Just killed a spider.

[mousey]

A bumble bee flew into my front porch yesterday, unfortunately he got caught in a spiders web, the little spider tried to come out to get him but the bee was struggling too furiously for him to finish off.

I was in two minds, should I leave the bumble bee to his fate and deprive the spider of a meal or rescue the bee? [what would you do?]

Anyway my indecision decided for me, with the bee freeing itself, so I scooped him up and put him outside on a leaf to recover, although around 1/2 hr later he was still there with cobwebs covering him - I'm not sure if he got bitten before he managed to escape and has subsequently succumbed to a spider bite, or if he's just resting. I didn't see him this morning.

 

[Insel Affen]

Tiny slugs in supermarket bought lettuce.

Once I found some kind of eggs in a supermarket banana bunch.
A kind of fluffy cocoon with the eggs inside.

Many years ago I used to work in Asda on the produce. Every time something like this happened people would come in and ask 'joke' if there were free spiders included. You wouldn't believe how unfunny it is after 0815 in the morning! I was on the verge of going to the pet shop to ask for a Tarantula and letting it loose just for a giggle!

 

[boubindica]

Now, normally I don't kill spiders, I just put them outside (Harvestman said that for some of them that alone is a death sentence though) but this one was on the grapes I had sitting on the worktop. I opened the box yesterday and meant to wash them before I put them on a plate, and only started really paying attention to them this morning. (As usual I got distracted )
Anyway, big spider in among them. Well, big for us, could have passed for a normal one to be honest but I wasn't risking it. Foreign fruit, and something insecty (purists can claim all they like, arachnids are insecty)
so I killed it.

Years ago, a lot of years ago we had a speaker booked to come to the Young Wives (CofS, think junior Women's Guild) from Ffyes bananas, but the speaker couldn't come so the warehouse in Glasgow obligingly sent out two of their warehouse workers to speak to a group of over thirty young women out here. It was a two way culture shock I think, but the fellows were interesting to listen to, answered loads of queries, seemed to enjoy the tea and cakes (and doggy bags we sent them away home with, plate loads of home baking, we were rather competitive with each other back then on the baking) and left us all rather worried about just what might appear in the fruit and veg. Spiders, snakes, assorted insects, scorpions, lizards, etc.,....and then today I find I've still got that wariness about insects in foreign fruit.

Alas poor spider; unwelcome wee visitor.

Anyone found anything in their fruit and veg ?

M

i always check but, thankfully, not yet... you did the right thing there though Toddy imo...

 

[Nomad64]

Feeling a bit guilty today after disposing of a melon sized wasps nest last night. I really don't like killing things without good reason and although unloved, wasps are part of the great scheme of things but unfortunately the nest was at head height on a thin tree branch across a track that I needed to clear.

I had toyed with the idea of cutting the branch and relocating it but even at 11 o'clock last night, they were pretty feisty and although I am hoping to keep bees next year, I don't have any kit so bottled out and just nuked the nest with fly spray.

A real shame - just about anywhere else and I'd have been happy to live and let live.
Waiting nervously now for karma to bite me!

 

[Toddy]

I know what you mean. We had three wee wasp's bykes up the loft one year. Just golf ball sized on stalks attached to the rafters. I hated killing them, but I wasn't for having them in the house. We tied a paper bag over them, cut them free from the rafters and threw them out into the leaf litter of the woodland behind the fence.
I reckon head height on a pathway comes into the same kind of thing.

M

 

[Macaroon]

You lot are vicious!!! I really hope I never upset any of you enough to come gunning for me

 

[Toddy]

....if you don't have more than the usual two legs, I'm sure you're safe

M

 

[Fadcode]

if it was attracted by the grapes, it was probably a alcoholic, and you just cant trust them when they have had a few, so you did the right thing, although you could have hit it with a banana.

 

[Robson Valley]

Bumble bees pollinate grapes. Was a pleasure to watch them again this year.
They go around and around with some crazy appearance of urgency.
The weather was warm and dry so they did a good job = very good fruit set.

 

[Toddy]

I'm an early riser, and the bees are busy before me these mornings. I have evening primroses at the front door, and the bees are covered in the pollen, so much so that it's almost like watching a Hercules trying to fly while adjusting an unexpectedly heavy load

M

 

[Nomad64]

I know what you mean. We had three wee wasp's bykes up the loft one year. Just golf ball sized on stalks attached to the rafters. I hated killing them, but I wasn't for having them in the house. We tied a paper bag over them, cut them free from the rafters and threw them out into the leaf litter of the woodland behind the fence.
I reckon head height on a pathway comes into the same kind of thing.

M

Well karma gave me a gentle nibble today - I’ve just found a red-tailed bumble bee nest in a hole underneath one of my favourite hammock pitches - the hammock has been left up during the recent dry weather.

They are gentle souls but are getting a bit agitated by my presence so I’ll move and hopefully karma will call it quits!

 

[Laurentius]

Well it did rain yesterday but you will have to step on a few more spiders to really get a deluge.

 

[Toddy]

I wish it would rain here We've had none for weeks and are suffering withdrawal symptoms. I actually threw out two old brollies last week :yikes:

 

[Nomad64]

Well it did rain yesterday but you will have to step on a few more spiders to really get a deluge.

I thought it was beetles (esp black ones) that caused a downpour if you tread on them?

I'm an early riser, and the bees are busy before me these mornings. I have evening primroses at the front door, and the bees are covered in the pollen, so much so that it's almost like watching a Hercules trying to fly while adjusting an unexpectedly heavy load

M

As well as bumble bees we regularly have Hercules (and the new bigger A400 Atlases) in the valley below us!

 

[Tengu]

Thats low.

I am all too familiar with them from Lynham. Closed now, and we live in blessed silence.

I like spiders, they eat the flies in my place. (not that I get many)

 

[mousey]

I thought it was beetles (esp black ones) that caused a downpour if you tread on them?


As well as bumble bees we regularly have Hercules (and the new bigger A400 Atlases) in the valley below us!

View attachment 49736

Reminds me when I was walking and heard a loud helicopter engine, I was looking around trying to spot it then it rose over the crest of the hill from inside the valley .

 

[Insel Affen]

I know what you mean. We had three wee wasp's bykes up the loft one year. Just golf ball sized on stalks attached to the rafters. I hated killing them, but I wasn't for having them in the house. We tied a paper bag over them, cut them free from the rafters and threw them out into the leaf litter of the woodland behind the fence.
I reckon head height on a pathway comes into the same kind of thing.M

We had a wasp nest in the roof when we lived in Bicester and when the guy came to remove it, he said it was already empty/dead but wouldn't remove it. He said it would deter any new wasps looking to nest - Not sure how true it was, but we never had any more in the 3 years we lived there.

 

[Toddy]

I heard that too, and that if one blows up a white paper bag and suspends that from the rafters it will also deter wasps.

Thing is though, those three bykes were 'live' and I try to avoid insecticides on general principles. I think that like antibiotics, when you need them, you should really need them.

M

 

[Nomad64]

Thats low.

I am all too familiar with them from Lynham. Closed now, and we live in blessed silence.

I like spiders, they eat the flies in my place. (not that I get many)

We’re quite high and get transports, trainers, helicopters and fast jets in the valley below us - not enough to be a nuisance - a PITA when the they set fire to the hill though!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-44375517

I heard that too, and that if one blows up a white paper bag and suspends that from the rafters it will also deter wasps.

Thing is though, those three bykes were 'live' and I try to avoid insecticides on general principles. I think that like antibiotics, when you need them, you should really need them.

M

Heard of the paper bag/white balloon fake wasp nest as a fly deterrent but not for wasps - may be worth a try!

 

[Insel Affen]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-44375517

Those Osprey's are absolutely horrible to fly in, I flew in one from Erbil to Kobane last year (about 2hrs) it was unbelievably hot and they bump all over, but at least I wasn't ill like the spare aircrew that were also being transported. (They are very unsafe as they keep crashing)!