Forum Discussion
It's not a great picture, but...
I was able to catch these beauties in the side yard earlier this evening. There were four more to the right of the area in the picture, and a slew of them in the woods, as well. One day, a few year...
maratsade wrote:It's not the weirdest thing I've found in my wallet. It once had a very weird beetle type thing in it, something I had never seen before. It took me a LONG time to find out what it was. It was a wheel bug. VERY weird.
https://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/O&T/shrubs/note65/Adult2.jpg
Oh, wow. I've seen those before, but I had no clue that they bite. Creepy looking things, that's for sure.
I think the biggest bug I've ever seen here is one of these...
Giant Water Bug
Those bite, too.
GabeU, The wheel bug didn't bite me -- it just emerged from my wallet and I was mesmerized, trying to figure out what it was. I had never seen a bug with a volume wheel on its back, LOL. I've never seen a water bug either. How big are those things??
Speaking of tortoises, found this guy hiding underneath some moss once:
Here's a sizable one. I've never seen one quite this size, but close.
Edit: I changed the picture as the one I originally had was not from the US. A different species.
bare65, how big are those tortoises? Turtles and tortoises are amazing. There are a lot of turtles in my area, and I've been known to stop the car to pick one off the road and take it across,as some people drive over them on purpose.
bare65 wrote:You all got some amazing photographs...
I'll have to dig through some of my youngest sons digital albums and see if I can post a few more for you all...
He always had a knack for photography...me, not so much, LOL
Here is another one of his pics...this one he took about 3 miles down the road from our house.
A desert tortoise
Although I see these all around where I live, I'm always in awe at how truly magnificent they are.
As you can see, they are easily camoflagued when attempting to cross the paved sections of roads out here, and often get run over.
New road signs were put in place out this way to help warn motorists of possible tortoise crossing the roads..
bare65, I didn't know any of that, so now I'll be extra careful -- It's quite amazing they store water in their bladder to use to stay hydrated -- we humans can't do that at all, that stuff just wants to come out!
"You have to be extremely careful though when moving a desert tortoise. Don't life it too high and always keep the tortoise level.
Believe it or not, tortoise actually store water in their bladder...thus the reason they can travel great distances without stopping for water....BUT, if you go picking up a tortoise suddenly and scare it, it will pee and lose all of that precious water it has stored for it's travels. That is almost certainly a death sentence if the tortoise cannot find a suitable water source nearby to replace the loss."
