Red Spider Species, Unknown?

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I see those things all the time! I didn't know they were dangerous

I once found a couple of Tomato Hornworms on my tomato plants one summer. I had never seen them before, so it was a new experience for me.



Believe it or not, those caterpillars are about 3 inches long and nearly half an inch thick. While that red "horn" on their back looks dangerous, it really isn't. But these things can destroy an entire group of tomato plants in a matter of days.

Also, you never want to run over these things on, say, a bicycle. They literally explode, and it's not fun. That happened once to me (accidentally). It was sitting in the middle of the road and I didn't see it, and I rode right over it.

Very interesting creatures though....

Also, when my brother and I were kids, he once got "stung" by a cricket. We both think it tried to lay eggs in his foot.
 

What, Crickets can Sting? I've never heard of that.

Edit: I just read up on them, they can bite so can Grasshoppers, it's rare. It's a Painful bite too! A caterpillar did the same thing to me once, it feels like a sting.

Edit:Edit: Maybe all these bugs that bit me, don't care for curiosity.
 
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Hi,

Many of those critters have to eat vegetation, which is hard to chew so they need something good to chomp down with. But in all my years as a kid i've never been bitten by a grasshopper.
I have been bitten by mice however, and wow, they have RAZOR sharp teeth im tellin' you. I knew they could bite, but i never knew their teeth were that sharp. With the adult it feels like you are being deeply pierced with two big sewing needles. With the smaller specimens they take off a layer of skin and you dont even feel it until you see it and then it feels like a blister that is healing up. Doesnt hurt with the smaller ones but not sure how old they have to be before it starts to hurt bad like the adults.
 

Around here, with Mice you have to be careful--some of them could be carrying deadly diseases, like rabies. It's best to avoid being bitten at all, but if you do get a bite, it's crucial that you go see a doctor ASAP.
 
Hi,

Yeah you never know, and for sure i should have been much more careful. What happened was the mother was hiding under the foliage.
 
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Many of those critters have to eat vegetation, which is hard to chew so they need something good to chomp down with. But in all my years as a kid i've never been bitten by a grasshopper.
...

Grasshoppers have big serrated razor things down the sides of their big hind legs. They "flick" them at speed and can cut you bad, I had a nasty slash on a finger once as a kid from catching a grasshopper and holding it captive in my hand. It got away pretty good!

Crickets have really strong pincers and will "bite" you with them if you catch them, it can hurt like a sting but there's no venom and they usually don't draw blood. I catch crickets regularly that wander into the house.
 
Hello Roman,

Wow that's amazing. i have a feeling it might have been a different species because i never got injured in any way from a grasshopper when i was younger and we handled them quite a bit. Where you live everything has to have a deadly defence mechanism built in
Or else we are pretty lucky
 
Yeah I think it's pretty true to say the critters are tough in Australia.

But this fellow is from a photo from someone at North Dakota State Uni (so I assume it was a species found in the USA?);

**broken link removed**

It looks fairly typical to me, I guess it's a similar species to the ones I see here.
 
Bright Red Spider

I just came across the exact same spider, here in Knoxville, TN. I have never seen one like this before and can not find it online either. Please let me know if you find out any information about this pretty, but scarey creature. Legonsha@aol.com
 
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