Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: dangerous

(+12 insets!!) The White Rabbit from "Alice in Wonderland" is reading my mind with this quote: “I’m late, I’m late! For a very important date! No time to say ‘hello, goodbye,’ I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!” It's long past due to post my picture today, eek! Having a house guest definitely makes schedules more difficult to keep, and so I'm behind but I hope you won't mind! :) We didn't end up going out today as planned because Steve's sister was under the weather. I was feeling cooped-up though so at about 2pm I popped on my rubber boots and knee pads, grabbed my camera and made a beeline straight up our steep hillside to the ridge line trail. From there I walked the half-mile or so to the trail's end and kept my eyes open as I walked along. I hoped that I might find the white/creamy yellow Oregon Fawn Lily. This little beauty can only be found near the end of the trail, far from our property. I knew I would probably strike out because these flowers are long past their blooming time but I couldn't help myself from trying to find one. Though I did find a few bedraggled Henderson's Fawn Lillies, I didn't find the creamy-colored ones. Boo. Well, when I took the pictures of the purple ones the other day, I knew that I should really to go find the yellow ones too. But it was late and about to rain and after that it didn't stop raining for days. It's ok though because I got some awesome pictures of these in the past. (I'll show my Oregon Fawn Lily pictures as insets!) I ended up spending a couple of hours up there just enjoying myself. I got pictures of so many things--flowers, a mushroom, huge burls on an oak tree, pine cones, curls of manzanita bark, beetles and a bee on flowers, different species of leaves glowing in the afternoon light, I even got a picture of a frog! It was a lovely, wonderful, peaceful adventure and I felt very much connected to the land. Pure bliss! There are two logs at the end of the trail which I always look under because they are so lucky for me. I found our California Mountain King Snake under one many years ago. I've found beetles and other insects, and I've found scorpions on many occasions! And so, when I lifted up one of the logs today, I was delighted to find a little scorpion huddled on the dirt and very much unimpressed with the blasting light accosting him. This darling little guy is a Northwest Forest Scorpion and measures about an inch long--very small! I've seen them more than twice that size but in any case, they are barely poisonous to humans. I think they are totally cool and wonderful! Unfortunately I wasn't able to get really good pictures because of where he was positioned but they are good enough to post. After taking pictures I carefully replaced the log…I think I heard him swearing at me for turning on the lights when he was trying to sleep! I don't blame him! :D (I've also included several insets of other pictures I've taken of these fascinating creatures for you to enjoy!) Pam, do you have scorpions where you live? I was totally amazed when I found the first one many years ago after lifting a log up to see what was underneath. I also thought all scorpions were really dangerous but they aren't. These guys are a "1" on a scale of 4 for dangerous. Now…once I was in Costa Rica…at about 2am I got up to use the bathroom and saw a shadow on the ground…turned on the light and HOLY EXPLETIVES, BATMAN, it was a 3" black scorpion on the floor, right where I would have walked!!! Can you say totally freaked out? We ushered the unwelcome guest out of our bungalow and checked regularly every night afterwards in the different places we stayed. YIKES! The only thing I found on your photo stream that looked menacing was a wood wasp picture you took. I'm glad it wasn't aggressive towards you, it sure looked nice on that lantana! Let us hope all is well for you today and I promise not to put a scorpion on your floor! *BIG HUGS*

When Steve and I moved up to the countryside of southern Oregon years ago, I was excited that we would be living in the midst of so much wildlife. However, in the first month of living here, I got a horrifying surprise when I saw a very large, inky-black spider under the stairs in our garage and discovered that it was, indeed, a Black Widow spider!! That one was the largest I have seen, with an abdomen of nearly half an inch in diameter! Since then, I've been extremely careful about putting my hands in dark places. I've found several Black Widows, including a couple of tiny males, one of which was in our downstairs bathroom!!! Since I got my new camera last November, I've been keeping my eyes open for Black Widows but they were nowhere to be seen, which was a little bit annoying because I know they are very common here. However, like many spiders, they are nocturnal, very shy, and run away at the first sign of something big and scary like a human. About a week ago I went over to our shop and when I turned on the light, I found a large black spider moving across the floor and trying to get out of the light. I quickly found a container, carefully coaxed it in, popped a lid on and brought it to the house for a better look. As I watched, it climbed around the sides of the container and I saw what I was looking for! The classic hourglass markings on the bottom of the abdomen, showing this spider to be a female Black Widow! YES!! I put her into a clear glass jar with the idea of taking pictures and then...what? Steve wanted to kill her immediately but I told him no--I want pictures! The internet sided with Steve; even those who like spiders draw the line at spiders which pose a threat to humans. Fair enough. But still she sat, lurking in her jar, awaiting her demise, as one day turned into three. I realized that she must be hungry, and even though she was sitting on death row, perhaps it would be fair to give her something to eat. So, I found a cucumber beetle that had wandered into the house and carefully popped it into the jar. A few hours later, the spider was feasting happily. Steve decided that our new guest was interesting too, and presented her with a beetle, which was captured and eaten with relish. Then for a real bit of fun...a wasp was buzzing around in the kitchen. A good whack with a fly swatter to disorient it, Steve grabbed it with a paper towel and stuffed it into the jar. Was that delight on his face when we found her chowing down an hour later? I know that was the expression on MY face! Time to get serious. It was time to get back to the plan...pictures and a swift death. However, I discovered that taking pictures through curved glass doesn't work very well at all. Distortion from the curve of the glass ruins the picture and using a flash amplifies problems. What to do, what to do...ah yes! Let's put her into a square glass container! I found a plant seedling tray with a clear plastic dome, cleaned it up and lined it with white paper towels as a better contrast. I then eekingly (yes, that's a new word!) transferred her into it, popping the dome on top as she began scurrying to the edge of the tray! Make no mistake: I know EXACTLY what I'm dealing with here, and use great caution when there's nothing between me and this spider! With the lid on, I sat and watched her as she crawled over to a corner. This should work well for pictures, I thought, and noticed that the plastic dome had two vents which slide open like little hatches...perfect for popping insects through! Let's try it out! Bouncing up, I grabbed the fly swatter, went out to the trays of water we have for the birds, and smacked a wasp balanced on the surface tension. Before the drenched wasp could crawl out and fly away, I flicked it into a cup, covered it with the fly swatter, went inside and got the wasp through the opening into the dome, where it buzzed around in a fury, trying to find something to sting. I watched with a mad gleam in my eye...why, this was the best gladiator event ever! It didn't take long...the wasp would fly down to the floor and trip a few strands of the spider's web, and she should come running over. The wasp would climb up to the dome, out of harm's way, and she would return to her corner. But then it happened! The wasp flew down to the ground and wandered over to her corner, laden with sticky strands. It got stuck and tried to free itself, but before it could, the spider ran over and began throwing invisible strands over it here and there. The wasp tried to sting her, straining against the sticky web, trying to reach her with its stinger. It was no use. The harder it struggled, the worse it became stuck. All the while, she dashed in and out, busily tossing more strands, securing them here and there, and then, she moved off to the side and just waited. This was a surprise to me because I thought she'd just run in and bite it for an instant death, but she didn't. The wasp slowly exhausted itself, always straining that stinger and hoping desperately to find a target. Finally, when it was so immobilized and tired, she moved in and killed it instantly. An amazing battle, but an easy victory for this deadly foe. As you can see, I've taken a picture, but it's not a good one. We've also discovered what fun it is to feed her wasps. So, we'll be keeping this spider for a while longer but I've decided that I would like to release her far from home, because the fact is that there are hundreds of these spiders all around our home, though we cannot see them. Her death would not make a difference in the number of these spiders, and frankly, I don't feel right about killing her. After all, this is her home. It is our job to be careful of the wildlife here, but it wasn't her fault that she found her way into our shop. (I'll be posting another picture or two in the future, along with more information about these spiders.)

In April I found a wonderful little Forest Scorpion and was able to take many pictures because this gentle fellow didn't run away. This is one of my favorite pictures because he looks like he's raising his claws and tail to yell, "OLÉ!!" (That would be Scorpion for "GET OUTA HERE KID, YOU'RE BOTHERING ME!!") :D I've uploaded two other pictures today and I hope you'll visit them too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :) NOTE! I have finally updated my profile and I hope you'll take a look to find out a little more about me and how important all of you are to my experience here on Flickr! Janet's profile (sfhipchick) This image was taken in April, 2012.

Yesterday I posted a collage of creepy crawly critters I've found under rocks and logs I've looked under. Well, the other day I was on our hillside looking around, and I found some old logs. I carefully rolled one over...nothing there. After replacing the log, I went to the next one. Fully expecting to find nothing there, I lifted it onto its end and LOOK WHAT I FOUND!!! A SCORPION!!! *bounces up and down in glee* This docile little guy was sitting very still on a bed of decaying wood and I was free to take as many pictures as I wanted. I'm not afraid of these amazing creatures because I know they're not interested in hurting me unless I'm unlucky enough to step on one. Even then, I'd be concerned but I know the the odds are the sting would only be something like a bee sting, or at worst, like a very bad hornet sting. Not fun at all, but not deadly either. However, I treat animals like this with great respect, and I felt so lucky to see this awesome predator! The Northwest Forest Scorpion, also known as the California Scorpion, is native to the Pacific Northwest, and is the most common scorpion in Oregon. These are very unaggressive as scorpions go, and live in rotting logs and other humid places. They eat small insects and prefer to use their pincers to kill their prey, not their stingers. Their venom is considered to be a "1" on a scale of "1-5". This image was taken in April, 2012. Explored on April 13th, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] The other day I posted a picture of a scorpion that I found under a log on our hillside, but it wasn't the only image I took! I thought it would be interesting to show closeups of different parts and explain what each one is! Upper Left: This is a face only a mother could love, and looks like a Predator's mouth to me! That bump on its head are two eyes, and there are two more eyes above its mouth to the left and right! The mouth is called a chelicera and has little finger-like appendages to pull food in and chew it up! Upper Right: The end of a scorpion's tail is a modified segment called a "telson", which contains the venom gland. Lower Left: This is one of a scorpion's two claws (chelae), also called pincers. They serve many different purposes, from defense to mating, and some scorpions like this one, prefer to kill their prey by using their pincers. Lower Right: This is an overall view of the gentle Northwest Forest Scorpion. If you would like to see a detailed image of scorpion anatomy, you can find one here: Scorpion Anatomy If you would like more information about scorpions, Wiki has a great page here:: Wiki: Scorpion This image was taken in April, 2012.

"The EZ Snack 2000! No fuss! No muss! The fast and easy way to get insects served to your web with no effort on your part! This fabulous spider-friendly habitat is spacious, clean and comes delivered and ready to move into for the low, low price of just $29.99! ORDER TODAY!!! 1-800-EZ-SNACK" **Some assembly required, willing human slave not included, offer void where prohibited by arachnophobes. Here's a picture of my Black Widow spider with two paper wasps, wrapped and ready for snacking! What a life she has these days! All she has to do is relax in style, and out of nowhere, more insects appear in her habitat!What a deal!! It has been fun to watch her chowing down on the wasps that are swarming around this summer. Steve put seven wasps in a couple of days ago and there are only two left this evening, what a little piggy!! (Her habitat is a seedling tray with a plastic dome on top, lined with white paper towels. The dome has two sliding hatches on top that open and close securely, and the dome is taped closed to ensure she doesn't get out! :D) I have read that these spiders bite their prey and then wait for them to stop moving before moving in to eat, but this particular spider does not do that. When she's ready to eat, she'll run over to a wasp that's alerted her and quickly begin tossing swaths of sticky silk on it. She ties off strands here and there, and the insect is quickly immobilized and soon can barely move. After waiting a few more minutes for it to become exhausted, she then goes in and bites it behind the head, causing it to die almost instantly. A Black Widow injects a powerful neurotoxin that affects the nervous system, quickly paralyzing and then killing the insect. (Warning: gross details ahead!) Once their prey is dead, they go to the bite site and begin chewing the area, releasing digestive enzymes that liquefy the animal's insides, which are then sucked out. After my spider is done with her feast, she carefully detaches the insect from her web and lets it fall to the ground. She will sometimes pull the insect husks into a pile, where they sit like gruesome trophies! This will be the last Black Widow spider picture for a while. I plan to take a couple more before I release her far, far, far, far, far from my house, but I think we've all had enough creepy pictures for now! I hope you've enjoyed these! It's been so much fun learning about these spiders and sharing the information with all of you! Thanks for your great comments and encouragement, you guys make me feel GREAT! *hugs* :D

This is a close-up of a back leg of a Black widow spider. As you can see, it's covered with little bristles. These are used for combing large swaths of silk from their spinnerets and tossing it quickly over a victim to ensnare it. They also use these combs in the building of their webs. There are over 2000 species in the Comb-Footed spider family (Theridiidae), found world-wide. Most are fairly harmless, with exception of the Widow spiders, some of which are among the most venomous in the world. These spiders are also known as cobweb or tangleweb spiders because they create dense webs of disorganized, sticky threads to capture their victims. These webs are enlarged over time and a single touch will alert the lurking spider. Did you know that spiders have up to four types of silk? They can place these strands at will depending on what is needed at the moment! Each type of silk comes out of its own spinnerets, and the link here will show you a magnified image of a spider's spnnerets with silk strands being pulled out! If you would like to know more about Comb-Footed spiders, Wiki has a nice page here: Wiki: Theridiidae . For more information about spider silk, this is a wonderful source! Spider Silk

This is the first picture I took of the Black Widow spider that I found in our shop. After crawling around the bottom of the translucent, plastic cup I'd coaxed her into, she finally climbed up the side, and this allowed me to instantly identify her. What you may not know is that some Black Widows do not display the characteristic hourglass or double triangular markings. I learned a lot about these spiders and I bet you'll be just as surprised as I was at some of this information! There are 32 species of Widow spiders and they can be found all over the world with a few exceptions, northern Europe to name one. (However, they have False Widows, imported from the Canary Islands , to contend with instead!) There are three species known as "Black Widow Spiders," all which live in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Some interesting facts about Widow Spiders: • Not all Widow spiders are black! There are many species which are brown, and they also come in white, red, and beautiful spotted patterns of black or brown with white and red markings. (The Elegant Widow Spider from Japan is stunning!) • These spiders get the name "Widow" due to a behavior seen where the female kills and eats the male after mating. However, males are usually not killed and leave unharmed after mating. The fact is that almost all female spiders of every species will occasionally kill the male after mating. • Widow spiders have voluntary control of the venom they inject, and this is one of the reasons it's so difficult to distinguish the potency of poison from one species to the next. • Widow spiders are nocturnal, very shy, and will run away if disturbed. • Widow spiders are not aggressive and will not bite humans unless they are being hurt and cannot get away. • Like most spiders, male Widow spiders are much smaller than females (about 1/3 size compared to a female) and they are harmless to humans. • The bite from a Black Widow spider can be fatal but this is extremely rare . Children are most at risk, as are the elderly and those with heart conditions. That being said, the neurotoxin Latrotoxin from a Black Widow bite is extremely painful and can last weeks to completely dissipate. • Black Widow spiders are not the most dangerous spider in the world! That ominous title goes to the very deadly Brazilian Wandering Spider. (I'll be doing a post about dangerous spiders tomorrow!) • Many Widow species are not particularly dangerous, especially Brown Widows. If you would like more information about these spiders, the source of the range map linked above has an excellent page too: Information about Black Widow Spiders. (Wiki also has a page about these spiders with excellent information about individual species' locations, but the information about venom and cannibalism is wrong; I therefore don't trust the validity of this page after researching a number of sites and sources about these spiders.)

Here is my Black Widow spider huddling at the bottom of the jar I first placed her in after capturing her in a plastic cup. I soon found that taking pictures through a glass jar doesn't work very well because of distortion and glare. However, this image through the top gives one the feeling of peering in to take a better look. What you don't know is that the second I put the lid back on, she raced up an unseen thread to the opening and I was rather alarmed to realize how quickly she could have escaped, just moments after I'd got her into the house! To put it mildly, "EEEEEEK!!!" :D Keeping this Black Widow temporarily for observation is a wonderful opportunity for learning more about these spiders, and the first thing I wondered was, "What spider is the most dangerous in the world?" Unfortunately, though the internet is full of information, much of it is wrong, so it takes a bit of time to cross reference for the truth. However, I set about putting a list together and I wasn't surprised to find that the famous Black Widow is NOT the world's most dangerous spider! By the way, do you know the difference between poisonous and venomous ? Poison is absorbed or ingested and only affects a creature that touches or eats it. Venom is always injected by a variety of methods: bite, sting, tail stab, spine slash, spur spike, etc. A spider injects poison through its venom glands, which makes it a venomous creature. Animals like Poison Dart frogs secrete toxins through their skin, which makes them a poisonous creature. I originally planned to do a little write up on each of the spiders in the following list but in the end decided that it would be better to just link to pages about each spider if viewers want to know more! :D ENJOY! :) The World's Most Dangerous Spiders: 1. Brazilian Wandering Spider 2. Australian Funnel Web Spider 3. Six-Eyed Sand Spider 4. Australian Mouse Spider 5. Recluse Spiders 6. Widow Spiders (especially Black Widows, Redback and a few other species) 7. Hobo Spiders 8. Yellow Sac Spider 9. Tarantulas (many species are basically harmless to humans) 10. Wolf Spiders

It was so beautiful and warm today that I decided to see if I could find some creatures to photograph since I've seen signs that critters are starting to come to life again. I didn't have to go far. I carefully turned over a cement block near our house and underneath were many animals! A hunting spider, other tiny spiders, ants, and then I saw this little guy and I couldn't believe my eyes! So tiny I could hardly see him (only 1/4" or smaller in size!), I thought this might be some kind of baby scorpion! He crawled all over the place and finally into a crevice, but I managed to get this picture to share. I discovered that this is a Pseudoscorpion, and instead of having a venemous tail, its venom is in its pincers. Not that this nearly microscopic cutie pie could hurt us, its favorite prey are dust mites and other miniscule critters! If you would like to learn more about this cool looking critter, I found this wonderful blog page which wonderful pictures and great information! Seabrooke Leckie's Blog: Pseudoscorpion By the way, I found a picture of a pseudoscorpion next to a 10-cent coin and on a finger so you can get an idea how small it is: Cabin Blog: Pseudoscorpion

Today it was very cold and windy and those are conditions I really can't stand. But I thought I could just walk up onto our hillside for a bit of exploration and the trees would act as a windbreak. As I was headed that way, I saw some logs and couldn't resist carefully rolling them over to see if there was anything underneath. Log 1: Nothing...and I rolled it carefully back. Log 2: Drat...a little bug that scurried away...and I rolled it back into its original position. And then, Log 3: JACKPOT!! Standing motionless and in a state of hibernation was this beautiful Northwest Forest Scorpion!! I discovered one last April and since then have found others when looking carefully under logs. Although they are poisonous, they aren't terribly venomous, but I am always extremely respectful of all the animals that I am lucky enough to find on my adventures. This one never moved as I quietly took my pictures and then very carefully replaced the log exactly as I had found it. Chanakya (c. 370–283 BCE) was an Indian teacher, philosopher and royal advisor. Wikipedia: Chanakya