Let's Talk BBQ

General => General Discussion & Topics => General Discussion => Topic started by: bamabob on September 09, 2017, 04:39:06 PM

Title: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: bamabob on September 09, 2017, 04:39:06 PM
Spins a huge sticky web like a spider, have never had these before this year.  Have to clean them out of the trees before I can mow.  Pretty creepy riding through a web these spin. 

(https://s5.postimg.cc/5t9dq14mv/img5_2.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)

(https://s5.postimg.cc/tya37qoxj/img4_3.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)

Smaller than a dime, shaped like a crab, here's one in his web before I cleared it out so I could mow without being creeped out.  These webs can span 4-6 feet, spanning from one tree to the next closest object.

(https://s5.postimg.cc/bjzk3rcmv/img6.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: hikerman on September 09, 2017, 04:57:09 PM
Bob I have no idea! But I would venture to say that they must be Bugs from Hell! ???
Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: hikerman on September 09, 2017, 05:11:16 PM
Hey Bob, did a little searching. These  things are crab spiders.
Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: bamabob on September 09, 2017, 05:20:30 PM
that's what I thought also, but they don't look like this image nor do they match the description and they spin one heck of a web!
they can vary in color from white to yellowish to greenish.

(https://s5.postimg.cc/csshmiawn/crab_spiders.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)

BamaPat is freaking out over these things.
Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: GusRobin on September 09, 2017, 05:22:58 PM

BamaPat is freaking out over these things.
I don't blame her, they look like something from Stephen King
Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: hikerman on September 09, 2017, 05:27:50 PM
There must be several different types but I found one exactly like your type and one that was red and white....both labeled as crab spiders.
Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: bamabob on September 09, 2017, 05:43:29 PM
I think I found  what you're looking at.   Listed as crab spiders in Google Images, seems logical but these do spin one heck of a web.  I hope that's what they are since the description I posted earlier has them as non-threatening to humans but non-webspinners.

(https://s5.postimg.cc/fco4glygn/crab_spider.jpg) (https://postimg.org/image/7wouutar7/)

(https://s5.postimg.cc/oj6f3w3p3/crab_spider_2.jpg) (https://postimg.org/image/gdod5qfg3/)

Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: hikerman on September 09, 2017, 05:48:37 PM
They look like little monsters or prehistoric.
Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: teesquare on September 09, 2017, 05:55:06 PM
Shame their legs are not big enough to steam and dip in drawn lemon and butter.... 8)
Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: hikerman on September 09, 2017, 06:53:09 PM
What was that old movie with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy about little aliens that buzzed around? They look like those aliens.
Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: bamabob on September 09, 2017, 07:30:27 PM
Ha, you're right.  Batteries not included.

Knowing they are not harmful to us or our pets is a relief.  BamaPat can rest at ease.  (I hope!)

We try not to over-react to wildlife, (including bugs & spiders).  When we first moved South we continued the Terminex insect control program the previous owners had.  After not seeing any results we discontinued it.  The following year we had fewer insects.  Started seeing a population of lizards, tree frogs, birds and other wildlife that are natural predators of the insects we were trying to control.  Balance of nature.....

a couple of years ago we saw an invasion of beetles on a crepe myrtle.  Instinctively got the insecticide and sprayed them.  Later looked them up and found that they were Soldier Beetles.  A beneficial bug that is know as "nature's toothbrush". 
Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: Roget on September 09, 2017, 09:47:58 PM
I don't care if they are harmless. I don't want to meet up with any of those.
Creepy little buggers.
Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: smokeasaurus on September 09, 2017, 10:17:20 PM
As soon as I build a chicken coop, we are going to get a couple of chickens. They will eat all the bugs outside and we have the kitties to handle what gets inside.
Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: DWard51 on September 09, 2017, 11:32:45 PM
Spins a huge sticky web like a spider, have never had these before this year.  Have to clean them out of the trees before I can mow.  Pretty creepy riding through a web these spin. 

(https://s5.postimg.org/5t9dq14mv/img5_2.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)


His back looks like the hockey mask Jason wears in the movies......  Two eye holes, 2 nose holes, and 6 holes for the mouth.  And we know how those movies ended, just saying...
Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: tlg4942 on September 10, 2017, 07:56:21 AM
Bob,
Did you just move to the south? Those are here every year although I' ve only seen them in yellow.
They are pretty much in the same panic as us when they "catch you" on your mower. It's a fairly dangerous moment for the whole neighborhood .
Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: Jaxon on September 10, 2017, 09:02:06 AM
We used to see these a lot here in middle Georgia, but not in a couple of years.
I'd get a full cardio workout whenever I walked thru their web.
Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: bamabob on September 10, 2017, 11:11:21 AM
Bob,
Did you just move to the south? Those are here every year although I' ve only seen them in yellow.
They are pretty much in the same panic as us when they "catch you" on your mower. It's a fairly dangerous moment for the whole neighborhood .

Been here 11 years, this is the first year I've seen them.  Have a lot of the big wood spiders but have really never noticed these before.


We used to see these a lot here in middle Georgia, but not in a couple of years.
I'd get a full cardio workout whenever I walked thru their web.

Walking through their web seems more like getting caught in a net.   >:(

They have a fancy scientific name.  Got this link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasteracantha_cancriformis


Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: DWard51 on September 11, 2017, 01:34:37 AM
We used to see these a lot here in middle Georgia, but not in a couple of years.
I'd get a full cardio workout whenever I walked thru their web.

That reminds me of a funny story.....  Now if you are in the south we have these things called "writing spiders" that come out in the fall.

Back in the early 80's I was working as a Deputy Sheriff on the morning watch and my partner and I went to a trailer park (the seedy type) to serve a warrant on a known trouble maker.  It was fall, and there was some dew on the ground.  Last 2 times we went to pick this guy up, he ran out the back door (or tried). So my partner, who is a scrawny sort of guy said "you go around back and I'll flush him out".  So we park 2 trailers down and I sneak up to the back door and radio him that I'm in position.

About 30 seconds later I hear this blood curdling scream in an unnaturally high pitch and can see his flashlight beam swinging wildly in the misty night air. I figured the guy had come out the front and jumped him.  So I run around to the front door and to my surprise, here is my partner standing alone in the yard beating the crap out of himself with his metal flashlight and screaming like Ruby Rhod in the 5th Element.  Seems he had walked right into a writing spider's web.  The spider was trapped on his chest by the web and to say he freaked is putting it mildly.

The guy in the trailer turns on the flood light and comes out to see what all the noise is about.  My partner was so pissed at himself and the fact that both the guy we were looking for an I were laughing, that he stormed off to the car.  I ended up talking to the guy and let him follow us down instead of riding in the patrol car (and the next time we had a warrant, I just a called him and he came in on his own).

And yes, I've walking into those webs myself.  Around here you have to use a flashlight after dark if you don't want to walk into one.

This is the scream (but higher pitched and squeekier)

Ruby Rhod & the scream

https://youtu.be/54CQc7BD0Is (https://youtu.be/54CQc7BD0Is)




Title: Re: What the Hell are these things?
Post by: teesquare on September 11, 2017, 07:47:21 AM
One movie I can watch over and over....just funny.