Here's a couple more pictures -

Cool spider. It looks more hairy all over than many or maybe I should say more corse hair?

That is a hairy spider.

Trying to get a belly view of this mantid hanging by my screened door:


Tried to adjust the lighting..oh well..hopefully it will move towards the glass sliding door later.


I was hoping I can compare it to the belly view of a grasshopper which I took in 2013:
looked like another face under that belly:

crittergarden said:I used to believe that and I guess I still do - but that video of one eating a hummingbird kind of freaked me out!

I saw a mantid up close and personal eating one of the hummingbirds, crittergarden. Ever since, I can't tolerate them!

Oh my goodness. The pictures circulating on the internet are bad enough. If I saw that in person I think I would have a freakout!

I remember that, Linda! Before seeing your picture, I had no idea a mantis would eat a hummingbird! Ever since, I keep an eye out for them near the hummingbird feeders and move them far away!

If you're wondering how to move a mantis...

LindaTX8 said:I saw a mantid up close and personal eating one of the hummingbirds, crittergarden. Ever since, I can't tolerate them!

OH NO!!!

wildflowers said:I remember that, Linda! Before seeing your picture, I had no idea a mantis would eat a hummingbird! Ever since, I keep an eye out for them near the hummingbird feeders and move them far away!

If you're wondering how to move a mantis...

I just love this method of dealing with them Christine. I have not forgotten it since the 1st time I read that's how you do it. I have thankfully not had occasion to use the tongs on a mantid but if the time ever comes I will certainly know how AND I have a pair of tongs all reserved with the name MANTID on them.

I've moved them before - just use my hands!

I moved one out of the back of my truck (with camper shell) several times before I realised why she kept going back in there - she had a nest to tend on some yard waste I had brought home to compost.

Poor mommy. I really made it hard on her - it was HOT in there!

wildflowers said:I remember that, Linda! Before seeing your picture, I had no idea a mantis would eat a hummingbird! Ever since, I keep an eye out for them near the hummingbird feeders and move them far away!

If you're wondering how to move a mantis...

Wildflowers,

Great idea and thanks for the tip!

I try and move them away from my containers that have hummingbird attracting flowers (which is all of them), since I don't want them to capture and kill any hummers.

I don't remember how I moved them before, but I didn't think to use tongs.

Linda,

That would have been terrifying and I'd be crying if I saw that in person. It would've ruin my day and week.

Crittergarden,

You used your hands to move them before?!

I accidentally got pinched by one while I was deadheading and it hurt!

Never been bitten.....
Don't know why.

My first sighting of a ladybug this year! Welcome back my garden friend!

Nice, can't wait for them to come to my garden

I just found this forum. I have all kinds of critters that wander the property occasionally: deer (both white tail and axis), possums, raccoons, tree squirrels and black rock squirrels, armadillos, foxes, skunks, porcupines and ring-tailed cats. I have plenty of bugs, spiders, scorpions, butterflies, birds, snakes, and lizards. I'm fine with most of them, although my dog has had bad encounters with both a skunk and porcupine.
But there is one creature I just cannot stand when they come indoors: the red-headed centipede. Those make me run to get the cleaver. Hope that doesn't offend anyone.

Yikes! that is huge. I'd run too.

Thanks for posting, GrammaChar. One thing you don't have to worry about here (I think) is offending someone. All critter pictures and thoughts about them welcome.

I'm not very familiar with the centipede vs millipede but it seems like one or the other is poisonous.

On another note, I have a cat that eats scorpions, except the tail... yep, he will eat everything else and leave the tail. I think he still gets a little poison though because I always know when he's been eating them because he has a nervous tick. Not kidding.

Have never heard of a cat that eats scorpions! Wow! Actually I'm surprised to hear that you have scorpions in N.E. Texas - thought it would be too wet for them there. I have lots of stacked rock walls around my gardens. I call them Scorpion Condos.

I didn't know there were scorpions in east Texas either, until I moved here! Of course we are coming out of a four or five year drought, that probably has something to do with it.

Scorpion condos.