Why, Yes – Everything is Bigger
Posted by Sgt. Mom on August 4th, 2013 (All posts by Sgt. Mom)
In Texas. Proof below the fold.
The orb spider which has build a web in the buddleia bush in my front yard. It’s almost the size of a small humming bird. Any questions?
(Cross-posted at www.ncobrief.com)
August 4th, 2013 at 12:59 pm
That is a beauty.
August 4th, 2013 at 1:00 pm
We’re thinking of naming her Charlotte.
August 4th, 2013 at 2:00 pm
I had an Ozzie friend who, in introducing himself before a seminar in (say) Houston, put up a map of Australia on the screen, with Queensland highlighted. Then he said “To give you an idea of size, if Queensland were a postcard, Texas would be the stamp.”
And as for their spiders ….
August 4th, 2013 at 2:17 pm
The proof that Texas is big is that everybody has to show that it isn’t.
August 4th, 2013 at 3:20 pm
Invertebrate critters definitely do better in TX. Bigger and better- I don’t know about bigger, but yesterday a wasp? bit me on the palm of my hand. Removed the stinger and iced it down. A neighbor told me that wasps had bit her two grandchildren respectively on the cheek and on the lip.
Or were they killer bees, which also abound in TX.
Due to the fire ants, TX is one place where one prefers walking barefoot in the winter instead of in the summer.
Not to mention cockroaches. When I call my cousin living a half hour from the Canadian border, I announce myself by telling her she is talking with her relative in Cockroach Country.
August 4th, 2013 at 4:14 pm
We actually had one that looked just like that a few years ago, here in south-central PA. She had strung her web, with its zig-zaggy pattern down the middle, between two of our arborvitae and hung there upside down all the day long. Come autumn she died, but she left what seemed like hundreds of little baby Charlottes to carry on. None of them ever reached her size, though, her body being about 1.5″ to 2″ long with the legs making her proportions seem enormous. I loved watching her!
August 4th, 2013 at 6:30 pm
@Dearieme – I have been posting my travels to Australia on a blog – and am “in” Queensland now – telling readers that Queensland is 2.5 times the size of Texas.
And that isn’t even their biggest state – Western Australia takes up half the country it seems – 5x-6x Texas? or more?
August 4th, 2013 at 6:32 pm
hweck Sgt Mom – where I grew up in Studio City – close to your original abode – we had tarantulas who’d consider the orb a delicacy ;-)
August 5th, 2013 at 7:09 am
They are impressive. Esp. the webs. We usually have one in our carport area, but didn’t get one this year. Last year she must’ve had a bird almost get her late in the season — I went out and looked at her and she was missing two legs on one side and another leg on the other. She kept spinning webs but they got more and more ragged after that. She lasted about 4-6 more weeks before she disappeared.
August 6th, 2013 at 3:51 pm
In Queensland, the spiders eat birds.
http://tinyurl.com/5ulvh5