Small Game Hunters
and killer spiders! It’s Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan on Channel 5 again! Even before he’s spotted a single army ant, he’s tackling a Brazilian Wandering Spider Phoneutria fera – the most venomous spider in the world whose deadly bite can cause fatal erections in men! Dom, we’re just in awe! Anyway, army ants… Dom’s finally […]
Doing the graveyard shift We were looking around our village church this morning after the Remembrance Day parade and we saw something fantastic in the churchyard. Instead of tidying up all the autumn leaves and fallen branches, the church wardens have put aside a few piles of logs, twigs, pine cones and leaves to act as insecthouses! It’s such a simple idea but […]
Merry from Lord of the Rings tackles monster critters! On Friday evenings, Channel 5 is showing Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan. In tonight’s episode, he’s hunting Scolopendra gigantea – the Amazonian giant yellow-leg centipede. These things are enormous – they can reach up to 12″ long or 30cm. And there’s one on the screen just now eating a whole […]
These Spiders Are Watching You… There’s a spider in the southern United States called the Smiley-face Spider because of the funny markings on its back. Henry thinks it looks more like a spooky mask than a smiley face so we thought we’d feature it for Halloween. It’s quite a pretty little thing and harmless enough […]
Death’s Head Hawkmoth It’s Halloween, so what better insect to talk about that the spooky sounding Death’s Head Hawkmoth? It gets its name from the skull-shaped mark behind its head – like in this picture by Trevor Hartsell In fact, there are 3 types of Death’s Head Hawkmoth and you may be lucky enough to […]
How to Catch a Spider Unless you suffer from a particular sensitivity, most native species of British spider are virtually harmless. So at this time of year, when you’re more likely than not to find them coming into your home, don’t be afraid to give them a helping hand back outside. The kindest eviction method is a jar […]
Buzzing at the BBC Interview Transcription [Mark O’Donnell BBC] You may remember, last week, we were talking about a new shop, a new PopUp shop that’s opened up in Chippenham Emery Gate, the shopping centre there. It’s going to sell, locally sourced goods and provide employment for local young people as well. We were LIVE there, […]
A rubbish photo of a gorgeous butterfly! The Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) is one of the UK’s most colourful and easily recognised butterflies. It has very distinctive wing markings – brown, red, and black with orange bands and white spots. A bit like how the robin-red-breast is especially noticeable in winter because of its cheery colour in drab times and because it is one of the […]
There were some great photos of spiders and insects in the Telegraph this week. Henry and Catherine were delighted to see other people taking such an interest in mini-beasts – and taking some beautiful photos too! You can check them out here. Enjoy!
We found a lovely specimen of an Araneus diadematus or European Garden Spider – unfortunately we found it in Henry’s bedroom so he wasn’t too pleased! We caught it in a glass and slid a card under it. This frightened it, so it curled its legs up and played dead. In fact it stayed like […]
