I generally like bugs and stuff. I rarely kill things (the true certain exception being fireants). I believe in the balance of nature, and I try to accomodate other members of the circle. And I know the black widow is another member of the circle. But AAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH! I had to shift a pile of lumber from having built a fence, and it was infested. I killed two BIG ones and three immature ones, and have no idea how many got away, as I'd usually knock them off and not chase them unless they scuttled toward the house. One of the big ones got on my hand and my dog was amazed I could still do quite a pirouette, flinging it off. (I'm about 30 years past being a ballerina.) I didn't get bitten, but she sure squirted me with some sticky, skanky stuff -- I guess the stuff they make webs with. Talk about an industrial adhesive. Just had to share this to keep the nightmares away. Blegh.
b-b-b-b-b-black w-w-w-w-w-idows
Well thanks, now you are going to give me nightmares. Just kidding.
EWWWW!! How scary. I have never seen one and hope that I never do. I have never seen a brown recluse either and I hear that those are the two spiders that you definitely don't want to run into. So are you just in danger from their venom if they inject it into your system? You are ok since she sprayed you, right? I certainly hope so.
That gunk didn't stay on me long enough to do any damage. I don't know whether it would have or not. There's no apparent damage. I've been nailed by a brown recluse, but not badly -- it healed up in about a week. But I've seen some horrible wounds from them. But since the Battle of the Black Widow, every time something moves just a tiny bit on my skin, I jump.
I bet your skin does crawl at the thought of them. Wow, I cannot believe you have been bitten by a recluse. I bet that was scary while you were waiting it out. I have seen a nasty bite from a recluse and it has just made me terrified of dangerous spiders. I am glad you are ok.
Thanks; I appreciate that. I'm pretty hardy for a grandma. There's nothing like a spider to get the old heart rate up, though! I think I would have made a funniest home video if the dog had opposable thumbs. Just grateful there wasn't anything to go to the ER for!
Black Widows, Scorpions, Snakes, Wasps with hidden nests------we always need to be alert ANYTIME we move materials and/or other things that have been laying around outside (sometimes inside of barns, garages, sheds also).
And it's best not to learn the hard way. Where I lived before didn't have such a reputation for black widows.
I grew up in southern Cal and black widows are a problem there as well. I recall my mother always checking the fingers of her gardening gloves very carefully before putting them on. I do the same thing, out of habit. Bottoms of gas cans are also worth being looked at carefully. Also, in the house that I live in the landlord has stacked extra brick from the builder and that is a haven for spiders of all sorts. One spider that I never heard of in southern Cal but is pretty common here is the Brown Recluse- when I worked in home care I recall visiting a woman who had come out of the hospital after many weeks; she'd been working in her yard and didn't even recall getting bit; the venom (?) just destroys tissue so she had lost a lot of tissue and still had gapping wounds where it looked like someone had just grabbed hunks of skin and yanked them out.
So, BE CAREFUL!
Good thing you weren't hurt. You'll have the heebie jeebies now for a while tho. Tell everyone to stand back from you when you're gardening because you'll be prone to strange, sudden jerking motions even if a butterfly gets too close. ;)
Yeah I'd love to see that video!
I'll bet it's pretty much like the "fire ant dance"!
Well yeah but I bet the sound effects are a bit different! I bet she made some noises that dog never heard!
LOL, guys. I must have made noises the dog never imagined; I sure never imagined them. I've always been an alto, but I could be a soprano after all!
I kick my garden clogs around before putting them on now, too.
I hate spiders !! *shivering* Thank God you were not hurt.
A couple years ago I must have lost my mind. I was sitting in line at Jack in the Box when under the sign I saw a black widow. If you see them first and somewhere else but my home, She is beautiful. Like I said I must have lost my mind as I drove around and with a styrofoam cup tried to catch her to bring home for my husband to see. WHAT WAS THAT??? That really is what you call a ((((((NO BRAINER))))) as I could not have had oneat the time. She (Thank God) got up in a hole in the sign and got away and didn't get me and I did not get her. Was I stupid or what??? Don't answer that.....Please.
When I told my DH he said ((Are you Nuts???))
Thinking back I was nuts and as afraid as I am of spiders don't understand where that last marble went to. But Thank God now I have found it and don't think of doing that anymore. I haven't seen any
either.
I go outside here and something gets on me and I scream or the other night I was in the garage and on of those big roaches flew at me. I screamed and leap around. I do that when I get scared. Then I look around to see if any of my neighbors are outside. I am sure in 17 years here, people have seen me do the craziest movements and jerks. I also bet if I was screaming because someone was attacking me no one would pay attention. They would think I was the girl who cried Bug!! It is funny now but not when it happens.
I had one big tree roach fall on me when I got up to use the bathroom one night. Bathroom has just tub and toilet. Sink out in the other part. Not much room but I sure was screaming and dancing. DH never heard a word. It was horrid.
In the spring June bugs dive at me, now it is tree roaches and horse flies. The roaches are the worst as they try to run under the closest thing to hide and it always seems like my feet is what they head for.
It is funny now , but one year as a cub scout leader. we had a camp during the day for 3 days down in Mont Belvieu. I didn't know bumble bees like OFF mosquito repellent. The little boys thought I was the funniest thing screaming and running from bumble bees. I actually cried as for 3 days they chased me. Maybe I was just the prettiest flower there. LOL
I kick my shoes also before I put them on.
Blessings,
Sandy ^8^
OK, after that last message I have to tell this on myself. Something has been eating the leaves on my Knockout roses. Whatever it is, it's having a real picnic. The buds and blooms aren't affected, but all that's left of some of the leaves is the central spine. I've looked for caterpillars, grasshoppers, bugs of any kind and I can't find anything. Checked under the leaves and everything. OK, so I get this bright idea that whatever is eating them must be feeding at night. So at 10:30 the other night I get my trusty flashlight and go out for rose inspection. I'm in my nightgown, but hey it's dark and nobody is gonna notice at 10:30 at night, right? I get to about the third rose bush, doing a thorough job of turning leaves over and moving branches so I don't miss anything, when a family of some flying critters all flew at me. Of course I'm doing the "bat 'em down" dance when I decide it's the flashlight they're coming at, so I throw it down. About this time one of the hideously large somethings flew up the bottom of my nightgown. I'm beating at my gown, jumping up and down in the dark since I no longer have the light when, you guessed it, I tripped over the newly installed bed edging and fell through one of the rose bushes. Did I mention I live on the corner of the only two through streets in my entire subdivision? The neighbors now think I drink a bit too much in the evening and I still don't know what's eating the roses, but I've decided they're not doing enough damage that I should be overly concerned about it and I'll leave them alone if they'll leave me alone!
crow, there are tears in my eyes, I'm laughing so hard. It's good to have the neighbors in awe of you, though. I'm in the same corner situation you're in; I don't know who might have witnessed the battle of the black widows -- and don't much care. If they're not into rose gardening, let 'em go play nintendo.
Next time you "night garden" wear jammies instead of a gown. THAT should be a whole chapter in a gardener's bible!
Still laughing at you. ;p
ROFLOL! You guys are histerical. You should set up cameras so that you can catch these little outbursts on film. Then send them into America's Funniest Home Videos. Just think of all the plants you could by with the winnings.
Hey you don't have to be outside to get some stupid stuff happen to you. Our daschunds were sleeping with us about 10 years ago when a flea decided it was going to investigate to inside of my ear. That is one noise I will never forget and I was screaming. It sounding like I was trapped in a tunnel with a giant animal the size of Godzilla trying to scratch its way in. I was screaming and screaming as my DH frantically, but not fast enough searched for the bottle of peroxide. Thank God as it happened I remembered you could put peroxide in your ears. Finally want seemed like an eternity he found it and poured some in my ear. OH what relief when that little giant drowned and that noise stopped. I keep peroxide by my bed even though I use frontline ever since it came out.
I do not want to experience that again.
I get in the most peculiar situations. I was once out brushing my collies we use to have. A friend came over and we were sitting at the table when something got in my eye. When I touched it I felt excruciating pain. I kept feeling something in there. And then it felt like my eye slowly started swelling out of my head. My friend finally said something when I told her of the severe pain. I called my dr who immediately sent me to an eye specialist. As strange things like I said do happen to me I was not surprised when she said I had an insect bite on my eye ball. It was a flea bite.
Crow I laughed so hard reading this to my DH what you posted I almost wet myself. I know it was not funny to you as mine were not to me. But I bet you laughed at my little dances.
Fire ants are not a funny dance as you tend to say things I should not while dancing ant knocking them off. Cr-- screamed at the top of my lungs sorta ruins ones testimony. I try to tell people at times I am not perfect But I am forgiven when I slap my hand over my mouth and and ask God to forgive me. Doesn't help when someone is looking on saying I thought she was a christian. Well we all sometimes lose it to the flesh when something with the pain a bunch or even one of them deliver.
Yes but crow, did you find out what's eating your knockouts?
I still don't know what's eating the Knockouts! My solution has been to throw an extra handful of fertiziler under them and hope they can produce foliage at a faster rate than it's being eaten. I may go pick up some of those yellow sticky traps and put them out late this evening, but BEFORE dark, so maybe I can catch at least one of the critters. I'm not so sure that they aren't big enough to fly away with one of those attached. Lordy, they'd look like a model airplane buzzing you! I hate to put out insecticide, especially if I don't know what to target.
All that fun and still no answer!
Sounds like grasshoppers to me- don't know why I thought that. I do know that I just recently saw some of the nasty little vermints around and do know they can eat like it's going out of style.- rather than look in the dark, try looking around 6:30- hopefully you will find your answer and if not, less dangerous.
Crow, Try some if the systemic orthene for roses. It is insecticide and some fertilizer. It comes in a green container with handle. I try to be all organic but when those worms get on my cannas I just sprinkle a handful of this and it works for I believe 6 weeks. It tells you on the container.
I have used it on Brugs and epi's when all else fails. I had figured if the plant dies I am not worse off as the bug gets inside the plant of the epi.
Don't use often as I said I go 99.9999999999999% organic and I have little geckos (beige ones, chameleons, frogs, toads, and a big Bull frog that lives in my yard. And this year a copperhead, but we had run over him in the driveway before we knew he was here. Good snake to have around if you have to----a dead one. Thank God he was already dead.
Anyway it is for roses. Should work great.
Blessings,
Snady ^8^