Critters

Wild horses in the Verde River at Needle Rock.

11/29

This little guy was camping out in our small outside closet. He is a Western Banded Gecko.

11/9 – Western Banded Gecko.

I thought the other scorpion was big, but this one was a giant. The builder and my husband were moving scaffolding boards that were on the ground. This guy was under one end of the board, which the builder immediately dropped. My husband had to run him down (the scorpion, not the builder :`) ) and kill him with a smaller board. The builder said this was the largest scorpion he ever saw. I took these pictures several hours later after he was shriveled up from the sun. His body is also kinked up with his head over part of his body. I couldn’t get him straightened out, but he must have been 6-7 inches long – my sunglasses are 5 inches. I can’t wait until the final grade on our lot and the stones are in so we can get the exterminator back out to spray the yard. If one of these moves in the house after it is completed, I will be moving out!

9/10 – huge desert hairy scorpion.

This strange creature is a Rhinoceros beetle. Another name given to some of these insects is Hercules beetle, because they possess strength of a herculean proportion. Adults of some species can lift objects 850 times their weight! That would be equivalent to a human lifting 9 fully grown male elephants!

9/10 – rhinoceros beetle

OK, anybody that knows me, knows I like all kinds of animals. I once had a ball python snake as a pet, have held a tarantula and a four foot long Iguana, went in the cage and fed the monkeys, rode an elephant, love seeing the coyotes, and wished the bobcat lived in my backyard, but these guys I despise. The painters found him outside our new house under a board. He was at least 4 inches long. Usually scorpions are nocturnal, but I guess he thought he was in the dark under the board. You can hunt them at night (to kill them) with a blacklight flashlight since they glow under the light. We have two kinds of scorpions, this kind (desert hairy) and bark scorpions. The sting from a desert hairy is like a bee sting, but the sting from a bark scorpion is very painful and the effects can last for days. They don’t give the antivenom to anyone, no matter how much pain you are in, unless it is a life threatening situation. It is very expensive at $,7000 – $10,000. I have never seen a bark scorpion and never want to. Except when we first moved into our rental townhouse, I have not seen a scorpion until this one. Then the next evening, I was opening a box of lights in the townhouse that came by FedEx (of course they would bring these devils :`) and about a half hour after I was finished, there was a smaller scorpion in the kitchen right where I had been opening the box. I’m glad I didn’t see him while I was going through the packaging or I may have had to order new lights. The exterminator is coming on Friday to do the first treatment in the new house. She will dust the inside of the electrical outlets before the covers are put on next week and spray by the exterior doors. Then in October, she will come back and spray the yard.

Desert hairy scorpion.

It’s been a busy week for wildlife. As a child watching the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, I thought roadrunners were much larger. They are small, but still very fast. They don’t like people so it’s hard to capture them on camera.

The doors in the new house are open all day to allow the breeze to move through while they work. The painters saw a red racer (coachwhip) snake, another small non-poisonous snake and a lizard in the house this week. There is a good video on YouTube of a red racer eating a baby diamondback rattlesnake in the Tonto National Forest. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcGoHhO-j9U

8/25 – roadrunner in driveway.

The coyotes roam the neighborhood during the day. You can hear them hunting at night. They are afraid of people and will not harm you. We see more during the summer when 60% of the homeowners head north.

8/24 – coyote crossing patio.

This little guy was on the sidewalk after the heavy rain we got today.

8/19 – sir froggie.

We saw this short horned lizard while hiking in the Coconino National Forest south of Flagstaff. In order to ward off hungry predators, they are capable of inflating their bodies up to twice their size, resembling a spiny balloon. And if this proves insufficient, some species employ one of the animal kingdom’s most bizarre defensive mechanisms: They shoot blood from their eyes, which emanates from ducts in the corners of their eyes and can travel a distance of up to three feet. Luckily, we must not have scared him since he didn’t puff up or shower us with blood.

8/6 – short horned lizard.

This western collared lizard was posing for us in the Wupatki National Monument area. They are fairly tolerant of humans gawking at them and they like it hot.

8/5 – western collared lizard.

I almost stepped on this guy during our walk. He (she?) is a King snake and is harmless. They eat other venomous creatures such as rattlesnakes. They are immune to the venom from snakes in their own locality.

6/24 – King snake.

Now that the majority of people have left the development for cooler country, we have begun to see the Javelina again. There were 5 on the tee boxes. You can only see three in this picture; two to the right and one lounging on the next tee box. The other two were on the next tee box to the right behind the bushes.