Creepy Crawlies

My job is to work with things that are normally considered "creepy crawlies" so generally I am not phased by many things. For instance, these little guys...

Juvenile Blue racer snake, non-venomous

Are the subject of my Masters in Biology research. Honestly, you have to admit they are kinda cute. On top of that, I've held or cared for dozens of other types of snakes, lizards, frogs- the general gamut of reptiles and amphibians (including some venomous!). While I find myself comfortable around most venomous vertebrates, it's really the venomous invertebrates that I find my heart rate hastening around.

There is a particular class of creatures that do give me the classic "willies" or "h/eebie-jeebies" as I like to say. Those are the arachnids. This is nothing new, tons of people have negative feelings toward spiders (or other arachnids--see: ticks, mites, scorpions, etc.), and generally while I don't welcome their presence inside of the house I see their importance. And because it was a particular spider that spurred this post, I am going to focus on spiders specifically.

Spiders just like almost all other animals, play an important role in balancing our ecosystems. If you get rid of the spiders, it throws off the invertebrates that it preys on (eats) and those that eat them (see: birds-which are reptiles, amphibians, non-bird reptiles, other invertebrates, etc.). For an example--

Say a bird eats a spider and a spider eats a fly....if the spider is taken out of the equation, and the birds wont eat the flies...then the number of flies increases and the number of birds decreasing (assuming that ONLY the spider eats the flies and nothing else does, and the bird will ONLY eat the spider and nothing else).

This is obviously a very simplified example, but it gets the point across nonetheless.

Now for this evenings happenings and what led to this post in the first place...I was getting ready to take a bath with a Lush bath bomb (Ickle baby bot--if you are interested), and I was greeted by this little guy/gal...

The mystery spider in a drinking glass later identified as the dreaded Brown Recluse

This isn't the first spider I found in my bathtub, and if last summer is any indication, it wont be the last. My general M.O. for these situations is to capture the spider so I can first identify it and then do with it whatever I deem appropriate--those that pose some danger to me I kill, those that don't are given a new home in the great outdoors--where they belong. I don't generally condone killing of spiders because of their important role in the food web (haha, get it?) but I don't like to risk another encounter with dangerous animals.

After a brief search, my suspects were confirmed that this was a brown recluse spider. Brown recluse spiders are a fairly venomous spider and can lead to extensive tissue damage and pain if a bite is left unnoticed or untreated for very long. Needless to say, his/her fate was sealed once I identified it completely. 

The easiest way to determine if it is a brown recluse spider is the presence of a violin shape on the first segment of their body (the cephalothorax, which includes their head and thorax). Additionally, they have relatively long, thin and tapered legs, and are not a hairy spider.

What kind of creepy crawly stories do you have? Are there any animals in particular that you get the "h/eebie jeebies" about? Let me know in the comments below!

Apartment Gardening

While living in an apartment has its benefits, one big downside is the lack of sunny, plant conducive places that lend well to gardening. In many cases, apartments have fire escapes or small balconies that are so great to take advantage of if you are yearning to put your green thumb to good use! For those of us who don’t have that luxury, it is necessary to find other spaces to utilize.

Not only is gardening a productive pastime, as it can lead to producing food that you may incorporate into your daily life, having plants in your living space can lead to improved air quality (especially important for apartments that may be sharing ducts-central air/heating) and improved attitudes. There is also the potential to teach little ones about responsibility surrounding a plant. Because plants are living things that need food, water, sunlight (and lots of patience!) they are a perfect introduction for kids to learn the responsibilities that may surround a future pet…say hamster, reptile, or even dog. But I digress…

My introduction to apartment gardening began about a year ago. Last year when I moved to my apartment I brought with me three, very leafy, tomato plants and one very leafy basil plant. The basil plant thrived even indoors (see in the center, there? Awesome!)

Thriving basil plant!

and eventually went to seed before I could use all of the delicious leaves, but the tomato plants had to be kept outside. My landlords are very particular about having a “presentable” exterior to their apartment complex and while I think that there would be nothing more presentable than a slew of pots and raised beds, they disagree. I was able to find an area outside that is hidden from the road but still receives about 4-5 hours of direct and indirect sunlight a day. Then my tomatoes died. They were scorched by one dry, hot weekend that I wasn’t able to water them.

This year I’m not trying my luck with tomatoes, instead I thought I would try a native plant (wild bergamon) and a few different types of peppers. One jalapeno, a lipstick (sweet non-bell), a Spanish mammoth (mild), and a sweet bell pepper. My school’s Botany Club has a fundraiser to sell the started plants, so that took out some of the guesswork and I was able to take and repot my plants. Hopefully these guys will be a little more heat-tolerant, especially since this summer is already keying up to be a warm one! While these will stay outside in my hidden corner with the bike rack, there are a couple of plants I keep inside on my small window sill.

My four pepper varieties and the native Wild Bergman in the lower left corner

Last year I found a great window planter at Ace that was only about $7.00, I had planted an Aloe variety plant and a few other plants that I had bought (as another fundraiser) in this planter but by this year only the Aloe was still alive. I scrapped the Aloe plant (sorry!) and wanted to try something new. Queue tangent… On March 26^th, 2011 my boyfriend proposed. The ring came in a box made of seed-implanted paper, and the invoice, information card, envelope, etc. were all made of the same seed-implanted paper. I really want to try to incorporate the wildflowers that will (hopefully) grow into my bouquet for the wedding next year, and I finally got around to planting the paper. My hope is that in a month’s time, the little wildflowers will start poking their sprouts out of the soil yearning for a little more sunlight.

a Japanese Yew on the left and my planter with the seed-implanted paper

This seed-implanted paper is a whole new experience for me so I will let you know how it goes! Do you do any apartment gardening? If you do, what have you been able to successfully (or unsuccessfully!) grow? I’d love to hear from you!