neil bell

True story:

I was taking a course in Entomology in Tucson and we had a professor
who studied "Tarantula Hawks" - a REALLY big wasp that captures
Tarantulas to feed their eggs and larvae. I bet the Bear could vouch
for just how big these ****ers are!

Well, we are on a field trip and he was telling us that he could
recognize a male from a female "Tarantula Hawk" by the way they flew.
Now, the males don't sting but the females really do and they hurt
like hell. The guys spies one flying low and fast and said - thats a
male!" He nets the ****er and reaches in with his bare hand to show
it to us students.

You guessed it - it was a female that nailed him twice in the palm of
his hand! Bout an hour later his fingers looked like short fat
sausages and his palm all shades of black and blue.

Not pipes, but had to share, anyway. Hey Bear, you ever seen one of
those dudes??

Neil
Neil Bell

For e-mail replies remove the "notreally."

|------------------------------------------------------|
Happiness is wanting what you have and not wanting what you don't have.
--Shakyamuni Buddha, 500 BC |
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da bear

Quite a few times. I spend quite a bit of time in the deep Sonaora.
Strange as it sounds, sidewinders, gila monsters, balck widows,
diamondbacks, and coral snakes don't bother me, but those Wasps are just
plain creepy... <shudder>

--
Bear Graves
"It's simple. If it jiggles.. it's fat."
-Arnold Schwarzenegger

buck12ga

Of course we don't have any tarantula hawks in Ohio,what we do have is a
blue-black wasp called a mud dauber.Mud daubers collect spiders they seal
up in a mud cavity which serve as food for the newly hatched wasp's
larvae.When you break open one of these mud structures you are greeted by
a cascade of exotic and beautifully colored spiders.The spiders are in a
,sort of comic book style, suspended animation,they don't deteriorate,
they don't die,they just hang out waiting to get eaten.Funny thing
is,I've had a lifelong interest in spiders and many of the spiders found
in the cells are completely new to me.I've watched the mud daubers crawl
into all kinds of tight places looking for spiders.They must find the
weird spiders in these out of the way spots.What can you tell me about
your wasp and spider experiences?

buck

smoking travis

What can you tell me about

Buck,

Not fixated on this are you? I used to work in a pet store and we sold a
half dozen varieties of spiders. Spider people can be pretty odd. One time a
guy who worked on Matlock, the TV series with Andy Griffith, came by. This
was in Wilmington NC where it was filmed. He wanted a spider that was native
to Ge****a, where Matlock was set, and a handler. I explained we had nothing
native to that area. He pointed to a tarantula and asked about it. I
explained it was native to the Midwest and was no good for what he wanted.
He told me they would pay for the spider and $100 bucks for someone to
be the "spider-wrangler" and get a credit and maybe meet Andy. Now spiders
aren't my thing, but I'm not afraid of them either, so I popped open the
Rose hair tarantula cage, put my bare hand in, the spider crawled up my arm,
across my neck, down my other arm where I gently put him back in his cage. I
then announced, "I'll do it!". He said great and let him go check with the
producers.
They went with a snake.

--

Travis

I came for the knowledge,
I stayed for the people.

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