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Testing hammer accuracy


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As I have mentioned many times; I tend to not have open water in my smithy.  Probably a hold over from my early Bladesmithing focus.  We find the occasional scorpion and large centipede in the house and sometimes even beat the cats to the "crunchy cat toys".  The centipedes become pate as my wife has a phobia about them. The scorpions get translocated to the arroyo.

I know my shop does have black widows in it---their webs have a distinctive sound when you break the strands.

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Crunchy cat toys are marketable, an empty water bottle in an old sock makes our happy. Until Ronnie kills it that is. 

Centipede pate isn't inspiring mentionable snappy slogans or jingles for the voices. Remembering the sound of walking into a black widow's web is exciting them but not with marketing ideas.

I like scorpions too, I've never had to terminate one, dumped a lot out of my boots camping though. Discovered moth balls keeps them away, though I still made sure nothing had crawled in for a nap.

Frosty The Lucky.

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It's funny, I rarely wore gloves in my desert rat phase. 

I don't keep water in the shop either though I pack a couple gallon milk jugs out to keep reins and such cool enough to hold or others from overheating.

I DO like having some clean water close to cool burns though I don't give myself serious burns so  much anymore. <Furiously knocking on my head>

Frosty The Lucky.

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I check my gloves, welding helmet and pretty much every drawer or parts bin, tool boxes ect… I don’t have any problems with scorpions, I do have a problems with black widows occasionally in the shop but the mud daubers usually take care of them,

my main problem is brown recluse spiders, they get into everything! I’ve been bit three times in the past and it’s not an enjoyable experience. One of the bites got so bad I had to go to the hospital 

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  I wish I had stayed in Nebraska.  Here they have more yellow jackets than possible (and probably worse flying killer insects, if thats possible), venemous snakes, brown recluse and heavens only knows what other kinds of spiders, lizards, fire ants....   I saw a beetle yesterday the size of a half dollar, with pincers to match.   And that's if you don't get t-boned on the way home from work!  But the people are nice here... bad drivers but nice... :)

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We got the brown recluse here also. Fortunately never been bit. They like to hang out in dresser drawers. Generally though i leave spiders alone. Had this big gigantic black one that lived behind the kitchen sink that would come out and watch when some was doing dishes. The only insects i absolutely can not stand are roaches, earwigs, and ticks.

We got a few timber rattlers here but you are more likely to run into some sort of moccasin or copperhead. The only critter to back me out of the barn was a skunk.  

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Seems to be a good year for ticks.  One maybe two a week so far.

Best way I found to be sure they do not return is to stick them to a piece of tape, fold it over, and stick the tape to itself, sealing the tick inside.  

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  Have you ever tried to get the skunk smell off a dog?  I walked around a corner once and happened to trap a skunk.  They hiss, have mean looking teeth and can be quite intimidating without the spray.

Nice tick advice Glenn.  They also go well down the toilet, if handy.

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I am not all that far from you Billy over here in Marysville and I don't think I have ever come across a brown recluse, granted I probably couldn't identify one anyways. We get more Wolf spiders in the house than anything. Kids are afraid of them, but as long as they aren't somewhere bad, I tend to leave em alone. They take care of the other little nasties in the house.

Snake wise, worst I have come across is a tiny little garden snake. Only thing I really have to keep an eye out for is Hornets.

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We are on the northern border of their habitat area. They do not get very big, about the size of a dime. Little brown kind of translucent guys with fiddle shaped markings. 

We have funnel web spiders coming out our ears here. They also have a fiddle shape on their backs which means that is not a way to identify a brown recluse on its own. 

Seems a lot of hornets, yellow jackets and carpenter bees this year. 

Thomas, did you mean Arachnid? Insects and Arachnids are both Arthropods. But of course Arachnids are not Insects. I am not saying you are wrong just wondering if you meant Arachnid. I should have just said bugs...now my head hurts from trying to remember high school science. 

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if find a tick on me in the house I normally just flush them, if I’m in the shop I use a benzomatic to fry em, and if I’m just outside somewere I just grind em up between two rocks. 
But the Brown recluse ALL get fried with the benzomatic, I don’t take my chances with them anymore after being bit. I’ve still got a gnarly scar from that ordeal and that’s been 15 years ago. 

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I am extremely weary of Hornets and Hornet-like insects such as wasps. I had a very nasty experience with happening too close to a hive of hornets as a young teenager. Was stung enough that I was taken to the hospital to be safe. Believe I was stung 13 some times. Mostly in my arm where they got into my sleeve. That was not a pleasant experience.

Forget scorpions. Nope, nope, NOPE. Don't need to deal with spider-wasp nightmares. 

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Yes I meant arachnids; thanks for catching that. I've just been reading a BBC article about a major find of fossilized echinoderms, (Jurassic), with their 5-fold radial symmetry and it threw my brain off. (Glad that the 12' long Silurian Eurypterids are not lurking at the beach anymore!)  Now can we genetically modify Komodo Dragons with Gila Monsters to get a large venomous lizard? Bwahahahahah!  (Must be time for my meds!)

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Perhaps: "Genetically enhanced Komodo DragonNado VS Giant OctopusNado!"

(The find reported by the BBC has a lot of beautifully preserved crinoids, the tops as well as the stem "buttons".  I remember collecting the crinoid rounds that have a 5 pointed star opening through the middle of them. The tops were rare finds in my experience.)

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