Tarantula VS. Wasp and the latter wins!

[Roma_Victrix]

Tarantula hawk wasps are species of spider wasps that seize tarantulas as food for their little ones (larvae!)
They prefer female tarantulas, because male tarantulas are typically emaciated from ignoring food while they search for females. They seek females in their burrows, capturing, stinging and paralyzing the spider, dragging the prey back to their own burrow, or to a specially prepared nest with a covered entrance, where a single egg is laid upon the spider's body. When the larvae hatch it begins sucking the juices from the paralyzed, but still living spider. As it grows, the larvae plunges deeper into the spiders body, feeding voraciously while avoiding vital organs to keep the host fresh. Eventually, an adult Tarantula Hawk wasp emerges from the nest and the life cycle begins once again.
Tarantula wasps rarely sting people as they are very docile however, if provoked they may sting. Their sting is among the most painful in the insect world

You're damn right it is.

Well, that's about the creepiest thing I've ever seen, since both of these little ers are ranked among the creepiest little creatures in my book.

I have to admit though, it was pretty cool. It was rather surprising, too; one would think such a fight would go the other way around...

...until you see the size of that ing wasp!

[Kyriakos]

Yes, there is a type of wasp of the desert (iirc) which actually has large spiders as its main food source. They are very quick and lethal. Some of the spiders have evolved a way of curling their bodies into a torus-like shape and just falling down the sand dunes, where the wasp cannot follow (i suppose due to a less than great sight and sense of orientation).

[Markas]

I never thought I'd feel sorry for an Arachnid but... that's a nasty way to go.

[Ybbon]

It's not an uncommon strategy in nature to have use another animal/insect etc as a host. It is called parasitoid behaviour and there are examples of plants, insects, crustaceans, birds (cuckoo for example) that use this to either live off the host benignly or destructively.

[Sir Adrian]

Lesson of the day: air superiority > raw strength.

[athanaric]

It's just one out of many wasp species who practice this kind of feeding their offspring. Other targets include grasshoppers, beetles, bees, flies, caterpillars and so on. Apparently, there is one species in Europe whose females capture flies and transport them - impaled on their stinger. Also, there are hyper-parasitical wasps who parasitize those parasitical wasps.

[Roma_Victrix]

Also, there are hyper-parasitical wasps who parasitize those parasitical wasps.

That must make them...KING OF THE WASPS! You know...among White Anglo Saxon Protestants.

[RubiconDecision]

[Kyriakos]

^ Lesson being that you should never eat stuff you haven't before and don't know anything about

[RubiconDecision]

Can you imagine if wasps or hornets were human sized? Wow, they'd be incredible predators. A wasp injects a poison that paralyzes and you get turned into a jelly that gets eaten by their young. Someone should make an alien film like that. I've always both cringed and been awed by hornet especially the Japanese ones that can annihilate a bee hive.

Snakes are very easy to handle. They are terribly slow when it's cold outside and all one has to do is pin their neck with a forked stick.

Tarantulas are common pets in the USA in the Southwestern states. I knew a priest who on St. Francis' Day had a Blessing of the Animals, and lots of kids brought their tarantulas. So he to handle all of them.

Here's a rabbi blessing tarantulas in a similar fashion.

In Japan, it's not uncommon for a Japanese kid to have a rhinoceros beetle as a pet.

[Vanoi]

Can you imagine if wasps or hornets were human sized? Wow, they'd be incredible predators. A wasp injects a poison that paralyzes and you get turned into a jelly that gets eaten by their young. Someone should make an alien film like that. I've always both cringed and been awed by hornet especially the Japanese ones that can annihilate a bee hive.

Japanese hornets are the only thing i know that can survive me spraying a can of Raid into their hive. Fire works better.

[Kyriakos]

^I suppose the pet-tarantulas are altered a bit (as in some dangerous bits taken out?). Otherwise it would be a far worse idea than it now is

edit: As for that beetle (the english name sounds dumb btw, cause it does not have a nose, and it has two horns, while rhinocerus means nose-horned) it seems to be having quite some difficulty even moving. I wonder what happened to it. It looks more like something about to die

[RubiconDecision]

That's just how large beetles move. Many live in decaying wood. That one is likely fat from overeating.

No tarantulas actually have difficulty biting a human hand, and when raised from a small spider get used to being handled. I think it's based upon where their mouth is located.
http://exotic-pets.yoexpert.com/pick...rous-1910.html
"It is true that all tarantulas, in fact all spiders, are venomous. But only a very few species of tarantula posses venom that poses any kind of threat to humans, and there is no verified case of human death by tarantula bite. The majority of tarantulas found in the pet trade are wild-caught, so there is no difference between wild and "domestic" tarantulas. That said, pet tarantula bites are quite rare, as are bites from wild tarantulas. Tarantulas in general are reluctant biters; given the choice between biting or retreating, the vast majority will choose retreat every time."

I wasn't really big on such pets when my kids were young. We did have a snake but the kids didn't like feeding it baby mice. I had a preying mantis as a pet when very young. It's actually not very compassionate to the creature. On the other hand, sometimes I think that chipmunks would make very cute pets. They can become very tame and adorable, but perhaps feeding them would mess up their foraging patterns.

I could probably catch a copperhead snake once a week when it's warm.

Are there any unusual creatures that live in Greece? Poisonous or otherwise?

[Kyriakos]

^Mostly inside the parliament

Of the actual less-ugly looking animals, i think that only some mountain snakes here are dangerous (such as the asper)



Other than that, maybe a rarer type of snake, only in more remote areas of mountains. In the sea there is only the common jellyfish, which afaik is not lethal unless one is specifically allergic to it.

[Magister Militum Flavius Aetius]

My dad has caught copperheads before. We don't kill snakes, we usually just get them to safety. Came across a Timber Rattlesnake once, it had been hit by a car and wasn't going to make it, so my dad caught it and threw it into the brush where it could die and wouldn't hurt anyone.

I want a Pet Giant Centipede. The oldest land animal on the planet is the Millipede/Centipede (Pseudodesmus Newmani being the first land Animal at like 480 MYA).

Scolopendra Gigantea



They get up to 15 inches in the caves of Peru and have been known to catch bats/birds in mid air by hanging off ceilings/limbs or jumping.

[Kyriakos]

Milipedes have the interesting quality that their very many legs move in a sort of wave-pattern (eg natural wave etc).

I personally like snails, due to their spiral-formed armor. A few days ago i happened to watch a relavitely large snail, while it was eating a bit of a leaf, making a very minor and short-lived sound when it had to cut though it so as to feed. It was peaceful. I hoped that it would not venture further away from that grassy area, cause it might be stepped upon :/

[Magister Militum Flavius Aetius]

Yeah, Millipedes are fascination creatures.

Interestingly enough, no species of Centipede or Millipede have a Parasitic Fungus or Parasitic Wasp that attacks them. I wonder why that is...

[Magister Militum Flavius Aetius]

Bugspray Flamethrower Instructions:

1. Purchase a Can of Wasp Spray (preferably something that shoots distance, at least 10 feet or more) and a grill lighter (not a cigarette lighter).

2. Select your target. E.g. fire ants, wasps. Your choice.

3. Hold the lighter barrel a few inches in front of the bugspray nozzle and light it.

4. Use the bugspray.

5. ???

6. Profit.

(Warning, Results may vary. Do not use around explosive or flammable materials. Do not hold near eyes or ingest. Do use on pesky coworkers.)

[Roma_Victrix]

Bugspray Flamethrower Instructions:

1. Purchase a Can of Wasp Spray (preferably something that shoots distance, at least 10 feet or more) and a grill lighter (not a cigarette lighter).

2. Select your target. E.g. fire ants, wasps. Your choice.

3. Hold the lighter barrel a few inches in front of the bugspray nozzle and light it.

4. Use the bugspray.

5. ???

6. Profit.

Oh man, I did not see that South Park reference coming. ing underpants gnomes and their business model.

@RubiconDecision: thanks for sharing those videos!

[Roma_Victrix]

Although not a wasp, these Japanese giant hornets totally wreck these tiny honey bees! And by that, I mean 30 giant hornets kill 30,000 honey bees in three hours.



As explained in the video, they stop carrying the bees off to their nest/hive and just start massacring them, discarding their bodies outside of the honey-bee beehive. That's because they release a chemical that all the other giant hornets smell that tells their brains to just start massacring the bees instead of picking them off one by one like that. Once the vast majority of the hive is dead, then the giant hornets go after the prize, the juicy larvae. Damn...such an awesome video of bee genocide, made even cooler by the music! If only Wagner was still alive, he could do something about this scene too...