of bot flies and mosquitoes though. We did a survey of number of maggots per average size of cows and found one cow usually had 15 maggots on it. Gross.

BCI was probably the best place we went. We actually "ran" into the eyelash vipers hanging from the trees there. Well, I'd give it a tie with Corcovado since that place had all four monkeys there (spider, squirrel, howler and white-faced-$hit-throwers---one of my friend got hit on her head by flying monkey $hit). :hihi:
 
#29 ·
From snopes: (we have an ex-marine at work showed us that picture, we thought his stories were a bit much so we did some checking) :tongue:

According to most spider experts, these claims are all false. Camel spiders (so named because, like camels, they can be found in sandy desert regions) grow to be moderately large (about a 5" leg span), but nowhere near as large as dinner plates; they can move very quickly in comparison to other arthropods (a top speed of maybe 10 MPH), but nothing close 25 MPH; they make no noise; and they capture prey without the use of either venom or anesthetic. Camel spiders rely on speed, stealth, and the (non-venomous) bite of powerful jaws to feed on small prey such as other arthropods (e.g., scorpions, crickets, pillbugs), lizards, and possibly mice or birds. They use only three pairs of legs in running; the frontmost pair (called pedipalpa) is held aloft and used in a similar manner to the antennae of insects. Camel spiders shun the sun and generally hide during the day, coming out at night to do their hunting.

Although whatever is depicted in the photograph above appears to be far too large for camel spiders, the creatures might just look unusually large because they were held close to the camera, creating an illusion of exaggerated size. However, since we don't know the source of the picture, we can't yet rule out the possibility that some other misdirection was involved (e.g., digital manipulation, a misdescription of what the photograph depicts, some soldiers goofing around with plastic figures or something else spider-shaped, etc.).
 
#30 ·
Isn't the Fer de lance the deadliest snake in the world? Or is it the Mamba?

Funny that the Bot Fly larvae eat viable, living tissue. Most maggots eat only dead material. That is why they have started using maggots in some medical applications. The maggots eat dying, infected areas on wounds and the like, steming the spread of infection.

All that being said, maggots are some indestructable little critters! You can spray them, or dip in in darn near anything and it won't kill them. Only way I know to kill them is to burn 'em or smash 'em!!!

Mike
 
#31 ·
Momotaro said:
Isn't the Fer de lance the deadliest snake in the world? Or is it the Mamba?

Funny that the Bot Fly larvae eat viable, living tissue. Most maggots eat only dead material. That is why they have started using maggots in some medical applications. The maggots eat dying, infected areas on wounds and the like, steming the spread of infection.

All that being said, maggots are some indestructable little critters! You can spray them, or dip in in darn near anything and it won't kill them. Only way I know to kill them is to burn 'em or smash 'em!!!

Mike

From what I understand it is the deadliest snake in the west (counting N, C. and S. Americas). I just wouldn't like to get bitten by either a fur-de-lance or bushmaster (the latter can take down a taiper in less than an hour--taiper looks like an elephant with a short nose).

Yeah, the bot-fly was the craziest thing that happened. It didn't really hurt, it was just uncomfortable. A lot of people either use meat to smother them and get them to crawl out or they use superglue. They have to breathe air so there is always a small hole in your skin. :eek:
 
#32 ·
Is that a short-horned longhorned beetle? Cute little guy. I have a tiny section of art deco wallpaper border designed by Eugene Seguy that has tumbling cerambycid beetles. Nobody can tell they're beetles unless you point it out...anyone know a good way to have wallpaper reproduced? Is it bad to paper your kitchen with beetles?

Bot flies aren't the only maggots that eat living tissue. The screwworm fly oviposits in wounds but the larvae consume healthy tissue unlike most of the other blowflies which eat the dead stuff. Screwworms wreaked havoc on the cattle industry in Texas until an extensive eradication program. Now there are too many deer in Texas.
 
#33 ·
Hi there

This is my first post here, so hi everyone.

I live in South Africa, and I can tell you the Black Mamba is Very Poisonous. If you get bitten by one your chances are not very good. The Green Mamba is also poisonous, but not as bad as the black one.

http://www.gov.bw/tourism/flora_and_fauna/black.html

I often get spiders like the one posted by Colin. We call them "reen spinnekoppe" or rain spiders, and they are pretty harmless. My wife hates them though, so I often have to catch and release them. :)
 
#35 ·
I've been to Costa Rica twice, most recently a couple months ago. I haven't even gone through all of the images yet (taken with a Nikon D100), but I did see a couple of eyelash vipers and the False Coral (below). Here are a couple of pics from the trip:

Manuel Antonio:

Rainmaker (Pacific Coastal):

Rainmaker (Pacific Coastal):

Carara National Park:

Monteverde:

Carara National Park:

Carara National Park:
 
#37 ·
That sloth looks like the one that resides by the lab at La Selva! Great pics! Nice shots of the Dendrobates too!

I only had a meager point and shoot cam when I was there four years ago, but do have some decent shots I'll post sometime soon.

The bird pictures look great also. I was hoping to catch a Bellbird or Quetzsal, but they were always too far away for me to snap.
 
#38 ·
Thanks guys. I did manage a quetzal shot (I have a 300mm telephoto lens), but it's not very good. We say several of the males--quite a site, really. My brother managed to get some great photos (he has a D100, but top-end lenses & 400mm).

The poison dart frogs were very difficult to find. I only found them in a private reserve. They're rare in the "dry" season, and especially rare in the public parks.

I was in Puerto Jimenez a couple years ago (my wife & I stayed at Bosque Del Cabo on the Osa Peninsula), and I REALLY wanted to go into Corcovado. Maybe sometime!
 
#39 ·
tierkrib said:
... I often get spiders like the one posted by Colin. We call them "reen spinnekoppe" or rain spiders, and they are pretty harmless. My wife hates them though, so I often have to catch and release them. :)
<ron weasley>I don't like spiders!</ron weasley>

You have them that large? *shutter* Auhaghghghgh. I couldn't take it. I have enough problems catching brown recluses around here and getting them outside. I had to dispose of two just before I posted this. I HATE them.
 
#43 ·
aquaverde said:
Whoa. They may not look as scary, but they're way more dangerous than the rain spiders. Disposed of two? Where in the country are you, Colin?
Tulsa, Oklahoma. We have them all over the place around here. :( My brother just kills them, but I feel bad about killing them (dunno' why) I so catch them with a drinking glass and a piece of paper and throw them out back.
 
#44 ·
Anything that kills mosquitoes is a friend of mine! I've never gotten a spider bite, but skeeters just about eat me alive.
 
#46 ·
I thought the deadliest snake in the world, per oz. venom anyway, was the seasnake? Don't know which one, just that it's found somewhere off the Australian coast.

This is the best bug pic I got.



Found this fellow on the wall of my shop one morning. First time I'd ever actually seen one with the shell although we get the shells all over the place in mid-summer. Sorta wish I'd seen it sooner so I could have gotten some pix of him coming out.
 
#51 ·
Back to the first bug here, my husband and I just got back from our summer camping trip in Northern Minnesota. Real camping as in sleeping in a tent type thing. One of those HUGE Bugs decided to move into our tent and visit me in the night, I brushed it off and I woke up because the noise of it flying away and onto another part of the tent was real loud. I woke my husband up and we turned on a lantern and found that thing hanging out above my head, now if that doesn't freak you out. It looked like a beatle, but it too was about 2.5", and I'm sorry to say that we flung it outside and it must have gotten attracted to the light and flew right into the fire pit. Needless to say that kept me up for a while, it was on my face. Also, my parents live in Mexico and now there are some bugs there that would raise the hair on anyones arm, from spiders to scorpions to snakes, too much for me.
 
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