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Critter sightings!


June Bug

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19 minutes ago, AntonioGG said:

Is that the Muir trail?  No pictures of the giant mosquitoes?

I think I mentioned a while back I rode that trail with my brother, and I inhaled a giant mosquito down my trachea.  Worst feeling ever.

I took that picture on Jim's Trails, the private land that Trek Bicycle has some trails on in Waterloo.   And, no, I tried not to stand around long enough without bug spray on to get any pictures of the swarms of mosquitoes in WI!  Related to that, I just remembered that my assistant and I would strap a gap powered fogger on the back of our ATV and ride the forest roads where the trails were as well as the prairies to treat for mosquitoes.  It was very effective but obviously not environmentally friendly!

Edited by WhoAmI
Added "in Waterloo." Punctuation.
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This guy held our yard hostage (couldn't let the kids out to play)for about 4 hours this morning. We're in Frazier Colorado. Planning to hit up Trestle bike park tomorrow morning. Not 0A710D42-9BA1-4896-9F76-A882840AA595.jpeg.b55bc482cd83b8977065556c160c54e9.jpegsure how to flip the picture.

0A710D42-9BA1-4896-9F76-A882840AA595.jpeg

Edited by 4fun
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15 hours ago, AntonioGG said:

I think the tell-tale for Yellow Garden is the rope-like stabilimentum section of the web.

The Yellow Garden spider is also known as the Banana spider. This means that we can call the rope-like stabilimentum section of the web a "banana hammock". 

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no photos, but I found a tick on my shin after a SATN ride yesterday. This can happen any time, but some of the trails are so heavily over-grown that you cross paths with more critters than ever right now. I applied insect repellent to my legs before the ride, so somehow this sucker still got to me.

contrary to folk wisdom, oil and heat are not good ways to remove a tick. get some tweezers, grab it by the head, or as close as you can to the skin, and yank that bastard off!

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22 minutes ago, WhoAmI said:

I think it's a golden orb weaver, very common in central TX.

Golden Orb and Banana Spider (genus nephila) are used interchangeably and they don't have the zig zag stabilimentum (now aka the banana hammock) that the yellow garden spider (genus argiope) does.

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1 hour ago, mack_turtle said:

no photos, but I found a tick on my shin after a SATN ride yesterday. This can happen any time, but some of the trails are so heavily over-grown that you cross paths with more critters than ever right now. I applied insect repellent to my legs before the ride, so somehow this sucker still got to me.

contrary to folk wisdom, oil and heat are not good ways to remove a tick. get some tweezers, grab it by the head, or as close as you can to the skin, and yank that bastard off!

What kind of bug spray?  Deet based or picaridin?

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1 hour ago, mack_turtle said:

no photos, but I found a tick on my shin after a SATN ride yesterday. This can happen any time, but some of the trails are so heavily over-grown that you cross paths with more critters than ever right now. I applied insect repellent to my legs before the ride, so somehow this sucker still got to me.

contrary to folk wisdom, oil and heat are not good ways to remove a tick. get some tweezers, grab it by the head, or as close as you can to the skin, and yank that bastard off!

It's been ages since I've done it, but as a kid my family always used nail polish remover.  It would cause the ticks to back out on their own and then they could be easily removed.

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44 minutes ago, pjs32000 said:

It's been ages since I've done it, but as a kid my family always used nail polish remover.  It would cause the ticks to back out on their own and then they could be easily removed.

I looked that up, and that's among the methods that the CDC says specifically NOT to do. I learned to use heat or baby oil or petroleum jelly and the CDC specifically warns not to do those either. it's amazing how much silly folk wisdom sticks around until you look it up.

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29 minutes ago, mack_turtle said:

I looked that up, and that's among the methods that the CDC says specifically NOT to do. I learned to use heat or baby oil or petroleum jelly and the CDC specifically warns not to do those either. it's amazing how much silly folk wisdom sticks around until you look it up.

You piqued my curiosity so I had to look it up.  It seems they say not to do this because you don't want any time to elapse while you wait for the tick to detach.  In my experience, albeit from 30+ year ago, ticks would detach in seconds after nail polish remover was applied.  I could understand not waiting to find some polish remover if you don't have any of it readily available, but unless there's some other risk I'm not sure why the CDC would advise against it.

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32 minutes ago, pjs32000 said:

I'm not sure why the CDC would advise against it.

because people are dumb, so you have to offer the simplest, fastest solution that does not require a ton of nuance. grab it with tweezeers and yank that sucker by the head and pull it off you" leaves little room for mistakes.

I just remembered that I carry some mini-pliers with my on my bike now, and either the plier jaws or the little detachable tweezers in them might have worked in this case if I noticed the tick while riding. I was already home when I found it though. just a thought: carry something like that on your ride, unless you think it makes more sense to carry a bottle of nail polish remover. (I kid!)

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