Country File

[Techno II]

Could have been a corn snake.

If the UK's climate was a fair bit better, I'd like to get some of those and release them. ...Though a)..Von wouldn't let me...and b) it would probably be illegal to do that deliberately.
Saw a big grass snake on the track over the road...a couple of years ago...and then there was the young adder in the barn, that I had to catch and then release three ? + years ago.
(I must find the pic of the wee chap on the forum, and check the date.)

@Mark....Yes, the rule about the traps seems a bit confusing.
It SOUNDS, as though I could use a 'live trap' to catch it, and then shoot it.....But couldn't use a big 'snap trap' to kill it.
I don't think the live traps we've got are quite big enough to hold one, anyway......and as the polecat(s)  haven't manage to get any more of the chickens, I won't bother.....I'd really rather not feel the need to kill one.

Cheers - Phil.

[Heedless Horseman]

Better you than me with Adders! Have seen one... but the horse saw it first!
Grandma once thought there was 'a stick' on the road, picked it up to throw... and didn't like snakes, thereafter!  

LOL! A Real, Big, Tough Farmer type... hard as nails... got pushed into letting a snake crawl over him on a 'Pub Blackpool Trip'!  He was 'bricking' but , full marks...VERY 'Sweaty'... but deserved the Beer! I 'could' have, but, the handler identified a 'more amusing Target'! TBTG!  lol.

[Techno II]

The poor little sod, that I encouraged into a big bucket, was FAR more scared of me, than I was of it.

I was far more scared when Von said......"DON'T let it bite you !"

Cheers - Phil.

[Heedless Horseman]

just a Curious thought. WHY are so many people terrified by Spiders?
UK... no dangerous species... apart from VERY occasional 'exotics'. (Though there seem to be 'colonies' becoming more viable with warmer temps!).
I would NOT like to live in Australia or other places where 'The Nasties' live!  
I am not 'keen' on them... but catch and release outside rather than 'splat', or 'flush'.
I HATE gossamers catching my face / hair and don't like cobwebs in general... but, sadly, there are webs all over the place now... they seem to be thriving... so what are they eating...apart from other spiders?
One 'rather big, little B****r'  was scuttling around on my desk, the other night. Failed to catch...might live in my PC!  

Wonder if is some genetically inherited ' fear'... 'Monkey eating Spiders'?
Just possibly, women might have a 'hard wired' aversion as a 'threat' to babies?
Is it being 'enhanced'  by Movies... 'Alien',' LOTR'?

MY 'reflex' is to kill... but, for some reason. 'conditioning'... and I don't know where THAT may have come from... ('Incy, Wincy Spider'?)... overrides... to catch and release... somewhere else!
Maybe, I just HATE Flies MORE! LOL !
It's the WHY... ??
Curious?

[Techno II]

just a Curious thought. WHY are so many people terrified by Spiders?

No idea, Keith.....At the evil empire there was one individual who was absolutely terrified of them.

He simply would NOT come into the photography studio, when he knew there was a tarantula 'skin' that someone had used in a vignette, for a Golden Demon entry. He also threw a copy of White Dwarf just past my head, because there was a photo of a the said GD entry, which he wasn't expecting to see....He genuinely freaked out.

Cheers - Phil.

(Von's got a phobia about moths, for some reason.)

[FierceKitty]

I knew an ageing German woman once who had gone to some pretty serious regressive psychotherapy to work out why she became helplessly afraid if a moth or similar insect buzzed near her ear. It eventually emerged that it was about traumatic memories of running to the bomb shelter as a pre-school child in the 1940s, with the sky full of menacing buzzing things trying to kill her.

[Heedless Horseman]

Phil... know a 'sizeable' Builder bloke... terrified of spiders... and did demolition work!

FK... possible, but always sceptical of psychotherapy... too much like 'Palm Readers'... finding a 'reaction', then 'building' on it. to 'convince'... so that the 'therapy' does work, because 'something' has been released. So Sorry for the Lady's trauma though. Have just watched a TV doc about the sinking of the 'Wilhelm Gustloff'. Probably impossible to conceive what such things can do. Seeing a man's recollection of his Mother falling back down the steps...
Know my Grandfather REALLY hated 'bangs' after WW1... but still could 'deal' with an incendiary in WW2. People are strange, sometimes.

[Steve J]

No dear of spiders whatsoever, in fact I find them fascinating. SWMBO on the other hands hates/is terrified of them! Rats I simply loathe and still get an involuntary shiver when I see one, even on the tv!

[DecemDave]

Well the welsh big cat is obviously frit of something as it has relocated to us in Sussex:

The Argus: Police reveal big cat reports including a lion in Sussex.
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/19449309.police-reveal-big-cat-reports-including-lion-sussex 

Or maybe its just the heat? 

[Orcs]

I am not afraid of spiders, and will normally relocate them outside.

When I knocked the shed down I dis have a rather large spider (2-3 inches across) fall down my neck that was not very pleasant, and when it fell out I instinctively stamped on it, although I would not normally do such a thing.

[mmcv]

I am not afraid of spiders, and will normally relocate them outside.

When I knocked the shed down I dis have a rather large spider (2-3 inches across) fall down my neck that was not very pleasant, and when it fell out I instinctively stamped on it, although I would not normally do such a thing.

There is a bit of an instinctive reaction to stuff like that. I'm not particularly scared of spiders and the like, but equally, if you wake up with a big one sitting on your chest looking at you, or have one running up your leg or down the neck the gut instinct is to knock it away or swat it.

[Westmarcher]

I'm not afraid of British spiders either (although I do recall encountering a particularly large specimen in a warehouse that was surprisingly aggressive) but I was very wary (aka slightly paranoid?) about the ones in Australia when I was there in 2005 - big and deadly* buggers.  

* and not necessarily big.

[mmcv]

I'm not afraid of British spiders either (although I do recall encountering a particularly large specimen in a warehouse that was surprisingly aggressive) but I was very wary (aka slightly paranoid?) about the ones in Australia when I was there in 2005 - big and deadly* buggers.  

* and not necessarily big.

True, Australian spiders are a whole other kettle of arachnids. If they can cause you serious injury, pain or death then it's completely rational to be concerned about them!

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Working in a secure unit one of my colluges was bitten by a spider and left in effect, alewrgic reaction. That was in Newton le Willows....

[Ithoriel]

I was recently told by an arachnologist (someone who studies spiders) that "releasing" a house spider into the wild is pretty much a death sentence unless they make it back indoors sharpish. So there may not be as much difference between catch and release and squish as we like to imagine.

At the height of the Harry Potter boom I sent him a picture of a rather large spider living in our bathroom and was reassured to be told it was harmless. The boys were a little freaked until, as a throw-away comment, I said,"Aragog lives in our bathroom."  Suddenly he was quite cool.

[mmcv]

We tend to leave house spiders be in the hope they'll sort out the flies that keep buzzing in. Though our dog does occasionally take a notion to eat them.

[Heedless Horseman]

It is the 'Instinctive' WHY that is curious. We ALL react...well. there ARE those who LOVE 'Creepy Hairy Things'... There we go... instinctive "Whuh" as i 'imagine' a Tarantula!

Once heard...  (One of those 'Servicemen' 'Tales', maybe?)... of a RAF troop who fell asleep on a beach in Cyprus?/Sardinia? And a Camel Spider had eaten his lip!  

As for 'other Bugs'... a friend was eating out on a Spanish Island. Waiter spotted a Scorpion and 'matter of factlly' brushed it into a glass for disposal.

Myself... was outside  Greek cafe, when some BIG BUZZY 'thing' , (Some sort of Moth / Beetle?), started to strafe the tables. People 'Squaking, Ducking and Diving'... but Greek Waiter just said: "Iss awright... He Leefs Here!" lol!  

[mmcv]

Apparently, a lot of the stories of Camel Spiders eating soldiers while they sleep was a bit of a myth, their bite is pretty painful, so if one nipped you you'd pretty quickly wake up.

It's probably a lot to do with exposure. If you're dealing with something all the time you become used to it, whereas an unknown entity could be threatening. Because there are some creepy crawly things that can cause you serious harm, the instinctive reaction will always be to protect yourself from that potential harm when facing a surprise or unknown one. You risk little by reacting fearfully compared to ignoring it then getting bitten. Whereas if it's something you're used to dealing with that fear reaction diminishes. I was terrified of dogs as a kid, absolutely petrified, but now that I have a dog they don't generally scare me. But if I did encounter a dog who is acting aggressively that fear response kicks in again, because I understand the animals a bit better and I can tell when I need to be fearful and when I don't. Same with creepy crawlies I suspect. The more you know them the less you fear, or at least know when you need to fear, but while it's an unknown the fear response is a key to protecting yourself.

[Heedless Horseman]

Still a pleasure to see 'very young' Blue / Great Tits flocking around feeders... but surely, must be another brood to the last? Glad I replenished, anyway. 
Cat has now brought back THREE  dead 'baby' Rabbits in two weeks... so Rabbits still doing what they do!  So does Cat! 
Plenty of Hedgehog and 'young' Fox activity. 
Was thinking that I haven't heard OWLS very much, this year? Recent years, would often hear calls...or sometimes see. Bird populations do seem to fluctuate greatly.Only a couple of Robins about garden.... last year, there seemed to be a couple of 'families'.
A plus is that haven't 'seen' a Rat for a while... but don't think THAT will last! 

[sultanbev]

Been on a mini-tour of Yorkshire this week, , seeing gannets, puffins, razerbills and guillimots for the first time at Bempton Cliffs. We missed the wandering albatross though by half an hour! Saw seals at Flamborough Head lighthouse, poking their noses out of the water looking like floating bottles; wood pigeons everywhere, many it seems with an obligotary branch in their beak; a very large red deer near South Landing; heard the falcons at York Minster, and two visits to Harlow Carr RHS gardens, which looks great.

(The book shop on Fossgate in York is always worth a visit for military books too!)

Today we found one of these in my allotment, which is quite unusual:
https://wildflowerfinder.org.uk/Flowers/H/Helleborine(BroadLeaved)/Helleborine(BroadLeaved).htm