I Discovered Something Kinda Freaky...Wish I Could Get A Picture.

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chuter

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Man...if that isn't a click-bait title nothing is! 🤣

I was walking out to the garden after dark with a flashlight. As the light shined across the ground I saw what I thought were maybe hundreds of fireflies in the grass. But none were flying and I thought that was odd. They were moving across the ground, though.

I shined the light on one firefly and was able to walk to it and get a closer look. Not a firefly at all. It was a spider and it was it's eyes glowing in the dark just like a deer would when a light is shined in their eyes. Tiny little green dots. They look similar to a wolf spider...maybe that's what they are. Really common tan and brown colored spiders with dark stripes.

Literally hundreds of them just in a small area. The ground is alive with them it seems. Showed this to my wife. She may not sleep for a week or more.
I saw that in our yard a few months ago, really cool, I wouldn't have guessed what it was till I looked really close at several.
 

Hangfire

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ftg.gif
 

TANSTAAFL

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Interesting that many are seeing this. I would bet $1000 that you were using an LED flashlight. The light is more coherent, leading to seeing the highly reflective insides of the arachnids. Normal incandescent flashlights won't do this as well. Another "fun" project, get a UV flashlight. All scorpions glow bright green under UV.
 

SoonerP226

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I would bet $1000 that you were using an LED flashlight.
Thinking back, I'm pretty sure I started noticing it when I started using LED flashlights. When you live under the trees you learn not to walk around after dark without some form of illumination...unless you enjoy walking through great big spider webs...
 

JEVapa

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Interesting that many are seeing this. I would bet $1000 that you were using an LED flashlight. The light is more coherent, leading to seeing the highly reflective insides of the arachnids. Normal incandescent flashlights won't do this as well. Another "fun" project, get a UV flashlight. All scorpions glow bright green under UV.
High power incandescent lights with adjustable divergence heads are good for it too. High power Maglights, Surefires, etc. My 9V Surefire incandescent will light them up but it’s still less output than a G2led.
Now, almost everything is LED and twice the output for the same or less $$. But yeah, better and more uniform beam, longer throw, cleaner light makes it easier and you’re not spending $80-$150 for a light now.
 
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Shadowrider

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Grass spiders are good creatures. They typically stay out of houses and buildings. But they kill/eat lots of nuisance bugs that would come into the house.

With all rain we’ve had they’re thriving this year. The ground is alive at night!
^^^ This. Wolfies are good to have around. Right about now seems to be about peak time of the year for them.
 

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