Unwelcome neighbours...

I went back to Topanga again this weekend for another jaunt - left it too late to do my long hike - but I got in a loop round Eagle Rock. Whilst at the far end of the hike - just about as far away from the car as I was going to get on that walk, I came across a notice board telling me all about 'West Nile Plague' being confirmed in the area and not to venture out at dawn or dusk as that is when the mozzies come out and spread it about a bit...

Well - not knowing what the hell 'West Nile Plague' was... and not wanting to find out really either - the word 'plague' putting me off somewhat I decided to high tail it back to the car - as sunset was reported to be at 5pm and it had already gone 4pm... dusk you might say...

Whilst reading the notice, I noticed a few inch plus long 'wasps' ot 'hornets' behind the glass of the notice board... very nasty looking things they were too... So I got my camera out and was merrily snapping a couple of pics to show you when one flew over my head making a noize not unlike an Apache helicopter gunship - so that was the final straw - I scuttled off...

Some facts on the West Nile Plague can be found here:

http://www.midrealm.org/chirurgeon/west_nile.htm

Which is reasurringly mocking in its take on the usage of the word 'plague'!

I also find that ticks are more of a hazard to the unwary and they have been known to spread Lymes disease... not a big fan of the old creepy crawlies sucking my blood - especially whhen they return the favour of a drink with a nasty disease!

Chances of contracting such diseasest versus dying of eating too many Fatburgers are low - but it is always worth checking your clothes for ticks post hike... just like they tell you here:

http://www.ucihealth.com/News/UCI%20Health/tick1.htm

and if you want to know what the little buggers look like - take a look here:

http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/faculty/rbkimsey/caticks.html

none too nice eh?

And if you want to see what the real hazards look like - then look here:

http://www.fatburger.net/

Now those ARE nice!!! (you gotta go for the Fatburger meal with the 'bag ass' fatburger fries for the full effect)

So - not all my new neighbours are 'cool'... and one of the guys at work tells me that his studio is full of Black widows - I did not even know they existed over here... so I looked it up - they do exist... also found this site and wish I hadn't!

http://www.calpoison.org/public/spiders.html#5

oh dear!