# Bretrick done gone did a bad, sad thing



## Bretrick (Oct 8, 2022)

I spotted this Hairy Mary Caterpillar walking up a 25 meter high metal Floodlight pole.



Thinking I am doing the right thing I move it to a tree.
I went back to where I was sitting at the cricket then thought I would like to take a photograph of this beautiful Caterpillar on the tree.
When I got back to the tree the Caterpillar was gone.
It was not more than 2 minutes, from tree, get camera and back to the tree.
Caterpillar was gone.
Nowhere to be seen. Not on the tree, not behind a leaf, not on the ground.
I deduced that a magpie must have had it for a snack. There were 5 Magpies all around.
Bretrick did a bad, sad thing and cost a Hairy Mary Caterpillar the chance to metamorphose into a Anthela varia moth.


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## Warrigal (Oct 8, 2022)

Never mind. You meant well.

I am currently being kind to a rather ailing huntsman spider that has been living in my house.
She, I think it is a female but I haven't had a close look yet, has been living in the house for a few weeks and is only seen intermittently.

This morning I found her in the kitchen, on the bottle of hand sanitiser that sits at the kitchen sink.
I took a photo with the phone.





I assumed from her huddled posture that she is either dying or getting ready to shed her exoskeleton and I decided to leave her in peace to get on with it either way.

This evening I saw that she had fallen down into the stainless steel sink and I worried that she might not be able to climb out because the sink doesn't provide much traction, so I placed the rolling pin in the sink to allow her to climb out when she is ready.





Now I cannot use the sink or clean it until she moults, leaves or dies. 

Thoughts and prayers, anyone?


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## Bretrick (Oct 8, 2022)

Warrigal said:


> Never mind. You meant well.
> 
> I am currently being kind to a rather ailing huntsman spider that has been living in my house.
> She, I think it is a female but I haven't had a close look yet, has been living in the house for a few weeks and is only seen intermittently.
> ...


My thought is you are kind to critters, like myself
Also today, at the same place - Cricket ground -  a young blue tongue had wandered onto the ground.
When I saw it, I waited until the end of the over, went and picked it up, lest it got trampled on.
I took it to the bush which surrounded the oval.


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## Warrigal (Oct 8, 2022)

Not always. I allow cockroaches to live outside the house but inside I lay down cockroach baits.
Currently, most evenings, I see one or two large cockroaches staggering around the floor, having had a nibble at the baits. If I was truly kind I would give them a dose of tredonem but instead I wait till they stop moving before I sweep them up and put them in the kitchen tidy bin.

I am very fond of blue tongues and I too would have rescued it if I saw it.


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## Aunt Mavis (Oct 8, 2022)

I catch and release spiders for the ladies, then I’ll go change her brakes.


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## JustDave (Oct 8, 2022)

That does it.  I've decided I don't want to be a caterpillar in the next life.


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## charry (Oct 8, 2022)

Aunt Mavis said:


> I catch and release spiders for the ladies, then I’ll go change her brakes.


does hairspray kill spiders ?


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## Paco Dennis (Oct 8, 2022)

charry said:


> does hairspray kill spiders ?


"Another common method is to douse the spider with hairspray. *The spider will be immobilized and the chemicals will typically do the trick*. May 6, 2015"  Hal 2022 ( google )


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## Lavinia (Oct 8, 2022)

Paco Dennis said:


> "Another common method is to douse the spider with hairspray. *The spider will be immobilized and the chemicals will typically do the trick*. May 6, 2015"  Hal 2022 ( google )


Why this obsession with killing things? A spider in your bathroom is looking for water, it's not lying in wait to ambush you. Just do the decent thing and put it outside.


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## charry (Oct 8, 2022)

Lavinia said:


> Why this obsession with killing things? A spider in your bathroom is looking for water, it's not lying in wait to ambush you. Just do the decent thing and put it outside.


Try catching it first !!


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## Judycat (Oct 8, 2022)

Save the Spiders.


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## Warrigal (Oct 8, 2022)

Morning update. The spider is gone from the kitchen sink; where to I have no idea.

The two staggering cockroaches have carked it and are waiting for burial. Must sweep them up before anyone sees them.


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## Nathan (Oct 8, 2022)

We get Turkestan roaches here, they have spread all over the North American continent after hitching a ride in military equipment brought back from Asian venues.  They are not invasive and nasty, like the German and Japanese cockroaches that infest food service kitchens, and apartments.   Sometimes they wander in the house, I just sweep them into a dust pan and let them go outside.  
 Same thing with scorpions.  The local scorpions can give a painful string(like a bee) but really are in the house by accident.  They are useful, will kill black widows and centipedes, both of which are poisonous, and on my 'hit list'.


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## Tish (Oct 8, 2022)

I have a new blue tongue near the bins with all the rain we have had I dug a small ditch under the small grated door so she could go under the house for shelter, it seems to work, she spotted me there this morning, hissed at me and went back under the house again.

I will go out later and collect a few snails for her.


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## Warrigal (Oct 9, 2022)

Further update on the ailing spider.

She has reappeared in the kitchen. She is looking much healthier, possibly because last night's hunt was successful. I've named her Charlene.





How did I learn that she is Charlene and not Charlie? I took another photo from below and zoomed in a bit to see her mouth parts.  You can see that she has quite large fangs. Just as well that she isn't aggressive, eh?

On either side of the fangs, before you come to the front pair of legs, there is a pair of what look like short legs but they are more like feelers. The one on the right in the picture is intact but the one on the left is damaged. They are called pedipalps. Male spiders' pedipalps have a paddlelike tip, females don't. Charlene's intact pedipalp indicates female.


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## SmoothSeas (Oct 9, 2022)

Warrigal said:


> Never mind. You meant well.
> 
> I am currently being kind to a rather ailing huntsman spider that has been living in my house.
> She, I think it is a female but I haven't had a close look yet, has been living in the house for a few weeks and is only seen intermittently.
> ...



Fellow empath, this made me smile.  I woulda tried to have helped, too.


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## Tish (Oct 9, 2022)

@Warrigal thank you for explaining the difference in Huntsmans.
When Parker resurfaces I will check to see if he is a he or a she.


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