There are several programming techniques to avoid bugs in our programs, the problem is no one uses them!

Seriously, I don’t know of any programming technique that keeps you from adding some bugs here or there in your programs, regardless of the programming language, the programming platform or environment, or even the programming methodology or practices you are using. The only one “technique” I know of, and I use to rely on it a lot, to avoid bugs in my programs or pieces of code is careful attention, and tons and tons of tests before actually letting it go. I usually don’t trust computers, even my own code, until I see it working right for the most part or for 99% of the time. And if I understand correctly, there is only one way of producing 100% bug free code…. Not writing it.

Below is a link to a post from Wil Shipley’s blog at Blogger.com where he discusses some programming tips for young and not so young programmers about how we should code when we want to code something. Just to give you a taste of what he says:

“Think first. Think some more. Think about the whole problem. Think about a little part of the problem you’re going to start with. Think about the whole thing again, in relation to your idea on the starting point.”

If you noticed, there is not one line of  code written yet. Give it a read, it is really good and highly recommended.

http://wilshipley.com/blog/2005/02/free-programming-tips-are-worth-every.html

Since there’s no way to have programs without writing code, one good way to avoid bugs is to pay attention to whatever code we are writing, as well as verifying our code by letting others see it or review it. Although there is no warranty, this method has worked very well for me in the past. There’s no such thing as avoiding bugs by not writing any code.

Questo, que lotro…, salud!

NATURE’S EXTERMINATING CO.
We use natural methods to rid your home of buggiez.

iznt u scarred?

Picture by: cookiescookies Caption by: mserio via Loldog Builder

» Recaption This!

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So yesterday I spent the afternoon in a local ravine (Glen Manor Ravine – or maybe it’s Trail). I took a ton of shots but many just aren’t cutting it for me. This little lady big walking the rail was a lucky catch. I took a bunch of photos of her, this one being my favourite.

These are kind of like a Palomino Midge pattern. I used a size 18 hook and 14/0 thread (black and gray). The extended body is the micro dubbing brush, the wing is packing bubble wrap pieces and the wing case is pink antron on the left and cream on the right. I am not certain the bubble wrap material would float the pattern. I tied a half dozen to experiment with later. Below, I experimented with a midge pattern where you tie it in reverse. I have fascinated with these reverse ties (wing, thorax at the bend rather than up at the eye of the hook). I tied the below pattern on a size 18 hook. Once again, it is a bit daunting to see how sloppy a pattern looks when the macro lens captures every errant thread wrap or wayward hackle fiber. The hackle was much too big for the below pattern. Guess that is ok… Makes the work of the master photographers all the more impressive.

UKFlyDressing.com (Check Out All the Step by Steps)

• Sense Hofstede: Ubuntu Bug Control starts mentoring. Reporting bugs is an important part of using open source software so they can get squashed and in time others won’t have to deal with them. Of course there are already a lot of bugs reported, with many of them unconfirmed. Any user can help simply by triaging bugs to confirm the bug and the package it’s in. Sense has some very easy info on how to help with triaging.
• Stefano Forenza: Ubuntu One Music Store. You read that right, Canonical wants to include a way to buy music within next spring’s Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Linx. Stefano also has a follow-up post with answers to some questions that came up in his original post. Welcome back, Stefano!
• Aaron Toponce: Debian – The Universal Operating System. While Debian (the foundation for the Ubuntu family of GNU/Linux operating systems) isn’t perfect, is is pretty powerful, not to mention flexible as hell. Aaron gives us a great overview of Debian. Even I didn’t realize Debian was so good.
• Stefano Forenza: No more Gimp for you little Joe. Stefano mentioned it before, but it’s been confirmed. Gimp will no longer be part of the default installation of Ubuntu, although they are keeping F-Spot for image editing. In all honesty I have to admit that the Gimp doesn’t have the best UI, but I use it regularly. I tried F-Spot before, and with some versions I couldn’t get the damned thing open, while in others I was just so overwhelmed trying to figure out how to use it I shut it down and opened my image up in the Gimp. Luckily you can install Gimp easily, so you won’t have to jump through too many hoops. We’ll have to wait and see if in-place upgrading to 10.04 deletes Gimp. If it does I’m going to be one ticked off penguin.
• Danielle Madeley: Why Telepathy is not like libpurple. Some people think Telepathy, Ubuntu 9.10’s default messaging client, is like Pidgin, the client so many of us have come to love over the years. Danielle shows that they are two very different apps. Thanks for the clarification, Danielle, even though I still prefer to use Pidgin.
• Maia Kozheva: UI Rant: Computer Janitor. Thank the diety I’m not the only one who thinks Computer Janitor has one of the fugliest interfaces I’ve ever seen. Dude, we’ve gotta get this fixed and soon if we want people to use it.
• Anirudh Acharya: Chrome OS: First Impressions… Artem Nosulchik and Stefano Forenza have both written nice articles on the newly announced Google ChromeOS, but the developer of Mac4Lin gave it a spin and shares his thoughts, as well as some screenshots.
• Christoph Langher: Secure and unique passwords with PwdHash for Chromium. I asked for help with an add-on for Chrom[e|ium], but Christoph has found a Chrom[e|ium] version of a Firefox add-on that he is damned glad to find.

To those who live in the States I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. But be careful when selecting your bird. I hear they’re fighting back this year.

Ei pandas!

Eu estava no minha casa no árvore e resolvi comprar uns puff’s brancos!

Eu abri o catálogo de móveis e fui até a página do puff e vi que ele só estava disponível para assinantes!

Eu não entendi nada porque antes ele era disponível para todos!

Então eu cliquei e olha o que apareceu:

Dava para comprar mas lá no catalogo estava que era só para assinantes!

Por isso que eu digo:O henry está maluco,precisa de remédios urgentemente!!

Tchau!

I hit the error below during startup of my 10.2.0.1 RAC installation running on Solaris X86-64 on VMWare

ORA-00600: internal error code, arguments: [kcratr1_lastbwr], [], [], [], [],[], [], []

Basically none of the instances start-up with srvctl command and log this error to alert log.

Tried to run manual startup of instances but no chance same error.

Quick search on MOS (yes it was working ) take me to the note 393984.1 (no bug number)

It says this is a bug on Enterprise Edition – Version: 10.2.0.1 to 11.1.0.6.0

Solution is manual recovery.

SQL> startup;
        ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area  369098752 bytes
Fixed Size                  2020864 bytes
Variable Size             138414592 bytes
Database Buffers          226492416 bytes
Redo Buffers                2170880 bytes
Database mounted.
ORA-00600: internal error code, arguments: [kcratr1_lastbwr], [], [], [], [],
[], [], []

SQL> recover database;
Media recovery complete.
SQL> alter database open;

Database altered.

Where do yours’ go? I have plastic bins of IDK patterns.  I Don’t Know what they were suppose to be. Often I tied with improvisation, trying to not so much match anything as create something interesting, and to me enticing to the trout. Not a good process. Better to match something then improvise and then keep it in the ballpark of reality. Yet, hundreds of flies fill plastic bins. Flies that rarely saw water, immediately rejected at the vise or removed from a box after dozens of mental rejections on the water. Sometimes, I find a few like these that actually seem OK rather than IDK……….

Flashlights…
Canopy search
…Bugs instead

The new Amarok 2.2.1 is great. Editing metadata finally seems not to disturb Amarok’s stability and doesn’t make the collection scanner choke and eat endless amounts of memory. And finally I can use it as the coolest “ambient” music player again: Party mode is back. Err, okay it was back before – BUT: it finally works. Not to forget to mention its performance has vastly improved. To conclude these words: Yeah, it’s finally back on my desktop. Thank you, dear Amarok team. Great job!

But of course my increased usage puts the spot on all the bad things I start to discover. It’s my contribution to an ongoing rant on Amarok. There are some things I hate. And I really hate them. At least there seems to be no more show-stoppers now (or I didn’t discover them yet). Here is what I hate:

The Redesign of the Toolbar

That is really annoying. What did you guys think when you moved the playlist buttons to the middle? This makes in no way sense to me, because:

• I have my Amarok OSD in the top center of the screen – exactly where the buttons are. Changing the track covers the buttons. I fixed this by changing to the slim toolbar but I miss the big buttons then (which I hated when they first came up btw).
  
• It is waste of screen real estate. Come on? We are all going to have widescreens. And what do you guys do? You make a redesign targetted to good old 4:3 times: Less width, more height. The now-ultra-long progress bar looks ugly. The new layout has no place for important and/or useful buttons and info texts which could’ve been put there otherwise. In the end it’s totally counter-productive to the 3-column widescreen layout of Amarok. Please change that.
  

Strange Bugs

Many new bugs have been introduced, some old annoying bugs still remain:

• You cannot remove track numbers from the metadata. Once set, they will always remain there. Trying to remove them and tabbing to the next field simply make the numbers reappear. Clicking on “save” while still in the field also doesn’t help – it’s just ignored and reset to the previous value. Does nobody use the metadata editor that it is treated such poorly?
• Using the metadata editor often results in Amarok to freeze for some seconds (the sound however continues to play, so it’s not that annoying).
• The playlist still has strange ideas of what should be grouped together and what not – most often when you remove a track from the playlist.
• ALL MY SONGS ARE ZERO SECONDS LONG?! No, I can’t believe that! BTW: The progress bar shows interesting timing information because of that. I first thought this was one of the hard-to-understand inventions of the developers before I realized that it is directly connected to the zero-second long tracks. See the above screenshots.
• Removing the current played track from the playlist makes Amarok jump to the start of the playlist instead of stepping to the “next” song. It’s annoying. I step into that pitfall over and over again (removing a track and skipping to next song afterwards). Argh!
• I’m pretty clueless about how the replay-gain feature works. Where’s the automatic gain scanner and volume adjustment I so much loved in Amarok 1.4? I have the suspicion that this setting simply does nothing. My collection has replay-gain tags but songs come out of my speakers at surprisingly (and disturbing) different volume levels. I consider that non-working and thus a bug.

Final Words

You lucky guys: I’m still hoping. No wrong… I’ve got hope again. Seems you are finally concentrating on fixing bugs instead of inventing strange new features. Hmm, oh well – wrong again. Your new toolbar is a strange new invention. At least you fixed some annoying bugs. Yeah, probably in the end, perhaps, maybe you rock… Keen on the next release.

Wonderful sight

This was so great I was able to go to one inch up to this Spider that had made this awesome web between two Junipers in our backyard, every day we, the kids and I had a chance to see what this amazing Spider was up to.  Sometimes it was hiding in the Juniper waiting for some action.  This time it was I believe feeding on a bug.  It was interesting depends from what side I approached this Spider it would see me and move back to its hiding spot.  If I came toward it from his top it would not move so I can only think it did not see me and I was so happy to get these beautiful pictures so close up.

“Spider, Spider what do you see

Not me………

Come closer so I see you

Let me look at you ……ohhhh so beautiful what a delicate web

Just look, don’t touch,

 I will take care of you…..just look

I’ll be good to you”

By Jacqueline Grice

Emperor scorpions Pandinus imperator have long been one of the easiest and most popular arachnids to keep in captivity.  Their acclaim existed even before they made their large screen debut in the Universal Pictures wildly popular movie The Scorpion King. Since that time, many people have pursued the dream of obtaining one of these fascinating creatures.  Within the herpetoculture industry, these scorpions are already well known.  They have been kept, maintained, and even bred for quite some time.  That being said, it is widely accepted and acknowledged that most of the Emperors Pandinus imperator in captivity today are wild caught imports.  After all, it is far easier and more cost effective for wholesalers to import these coveted arachnids than it is to search and find people who are breeding them in captivity with any regularity that could be depended upon.  It is due to this fact alone that today they are listed on the CITES II index; meaning that this and the other two species of Pandinus spp being imported for sale are now considered a “species to be watched.”  My observation is that since CITES made this proclamation, I have seen a marked decrease in the sheer quantity available in the pet trade.

Description

If for whatever reason you have somehow managed to avoid seeing the movie or previews and trailers for “The Scorpion King,” then I will describe Pandinus imperator for you.  P. imperator is sometimes described by some, as a huge black scorpion with pincers (properly known as pedipalps) that look as though they could snap a pencil or perhaps even an unwary finger.

I describe them as a larger, almost lacquered, black-looking scorpion with large pedipalps and fine sensory hairs that cover the body.  Speaking of pedipalps, it is a known fact that if a Scorpion has large pedipalps, the venom is always less toxic when compared with those species that have smaller pedipalps.  A technical description would be that they measure at an adult size of 20cm; pregnant females have weighed in at 32 grams and all P. imperator are black in color.

Describing the specifics of the scorpion’s physiology is somewhat difficult.

Looking down on any scorpion, the first part of the body most would notice are the “arms.”  The large, somewhat bulbous shape where the claw is located is known overall as the “chela.”  The movable piece of the chela is the “tarsus” while the other is called the “manus.”  From the tip of the chela or pincers to where it meets, the body is known as the pedipalps.  The mouthparts are located directly in between the pedipalps and are known as “chelicerae.”  These are what the scorpion uses to tear off bits of food that it has caught.

The next most recognizable section to most would be the “metasoma” or tail, which are the segments that begin immediately at the edge of the body and stretch to the all too-famous stinger.  The stinger itself is actually two separate parts; the large bulb where the scorpions’ venom is stored is known as the “Vesicle” while the stinging point itself is known as the “Aculeus.”  The two parts together are known as the “telson.”

Taxonomy

The taxonomy of the genus Pandinus is one that currently holds within it 24 species,[i] three of which are readily available in the herpetoculture industry.  Pandinus imperator, P. cavimanus, & P. viatorus are the most common available species when it comes to African scorpions.  The P. imperator is the Emperor scorpion, which this article covers.  The two other species that are commonly found for sale are the P. cavimanus, which is normally sold under the name of “Tasmanian Red Claw Scorpion” while the other P. viatorus is commonly sold as the “African Red Claw Scorpion.”  These other two species are somewhat easily identified because they are an accurate physical representation of their common names and they have an obvious reddish hue to their chela or front claws.  The Red Claws are also usually more aggressive and slightly smaller than the P. imperator.

Natural Habitat

P. imperator is chiefly located in Western Africa.  , Additionally, they’ve been known to be found in the countries of Gabon, Senegal, and Togo as well as other countries near the equator.  In these countries, they are found in the humid rainforests living in tunnels near the surface of the rainforest leaf litter.  They have also been said by one source to be found near stream banks[ii].  The same source also claims that if prey is plentiful enough, they can be found in large colonies.  One study by D. Mahsberg says that one colony was discovered containing 15 separate individuals[iii].

Selecting a Healthy Scorpion

When shopping for a new pet scorpion it can be difficult to decide which is healthy and which are sick or diseased.  To tell the truth, I do not know of anyone who can accurately select a healthy scorpion simply by sight alone.  As stated earlier, most if not all scorpions found within the trade, unless specifically labeled, are probably wild caught and will have some type of internal parasites.  Currently there are no medical or practical ways available to rid the scorpions of these parasites.

Stress is a common term used when dealing with pets of all sorts within the pet industry.  We must understand however, that scorpions are an ancient animal which has traditionally lived and thrived under stressful conditions.  Stress as defined by humans is an emotional state of mind, which involves nervous signals and different brain chemistry.  For the scorpion, however there is no emotion involved according to scientists.  If the claims made by the scientific community are accurate, then the scorpion is simply reacting to instinctual survival skills that it’s developed over the millennia.  The same survival skills that have allowed them to populated the earth.

When I go to purchase a scorpion in any retail shop.  I will usually ask the sales people some general questions.  My inquiries typically begin with surface subject matter such as the scorpion’s feeding habits.  If the scorpion happens to be in a communal enclosure, which I have seen them kept in many of the local pet shops, I will usually ask for one or two of them to be removed from the enclosure and housed or placed in a different enclosure so I can examine it more closely.  I will typically look for one that is alert and readily assumes a defense posture when it is disturbed.  Sometimes when I have doubts if the particular scorpion that I am looking at is alert, I will ask the salesperson to feed it or gently prod it and then I’ll monitor the reaction.

I will then compare it to the others in the enclosure it was removed from.  Does it appear to have the same weight?  Does it react sluggishly?  Etc.  It is usually a safe bet that if the scorpion reacts quickly to being disturbed and has what appears to be the same weight as its peers, then you can be relatively sure that you are looking at a healthy scorpion.

Captive Enclosure

Now that you have purchased your new pet, it’s time to consider where you’re going to put it.  This may very well be one of the most important decisions you will make to insure the well-being of the scorpion.  In the description area of this article, I mentioned that the body and pedipalps were covered in sensory hairs.  Believe it or not, these fine hairs can detect vibrations in the air itself.  As you you’ve probably already deduced, placing your new pet in an area where you and your friends regularly hold band practice would not be a prime piece of real estate.

Personally, I have my scorpions placed in a low foot traffic area where the music and any other such loud “noise” would not be a disturbance to them.  That being said, I would highly recommend that you house any scorpions separately from each other and not let them come together except for breeding, which will be covered later.  I am of the opinion that a single adult Pandinus imperator can be housed in a 10-gallon breeder tank which measures 20 ^¼” x 10 ^½” x 12 ^9/16”.  This enclosure can house an adult P. imperator and all the accessories that you may need in order to keep it in a healthful state.

Substrate

As with the keeping of any enclosed arachnid, the choices for substrates are as varied as the opinions of those who own them.  A number of keepers recommend a peat and vermiculite mix.  Others recommend a mixture of sand and peat.  There are still others who maintain that potting soil works just fine.  There are a number of substrates commercially available, making the deliberation process of mixtures a moot point.  I will mention a few here just for the sake of completeness.

Forest Floor Bedding and Eco Earth® both by Zoo Med are humidity-holding substrates that will work well for P. imperator. In my observations, however the Eco Earth® tends to compact over time and dry out relatively quickly.  I’ve concluded that this phenomenon may be exacerbated by the fact that I live in a very dry climate.  The Forest Floor Bedding tends to hold moisture well enough, but with its large pieces of shredded wood, it’s not aesthetically pleasing.

Jungle Bed, Cypress Bed, and Forest Bed by T-Rex® are all great products, which I have used in several if not all of my enclosures.  If you want to do a planted vivarium with your P. imperator then I would recommend going with the Jungle Bed.  The Cypress Bed will also work, but again, it is a little too chunky in appearance for my tastes.  Forest Bed does not seem to compact as quickly as the Eco Earth® and it seems to retain it’s its moisture better, even in the drier climates.

As for my personal collection of Emperor Scorpions P. imperator, I use nothing more than groundcover bark, which can be purchased at most home improvement stores.  This substrate not only costs less than the ones mentioned above, but it also retains moisture, is easily spot-cleaned, and can dry out quickly if needed.  While the concept of “drying out quicker” may seem an oxymoron, let me explain.  There are times when with the best of intentions, we tend to overdo the basics of care.

Trying to increase and decrease humidity in some climates can be somewhat of a chore.  There is either too much heat or not enough moisture, or too much moisture and not enough heat to create the needed humidity.  I have found that in my particular climate, the groundcover bark works extremely well at maintaining a nice balance between the heat and humidity.

Burrowing

Emperor Scorpions P. imperator is known as a burrowing species, which will dig their own burrows if given the proper substrate.  I have never attempted the method recommended by some keepers, which is to start a burrow for them by digging down into the substrate.  On their behalf supposedly, if you begin a burrow for them in a substrate of mixed peat and sand, when they dig the rest of it out for themselves, the burrow will hold its shape and not collapse.  As I stated previously, I keep my collection of P. imperator on groundcover bark.  The only negative side effect of this material is that it simply will not readily hold a burrow unless it was mixed with some other type of substrate.

In order to provide them with a burrow, you can do one of two things.  You can buy a reptile hide of the appropriate size and place it in the bottom of the enclosure.  By establishing the entrance slightly angled towards the surface, the scorpion can enter it easily.  The other option, which is much more cost effective, is the one I use.

Appropriate an old toilet paper tube, strip any remaining pieces of paper, place it in the corner of the enclosure with about a ½” of substrate beneath it, and then bury the entire tube with only the entrance exposed.  The scorpion will quickly discover this new hide, immediately enter it, and make use of it.  As with any paper- based product, moisture will eventually break it down.  For this reason, I usually keep an extra few on hand.  Paper towel rolls can also be used after they are cut and fashioned to the appropriate size.

Décor

When it comes to decorating any vivarium, I will always strive to make it as natural looking and feeling for the creature as possible.  While I’m interested in making it as aesthetically pleasing as possible, the basic living requirements of the scorpion need to be the priority.  With the Emperor Scorpion P. imperator, selecting decor can be somewhat troublesome.  If you choose to make a natural vivarium for your new pet, or if you’re considering upgrading your old vivarium to a new and improved design, the following should help.

The enclosure size should be a regular 10-gallon fish tank with a screen lid, which can be clipped in place.  Now it comes time to make choices regarding hydration.  You never want to have standing water on any substrate for more than a day.  This could cause a fungal or mold bloom within the enclosure, which might harm your pet.  In order to counteract this, I recommend using a layer of pea gravel, Hydro stones by Zoo Med, or aquarium gravel at about 1” in depth.  Next add a layer of 2 ½ -3” of Jungle Bed by T-Rex®.  With the Jungle Bed in place, you are now ready to plant live plants of your choice.  There is nothing that I can find that says or documents that specific plants will cause harm to scorpions, but to be on the safe side of things, I use reptile-safe vivarium plants.  These can be Pothos, and various other tropical type plants such as ferns, etc.  Some of my clients have chosen to avoid maintenance issues associated with live plants and instead use plastic.  They use the artificial plant life in the same set-up as described above.

Lighting

If you are going to do a natural set-up, then one of the most important is a full-spectrum fluorescent bulb set for a normal 12 hr cycle, which will provide the needed light for the plants to stay healthy.  Since Emperor Scorpions P. imperator are a nocturnal species without bones, they do not require a source of UVB.  To add some interesting effects to the enclosure and your pet itself, I highly recommend acquiring a black light.  This actually causes any Scorpion to fluoresce an eerie bluish green color.  As far as I have discovered, usage of the black light has no  observable negative effects on the plants themselves.  I have yet to discover any documentation that addresses the scorpion’s inherent capacity to fluoresce.  More importantly, little discourse is given regarding why they developed this capability or what purpose it would serve.

Heat

Most keepers recommend a temperature somewhere between 78-82˚ F.  Depending on how warm you keep the room where your Emperor Scorpion(s) P. imperator is to be kept, you may be able to get away without using a heater at all.  For the rest of us an Under Tank Heater will suffice because it only raises the temperature by about 10˚ F.  However, you must be careful and observant that you remember to unplug this U.T.H. during the summer months.  Otherwise, you will cause undue stress and even worse, possibly “cook” your pet.  U.T.H. in my opinion should never be used with plastic terraria as it may melt the artificial terrain.  While I’ve yet to hear any first hand reports of this phenomenon, there are documented incidents that have appeared in various magazines and blogs on the internet.

Feeding

Emperor Scorpions P. imperator in the wild eats a varied diet of arthropods and other insects including.  This can include other scorpions.  In captivity, I would recommend a diet comprised of crickets, with the occasional mealworm or roach thrown in just to add variety every once in awhile.  I feed my scorpions once a week, usually three or four crickets at a time.  Now, I am sure everyone has heard of P. imperator eating pinkies or has seen a web broadcast video of such feats.  While this might seem a viable choice to some readers, it should be noted that this is not a recommended food source for the Emperor Scorpion P. imperator.  

Maintenance

In my experience, daily maintenance is not required.  That being said, I personally perform and recommend a weekly regiment of spot cleaning.  Additionally, a more intense cleaning should occur monthly, or at the very least, bi-monthly.  This includes completely emptying the contents of the enclosure and disinfecting it with a mild bleach solution.

Water

There are those of the opinion that a constant supply of fresh water must always be available to the Emperor Scorpion P. imperator. Other sources tell us that leaving a shallow dish with pea gravel in it to prevent drowning offered once a week is more than sufficient to quench the occasional thirst of our pets.  As for myself, I once again try to make the environment as natural as possible.  This means building depressions in the substrate that I am using and misting the enclosure either daily or every few days to allow the scorpion to drink as it would in the wild.  Meaning, ingesting fluids from the ground or the droplets that catch on its tiny hairs that cover the body.

Breeding

As you become more comfortable with the Emperor Scorpion P. imperator, you may find that your confidence leads you to start thinking of breeding these interesting arthropods so that future generations may enjoy them.  This is a great thought and one I encourage any scorpion owner to consider.  We can never tell when the CITES committee will decide that the endemic populations are so threatened, that they close the proverbial door to any export of Emperor Scorpion P. imperator.

As with any attempt at breeding animals, the very first thing that should be done is to insure that you have a viable pair.  This means we need to get up close and personal with our scorpions.  Normally I address this awkwardness with humor.  A few knock-knock jokes grease the situation to my advantage, granting me access to viewing the full range of their “equipment.”  The best way to sex any scorpion is to look at adults.  Typically speaking, males will have longer pectines, which can occasionally be slightly curved.  These pectine will also have more “teeth” than females of the same species.  This classification process can be even further facilitated if you are able to examine several scorpions at the time of purchase, providing that they are all relatively the same size.

Another clue as to the sex of the scorpion is that of size.  Males are smaller than their female counterpart of their species.  Another clue as to the gender can also be found on the pincers or chelas.  The granularity or bumps on the chela themselves are more in number on the males of P. ssp than they are on the females.

Cooling

It has not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that scorpions, much like snakes and lizards, must undergo a winter cooling period.  However, it would appear that the success rate is much higher when they are cooled for a couple of months during the winter season.  It is also a generally accepted practice to allow the scorpions to fast during these cooling periods.  When cooling scorpions, it does not seem necessary to gradually drop the temperature as you would with reptile species.  With mine, I simply follow the normal cycle of the seasons, meaning that during the winter my home is generally cooler than it is during the summer and spring.  It is at this time that I cease feeding and spraying, allowing the temperature to drop about 10 to 15˚F.  The photoperiod or lighting is also adjusted to simulate the seasonal change.

Winter Nap

Under normal circumstances, I will not try to cool my scorpions until January or February.  This is because I wait until the advent of spring to prompt me to reintegrate heating and spraying them again on a regular basis.  In the months prior, and during the cooling months, the entire enclosure is not cleaned at all and a flat rock or piece of bark is placed into the females’ enclosure.  Then both the male and female enclosures are placed into a dark closet where they will remain undisturbed.

I strongly suggest placing a shallow dish of water within the enclosure to avoid dehydration during the cooling periods.  The only thing I do during this near-hibernation process is that I’ll open the closet and check to make sure that there is water available.  Even then, I’m doing this with great care and only once a month.  Any “major” disturbance at this time may be detrimental to the health of scorpion.

Spring Wake Up

At the advent of spring, I will bring the enclosures out and begin heating again to normal temperatures for a few days before I offer food.  When food is eventually offered, the males will sometimes not feed and appear to be constantly agitated.  However, their female counterparts have a much different perspective.  Instead, the females will be gluttonous in their feeding.  This is all considered to be normal behavior and should be no cause for alarm.  Feed the scorpions as much as they will eat for the next month or so.  During the second week of the spring wake-up process, begin spraying the enclosures as you would normally during the year.  This can be likened to a simulation of the spring rains that would accompany higher prey availability.

Bringing the happy couple together

This is the part where keepers really have to be careful.  As we already know, scorpions have no issues about eating their own.  So what is a scorpion keeper to do?  There are a couple of measures we as humans can do to prevent our unfortunate male scorpions from becoming just another meal for our females.  I wish I had been granted similar advice with my first wife!

First, the adult Emperor Scorpion P. imperator should not be bred until they are about four years in age.  Most breeders believe that they reach full maturity at this age.  Although there have been reported cases of them breeding much earlier, I believe the stress of doing this would be detrimental to the long-term health of your pets.

The male should always be placed within the females’ enclosure.  While this is not a documented and proven method, it’s one that has been successful for me in my experiences.  This works because the female lays sexual pheromones throughout her enclosure as she wanders around.  Males encounter these chemical cues in the wild when they crossed a females’ burrow.  These chemical cues excite the male so much that he begins vibrating his body and the female sensing these vibrations, charges the male in a mock combat situation.  While this may seem alarming at first, you should not interfere.  Allow them to lock pedipalps and stand back and watch.  This may be a good moment to obtain some tasty popcorn.  The male will typically search for a suitable place to drop or place his spermatophore and then drag the female over it.

When this is done, she will pick up the sperm with her own pectine, forcing it within her operculum.  During this process, the male may sting the female.  This is apparently to save his own life as it only anesthetizes the female long enough for him to lay the spermatophore and pull her over it.  After she inseminates herself, they will unlock and the male will attempt to beat a hasty retreat.  Here’s where the popcorn munching becomes more frantic, because now is the time when the female will typically attempt to kill the male.  Should you be so lucky or patient enough, as soon as they unlock the pedipalps, you may want to take mercy on your male scorpion and judiciously remove the male from the potential melee.

Gestation & Birth

After a mating, the female should be fed regularly as she may absorb the embryos if she is not.  During the gestation, there will be little if any noticeable change in the female.  However, within the last month of the gestation, the females’ body will increase in size and it may be possible to see tiny babies within her through the skin between the plates of her chitin shell.  It is at this time you should heat the enclosures basking area to at least 82˚ F and keep it there constantly.  Gestation will last anywhere between seven and nine months long.  A normal birthing of anywhere between 10 to 32 young have been recorded.  The larger birth number is probably attributed to the more mature females.  In addition, it is worth mentioning that scorpions do not lay eggs and that they indeed give live birth.  The female usually goes off feed for a week or so and becomes very reclusive, usually refusing to exit the hide.

Then after the babies are born, she will appear from the hide and should be fed as much as she will eat.  This is done for two reasons.  Not only will she be weak from the birth process but she will also cannibalize the babies if she is not fed properly.  When the babies are born, they immediately climb onto the mothers back and ride around with her for about a week until their first molt also known as the first “instar”.  Instars are the number of molts for any arachnid until they reach sexual maturity.  You should also be careful to remove any uneaten live crickets from the enclosure, since they can act as predator on the baby scorpions.  If this does need to be done, you must be very wary of the female who may take your movement as signs of a hostile invasion, and attempt to attack in order to defend her offspring.

Raising the Little Folk

With baby Emperor Scorpions P. imperator, I usually keep them with a basking spot of 90˚ F and 100% humidity with the entire enclosure, as they are highly susceptible to desiccation.  Other than those two specifics, there is really nothing out of the ordinary for keeping the little guys growing.  Obviously, they will not take as large a prey as their adult parents so I feed them small crickets and or mealworms.  Most will not survive to adulthood no matter what amount care is given.  This doesn’t mean you should give any less amount of care; I only mention this so it will not be a shock when it does happen.  I also recommend keeping a very shallow dish of water with a sponge in it to prevent drowning of the babies.

Emperor Scorpions as Ambassadors

Pandinus imperator could possibly be the number one ambassador into the world of keeping arachnid pets.  They are easily cared for by both the novice and advanced keeper.  Their lack of aggression also appeals to most of those who have never kept a scorpion species as a pet.  Although they are not as readily available in numbers as they once were, they are still found relatively easily and should be viewed as truly unique pets that will bring many years of enjoyment to the conscientious keeper who is willing to take on an interesting and unusual species.

[ii] Rubio Manny, Scorpions A Complete Owners Manual Barron’s Educational Series 2000

[iii] Mahsberg, D. (1990) Brood care and family cohesion in the tropical scorpion.  http://md1.csa.com/partners/viewrecord.php?requester=gs&collection=ENV&recid=2456547&q=Mahsberg%2C+D.+%281990%29+Brood+care+and+family+cohesion+in+the+tropical+scorpion+&uid=791887046&setcookie=yes

This evening I spotted this guy (or gal) resting on a branch of one of my orchids. When I first saw it I thought it was eating something. I brought in a couple of cuttings from the garden in late fall, and noticed a short while later that there were some aphids on the tomato. I collected up the ladybugs each time I spotted one in the house and placed it on the plant hoping they might help control the little plantsuckers. I suspect they were mostly interested in finding a place to hole up for the winter, and not so much in eating, but the aphids seem to be gone now so if the ladybugs didn’t eat them they must have died on their own. Although I thought it strange that the aphids had migrated to the orchid, both because I thought the aphids gone and the orchid’s flower scape is tough-skinned, not easy to bite through like the tomato plant, I nonetheless was relieved to see that the ladybug had found one and was doing the job it had been imported into North America for.

Then I had to look closer. Was it really eating an aphid? It seemed to be taking longer than I would expect an aphid to require, though I’ll admit I’ve never watched a ladybug eat an aphid before and for all I know they could take their sweet time savouring every bite. I was a bit puzzled. There seemed to be something sticking out from its mouth area, but it didn’t actually look altogether aphid-y.

Finally it pulled its legs away and I realized the yellowish things I’d been looking at were the insect’s mouthparts. The movement I had been observing was the ladybug cleaning its legs, very fastidiously. Perhaps because at this time of year there isn’t a whole lot else to do, it had been taking its time about it, making sure every last speck of dust was removed and every hair was in place. It looked like it had some work to do on its elytra once it was done.

We don’t really tend to think of ladybugs as having a third body segment, but the white-and-black “head” that’s in front of the red wing covers is the pronotum, the middle segment of the insect’s three-segmented body. In front of that, and usually tucked underneath as the ladybug trundles along, is the head and eyes. The big yellow pads sticking out from its mouth are its maxillae, which it uses to manipulate food while eating it, a little like we use our tongue.

For much of the time while I watched the ladybug dangled from the orchid scape, holding on by just one hind foot, equipped with a strong claw for just such a purpose. Look at the angle it’s held at. If I was dangling off something by just one limb, you can bet that limb would be straightened out and stretched to the max as I desperately tried not to let go. It’s amazing how strong these bugs are.

Gente eu tava Pinguinando no QG quando de repente:

Hiiiiyaaaaaaa…….

I’m back…

With another of my insane posts

Here’s pesh-ofying one of my insane efforts at Parodying 

 Excited…!! you bet I am…

But then I’m also scared how you guys are gonna react to this one

I listen to a lot of PCD arthaarth Pussy Cat Dolls songs…

So here’s one of their songs Parodied in my blog… Mind you its one of my fav songs… and I was sceptical of parody-ing it… but life mein risk nai liyaa tho kya kiya ;)  (if u dont take risks in life than u’ve nt done anythin at all <aah… saintly thoughts of mine > )

So here the song I hate this part right here by PCD… parodied by Me, Myself and I   

so read on guys… meanwhile i stutter and splutter about your reactions    

I hate this part right here ~ PCD

We’re reading slow through the codes on PC Avenue
And right now TL’s Voice all that I  can hear
Now I ain’t clubbed since we coded, it’s so overdue
It’s cold outside but between us it’s worse in here

The code slows down
As  my eyes scan fast right now
I know this is the part
Where bug-fixing starts

I can’t take it any longer
Thought that codes were stronger
All we do is linger
Slipping bugs through our fingers
I don’t wanna try now
All that’s left’s goodnight
To find a way that I can fix you
I hate this part right here
I hate this bug right here
I just can’t take your codes
I hate this part right here

Everyday, several stares of the same old screen
Seems I am bound by the laws of the same routine
Gotta fix you right now ‘fore i go to sleep
But will i sleep till I figure out wats bugging me

The code slows down
as my eyes scan fast right now
I know this is the part
Where bug-fixing starts

I can’t take it any longer
Thought that codes were stronger
All we do is linger
Slipping bugs through our fingers
I don’t wanna try now
All that’s left’s good night
To find a way that I can fix you
I hate this part right here
I hate this bug right here
I just can’t take your codes
I hate this part right here

I know you’ll ask me to hold on
And carry on like nothing’s wrong
But there is no more time for  lies
‘Cause I see anger in TL’s eyes

I can’t take it any longer
Thought that codes were stronger
All we do is linger
Slipping bugs through our fingers
I don’t wanna try now
All that’s left’s good night
To find a way that I can fix you

That I gotta fix it,
I gotta fix  it,
I gotta fix  it
I hate this bug
I gotta fix  it,
I gotta fix  it,
I gotta fix  it

I hate this part right here
And I just can’t take these codes
I hate this part right here

sigh…!!! 

For those who havent heard the original… please find the lyrics of the song here

I hope you guys…errr… liked my insane attempt at Parody-ing…

Gossh….!!!! I am …errr….sooo scared at the outcome of this Parody…

Please Guys dont end up sayin

“I HATE THIS BLOG RIGHT HERE”

Do lemme know how you find this parody..thru ur comments… errr…. pleaaaseee 

/note/ i tried and tried and tried again… but inspite of my insane attempts… the first para simply disobeys from being centre aligned…. bad first para 

hhmmmppffff…..