A few photographs of my critters - part 1 - Page 15

BarelyBreathing · 03-02-12, 12:07 PM

She's awesome. She really is.

I have some strange animal fears myself. I love snakes and lizards, I love spiders, tarantulas and scorpions, I'm scared of fish. The smaller, the grosser.

alessia55 · 03-02-12, 12:27 PM

All of those photos are fantastic- especially that jet black snake! I'm not afraid of spiders or bees, but I'm definitely nervous around butterflies/moths/dragonflies

crocdoc · 03-02-12, 05:42 PM

I'm lucky in that I have no animal fears. I have even tried to grab a scolopendrid centipede with my fingers. Once. I figured that if I can grab large spiders by the cephalothorax, why couldn't I just grab a centipede behind its venomous front legs (the ones that look like jaws)? Clearly I underestimated the creepiness of it wrapping itself around my fingers, holding on with all of its legs and then giving me a good grab with the spiny hindmost legs. That gave me the heebie-jeebies, so I flicked it off with a shudder and have used forceps ever since. I'll sometimes pin one to the ground, at head and tail end, with my fingers, but no grabbing and lifting without an implement. The one in my earlier photograph I wouldn't touch for more than the half second it took to pull it back into the open before it crawled under something, for it was huge. Here it is next to my boot:

As I said earlier, my god-daughter's one known apprehension is wasps and bees (she hasn't seen a large centipede, yet). She's not phobic, but gets a bit nervous when there is one flying around so I've been trying to work on that. She's asked me a number of times what the pain of a sting is like and I've told her that if she ever does get stung it will hurt a lot, especially the first time, and that she'll probably want to cry, but it's not the end of the world (extremely allergic people aside). A while ago I told her that one of these days I'd get a honeybee to sting me just to prove my point and also so she can learn how to remove the sting properly, by scraping it off rather than pinching and pulling, so as not to inject more venom.

Two weeks ago we were walking along a beach and saw something moving on the sand. We bent down to look at it and it was a honeybee. Just as we started to walk away she looked at me and said "hey, it's a bee... remember?" I smiled, said "right you are" and we turned back. I picked the bee up gently by its wings and held it above my arm and then noticed that J's eyes were clenched shut. It was really cute. I told her that the experiment would only be useful if she watched, so she gave herself a short while to compose herself and then opened her eyes and said "okay, I'm ready". I lowered the bee onto my arm and it bent its abdomen forward, touching my skin. Nothing. I tried again. Still nothing. Then I realised that the bee must have just stung someone or something else earlier, which would explain why it was struggling in the sand rather than flying around - it was already on its way out.

Next time, perhaps. The funny thing is, I got the impression that my actions alone were enough to get her half way there, as she was pretty calm about the whole thing by the time I put the bee back on the sand and we walked away.

infernalis · 03-02-12, 06:21 PM

My favourite bee demonstration is allowing them to land and walk on me, unprovoked of course.

People who fear bee stings will go crazy over that one, since obviously as long as you simply ignore them they won't sting and just be on their way.

BarelyBreathing · 03-02-12, 06:23 PM

I don't fear bee stings... I fear the allergic reaction that comes quickly after it.

Skumbo · 03-02-12, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by infernalis

My favourite bee demonstration is allowing them to land and walk on me, unprovoked of course.

People who fear bee stings will go crazy over that one, since obviously as long as you simply ignore them they won't sting and just be on their way.

Friendly:

DEMONSPAWN:

crocdoc · 03-02-12, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by infernalis

My favourite bee demonstration is allowing them to land and walk on me, unprovoked of course.

She's seen that several times and has had a bull ant crawl across her foot, too (their sting rivals that of wasps), so she knows that they're usually fine if not provoked. We were pulling pedals off flowers for her aunt's wedding in January and she was only a bit concerned when some of the flowers had honeybees. It's the thought of a sting itself she's worried about and which has become bigger than Ben Hur in her mind, so that makes her clench up when she sees bees or wasps flying around, rather than resting on a flower.

BarelyBreathing · 03-02-12, 06:33 PM

Bees don't really make me nervous unless they're right by my face, wasps on the other hand....

Skumbo · 03-02-12, 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BarelyBreathing

Bees don't really make me nervous unless they're right by my face, wasps on the other hand....

wasps are freakin' evil

ill knife fight a bear if i have to, but wasps? I give up!

infernalis · 03-02-12, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skumbo

wasps are freakin' evil

ill knife fight a bear if i have to, but wasps? I give up!

Nah, I ripped into a ground bee nest with an open cab backhoe once, I'll dance with a wasp anyday compared to that event.

theapexgerman · 03-02-12, 06:53 PM

Bees don't bother me at all I like haveing a few around

Skumbo · 03-02-12, 08:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by infernalis

Nah, I ripped into a ground bee nest with an open cab backhoe once, I'll dance with a wasp anyday compared to that event.

imagine if you ripped into a wasp nest!

KORBIN5895 · 03-02-12, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by infernalis

Nah, I ripped into a ground bee nest with an open cab backhoe once, I'll dance with a wasp anyday compared to that event.

I decided to cover up a the holes to a ground bee's nest once. I used Frisbees. I then told the annoying neighbor kid where I hid his Frisbee ........for some reason he doesn't like bees much anymore.

**millertime89** · 03-03-12, 01:09 AM

Korbin, you're evil
CrocDoc those are some amazing pictures. Make sure you instill the fear of god in your niece though. Its the people that get comfortable with a deadly snake's typical mannerisms that will ultimately get bit. I wish you could take more pictures. I would carry my good camera with me all the time if I lived in Queensland.

crocdoc · 03-03-12, 05:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by millertime89

Make sure you instill the fear of god in your niece though.

I presume you don't mean literally (as that's an unlikely thing to happen)

She understands the safe distance for that particular red-bellied blacksnake, but also knows that other snakes (both species and individuals) are different and would be more likely to give them a lot more space. It's far better for people to not be fearful of snakes and I've tried to instill in her that the best thing to do when she sees a snake is nothing. Even the most easily agitated of venomous snakes will not bite unless stimulated to do so. Consequently, the person standing calmly around almost never gets bitten, but the person jumping around in fear or the person trying to kill the snake may.