real toys from when i was a kid

[Faunaofthenorth]

yea, well i'm talking about the little grass spiders, is what they are really called but they make those sweet little funnel webs, all over and they can get pretty effin big sometimes though

[ConcinusMan]

oh, those. They give me the creeps but I'm not scared of them. We got similar spiders here that don't build webs at all. They just crawl around in the grass with egg sacks on their backs. Very fragile little spiders. You just touch them and legs fall off. They were a favorite food for my fence lizards some years back.

[Faunaofthenorth]

hmm neat

[Holly]

My mom said I brought home a rattler once. I doubt it, probably just a really big garter with a diamond pattern down it's back.

I remember bringing home a really big snake once and her freaking out, maybe that was the time, I think I was about 4, I remember I had a hand around it's neck and another hand around it's middle section with my arms stretched way out and it's tail was still dragging. I was very proud of myself.

I recall the snake having a diamond pattern down it's back and I remember gray and maybe red, I'm pretty sure it didn't have a rattle on it.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

As a kid, I was fully convinced I wanted to be an entemologist. I collected insects from everywhere I went and pinned specimens to boards, and labeled them. Every late summer I would acquire a small army of adult praying mantids, feed them constantly, and carefully pair them up when the female was at her fullest so that she would hopefully not eat my male. Then I would put the girls out in "their tree" (we had a tree against the wall on the side of the house about 6 foot tall that harbored the mantids... and they would not leave it!) So that they could lay their egg sacks. Then I would bring them back in the house so that they would live as long as possible, usually into november. I was enamoured with mantids and still am, actually. I slowly realized I liked snakes but it was hard to get my parents to let me get what I thought then was a "real" snake... Bandit, my california kingsnake. It took from the time I was 10, to 14, to get him but I got him and now look at me

[Faunaofthenorth]

haha nice, sweet story, i feel ya, my mom once caught me constantly going outside then into the basement, and when she asked me why i was going in and out i said nothing but she watched me poor a jar full of spiders on the floor of our basement lol, i was going in and out letting hundreds of spiders go in my basement when i was around 4 lol funny, i always wanted to see a mantis of some sort thought it would be cool and still do

[ssssnakeluvr]

I had house spiders in my room. would let dust build up on the floor under my bed...home for carpet beetles and their larva. I would use the larva during the winter to feed the spiders. I also fed spiders outside all the time. Loved the cat spiders!!

[Faunaofthenorth]

hah yea lots of fun

[mustang]

i used to...and sometimes still will grab anoles and let em go in back yard when we moved i ransaked the neighboorhood and now 3or 4 maybe 5 years later im on 5th generation ...not pets just breeding...found a somewhat red anole (reds a morph) and i know it wasnt brown....when it rains i always turn over buckets so they can have water...parents get mad caus of mosquitoes

[ConcinusMan]

Can't blame them for that. Besides that, anoles would better benefit from a shady planted area that receives a daily watering with a sprinkler. No need for standing water.