Phobias...

[DSJ™]

Just don't do the "fart on the lighter" trick, 'cause that can have some rather painful implications if you're not careful...

Sounds like a man with experience!     

[JediMAC]

Well, not quite, fortunately.  But I was priveleged enough to see it happen to a buddy at Jr. High summer camp.

You see, when you fart, the air is initially exhaled from your butt, but at the end of the gas passing, a slight bit of air is "inhaled" back into the bootie (kinda like backwashing when you're drinking), so if you're holding the lighter too close, well...  uh...  It can hurt, and cause some slight damage to the uh...  Butt.   

But the initial fart is really still worth it, at least to your buddies who can actually see the action back there, as you can really get a nice flame going with enough oomph.   

[Famine]

God. This thread just dropped in I.Q. points.

kEvIn

[DSJ™]

And on that note!   

[Nicklab]

I know a guy at work who is afraid of fruits, vegetables and condiments.  So afraid in fact, that he threatened to hit a woman if she came near him with ketchup or mustard.   

[Famine]

I know a guy at work who is afraid of fruits, vegetables and condiments.  So afraid in fact, that he threatened to hit a woman if she came near him with ketchup or mustard.   

One of the guys on Jackass is mortified of mustard. They covered him with it and he lost it. I mean he really lost it.

Kevin

[Morgbug]

We have been getting a lot of spiders lately. I don't have a fear of spiders but these I have never seen before & they give me the willies! 

Looked around the net & I could only find 2 that are close to what we have.   

Araneus angulatus, more like this one.

 

Araneus diadematus:

 

There webs are strong & spraying them with the garden hose won't take them down.

Maybe Mr. Bug can elighten me as to what we may have. 

Take a search under Shamrock Spider and let me know what you think.  Been wet up there lately?  Usually helps boost the population, though they'll disappear soon enough.  Also see them more in the late summer as the females lay their eggs and tend to them at that time. 

Kevin, I did have an answer to your spider question of long ago, but the guy who knows spiders much better than I mistakenly thought it was a local specimen, so I'm 99% confident he's wrong on the species given our geographic separation.  He also finished grad school and no idea where he went. 

Scott, nice caterpillar.  Beware the urticating hairs. 

[DSJ™]

Take a search under Shamrock Spider and let me know what you think.  Been wet up there lately?  Usually helps boost the population, though they'll disappear soon enough.  Also see them more in the late summer as the females lay their eggs and tend to them at that time. 

Shamrock Spider, nope. Yeah it's been wet but we had this spider before, a few yrs. back when spring came in Feb. Found them at my friends place that yr. too.

Looked around under Shamrock Spider & I came across this beauty, a Cat-Face Spider (Araneus gemma), pretty darn close, a biege/grey color if I remember. If I see another one, I'll see if I can take a pic of it. They seem to have moved on. 

[DSJ™]

OK Brent, I found one & took some pictures of it on the fence & in a jar.







Bottom of Spider.





This should give a somewhat clearer view of this thing.   

[Morgbug]

No references here at home, but yeah, closely related to said Shamrock spider.  More prevalent at end of year and in wetter years.  Just a little more obvious as they are guarding egg masses. 

All spiders bite and all are venomous.  One of the grand advantages of living where it's so freaking cold for so long is a distinct lack of overly venomous beasties.  Your lady friend there could give you a nifty nip, maybe even draw blood, but nothing worse than a bee sting.  A beer would fix you up quick like a bunny. 

I remember during my graduate work I walked face on into a web of one of those in the forest.  Wheee.

[DSJ™]

Well it looks like my spider mystery has solved. I just picked up todays paper & on the city page, there is a picture of a spider with a lady bug wrapped for a meal later. They called it a Jewel spider also called a Cat spider.

I did a search on it & looks like thats what I have.

Jewel Spider (Araneus gemmoides)

It does mention the Shamrock spider but it states it lacks the bumps or horns on the abdomen. Guess that whats thrown me off as this is the distinct marking the spider has.

[Mister Skeezler]

How probable is it for a spider to bite a human though? Sometimes it seems as though we're too big for bugs to really notice us. I mean, I know it happens, but don't they usually use their venom in immobilizing their prey? Do they bite with the same intention when their biting a human? Also, when people wake up with a spider bite, is the spider actually trying to extract blood?

[Famine]

Hey Bug, remeber that spider I sent you? Your colleuge may have been correct after all. See, my friend obtained that spider from a box he got when some one shipped him some stuff from ebay.

Kevin

[Ben]

Man, chills went down my spine when I saw those spider pictures. I hate those things.

Or it could be because it's thirty ******* degrees here.

[DSJ™]

You should have seen me when I tried to get that sucker in the jar, I had no idea what it was going to do.