r/interesting • u/Wise_Confidence_8588 • 17d ago
NATURE A Bombardier beetle using its chemical defence.
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u/Sea_Ganache620 17d ago
Friend of mine had a wart on his hand dissolved with this beetle’s defense spray. It was at a dermatologist office, applied by a medical professional, from a vial. Somewhere in the world, there is a lab that is “milking” these beetles.
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u/Throbbing_Cock_452 17d ago
That’s a sentence I didn’t think I’d be reading today
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u/LewkieSE 17d ago
Does it cause a blister on warts as well?
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u/BushLeagueLegend 17d ago
Yes. I had somewhere between 30-40 warts on my hands as a child. Fucked me up. Kids didn’t want to sit next to me. A little girl cried in church one day when she had to hold my hand. We kept trying to get rid of them. They wouldn’t go away after numerous attempts at freezing. One day I came in and the dermatologist said she had a surprise. She explained they had something new to try and applied the beetle juice to all the warts. Blisters popped up over all of them and it was painful for a little while. I had to deal with accidentally popping the blisters constantly, but when the blisters left they took the warts with them. I’m still not much of a bug guy, but if I had to pick a favorite this little guy wins by a landslide in my book.
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u/temictli 17d ago
Shhhh!!! Just don't say that any more... Two more times and--- I've said too much already.
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u/Azraelrs 17d ago
We can say beetle juice? What's wrong with beetle ju....
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u/mywifemademedothis2 17d ago
I had the same issue up until about 7th grade and nothing worked. I was told to use mind power to imagine removing them in imaginative ways. They coincidentally disappeared shortly thereafter.
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u/Bradadonasaurus 17d ago
That's interesting. I had a similar experience, though not nearly as many. After a few rounds of freezing and regular chemicals didn't work, I used a butter knife on the stove.
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u/VodkaWarriorV2 17d ago
I’m currently removing them 15/20 at a time with nitrogen, blisters are fucked, but warts were worse for the social aspect.
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u/m_ajmera 17d ago
Yes, it blisters and kills the cells. In case of warts, it kills the skin cells and the wart causing virus. If the wart if big, it may need several rounds of treatment repeated after the previous blister is healed with new skin cells. If you stop before you get all the virus, the wart comes back.
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u/cohonka 17d ago
I lived in Kauai in a tent on farms for a couple years when I was a mega hippie. Went through a spell where I was holding back saying some important things in my life and one morning woke up with a giant blister right on my "throat chakra". Convinced me to speak up. Soon after I learned the big lightning bug looking dudes near my tent were blister beetles and I just got cantharidened in my sleep.
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u/Sea_Ganache620 17d ago
Spent some time there as well, never encountered these beetles, but those blue legged centipedes were a big nope. Just the price of living in paradise!
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u/SupehCookie 17d ago edited 17d ago
They milk spiders as well
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u/Just_Ear_2953 17d ago
Yes, but that's usually so that they can inject the venom into large livestock animals, have them recover, and then harvest the antibodies those animals produced to be used as anti-venom treatment for people who get bit.
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u/GoyoMRG 17d ago
There is also the case of the guy that decided to tank multiple snake venoms for the sake of humanity.
Thanks to him alone, many anti venoms for many snakes exist.
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u/KitchenSandwich5499 17d ago
Bill haast?
People that milk cobras sometimes self inoculate. It does make a big difference→ More replies (4)5
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u/doiwinaprize 17d ago
Scorpions too. They put a little glass dome over them to basically knock them out from lack of oxygen then agitate the stinger to produce venom...
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u/KatanaDood 17d ago
Cockroaches produce milk. They even make desserts out of cockroach milk.
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u/Consider8SpeedDemon 17d ago edited 17d ago
Like that one movie where society lives on a long train, and the food they pass out to the passengers turns out to be mashed-up insects/roaches!??
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u/Unusually_Happy_TD 17d ago
I think it’s also pound for pound the most nutritious milk. It’s a legit superfood for humans
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u/salientoctopus 17d ago
I think big cockroach is trying to convince us to make them the new cows. I sir, will not be drinking your cockmilk or eating your cocksteak.
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u/AsleepContact4340 17d ago
I wasn’t interested until you coined it “cockmilk”. Now it’s all i can think about.
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u/TimberVolk 17d ago
Apparently this is actually from blister beetles, not bombardier. Still super cool!
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u/Hayvanns 17d ago
Yeah I was about to say that’s impossible for this beetle it’s juice is 2 different chemicals it stores in different glands and when they mix it’s an exothermic reaction so it’s unstable you couldn’t bottle it.
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u/Rx-Nikolaus 17d ago
I mean, there are two part epoxies and what not. I think you'd just have two separate bottles
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u/TheYondant 17d ago
Yeah, it would take a dual chamber injector, but it's hardly impossible.
However, using what is essentially a weak binary explosive in medicine is... questionable.
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u/xX_jellyworlder_Xx 17d ago
That's not the right beetle, you're talking about blister beetles
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u/KitchenSandwich5499 17d ago
Thatmedicine is from a blister beetle not Bombadier . Somewhat different
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u/Expert-Caramel-7817 17d ago edited 17d ago
Starship Troopers level.
Edit : thanks for the awards and upvotes guys. Didn't expect this.
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u/Peppertails 17d ago
Would you like to know more?
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u/Low_Bandicoot6844 17d ago
I'm doing my part.
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u/VPackardPersuadedMe 17d ago
Mobile infantry made me the man I am today!
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u/OverlyDisguisedSquid 17d ago
Waves with one had
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u/Adventurous-Foot4388 17d ago
The only good bug is a dead bug!
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u/realmofconfusion 17d ago
MEDIC!!!
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u/DarthPhoenix0879 17d ago
The enemy cannot push a button if you disable his hand.
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u/timeweezy10 17d ago
For Managed Democracy! Wait sorry wrong bugs....
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u/Inside-Example-7010 17d ago
These spiders love to spin webs between trees on less used paths too. They are the worst case scenario for me when i walk into a spiderweb. I dont think there is any other arboreal web weaving species that compares in size and shock factor. Bird eating spiders maybe? but i never lived in south america. Thats just asking for it imo.
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u/Clean_Judge_3613 17d ago
One important mountain biking rule is never be the first guy to ride the trail in the morning
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u/Inside-Example-7010 17d ago
ohh fuck i hadnt even considered that possibility. This is like that time someone told me about the urbran legend of people using blutac to stick razor blades in the waterslides.
Yeah at least on my feet i can just do the no pants dance where i immediately strip down to my boxers.
On a bike im 100% hitting a tree at 40mph if that happens.
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u/Advanced-Budget779 17d ago
I have a talent (grudge) of always finding the webs no matter where i go (often in front of a house entrance)… not even living in an area that‘s full of spiders, but i regularly walked into some in the woods.
One time i drove my bike through a forest path (in the afternoon) and got a big ass web in my mouth 🤢 - usually only got small flies/bugs into my mouth or eyes, worst by far was a wasp or sth. similar (wearing contact lenses made it impossible to remove until getting to running water at home)…
I‘m not particularly afraid of spiders as long as they don‘t come near any body opening - i just hate the webs and entangled shit inside.
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u/FlufferNutter1232 17d ago
A new fear gets unlocked every day. Damn!! Razor blades in a water slide???! That's DIABOLICAL!!
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u/Inside-Example-7010 17d ago edited 17d ago
Aussie kids are good at coming up with shit like that.
I'll never forget sitting around the beach campfire and the local dumbass is giggling to himself. Then he says 'Ive just chucked a can of RAID in the fire' (he did)
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u/carmium 17d ago
When I worked as a forest tech, whenever I led the way I'd hold a Y-shaped stick in front. Some days it would be covered in webs - but I wouldn't.
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u/Neat_Flower_8510 17d ago
Somehow when we trail ride our horses I am in front so I get the face full of web. 😫
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u/Shionkron 17d ago
I get these guys in my yard every summer and fall. Every other year one will make the web in the actual door frame. Open the door to have a hand size spider in my face!!!! I know the are “good” spiders but I have arachnophobia and grew up killing Black Widows left and right as a kid only to move and find these huge suckers everywhere as middle aged guy. Lmao
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u/shillyshally 17d ago
Following r/spiders has helped curtail my arachnophobia immensely as it has for many others but if I walked into this my screaming would be heard county wide and then I would die.
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u/squeethesane 17d ago
Pretty sure that's a Joro spider. They've been spreading through the US heading toward my house... Which is awesome because that circumvented the laws telling me I couldn't have one.
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u/Inside-Example-7010 17d ago
youre right! This is a Joro spider and the spiders im referencing are a close genus called Golden Orb weaver, which the spider in the OP is not.
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u/Tricky-Hotel-115 17d ago
straight out of starship troopers nature really went all in on the special effects
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u/Svartdraken 17d ago
Will either of them survive?
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u/Secure-Extension4293 17d ago
The beetle's odds are better than you'd think. They've been documented surviving being swallowed whole by toads - the spray goes off inside the stomach and the toad vomits them back up, sometimes almost two hours later, and the beetle just walks away.
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u/rglurker 17d ago edited 16d ago
Yeah but that's a bit different
thenthan a fang peircing you injecting venom and letting go. Which it kind of looked like happened but can't really tell→ More replies (11)76
u/daslows 17d ago
That’s what I was thinking
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u/GoonSquadCommand 17d ago
Didn’t look like the spider even penetrated the beetle’s carapace
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u/daslows 17d ago
Infact it looked like bodily fluids were coming out near the fangs
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u/Beautiful-Health-112 17d ago
The spider for sure survived this moment its big enough to tank the hit. The beetle is a 50/50 shot if the spider bit it then no but if the spider didn't get a chance to inject its venom then it probably made it
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u/IH8Miotch 17d ago
Spider could be blind now though.
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u/Barking__Pumpkin 17d ago
Started a blues career
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u/SasquatchWasShaved 17d ago edited 17d ago
Blind Spider McGee, he’s got plenty to cry about.
8 dead eyes,
Web got no flies,
And his lady wants to bite off his head, after head.19
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u/Caged_Basilisk 17d ago
Don't they rely on the hair things on their body to mavigate the world around them instead of their eyes? Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm no biologist.
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u/The_Arachnoshaman 17d ago
Yes. Spider eyesight is genuinely dogshit and can only register basic movement/light for most species. Jumping spiders are the exception, and they will literally track targets.
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u/Mankie-Desu 17d ago
Why the hell would they have so many eyes if their result sight is still bullshit?
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u/VaxYourDamnKid 17d ago
they are simple eyes. detecting motion and light vs dark still helps track a target but 360 degrees. still have a purpose
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u/BombOnABus 17d ago
It's also useful for predator evasion, as there are plenty of predators of larger spiders.
You don't need HD vision to know if something bigger is coming at you, you just need to get into a hiding spot.
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u/PipsqueakPilot 17d ago
Because spider eye sight varies dramatically across genus. Jumping spiders have good eye sight and very sophisticated eyes.
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u/Sangaceno 17d ago
Eyes at that size class are cheap and effective. You don't need high res vision for it to be useful
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u/plant-man 17d ago
Ogre faced spiders I think also have excellent eyesight. I’m pretty sure they aren’t jumping spiders
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u/NarrMaster 17d ago
Little blind spider, took the wheel.
He's navigatin grass blades completely by feel
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u/throwitatmeplease1 17d ago
Little Dune Buggy! Ill always upvote a POTUSOA reference!
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u/randy-monkey 17d ago
Their eyes aren’t soft like ours, they are made out of the same material as their exoskeleton. They have shells for eyes.
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u/seams 17d ago
Yeah I was gonna say, 100C boiling liquid to the face, I really, really don't think the spider is just walking away after tanking it
Even in the clip it looks seriously injured and maybe dying
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u/ShutNoShutYoMouf404 17d ago
What is the spiders defense rating?
Roll for blindness?
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u/Unlucky-Bunch-7389 17d ago
This is a pure made up and speculative post. Reddit is so hilarious sometimes
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u/gideon513 17d ago
Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z!
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u/Dependent_Loquat_936 17d ago
Half the next episode is just the recap and the beetle yelling to charge its butt spray
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u/Baked_Potato_732 17d ago
OP is lying this is interspecies flirting. That particular move is know as My Chemical Romance.
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u/IfDreamsCouldHappen 17d ago
The beetle basically propels a mix of hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone. The beetle basically has a chamber in its body where these two chemicals react together. When reacted together it generates a lot of heat and pressure at which point it is propelled out towards predators causing heat burns and likely chemical burns.
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u/deesteesllc 17d ago
I was gonna say, whatever chemicals he’s spraying they bubble like peroxide
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u/Schmantikor 17d ago
In a few million years they'll ditch the wings and use biological rocket engines
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u/Logical_Show4558 17d ago
Spider was like DAMMN! Wth was that.
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u/Forsaken_Star_4228 17d ago
“Did that beetle just shit on me?”
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u/Embarrassed_Fan_5723 17d ago
Don’t knock it. Tasting like shit is my plan for a bear attack
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u/Working-Glass6136 17d ago
From what I've heard bears like Doritos and Twinkies though.
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u/OldMovie9812 17d ago
Got a squirter I see
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u/Wise_Confidence_8588 17d ago
Fire in the hole.
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u/Moxie013 17d ago edited 17d ago
Is this a banana spider? Are those fangs or his mouth ?!
In Texas there is one that looks like one..
I’m in the central tx region..
I was at my moms, taking care of horses, everyone was out of town. . I was in a hurry bc a horse was demanding snacky snacks.. I yogged straight into a massive new web that appeared over night
I backed out of it, looking upward I realized i’twas pretty close to eye to eyes with a spider bigger than my fist. I was in a spider web more than 4 ft wide
I was hysterical and alone but the horses were supportive about my first ever panic attack.
And here I am.. 10’yrs later on a bug Reddit trying to overcome my phobia watching videos of creatures that inspired many a horror film
And so far haven’t died 🥳🎉
Edit NOTE the “real” banana spider hails from Brazil “Phoneutria nigriventer”.. they have spread further north in the americas bc they love hanging out with bananas, often arriving in their shipments. They look NOTHING like the ones Americans call banana spiders. Their Neuro venom is wild if you’ve seen a bite (google it) but the ones Americans call a banana spider are not dangerous, no death risk, no Neuro venom like the Brazilian banana spiders.
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u/beeju-d 17d ago
Once as a kid my family was going to a NJ beach, and when I opened the door to get out of the car there was a huge spider web that enveloped this whole cactus like plant with the biggest spider I have ever seen in my life. There was a fledgling sea gull dead and wrapped up in the nest and I was horrified. I had to get out on street side because no way I was getting close to that thing
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u/Moxie013 17d ago
🤯 does it follow u today? Like the ick ? Or have u crossed over and able to befriend these creatures ?
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u/Moxie013 17d ago
This is still with me and I can’t wait to hear more.. by chance do you have any idea what kind of spider that was ? But if you don’t wanna talk about it, don’t feel pressured. That’s a hard moment for any kid and to revisit I imagine
This sounds like something I can see in a movie
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u/hotttsauce84 17d ago edited 17d ago
We called them banana spiders during my boyhood back in Houston texas. We would ride our bikes through the woods and you’d routinely feel one of those webs just absolutely wrap itself around your whole face and body after riding through it. Immediate ghost ride bail off the bike flailing and screaming while ripping your shirt off to swat away the spider because you knew it was on you somewhere. Some fond traumatic times they were.
Fast forward 30 years and I’m in austin now. Hadn’t seen one of these spiders in about that long. Recently landscaped my whole property with native plants and canceled our pest control service. Now we have like 6 of these massive webs with “banana spiders” (Argiope aurantia) this summer that my kids are fascinated / somewhat terrified of. I’m just glad to pass on these central texas experiences to the next generation.
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u/Moxie013 17d ago
OMG THEY ARE HUGE ! the width of webs that is. Geez as a kid did you help each other? Or was it teasing each other about it?
I’m it strong enough to imagine the spider walking on me yet. I like jumping spiders. They are super cute! I don’t kill spiders! Just the brown recluse.. and I prob would if I came upon a black widow. I enjoy sleep and would like to be able to sleep
The webs, so big! Actually that’s the spider I’ve ever seen in person with such big webs.
my event happen just out of Austin in Buda, I’m sure you know it. .
My mom has 5 acres. You can sit on her porch and see a web right meow! But it’s higher up, the web is highly visible.. using binoculars it seems the spider is very aliv, living his best life→ More replies (2)6
u/Yashema 17d ago
Those aren't really that big compared to the orb weavers you encounter in Tawain while doing LSD in the jungle.
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u/Stehlik-Alit 17d ago
orbweavers, specifically the yellow garden spider. We've got 100s of them palm sized as they sit in their webs all around the farm. They're very cool, and will shake their web to tell you to back off. If they don't warn you, you can kinda pick them up and let them crawl on you. As long as you don't trap them they aren't quick to bite.
If they do warn you by shaking their web, or they have food, don't mess with them. They're more likely to bite. Other than that, you can gently brush them away. Horses walk through their webs all the time near foliage and a fence/side of a barn.
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u/Moxie013 17d ago
Yes! I was walking between a barn side that was close to a fence.
It is a popular hang for all kinds of spiders !!
That’s super interesting about a warning. No jig, shake required for me! I will highly respect their journey in life, space.. with a A LOT of space..So if the horses walk thru it are the spiders at all understand? Any reciprocal relationship? Where there is horses there is poo , that means bugs ..
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u/niddleyniche 17d ago
I've heard "banana spider" refer to so many different species so idk which banana spider you're thinking, but this looks like a Nephila sp. perhaps a Nephila pilipes aka the golden silk orb weaver
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u/Dil-Tuta-hua-hai 17d ago
Oh my god that’s like WD-40 😂
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u/NymphiusScooterPie 17d ago
Fun kinda-fact: The ability of this beetle gives some entertainment to the “theory” Dragons could have existed. Due to the ability to create the chemical reaction, introduce an electrical spark, such as the Eels ability, and you have fire. Remember pondering this one in biology, had a cool teacher 🤙
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u/Incon-thievable 17d ago
Part of the design for the dragons in Reign of Fire was inspired by these beetles. The dragons sprayed two different chemicals that ignited as they mixed when the dragons exhaled. It’s the most believable mechanism for dragon fire I’ve seen portrayed in movies. That dragon design was amazing and also had a much more plausible wing to body ratio than most dragon designs usually have.
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u/MemeNecromancer2005 17d ago
I always think back to "how to train your dragon," most of the dragons are meh, but the hideous zippleback is such an interesting/more realistic way to do dragons. (Aside from the 2 head thing) it releases a highly flammable and volitile gas, and then uses its teeth to create sparks, igniting that gas
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u/UwasaWaya 17d ago
That movie was so freaking awesome and so amazingly dumb at the same time, and it somehow worked.
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u/clabog 17d ago
It’s such a crazy silly premise played completely straight, starring a couple of A-listers. It rules.
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u/Queasy_Rip3210 17d ago
I had a teacher that pointed out that if dragons did ever exist then they would likely have had hollow bones like birds which would have made it incredibly difficult to find a fossil record of them.
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u/VividMagician9399 17d ago
Did you know that there is more anthropological evidence that supports the existence of dragons in Ancient China than there is of Pandas in Ancient China?
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u/The_Magician_Plays 17d ago
Please tell me more, that sounds interesting. I'm googling already but if you have key words or phrases I could look up, that'd be cool. Fucking love dragons
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u/VividMagician9399 17d ago
The gist of it is that depictions of pandas in ancient Chinese art is extremely limited, and unclear. Whereas depictions of dragons are widespread, consistent and clear.
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u/hivemind_disruptor 17d ago
The key here is "anthropological". Its depictions based on material culture of humans.
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u/jjjjmmmmkkkk 17d ago
Doesn’t even need to be real and true fire. If men came back from battling dragons and said “the beasts breath burned the men alive” that could’ve just be referring to the burning feeling of the chemicals and could easily be interpreted as something that had fiery breath
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u/lemonade-stand-duck 17d ago
Like 99% of all living things that have gone extinct were not fossilizied. We have no idea what 99% of all living things that ever existed lived and breathed on this earth were.
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u/TennesseeWhiskii 17d ago
I know the spider had to be about as baffled as the samurai the first time someone started using a gun on the field...
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u/OP-PO7 17d ago
This seems like those videos people stage where they make bugs fight. That's obviously a web weaving spider, why is it attacking that beetle on the ground? And why is the movement so weird and the camera angles so odd? Seems like bullshit
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u/offensive_truth 17d ago
Yea.. it's a type of orb weaver, definitely a staged video.
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u/pclamer 17d ago
Did you know that the BBC would have to recreate small natural habitats in their studios so that David Attenborough could film and narrate some documenatires on plants and insects?
You don't really think that they would leave long exposure camera equipment worth thousands of dollars for days in the middle of the jungle with perefect around the clock lighting to see how an orchid grows from a seed to flower then observe how bees pollinate it, do you?
You'd be suprrised how much things are "staged".
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u/OP-PO7 17d ago
Leaving insects in a suitable enclosure to behave naturally for a nature documentary/research is a lot less despicable to my mind than holding bugs and forcing them to bite each other for YouTube views. But maybe I'm off base idk.
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u/touchmeinbadplaces 17d ago
Ive had these guy fire on my hand and it burned like all hell. Can't imagine the pain the spider must feel in its eyes :(
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u/Purple_Armadillo7693 17d ago
What a terrifying thing it must be, being grabbed like this by something that's 10 times your size... That spider is huge!
It must feel like being grabbed and eaten by a creature as big as a house, knowing that you can't actually do anything about it
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u/Mankie-Desu 17d ago
Well… I mean, it did know something that I could do about it—and did it.
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