Like a damn zoo this a.m....

steveinaz

I come into the warehouse this morning, I've got 2 large tarantulas on my office wall, one of them looking at me as I type this, and a frickin scorpion on the rug (had to kill his ****)....like an insect zoo in here this morning.

Bat's come in August....Arizona, gotta love it. I ought to get "hazardous duty pay" down here.

wingnut4772

I would have just quit.:eek:

Early B.

Who the hell do you work for? Damn.

Demiurge

Did you kill the spiders? Man, those things would leave a nice gel residue when you squish them I bet.

steveinaz

Government warehouse on Fort Huachuca. This is normal for this area, it just seems like all the creatures came out of hiding last night. I usually have 1 or 2 rattlesnakes per summer as well. My warehouse doesn't have an elevated dock, I'm at ground level which compounds the problem.

steveinaz

Demiurge wrote:

Did you kill the spiders? Man, those things would leave a nice gel residue when you squish them I bet.

Actually I leave the tarantulas alone, they do a good job of eating the rest of the bunch, and they pretty much leave people alone. Scorpions are a different story. We had a lady last year (Sue), who was 2 weeks from retirement, get stung and died from heart complications due to a scorpion. Tarantulas are pretty much harmless, they do their best to stay away from you.

wingnut4772

Let me get this straight.......



You leave the Tarantulas alone???!!!!!:eek: :eek: :eek:


What kind of job is this!??? Mine is so much safer:D

Demiurge

Wow, snakes, eff that.

steveinaz

It's that time of year here. The Monsoon rains force all kinds of creatures from their holes...and into out houses! What I hate the most is frickin stink bugs, They're HUGE and do STINK if you smash them or as I found out years ago, try to "shop vac" them up---BIG mistake. There's about 20 of them right now as I speak--one of them is eating the scorpion I splatted this morning....

wingnut4772

Give me a bad guy with a gun any day.

Demiurge

This thread should read "Like the 7th Circle of Hell this A.M...."

You're more brave than me with that stuff. I can't stand giant bugs or snakes.

steveinaz

I sent an email to the building coordinator to get the exterminator down here---I forgot this spring to have it done. Now I'm paying the price. That stuff doesn't do anything to tarantulas and scorpions though---they are impervious to it. You have to lay down a thick layer of "Sevin" to get them.

steveinaz

Demiurge wrote:

This thread should read "Like the 7th Circle of Hell this A.M...."

You're more brave than me with that stuff. I can't stand giant bugs or snakes.

The main thing to be careful about is baby rattlesnakes, because they have no rattles yet and look very much like a king snake when young. They also don't "regulate" their poison like the adults. Most adult rattlesnakes give a warning bite first that has very little, if any venom, the young ones don't know how to do this so the bite is always bad.

wingnut4772

Demiurge wrote:

This thread should read "Like the 7th Circle of Hell this A.M...."

You're more brave than me with that stuff. I can't stand giant bugs or snakes.

Ha! Yes .' My trip to the 5th ring of the Hot Place'.:D

steveinaz

Your first couple years in the southwest it freaks you out a little, but you get used to it. You have to adapt your lifestyle a little, especially if you have kids/pets. Watch them closely in the summer when playing in the yard and teach them how to avoid some of the creatures. Don't let them play around rock or wood piles, that kinda stuff.

A good friend of mine at work, has had his dog bit twice in the face by rattlesnakes--he survived both times---but then was bit by a brown recluse spider, and that did him in.

wingnut4772

I couldn't even watch the bug scene in King Kong. I guess this rules out moving to AZ. I hear it's beautiful though.

polkatese

Stevie, you gotta get your **** to appear on "Fear Factor"

Btw, I saw on HDNet, it looks like those Tarantulas are tasty (to some local Amazon's tribe), grilled them in, crunchy, and a splash of Foxworthy's BBQ sauce to finish off, I bet, it won't hurt...

wingnut4772

polkatese wrote:

Stevie, you gotta get your **** to appear on "Fear Factor"

Btw, I saw on HDNet, it looks like those Tarantulas are tasty (to some local Amazon's tribe), grilled them in, crunchy, and a splash of Foxworthy's BBQ sauce to finish off, I bet, it won't hurt...

That's it. I'm done.

steveinaz

I guess this rules out moving to AZ. I hear it's beautiful though.

Yes, it is.There's not a single mile of road in Arizona where you don't see mountains. The climate is all over the map: from Flagstaff, which is very much like Denver in weather, to Phoenix/Yuma/Havasu where its hotter than hell, and everything in between.

steveinaz

polkatese wrote:

Stevie, you gotta get your **** to appear on "Fear Factor"

Btw, I saw on HDNet, it looks like those Tarantulas are tasty (to some local Amazon's tribe), grilled them in, crunchy, and a splash of Foxworthy's BBQ sauce to finish off, I bet, it won't hurt...

Oh hell no. I'll eat a tree before I'll eat a damn bug.

Early B.

Are these critters to be found all over AZ? Never been there, but does Phoenix have a bug and snake problem, too?

polkatese

My good friend lives in Scottsdale, he's been stung 3 times by scorpions, twice by black widows. Needless to say, he became very paranoid of these bugs.

steveinaz

Early B. wrote:

Are these critters to be found all over AZ? Never been there, but does Phoenix have a bug and snake problem, too?

Less likely in Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, grand canyon...it's very cold up there, more like Colorado. They're at about 8,500 ft elevation.

The center of Arizona is a huge valley, as you go north it gets higher and as you go south it gets higher. Becuase of this, even though Phoenix is 185 miles north of me, it's far hotter because of the lower elevation. I'm at about 4,600ft in Sierra Vista.

ND13

Snakes don't scare me, but screw those damn spiders and bugs!!!!

A brown recluse bite looks like a friggin gunshot wound. Both my mother and wife have been bitten by one and it's an ugly thing to see. Their venom rots living tissue from the center of the bite outward.

Demiurge

ND13 wrote:

Snakes don't scare me, but screw those damn spiders and bugs!!!!

A brown recluse bite looks like a friggin gunshot wound. Both my mother and wife have been bitten by one and it's an ugly thing to see. Their venom rots living tissue from the center of the bite outward.

WTF....

10 Days after a brown recluse bite:



That is disgusting..

ledhed

Good lord, I could never do that. You just talk about all of the critters normally yet your co-worker died? There's my two week notice right there

ND13

The bad thing about recluses is that they hide in your clothing and shoes. My mom was bitten on top of her left foot, one in her shoe. My wife was bitten on her inner elbow, one in her sweater sleeve.

Demi, can't see your attachment.

Demiurge

Hmm, damn. It's gross looking.

Just put 'Brown Recluse Spider' in a Google image search and check out the picture of that guys thumb. It's disgusting. I can't believe those little spiders can do all of that damage. Is that normal or just without treatment? Can they stop it from spreading that much?

steveinaz

I don't think there is anything they can do about recluse bites either, but remove surrounding tissue.

steveinaz

ledhed wrote:

Good lord, I could never do that. You just talk about all of the critters normally yet your co-worker died? There's my two week notice right there

The rumor is that Sue had a pre-existing heart condition and the scorpion bite was enough to push it over the edge. She was around 58 years old.

steveinaz

Well, I carried the 2 tarantulas out on a file folder, tossed'em out in the parking lot. One of them got between me & my coffee pot---can't have that. The exterminator showed up and sprayed the place good. Nothing but corpses now...hehe