The creepy crawly thread.....

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Some time ago, my dad called me a smart a$$ when I questioned him about something. This caused me to think about all those different names we call smart alecs and with that I have devised the following.
When we are born and we make a mistake we are called an a$$.
Just before school, they call us dumb a$$
After we have graduated from school, we are called a smart a$$
Then, with age and veneration, we finally get called a wise a$$
I figure I'm somewhere between smart a$$ and wise a$$.
 
I use to have three of these as pets. The emporer scorpion is one of the few that can be handled and one of the most common seen in movies. I learned how to tell male from female when I had them. It has to do with the combs on the underside. The males had longer tines compared the females.
 

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Way cool, now THAT is a scorpion. i remember something about their never stinging what they are walking on. still don't thing i'd try that without a steel glove
 
They are not that bad. They will sting if they are feeling edgy but they are more likely to pinch. The few rules of thumb about scorpions are the bigger they are, the less likely they are to sting. These come from, I believe, Ghana Africa. Because they are so big, they use their claws more than anything else for killing food. I've been able to overcome the fear factor and have one of them crawl across my hand. I wore wool gloves at the time but found I didn't really need them. I made a shady spot over my fingers by cupping my hand over them and he just crawled into the shade and curled up. The other rule of thumb is the bigger they are, the less poisonous. A sting from one of these guys is no worse than a pin prick were as one of those little b@st@rds will make you really sick. The way to tell if they are edgy is to try moving them with an artists paint brush... long handle you see... if they rear up and look like they are in attack mode, don't pick them up. If they move along without acting up, you're safe. It's suggested that you can pick they up by their tails. I don't like to do that because it might hurt them. Instead, just lay your hand flat and let them crawl on. If you do pick them up by their tails, use padded tongs. BTW, you can tell a wild one from a farmed one by picking they up this way. The wild ones have a lot of strength in their tails and can curl up to grab you with their claws, hence the padded tongs. The farmed ones generally have weak tails and can not curl up that well.
 
The Death Stalker Scorpion - the most poisonus scorpion. their venom contains a very powerful neurotoxin which causes a very painful sting. normally not poisonus enough to kill an adult unless there is an alergic reaction causing anaphylaxis. death if it occurs is from pulmonary edema.
many pharmaceutical companies are interested in the venom as it shows promise in treating brain tumors and in controlling diabetes
The easiest way to find scorpions is at night using a UV light, they are florescent
 

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yep... some floures orange, some green, and some blue. I don't know if you have ever seen one eat. They have something like two small claw like apendages that cover their mouth. When they eat, these appendages stuff whatever they're eating into the mouth and hold it there. A fluid then disolves the food before its injested. They can also go for sometime between meals.
 
Hey Mike can you help me to understand how the two eat? I've seen a scorpion eat and there is nothing left afterward. My understanding of how a spider eats is that the poison has an enzime that turns the body insides to goo and then it gets sucked out leaving the body behind. How does a spider suck out the goo? Through it's fangs?
 
let's see, this diagram may help. the fangs are on the chelicerae. the pedipalps are a bit like arms. the fangs inject venom and digestive enzymes which both kill and begin digestion. when the prey has begun to liquefy the spider grabs the prey with the pedipaps and pulls it to its mouth located below and behind the chelicerae. other mouth parts (Labium Rostrum) come together to form a "straw" through which the spider can suck the liquefied prey into its stomach. on some spiders the chelicerae contain teeth which allows for some "chewing" but the chewed tissues must still be mostly liquid. as feeding continues the spider can spray more digestive enzymes to continue to liquefy tissues
 

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Went out to get in the car today and found this little critter sunning itself on a wooden sleeper, didn't take too kindly to having it's photo taken....Blue Tongue lizard for those that don't know.

Ended up collecting it up and taking it up the street to the reserve and deposit it near the creek..the wife and daughter were happier with this outcome....
 

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