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Category Archives: adventuretimes!

Apple deadfall

SavedPicture-201351321832.jpg

A creation in ballpoint and post it.

Ok, as promised, here is a post on the apple deadfall trap that we’ve been using for spiders.

So, as mentioned in previous posts, we are working at Clib and in the trailers.  Actually, I may not have mentioned that we’re stationed in the trailers before.  If I haven’t, I am informing you now.  We do not sit in a normal building but something akin to those portables that one might see in a stuffed high school.  It’s a decent sized trailer and it has it’s own air conditioning and such.  They also just recently added A BUNCH more cubicle sections too.  We have our own section with four desks, one in each corner of the cube.

Anyway, I’ve also mentioned in previous posts (links back to images of spiders), spiders and other arachnids REALLY like Mr. Arachnid.  Which is why I call him Mr. Arachnid.  I suppose I could also call him Wilson, because I am convinced that he is Wilson.  But for the intents and purposes of this post, Wilson will be called Mr. Arachnid.

Now, Mr. Arachnid doesn’t seem to be all that fond of arachnids.  There was that stiffening in surprise and fear that first time I told him something with eight legs was crawling across his back.  There was also the time when he frantically smacked at his lunch with a napkin because a spider was attacking his lunch.  There have been a few other times when he had to somehow rid himself of a spider in his work area.

This wouldn’t really seem out of place, since we are in a trailer, but the spiders seem overwhelmingly attracted to Mr. Arachnid.  No one else seems to have a problem with spiders.  And so, out of consideration for his sanity (spiders have an -25/min sanity aura) I helped Mr. Arachnid create an apple deadfall trap so he wouldn’t have to be so tense and alert all the time.

Deadfall traps are generally made with some kind of heavy object propped precariously on top of some kind of trigger.  When the trapee walks under the deadfall and triggers the…trigger, the heavy object that was so precariously balanced comes crashing down upon the unfortunate trapee.

Now, for large animals, you’d want to use a large rock or log or something to come crashing down.  You’d want something bigger than the trapee.  For spiders, since we’re not hunting Gooty sapphires (links back to images of spiders) or anything, apples are plenty big.  Also, these are the apples that come from the hotel to-go breakfast bags.  Sometimes, they are a bit disgusting and no one wants to eat them, so we have a large supply of them.

We set up the apples somewhat (not really) precariously on the stupid short section of the cubicle wall that separates my desk from Mr. Arachnid’s.  It seemed to work pretty well.  Well, not the deadfall part.  Just the fact that we set one up.  There were literally no more problems with spiders on our side of the cube after the deadfall went up.  There might have been one or two arachnid related issues on the other side of the cube where my boss and my sometimes PM sits, but nothing on our side.  We were quite content to leave our apple deadfall up forever.  Or at least until the apples rotted completely away as to be useless.

Well, my boss didn’t like that.  He had told us to get rid of the apples several times.  And then he really meant it when the managing partner for the western region decided to come and visit us.  I actually wasn’t there that day (yes, I had planned it like that).  But it seems in their rush to tidy up their work areas, my boss delivered the ultimatum to berid ourselves of the apple deadfall.  And so it went.  And then, the VERY. NEXT. DAY. I had to kill a spider.  I told Mr. Arachnid and he said that he would be on high alert from now on.

Opiliones

Yes.  This is a post about spiders.  Well, not really.  Well, yes, kind of.  Let’s just say that there are arachnids involved.  And yes, there will be pictures.  You have been warned.

The other day, we were having a short team meeting in our giant shared cube at Client B (Clib henceforth).  While my boss was explaining some stuff to us, I happened to notice a fairly large arachnid crawling across a colleague’s back.  Note that I said “arachnid” and not “spider.”  I’m really not sure if it was a spider.  But it did have eight legs, so I know it was an arachnid.

Anyway, it was large; the abdomen was maybe 10mm across.  It was predominately brown and it these weird, spindly, long legs.  I mean, spiders often have long, spindly legs, but the legs of this arachnid was just…strange.  And the other rather strange thing was that there was this weird striated pattern over the abdomen.  What it really looked like to me was an extra large, decently well-fed tick with over-long legs.

Of course, I couldn’t really quickly explain all this to my colleagues while I was watching this thing crawl across this guy’s back.  Actually, I probably could have.  I watched this thing saunter across his entire back and I only said something when it had gotten to his sleeve.  It looked like it was going to continue onto his arm and I was pretty sure that would cause him to start, which I didn’t want.  I was also waiting for someone else to point out this giant thing crawling across his back.  I seriously could not believe no one else saw it.

Anyhoo, I rather causally mentioned to my colleague that there was a giant spider-thing crawling on him.  He immediately stiffened in surprise and probably, a little fear.  My boss fairly calmly agreed with me that it was quite large.  My sometimes PM immediately freaked out.

To his credit, Mr. Arachnid didn’t panic at any time.  He rather urgently asked me where the spider-thing was.  I told him it was on his sleeve.  He asked me to get it off of him, so I asked around for a cup or container to catch the spider-thing in.  It wasn’t because I wanted it for a pet.  It’s because Clib has instructed all it’s employees, regular or otherwise, to catch all pests to be identified.  They have a really stringent pest control program.  So I needed to find some kind of container to catch the spider-thing.

My sometimes PM offered me his full cup of ice water.  Which is not very useful.  Because it’s a full cup of ice water.  He really wanted me to use it.  I tried to explain to him that I couldn’t use a full of cup of ice water.  Mr. Arachnid grabbed his coffee cup and chugged all the coffee and shoved the cup at me.

By this time, the spider-thing had made it off his sleeve and was comfortably resting on his chair.  I told Mr. Arachnid that he could move away from the chair (which he did with alacrity…ALACRITY!) and I tried to get the spider-thing into the cup.  My teammates did not offer to help.  (Actually, now that I think about it, my boss may have.  But I was already going for the spider-thing, so it didn’t really help.)

The spider-thing made a thump when it fell into the cup thing.  I had three guys yelling at me to quickly cap the cup.  It was pandemonium (not really).

So, the thing with me using the used coffee cup to catch the spider-thing is that the spider-thing got really wet with the bit of coffee that was left at the bottom.  That made it anxious on top of the anxiety of being shoved into a cup.  I couldn’t get a picture of it.  So I had to rely on memory to try and figure out what it was.

In the end, my guess is that it wasn’t a spider but an opilione.  There doesn’t seem to be very much information on them, but they are an order of arachnids.  They’re sometimes known as “daddy longlegs,” not to be confused with “daddy longlegs” or even “daddy longlegs.”  I actually only ever associated the name “daddy longlegs” with cellar spiders.

I couldn’t seem to find exactly the opilione that I saw, or even find a list of opiliones that are found in the Southern California area.  But it looked kind of like this.   There are pictures after this. You have been warned.