So I've just trapped this great big weta in a tupperware container... [Archive]

jrandom

23rd January 2008, 23:25

I mean, seriously, this bastard is huge.

He just wandered across the lounge floor as I was sitting here tapping away on my laptop. I simply can't waste an opportunity like this.

Yes, it's a him. Male tree weta, hemideina thoracica. The jaw shape is unmistakeable.

So come on, folks, help me out with a few poll responses here. What shall be his fate?

Dave-

23rd January 2008, 23:31

probably a native....

Jeremy

23rd January 2008, 23:37

Let it go?

Ixion

23rd January 2008, 23:39

Get a gun and shoot the fuck.

jrandom

23rd January 2008, 23:39

Get a gun and shoot the fuck.

I can't. It'd wake bugjuice up (http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=65617).

howdamnhard

23rd January 2008, 23:56

Let it go.

jrandom

24th January 2008, 00:11

Well, for the time being he's tucking into a slice of apple.

Noisy bloody eater he is too!

Munch, munch, crunch, splatter...

turtleman

24th January 2008, 00:25

Nah, weta's are cool - let it go !

jrandom

24th January 2008, 00:30

Of course I'll let it go.

Right after I creep everyone out with it in the morning.

:devil2:

Romeo

24th January 2008, 03:06

How's about "pics or it didn't happen"?

Gremlin

24th January 2008, 04:10

How's about "pics or it didn't happen"?
I'm with him... I bet you're just making it up to sound cool... either that, or you saw it and screeched like a girl... (or maybe a high pitched motorbike ;))

Squashing it in your hand does make a nice crunching sound, and you can find out just how hard they are. Entertainment wise, much better to pester people with it first.

Nasty

24th January 2008, 05:23

Nah, weta's are cool - let it go !

+1 .. go on it ain't gonna kill ya!

Colapop

24th January 2008, 06:28

Welll.... You could become very quickly castrated by tormenting J with it... aaannnddd that would be absolutely hilarious... but painful...

I'd say ensure KYBoy gets a face full first thing... before slowly sauteing the sucker with a little piko piko and native beer juice!

gijoe1313

24th January 2008, 06:34

Create an aquarium micro climate for him and have him as part of the family? Piccies puhleeze!

I love creepy crawlies, fascinated by them I am! :o

imdying

24th January 2008, 06:38

Give it to the cat, but make sure you video it!

kiwifruit

24th January 2008, 06:56

pxplz .

idb

24th January 2008, 07:20

Caesar! Caesar! Caesar!

jrandom

24th January 2008, 07:49

007XX

24th January 2008, 07:54

I was going to get a photo of him sitting on my arm this morning, but I slept in and had to rush around like a mad thing, so he's safely tucked away in his tupperware until this evening, at which point I will take some snaps for evidence and posterity and then let him out into the bushes while whistling 'Born Free' very badly.

YAY!!!! :clap: Long live the big fat critter...

You're still going to creep everyone with it though, aren't you?;)

*Oh and btw...I thought it was "morituri te salutamus" ?*

Steam

24th January 2008, 07:57

Burn him!

10 char

jrandom

24th January 2008, 08:07

You're still going to creep everyone with it though, aren't you?

:clap:

Hey, if you're really lucky, he'll be annoyed with me for locking him up for 24 hours and proceed to chomp the fuck out of my arm, which Jody will then gleefully photograph.

*Oh and btw...I thought it was "morituri te salutamus" ?*

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naumachia), the only known literary reference to the phrase is in Suetonius's Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Claudius, XXI, where 'morituri te salutant' was used by condemned prisoners about to die in a mock naval battle.

The phrase's use by gladiators is apocryphal.

I learn something every day in the magical world of the internets!

007XX

24th January 2008, 08:23

:clap:

Hey, if you're really lucky, he'll be annoyed with me for locking him up for 24 hours and proceed to chomp the fuck out of my arm, which Jody will then gleefully photograph.

I don't think the native wetas are into North eastern European sausage...:laugh: :bleh:

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naumachia), the only known literary reference to the phrase is in Suetonius's Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Claudius, XXI, where 'morituri te salutant' was used by condemned prisoners about to die in a mock naval battle.

The phrase's use by gladiators is apocryphal.

I learn something every day in the magical world of the internets!

I got a bit of a thing against the Wikipedia...just can't bring myself to see it as a trutworthy source of information for some reason.

However, I found this:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/morituri%20te%20salutamus

which makes us both right :niceone:

The Pastor

24th January 2008, 08:24

a little bit of penut butter, normal butter in a pant with said circket, yummy

jrandom

24th January 2008, 08:27

... which makes us both right

It's not that 'morituri te salutamus' doesn't translate properly; it's the question of which, if any, phrase was ever actually used.

Wikipedia may not be that reliable, but I would have thought that Suetonius might have carried a little more weight...

:confused:

jrandom

24th January 2008, 08:28

I just had a thought.

It's a good thing wetas can't fly. Just imagine hitting one bang on with your visor at 150kph!

:laugh:

nodrog

24th January 2008, 08:36

I just had a thought.

It's a good thing wetas can't fly. Just imagine hitting one bang on with your visor at 150kph!

:laugh:

or with your open face helmet :crazy:

MSTRS

24th January 2008, 08:37

I just had a thought.

It's a good thing wetas can't fly. Just imagine hitting one bang on with your visor at 150kph!

:laugh:

I tried to imagine that....but failed. 150kph? Only loonies and child murderers would contemplate that sort of speed.
Oh, you meant on the track? The Pahiatua Track

007XX

24th January 2008, 08:39

It's not that 'morituri te salutamus' doesn't translate properly; it's the question of which, if any, phrase was ever actually used.

Wikipedia may not be that reliable, but I would have thought that Suetonius might have carried a little more weight...

:confused:

Most definitely...romans in their later years were known for their portliness, so I am sure his word had plenty of weight :laugh:

My argument not being with the narrator but rather on how accurately that word might have been passed to the next generation over the years...I was fascinated with Hadrian in my teenage years, as he was just a kick arse emperor who was (apparently) as bent as an aluminium tent pole in gale force winds...achieved amazing things though.

I hope you left some food for the Weta?

jrandom

24th January 2008, 08:41

I hope you left some food for the Weta?

Chopped and peeled chunks of ENZA's finest and a bottle cap full of water, thank you very much.

Never let it be said that the hospitality of chez random lessens for invertebrates!

Edit: Und ve sind nichten ze Deutschen! 'Weta' is not a proper noun, my dear lady. Leave that 'w' in the lower case.

idb

24th January 2008, 08:47

......I was fascinated with Hadrian in my teenage years, as he was just a kick arse emperor who was (apparently) as bent as an aluminium tent pole in gale force winds......
"Backs to the wall...Hadrian's about..."

007XX

24th January 2008, 08:50

"Backs to the wall...Hadrian's about..."

:laugh: Bling awarded, 'nuff said...as you were!

vifferman

24th January 2008, 09:33

"Backs to the wall...Hadrian's about..."
Oh! So that's why they built the wall! So everyone had a piece nearby when Hadrian was about.

99TLS

24th January 2008, 09:55

my cat brings a weta in every night , plays with it then eats it , so give it to yhe cat to play with

Lias

24th January 2008, 10:08

Where was the "see if it pops when you microwave it" option?

FilthyLuka

24th January 2008, 10:11

Oh! So that's why they built the wall! So everyone had a piece nearby when Hadrian was about.

i thought it had something to do with not needing no education?

Kittyhawk

24th January 2008, 11:10

They are beatiful creatures..... but when ya best mate catches one, puts it in a glass, and chases you with it running hard for a good 20 mins, while ya screaming like a girlygirl at the top of your lungs they arent cool!!!

No Im not scared of them....honest:whistle:

FilthyLuka

24th January 2008, 11:30

No Im not scared of them....honest:whistle:

bugs freak me out man. They still do, but running around like a girly girl doesn't really suit me. So i just went played around with spiders and weta's and such 'till they stopped being scary. I still jump when i turn around and there is a roach smiling at me from the wall, but atleast now i can pick 'em up and go put the cunt outside.

ehh, creepy crawlie thingies...

Kittyhawk

24th January 2008, 11:34

bugs freak me out man. They still do, but running around like a girly girl doesn't really suit me. So i just went played around with spiders and weta's and such 'till they stopped being scary. I still jump when i turn around and there is a roach smiling at me from the wall, but atleast now i can pick 'em up and go put the cunt outside.

ehh, creepy crawlie thingies...

Im a freak of nature!! but they are so small, and more scared of us becuase of our size.

If I see a spider/thing in the house I will freak, but will go catch it and put it outside. I dont do the flyspray thing. They are creatures of nature and are facinating. Im just a little scared is all lol.

vifferman

24th January 2008, 11:43

Wetas are usually timid and dopey, but not the last one I saw, which dropped off the wall onto our path while we were sitting outside a few weeks ago. I went to pick it up and put it in the leaf litter under the tree, and he got really aggro, and started attacking the leaf I was trying to coax him onto! :eek5:
I won in the end - I had about a 90kg weight advantage, and when he saw I was even uglier than him, he backed down.

jrandom

24th January 2008, 11:50

I still jump when i turn around and there is a roach smiling at me from the wall, but atleast now i can pick 'em up and go put the cunt outside.

Roaches are like possums; filthy immigrants that must die.

If I could find one, I'd put it in Mr Weta's box to be killed with extreme prejudice by the noble native.

Maybe I could dress it up as a Scottish tourist?

vifferman

24th January 2008, 12:04

Roaches are like possums; filthy immigrants that must die.
That's what I thought, but apparently, there are some small brown native ones, that eat only decayed vegetation and like that there. Those nasty big ones (especially the black ones) deserve all the death and mayhem they get.
They're blardy hardy though: I squished one on the doorstep, came back a couple of days later, and even thought it was comprehensively fukt, it was still wriggling! And if you absolutely cover them in bug spray, they take about four times as long to die as any other insect.

Usarka

24th January 2008, 12:16

I just had a thought.

It's a good thing wetas can't fly. Just imagine hitting one bang on with your visor at 150kph!

:laugh:

Make a little paper dart hang glider for the fulla.

Blue Velvet

24th January 2008, 12:21

Make a little paper dart hang glider for the fulla.

Awww, I had a nice mental picture of a happy weta hang gliding... Splat into a helmet coming towards him at 150km/h. Heh

SPman

24th January 2008, 12:47

.. at which point I will take some snaps for evidence and posterity and then let him out into the bushes while whistling 'Born Free' very badly.
Unless someone else has already let him out before you get home .......like...eventually, as you discover, ...into your undies heap..........:lol:

BIHB@0610

24th January 2008, 13:02

Unless someone else has already let him out before you get home .......like...eventually, as you discover, ...into your undies heap..........:lol:

he he ..... so you "WETA YOUR UNDIES" ow.

PrincessBandit

24th January 2008, 15:10

I love wetas. We used to have heaps of them round our place but they seem to have all disappeared (maybe our 3 cats ate them all?) When we had a huge tree stump removed professionally the guy who did it told me that you can tell wetas gender by (surprise surprise) looking at the rear end. A single long spiky thing is what the females lay their eggs from; males have the two little pincer type thingies, kinda like an earwig. Bit of useless information for the day.

sAsLEX

24th January 2008, 16:21

However, I found this:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/morituri%20te%20salutamus

which makes us both right :niceone:

I remember reciting verb ending in latin for fuckin years

O S T MUS TUS NT........... but alas like all useless information it is stored in the dark recesses of my mind.

Ques es struthio camelus depalatus?

I just had a thought.

It's a good thing wetas can't fly. Just imagine hitting one bang on with your visor at 150kph!

:laugh:

Would take a light weight weta over a huhu beetle any day. Those things are massive and hard!

FilthyLuka

24th January 2008, 21:03

this thread is Useless without pics.

come on man! where are they?

The Pastor

24th January 2008, 21:51

there was no weta

FilthyLuka

24th January 2008, 23:40

i feel cheated :(

Big Dave

25th January 2008, 06:24

Tupperware. How quaint.

jrandom

25th January 2008, 07:06

Here he is on the kitchen bench.

He wouldn't stay still on my arm and all I have is a crappy phone camera, so I'll try for a decent picture this evening.

(Yes, I rarked him up by tapping him on the back with a pen to get this display.)

<img src="http://i31.tinypic.com/iqxaxc.jpg"/>

007XX

25th January 2008, 07:30

I remember reciting verb ending in latin for fuckin years

O S T MUS TUS NT........... but alas like all useless information it is stored in the dark recesses of my mind.

:laugh: I know what you mean...personally, I stayed well away from latin classes...however, the particular sentence Jrandom and I were debating was a favourite saying of a geeky boyfriend of mine back in the days :p So, it kind of stuck as useful information for some reason :stupid:

u4ea

25th January 2008, 08:17

F5 Dave

25th January 2008, 15:55

I remember drawing the curtain & something jumping on my hand at which point I squealed like a schoolgirl. Weta landed on floor. Not my proudest moment.

He must have come in with the firewood, so I tried to pick him up to take him outside, but he was hanging onto the carpet for dear & didn’t want to dismember him, so gave him a grape to try lure him onto a floor tile & put a plastic container over so he would crawl on the tile to get the grape.

Next morning he & the grape were gone (but where did he go?). Despite the fact that there was only about a 5mm gap under the container where the tile met the carpet. OK maybe he was strong enough to lift it. But carrying a grape!?! It would have been too big to eat it all.

vixter

25th January 2008, 17:51

microwave the bugger then eat him

vixter

25th January 2008, 17:53

or ground him up and mix him with weed and smoke the bugger.... yup now thats the way but you still gotta watch him in the micro

YellowDog

25th January 2008, 18:00

RJ mate, this thing sounds gross. If you wait long enough, it will probably multiply.

jrandom

27th February 2008, 19:03

By the way, if anyone was wondering what happened to Mr Weta, he got a ride down to the central North Island in Betty's pannier bags, and kiwifruit and I released him in the forests of azure after the last MotoTT trackday.

Scuttle free, noble invertebrate!

:first:

Mikkel

27th February 2008, 19:13

What happened to the good old days when people would have gotten a roll of duct tape out and gotten down and dirty? :blip:

My sister and her boyfriend got a video of a sparrow pwning a Huhu beetle over by Fox Glacier. Looked pretty cool!