Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Creepy crawlies


Urgggghhhhhhh!

Warning!!!
This post is not for the squeamish!
We went to Kiwanis bush yesterday afternoon for a walk. patrick had been wanting to take us there for ages to show us some of the bugs he found with the one day school. We did find several interesting bugs. Also live and dead Kauri snails (one is pictured being held by Eric).
Tonight we have had heavy rain after daytime mugginess and temps of 29C.
Tonight I cannot sleep and was having a post-midnight surf when a white-tailed spider came hunting over the computer table. For those not familiar with these beasts, they are one of the few dangerous animals that NZ possesses, and believe it or not are not native to this country. Their bite can become inflamed in some people and cause severe swelling. There is some debate in medical circles about just how toxic they are. There was no debate in my mind tonight, we have uncovered quite a few of these guys during our recent changes and they get hunted down and killed on sight. I took a few pictures before squashing this guy, i am a biologist after all!
If you ask really nicely, I will post up a picture of the meaty centipede that I have pickled in gin.
Oh the suspense ... Blogger is being awkward and won't let me load up the pictures, you will have to wait until tomorrow.
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