Egg Identification

Thanks knolan ,
They are great Pics you put on " WHAT ARE YOU ? "

Taa M8 = Thanks mate .
OnJaaM8= Good on you mate .

My mother had a few sayings that I didn't fully appreciate until I became a parent. They were:
When one is dumb, one pays.
You put your time in now or you put your time in later but you will put in your time.

I was dumb, really dumb. I should have never placed that incubator on my brand new dining room table. I don't particularly mind learning lessons. I just wish they weren't so expensive. Have you any idea how many plants I could have bought with the money I had to shell out to refinish that table?

Now, will somebody please give me a link to this "other" thread you all are talking about!

Here you Go .
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/690891/

Hey, you just saved me from doing the same dumb thing. Don't feel bad...I have many of those, "I'm a knucklehead" moments.

Here's the link to Ginger's thread (it's up above too)...it's one of the funniest topics I've yet to see.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/690891/

Ooops...we were typing at the same time.

Two heads are better than one .
or
Two Threads are better than one .
What you say, knolan ?

You know I have a thread right here ? http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/681622/
I stopped posting because I felt there was no interest in it any more .
I hope that may change . Kell

This message was edited Feb 21, 2007 2:04 PM

Absolutely. That's a good thread. I've had that happen to me....sometimes they just die. I'll be happy to visit ya'll there.

I loved the pictures. You really have those wonderful creatures roaming through your yard from time to time? You ARE are a lucky devil. I also like the salamander picture. I get small ones in my yard all of the time

It`s a bit like an Artist at a Fair .
Ppl just keep passing you bye.
And in the end , You just don`t come back.

It's a shame, ain't it? Well, I can probably keep you bogged down with the wildlife in my yard thse days. Nothing like that cute little creature in your pics.

For example:

I moved in here 15 years ago and the area I live was very much a swamp in those days. Lots of new construction since then and lots of little creatures moved from their natural habitats. I've always felt sorry for them...urban sprawl ain't pretty. But, I didn't always feel sorry for the creepies that scared me. I've since learned an appreciation for them. Especially spiders.

The first experiences with them were tarantulas. I have found three or fouur in my house since I've lived here. I'm not too scared of them because I grew up with my cousins capturing them and letting them loose in the house. I've also had to drive on a Moped through hundreds of them while vacationing in Mexico.

My single most horrible encounter was a large brown spider, in the house. His back looked fuzzy but at the time I needed glasses and didn't know it. I took a shoe and smushed him. Well, when I hit the poor guy, hundreds of tiny specks went running everywhere. They were babies on it's mom's back. I felt like such a heel. It's some kind of water spider. Sorry, I'm not skilled in the specifics of bug types, names, etc.

The best experience I've had was with a large banana spider in my back yard. His web went from the brick of my house to the fence, about 12'. He was huge, yellow and black and looked like he was wearing armor. Every single neighbor on my street came over to see. Now, that's humdrum...we have them all over the place! They make huge nests in the trees and there might be as many as 30 in one big nest. They're gorgeous! Most of my neighbors enjoy them...a few are too scared to see the good.

Then again, we get our fair share of brown recluses (my father was bitten and he was horribly sick....the sting ate a huge hole in his hand, caused high enough fever for him to hallucinate and he almost lost his thumb) and black widows. I've found several on my porch. I just feel like I have to kill those. I've got children, 3 cats, a dog and a great hubby...I don't want any bad bites for them.

I've also got a fair share of poisonous snakes. That's why I'm a little worried that my eggs might be snakes. I don't mind if they're garters or chicken snakes. Anything else worries me. I don't know what to do with a snake other than ooohhh and aaahhhh.

I`m a professional snake catcher .
Meaning I get paid to go and get them and relocate them .
I teach ppl to catch their own and save Gig Bucks .
Get a 6 ft long length of 2 inch pvc. pipe.
Tape one end up , and hold the open end in front of them .
They will climb into the dark hole really quick .
A cap over the end whan they are in . MAGIC .
Saves $ 107 . Too easy . Kell

Okay, if I see a snake hole, I think I can do that...but, then, what do I do with them?

Relocate them .!!!

From the pipe into an empty pillow case .
Rope around top of pillow case , short drive to nearest nature reserve .
Easy Peasy Japanesy .

Ship 'em off to Mahnot! Do you think she's avoiding this thread?

BTW, K - That was a wolf spider. A very good guy.

That's great info on catching snakes! How about rats?

Funny you should ask .
I leave the same pipe on the ground over night .
One end covered .
In the morning stand pipe up and you got them .
You will need a bit of bait !!! Whatever they like .
Here it`s peanut butter .

Peanut butter here too. Maybe I should use the Peter Pan and give the critter salmonella!! What keeps them in the pipe until morning?

Oh, I couldn't do that to Mahnot. She's too wonderful. Yup, I'll bet (if you could get that bookie thing going) she won't come here.

Ginger...Where on earth will I relocate them? Hooo....just got the heebie jeebies...but I'm okay. There's a beautiful park with a lake nearby but so many kids visit there.

Ceejay, I get plenty of wolf spiders here too, but this wasn't furry at all. What I thought was fur was actually the teeny weeny little babies. I've since seen the exact spiders in the pond and gully nearby...just floating on top...with babies on their backs. They're smoothe and brown and about the size of a 50 cent piece.

Rats you ask?

Why use a ratzapper!

http://www.pestproducts.com/rat_zapper.htm

Can't use peanut butter to bait around here unless you are doing it in an attic or crawl space or you'll get a chipmunk or a squirrel.

Thin pipe & I guess they don`t have a reverse gear ?

I saw that pipe trick on some wildlife show once. Pretty neat. They did surgery on the snake while it was in the tube.

Equi - We've tried the zapper - didn't work for us. They preferred the wiring in DH's Corvette. Twice. Hey! I just had an epiphany!Maybe we should bait them with electrical wiring!

ceejaytown
Rats ate some wires on my Ute .
They were climbing onto the motor in the cool of the night
So they could warm up and have a party .
Had to call in RACQ the next morning .

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/644337/
knolan Have you seen this ?

That's a great thread. Thanks, Ginger.

I've been out inspecting the rest of the little nests. I'm afraid I might have disturbed some of them beyond repair with my rake the other day. Those are the ones that appear to be drying up a little. I probably damaged the shell. But there are plenty still half buried and looking good. No predators yet. I'm really surprised because I had a racoon in my back yard night before last.

I'm off to my Master Gardener class this evening and I'll take my little box of eggs and heating pad with me (I'm bonding with my babies...LOL). Maybe someone there can identify them for certain. I have a strong feeling this is just going to be a 'wait and see'.

My snakes took 70 days to hatch.
So if they are reptiles , Don`t hold your breath .
As you said , they were only yokes inside 2 days ago ,
You still have a long way to go .

It will be a lesson in patience as well.

I have a few phobias....snakes, spiders and heights. Guess I'm hoping to overcome my phobia of snakes through this little experiment. I just told another friend that a good mother always says, "I will love them no matter what they are", and I will. After taking care of them, how could anyone not love them? I won't know what to do with them but I'd take pride in the fact that they made it.

People think I belong to a family of nuts. My brother used to be a sheriff's deputy (he's a detective now) but accidentally ran over a possum one evening. He was smart enough to check and sure enough, she had babes in her pouch. 1" pink, no hair, still attached to mom's teats. He put them in a box with a little blanket and quickly drove them to my mom's who hand fed them every two hours (all 9 of them) with an eyedropper. They became pretty domesticated...would hang on our fingers and crawl all over us. When they were about 3 1/2 months old, we took them to a wildlife rehabilitator that lives near me and she was able to reintroduce them to their natural habitat. The rehabilitator was absolutely amazed that my mom was able to keep them all alive. Mom has a knack for that kind of thing - she had a pet possum as a child named Lizzy. Used to curl up and sleep on her head. I love that PBS commercial...'Dare to be Different' with the family who has a skunk for a pet. Reminds me of us.

My heroes!

That's a great link. So many people are afraid of them. I just love them. Yes, they're a little scary when they get big and you happen upon them and scare the daylights out of them. Those teeth! I feel more sorry for the possum than I do the person who interrupted them. I put dry dog food out for them when I know a family is nearby. I keep my garage door cracked just enough for them to get in. As soon as it gets dark, in comes the mom and usually 6-10 babes following.

EQ - are you a WL rehabilitator? If not...you should be! I want to take the course but I can't until my cats are no longer with me. That could be up to 15 or 20 years from now. Here, the courses are given by the State's Park and Wildlife division. My daughter wants to take them with me as well. You can specialize in mammals, reptiles or birds.

I already walk my dogs on a leash 100% of the time because I don't want them chasing down wildlife so there is no way I could leave my garage door open. Other than that, I think I like my arm in its socket and I can guarantee one of my dogs would want to play with a nice opossum in the garage and it would drag me to the ground. I'm too old for that and I'm not even that old.

No, not a wildlife rehabber and never have been. I did volunteer at an animal shelter for quite a while but I ended up taking too many home and my husband asked me nicely to quit. I do run across critters and I do my best or turn them over to people qualified to provide care for them. Orphaned opossums are not so dissimilar to orphaned kittens though. Care is similar.

Working at the animal shelter, I bet that was tough.

Is there a better option than the WL rehabber program...like, taking them to a local vet or animal control or??? I'm not sure, but I don't think the vets in my area are very wildlife friendly. I was horribly disappointed with my vet of 12 years and had to move on.

Oh yes! You have the great, huge dogs. Haahaa...do you ever try to walk all 3 of them together?

I only crack the garage door and Socks in entirely in the house now so she can't get out there. Luckily. But when she goes into the backyard at night to do her business, if there is a critter.....hold on to your boots. It takes everything I have to pull her away. I've been lucky so far.

What I did for the animal shelter was heart wrenching at times but no more so than what those who were paid employees did every day. Toward the end, most of my work was administrative but I did still take home foster projects. There was always a need for foster homes and pretty much everyone in a position to chip in and help did.

The best option is to get a hold of somebody to help you care for them yourself if possible. Animal control will humanely destroy skunks, opossums, and raccoons around here and they don't have the manpower to care for orphans. Wildlife rehabbers are far and few between but they are out there and they will try to assist you. Most vets aren't licensed to handle wildlife, they're mostly domestic animal practices around here. Only one of mine is able to provide care for wildlife. I suspect you may have the same issues in Texas with licensure. Good news is we have the Internet at our tips these days.

Because I have a training collar on the youngest dog, I could walk them at the same time but then the leashes get tangled up as they sniff for the ultimate spot to pee. Without the training collar on the one, I can assure you I'd end up having my arm yanked out of the socket while I was dragged a couple hundred yards to chase whatever it was that caught his fancy. I know what you mean about running into critters. We walk our dogs in the front yard to try to cut down on interactions. It's a big help to keep them out front and we rarely run into anything other than stray cats, rabbits, and frogs in the front yard and I do have that special collar on the one dog.

There are licensed rehabbers here. I ran into one the day we rescued Sunday. She was out looking for grubs to dig up to feed 'possums. And I know a guy that rehabs skunks. I know Jesse H Jones Park is a long way from you, but the naturalists there could probably tell you where to go. (Hmmmm, how can I word that differently?....)

I have possums, armadillos and deer that show up pretty regular. We have had to tip the trashcan twice to let the possums get out after they got stuck! In the back of my property I had a couple of trees fall and I have left them for wildlife habitat.

Heeheehee...good one, Ceejay.

Actually, we have several out here also. I've had to find the various ones for their different specialties thanks to my cats.

My GM had a baby owl that I had to go and pick up on her side of town, deliver to a rehabber on this side and when the owl was okay, I had to pick him back up and release back where he was found. She's on the NW side of Houston. It all worked out well.

EQ - that was how it was with my ridgeback. She was so scared of water that to bathe her, I would have hook her leash on to a 400 lb. toolbox. Well, she dragged that toolbox all the way down my street with every neighbor around trying to help me chase her down. She yanked my arm too many times to count. But she was still a great dog.

Hi y'all. My dear friend Ginger/Kell asked me to drop by because someone had asked about becoming a rehabber. I rehab ducks mostly baby Wood ducks but I will take any and all. If anyone is interested in becoming a rehabber of any kind (you can be very specialized...I only take ducks, some only take songbirds, etc), check with your local Game and Fish Comission, Vet or Cooperative Extension Office.

I tried to read all of the posts and someone may have already stated the above. I am thrilled about the egg find. Kind like an Easter egg hunt came early. lol I adored the dining table story. Our ducks have their own room and bathroom...but hey, these are our children. ;o))

Have any questions? please post or d-mail me

Kim

Kim

Hey Kim! Accolades to you.

Cooperative Extension Office? We don't know nuthin' about wildlife rehab... Maybe Parks & Wildlife would know something.

Yes, in Texas you get licensed through Parks and Wildlife.

Kim, one day, probably 10 or more years down the road, I definitely plan to do it. Right now, I have cats and they're my babies so...I've got a while.

thanks for the information.

I forgot to tell ya'll.....I had a dream the other night, you might say a nightmare, that my eggs hatched and they were gators. I'm not scared of baby gators...I've played with plenty at parks where they let you. But these guys scared me. Thought it was kinda funny.

Soil temps. are staying at a steady 73 degrees, I'm misting with a sprayer and have a little fungus growth on top of the soil. Perhaps I'm misting too much or it's too humid with the cellophane. Maybe I'll have a bunch of little girls. I'd better get busy crocheting turtle skirts.