Halloween early? Tarantulas!

It's October, so that means I need to write about creepy things, right? Some of you might think I always write about creepy things, but spiders, especially large, hairy spiders really creep most people out. Oh yeah, and cockroaches. Most people scream like a little girl when they see a cockroach, but I've already covered them. So for all you arachnophobes out there.....

Tarantulas are probably the heaviest spiders that we have in Texas. Their bodies can be up to 1 1/2 inches long and they get even larger when you add in their legspan. Tarantulas create burrows either by digging one or using natural cavities under rocks, logs, etc. Sometimes they'll line the burrow with silk and add a few lines in front of the burrow to help detect prey that might wander past. Tarantulas eat things such as crickets, grasshoppers, beetles and caterpillars, so they are beneficial and help reduce pests that may be wandering around in your yard.


While the size and hairiness of tarantulas freaks most people out, they really are fairly harmless. Of course, they have fangs and are capable of biting, but typically their venom doesn't react with our body chemistry in a negative way. Tarantulas will let you know if you are upsetting them to allow you ample time to move away- they'll rear up on their hind legs and put their front legs into the air. If you see one do this, then leave it alone. Tarantulas may also brush their legs along their abdomen when threatened to brush off urticating hairs that can cause irritation to the eyes or skin.


The above photo is of Debbie, the Bird Eating Tarantula that I have in my office (I feed her mice, not birds). The quarter is in the photo so you can have a size reference.

Those Aren't Tiny Moths, You Have Drain Flies

I've had several people asking about drain flies lately, so I thought, "Wizzie, maybe drain flies would make a good topic for your blog." What a great idea!! So here I am....

Drain flies are also known as moth flies because they look like cute fuzzy, little moths. You can tell that they're not really moths because they only have two wings which categorizes them as a fly. Drain flies are small, but can be seen by the naked eye. They're a grayish-black color.

Photo by Sam Myers (thanks Sam!).

Larvae of drain flies are commonly found in- you guessed it- drains! Other places inside can be toilets, condensate lines for ice makers or loose areas of tile where water can collect. They can also be found outside around faulty septic areas, A/C condensate lines or rainwater collecting areas. Basically, any location where there is moisture and organic matter can be a living area for the larvae.

Often people will see drain flies flying around in the kitchen or bathroom, but not know where they came from. To figure out if you have drain flies coming out of your drains, place tape over one side of the suspected drain before you go to bed at night; in the morning, check the tape for flies.

You can capture adult flies all day long, but until you find the source and get rid of it, you will most likely continue to have a problem. Once you locate where the drain flies are coming from, physically clean the area using a stiff brush and then flush it with boiling water. This will get rid of the larvae and eventually, no more adults.

Update on the boy:

Hubby and I have discovered that the boy speaks Parseltongue. We have been suspecting it for awhile by the sounds emerging from between his teeth and lips, but it was confirmed this week- we found to squished baby rattlesnakes on the road by our house. Apparently they were coming to visit the boy. I guess when he's 11 we'll be receiving his letter from Hogwarts.

The boy still isn't walking, but is getting more confident standing on his own and moving between pieces of furniture. The big thing that has happened is the FIRST WORD- I'm so proud of him! Yes, I know, several posts ago I said his first word was "mama", but let's be honest, he was discovering a new sound. While I'm still thrilled when I hear "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma" I'm now talking about actual communication. The boy now will make the sign for "milk" when he wants milk or as he's getting milk. It's really quite adorable, but I still have to catch it on video. Yes, we've been teaching sign language for common things that he might want/ need to say- milk, eat, bath, sleep/ bed, book, ball, dog, cat, mom, dad, dirty diaper and, of course, poop.

Migrating Dragonflies

Have you been noticing dragonflies lately?

This information is provide courtesy of Forrest Mitchell, Professor of Entomology with Texas AgriLife Extension. Forrest has a site & a book on dragonflies.

"Although there are a lot of different species of dragonflies and damselflies in Texas (currently 231 according to Odonata Central, see below) not many of them will pick up and migrate as you have already noticed by the stable numbers in your backyard. In the appendix of A Dazzle of Dragonflies are 26 (I think) species listed that may be migratory, but there are two species mainly responsible for these current mass movements that I am seeing: the wandering glider (Pantala flavescens) and the spot-winged glider (Pantala hymenaea). My best scans can be found here:
http://www.dragonflies.org/l_cat2.htm
about halfway down the page.
You can see more pictures and scans of them here:
http://stephenville.tamu.edu/~fmitchel/dragonfly/Libellulidae/panta.htm
You can find write-ups on both species here, as well as the 'Species of Texas' checklist:
http://www.odonatacentral.org/index.php/ChecklistAction.showChecklist/location_id/64
Odonata Central and John Abbott are where I go with my questions.

The rainpool gliders are adapted to breeding in temporary water, hence their name. If they have enough to eat, the wandering glider can go from egg to adult in less than 30 days during the summer, so the water only needs to last that long. A dozen or so spot-winged gliders developed in a shallow fountain one summer on my deck. I don't know how long it took since I didn't notice them until they were over half-grown. They ate insects that fell into the bowl, midge larvae and any other dragonflies that were deposited after they were. Rainpool gliders will lay eggs in nearly anything that can hold water including buckets, saucers, flower pots, water troughs (a favorite), puddles, ditches and swimming pools. They will attempt to lay eggs on shiny car hoods, wet asphalt and wet concrete. I have noticed that the wandering gliders will lay eggs in water that is in open sunlight, while the spot-winged glider will lay in the shaded pools and water.

A lot of the South is in a drought, but these dragonflies are able to stay aloft for long periods of time and do not need to originate from a close-by source. In fact, the wandering glider is found throughout the world except where it is too cold year-round. Work in the last decade on the eastern seaboard of the US shows that moving dragonflies are swept together and collected by weather fronts. These concentrations may then be deposited elsewhere and a long way off. We have had several cool fronts along with heavy localized rain to make rainpools and either or both may be what accounts for the presence of so many dragonflies in our region. I am noticing them mostly over stretches of roads and parking lots or wide open fields where the hunting is good. They may be in other places as well, but harder to see.

Just as fronts can bring dragonflies, fronts can also take them away. Enjoy watching them while you have a chance. In case they disappear, I've enclosed a scan of another migratory species, the common green darner to look at. They tend to move in September-October in our part of the world and are often seen by people doing monarch counts during the butterfly migration. I had another letter asking me about this species, so I pulled it out and made it a workable size. Feel free to post it on the DMN website for your readers and/or print it in your column. Credit James Lasswell, my coauthor on the book, with its construction. If printed on glossy paper with a good inkjet or laser printer, it is suitable for framing. Or so I think, but then I am biased."