“One of my all-time personal favorite plants is called Amaranthus cauditis or “love lies bleeding.” This plant is an old-world species, which was quite popular in Victorian gardens and as far back as in Shakespeare’s day. They were also a favorite of Colonial American gardens as well.  This gorgeous plant grows to be 4 to 6 feet tall, produces large, jungle-like foliage and features crimson tassels that cascade to the ground in an exotic, showy fashion. Amaranthus cauditis is absolutely perfect for adding drama and intrigue to your garden.  This annual flower blooms from summer to early fall, and prefers full-sun exposure.”

Love Lies Bleeding (Amaranthus cauditis)

“Another great way to add color and diversity to flowerbeds and landscaped areas is to plant a Lobelia hybrid called “trailing dark blue lobelia”.  This flower is a great annual choice for the climate of the Dakotas.  Lobelia tolerates full sun to part shade, and blooms continuously from planting to first frost.  This flower is low maintenance, no “deadheading” required.  Hummingbirds and other bird species are also attracted to Lobelia.”

“Petunia lovers will be pleased to know that there is an exciting new petunia hybrid that grows to hedge-like proportions and produces abundant colorful blooms.   The first “hedgetunia”, Tidal Wave™ Spreading Petunia creates an extremely full plant that continues to grow until it reaches a shrub-like shape.  This plant holds its shape all season, and spreads like a ground cover, expanding 2.5 to 4ft per plant.  Tidal Wave ™ petunias are well suited for large containers or large landscaped areas and prefer full sun exposure.”

Wave Petunias

“Great gardens are much more than what you see on the surface however.  Beneath all those flower blooms and foliage are tender roots, eager to absorb nutrients and minerals from the soil.  It goes without saying that healthy soil, makes for healthy plants.  We here in the Black Hills of South Dakota are challenged with less-than-ideal native soil.  Fortunately, compost is a natural choice to re-charge the soil, and boost plant growth.  Reptile Gardens is committed to conservation; we process all of our tree limbs and similar yard waste into top-quality mulch compost for our planter beds.  For information on compost availability in your area, be sure to check with your local municipality.  Folks in the Rapid City area will be pleased to know that the Rapid City Landfill offers excellent quality compost at very reasonable price.”

For a first hand look at the plants mentioned above, be sure to visit Reptile Gardens this season.  You’ll find these plant species, and so much more.  Many plants here at Reptile Gardens can’t be found anywhere else but their native habitat, often many thousands of miles from South Dakota.  Come on out and see us this season, there is something fun for everyone!

-Ary Den Otter

24 July 2010

Our Name Has Two Parts, What About Those “Gardens”? is a post from: Scales & Tales

Black Widow spider

I get many calls from people wondering what can be done to minimize the presence of Black Widows? First I have to say, because spiders are small it is hard to totally eliminate them. However, there are some things you can do to cut down their numbers and protect yourself.

-Regularly sweep and vacuum corners and other dark spots, low and high, inside and out. Outdoors you can spray these areas with the hose.

-Frequently check under lawn chairs and picnic tables as well as under children’s molded plastic, pedaled toy vehicles that have open areas facing down that a spider might find inviting.

-Don’t leave food out that might attract insects, the spiders’ prey.

-Keep gardening gloves and other clothing normally kept in the garage or storage shed in sealed containers or ziplock bags.

-Try to keep windows and doorsills, places where spiders can enter the house, sealed with weather stripping.

-Some people claim mothballs or Osage Hedge balls as being effective in killing or driving spiders away.

-Don’t bring them indoors on firewood or plants.

Chemicals are not overly effective as, in regards to spiders, they don’t have much residual effect and are harmful to other animals, pets and people. If you are not comfortable hunting spiders and killing them, you can always trap them in a jar and relocate them, Usually a few hundred feet from your house in a suitable habitat is plenty of distance. And, no, relocating them in your annoying neighbor’s garage is not an option…

For the most part, however, spiders are actually very helpful; they are the most important insect predators in the world. But, a lot of people just don’t care about all the good spiders do for us. To these people, the only good spider is a dead spider.  Thankfully (at least to avoid being overrun by insects) spiders are very prolific. A single acre can have a population of spiders ranging from 10,000 to 2,000,000!

Along with their prolific nature one other spider behavior makes keeping them under control a problem. This is from the University of California, Davis’ web site:  “One aspect that makes controlling widow spiders difficult is that they, like many spiders, exhibit a behavior called ballooning. When the spiderlings are very small, on warm days when there is an updraft, they climb to the top of a fence post or piece of vegetation, raise their abdomens into the air, and release a small filament of silk.

When the updraft currents overtake the forces of gravity, the spiderling is carried into the air to another location. This may only be a few feet away, or it could be miles. Ballooning spiderlings have been captured at 10,000 feet from the ground and 200 miles offshore. Because spiderlings will be dropping down on your property continually, eliminating them will be a task that needs to be done repetitively throughout the year.”

If you have questions about local bugs feel free to contact us and we will offer what information we can or direct you to other good sources.

Kathy Maguire
Curator of Amphibians and Invertebrates

What Can I Do About Black Widows Around My House? is a post from: Scales & Tales

Black Widow showing belly marking, not always a perfect hourglass.

As warm weather approaches, we start getting calls about spiders and odd bugs people find in their garages, storage sheds, yards, and houses. The most common calls we get are in regard to spiders, especially black widows, brown recluse and a mysterious GIANT! spider that seems to strike fear in all who see one. The latter would be the common wolf spider.

Out of the tens of thousands of spiders in the world, only a few are dangerous to humans. The most common dangerously venomous spiders in the US are the Black Widow, the Brown Recluse, and the Hobo spider – and they rarely bite people. Far more people die each year of bee and wasp stings that from spider bites. And by the way, it is just a myth that the common daddy longlegs spider is extremely deadly – there is no scientific evidence to back up this fanciful tale.

One common spider in our area that you need NOT be overly concerned with is the aforementioned Wolf Spider. These large, furry spiders come in a wide variety of colors and do get quite large. They are not really tarantula sized but may look that way if you happen upon one in your house. They rarely bite and their bites are not normally life-threatening but can cause adverse reactions, like pain, redness, and swelling, in some people.

A nice big Wolf Spider

Once things warm up one of the most common larger spiders in our area is the orb weaver. This is a big family of spiders. Orb weavers come in many shapes and sizes and are relatively harmless to humans. The orb weaver most commonly seen around here is brown, tan, or light rust color, is about the size of a dime, and has a large bulbous abdomen with little points on it. Their spiral-shaped webs are often seen along the eaves of houses and around porch lights where their prey, insects, are drawn.

Another very different form of orb weaver is what is called the garden spider or black-and-yellow argiope. These big spiders weave beautiful and large, classic-looking webs with heavy zig-zags running up and down the center which act as stabilizers. They are called garden spiders as you most often see them in the garden, between bushes, or in tall weeds where there is enough room for their big webs and where insects are common.

Argiope or Garden Spider

Although not native to our area, there have been local accounts of Brown Recluse spiders – possible bites from them have been treated at our local hospital. In our mobile society, these may have been stowaways when people move to this area from regions where the recluse is common. It is not known if there are any stable populations here at this time. This is a relatively small and delicate-looking spider. They are also called fiddle-back spiders due to the violin-shaped pattern on their backs.

Brown Recluse Spider aka Fiddleback Spider

For the most part, the only spider we need to be concerned with in our area is the Black Widow. There are 5 varieties of Black Widows in the US and Canada with various types  of markings. But, the most obvious identifier is the large, shiny, black, round abdomen with a red (or sometimes yellow) hourglass on the underside. Young Black Widows are brown with cream-colored markings on the abdomen. This spider gets its name because the female reputedly has the habit of eating the male after mating if he doesn’t run away quickly enough. The male is much smaller – too small to inflict a dangerous bite to humans.

Black Widows are common in our area but stay hidden most of the time. They frequent basements, garages, sheds, trash piles, and outhouses; just about any quiet dark corner will do. They may also find their way into clothing and shoes making it a good idea to look before ‘slipping into something more comfortable.’

The female spins an irregular shaped, strong, and very sticky web, then spends most of her time hanging upside-down waiting for unsuspecting insects to drop by for dinner. A Black Widow will do her best to stay hidden in a remote corner of her web.  If bothered, she will try to run away. Biting is only a last resort if she cannot escape.

Because of her toxic venom, the bite of a Black Widow can be very dangerous to humans and animals. Within minutes of being bitten the most notable symptom of a Black Widow bite begins, extreme pain develops around the bite. This pain builds rapidly in intensity in the 30 minutes following the bite. Other symptoms develop as the powerful venom begins to work on the nervous system. None of these are much fun either:  nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and fainting are accompanied by an increase in salivation, watering of the eyes, and profuse sweating.

Black Widow spider

If the bite remains untreated, speech may be affected, breathing becomes difficult, and the jaw muscles go into spasms, which distort the face into a pain-racked grimace. Muscles all over the body go rigid, especially those in the midsection, which may pull so tightly doctors have incorrectly diagnosed a spider bite as appendicitis or ulcer. Youngsters and older people are, of course, most at risk.

Fortunately there is an antivenom for a Black Widow bite. Once administered, the antivenom usually works quickly to neutralize the venom. Research has shown that the venom of the Black Widow is 15 times more potent than rattlesnake venom. No one is certain why such a little spider needs such potent venom to survive. Yet another example of Nature’s overkill I guess.

And those reptile guys keep telling me I just take care of the “harmless animals.”

Kathy Maguire
Curator of Amphibians and Invertebrates

It is Spider Season! Black Widows and their Friends. is a post from: Scales & Tales

The beginnings of what was to become the United Nations were set in motion back in 1941. By 1942 the term United Nations, coined by Franklin Roosevelt, was first used. Over the next few years the UN Charter was created and ratified and a search was begun for a place to house this new international organization.

Many locales vied for the UN complex. In the end, the final 5 contenders were: a location in Queens, New York, two locations in New York City, Navy Island in Ontario, Canada, and the Black Hills of South Dakota. The South Dakota location that had been selected for the UN was a pretty little valley just a few miles south of Rapid City along Spring Creek. It was ultimately decided that putting this huge complex in the center of the US in a rural area with minimal infrastructure did not make much sense. So, the current site in New York was selected and ground was broken in 1949. Less than 20 years after the Black Hills location was rejected, that same valley would become the new home of Reptile Gardens! We were forced to relocate when Highway 16 had to be moved in order to make it a 4-lane highway.

Recently, Reptile Gardens’ board member, Marshall Young found this 1945 design plan for the Black Hills United Nations complex in his grandfather’s papers. It isn’t hard to imagine how different not only Reptile Gardens valley would be but Rapid City and the entire Black Hills if this site had been selected. The area would be home to millions of people from all over the world, Rapid City would be a major metropolitan area, and many Black Hills towns would likely be absorbed into the Rapid City metro area. You can see on the plan it was also suggested each member country build a small town in its own style in various valleys around the Hills.

Design concept from 1945 for the Black Hills United Nations complex.

Next time you come down the hill into Reptile Gardens valley, picture it filled with that huge United Nations complex and what that would mean for your vacation or for our little corner of the world.

Reptile Gardens…or United Nations? is a post from: Scales & Tales

Mac the Scarlet Macaw posing for one of his many portraits

On Wednesday, 10 March, we lost one of the very few living creatures that has been at Reptile Gardens longer than even us long-timers, Mac our Scarlet Macaw.

Like most parrots in the days before wildlife laws and captive breeding, Mac was captured in the wild, in South America. He was brought to the US in the early 1950’s and arrived here at Reptile Gardens as a large adult bird in 1956. We estimate his age at the time of his death to have been over 70 years.  He was a huge, brightly-colored bird loaded with personality. In fact in regards to his size, many parrot breeders and bird fanciers remarked that he was the largest scarlet macaw they had ever seen.

Mac achieved legendary status here at the Gardens once we moved down to our new location in 1965. At that time, he spent his summer days outside on a perch in our prairie dog town, which was right next to our snake show arena. He loved it outside. He would sit on his perch and talk, squawk, and “perform” for Guests. Sometimes he would climb down and wander around the prairie dog town, even chasing a prairie dog now and then just for the fun of it. After years spent listening to the snake show he was able to recite most, if not all, of the 20-minute snake show word for word. He could speak much more clearly than most macaws.

Mac in the Sky Dome

One of his favorite things to do was to act demure and quietly wait for an unsuspecting Guest or staff member to wander nearby. Or if that didn’t work he would calmly say “Come here” to get his victim to come move in closer. As soon as he felt the person was sufficiently near and lulled into complacency or not paying attention to him, he would let loose with one of those amazing filling-rattling, eardrum-shattering screams for which macaws are known. This would, of course, cause his victim to jump nearly to the ceiling and cover their ears, which would then result in Mac laughing in a human laugh…really. As a result of this hobby, Mac added a considerable number of cuss words to his already huge vocabulary.

This was not a bird to be trifled with that is for certain. I have seen him splinter a broom stick with ease and bend metal food dishes into modern art. He was not generally fond of men, especially men with facial hair and had moments in his younger days when he could be quite aggressive toward them. Apparently, at some point in his life before he arrived here, something happened involving a bearded man that he never forgot.  He could fool a novice Dome Guide or bird staff member into thinking their lives were in danger by simply striking a pose. Don’t tell anyone but our fearless reptile curator, Terry Phillip, known for his skills with deadly venomous snakes – the man who risks his life daily in the jaws of death – was once chased onto a table screaming like a baby and reduced to a puddle of fear by a mere bird: Mac the Scarlet Macaw.

For the past decade or so Mac has spent his days on a perch in the Safari Room of our Sky Dome. There, partially hidden among the jungle plants, he delighted Guests with his antics and was the subject of countless photos.  New Safari Room guides would often wonder who was saying “Hello” and “Come here.” when they could see no one in the room. He would sit and mutter to himself, occasionally embarrassing a parent with young children. Of course, he still took pleasure in startling an unwary passerby with his shriek.

Reptile Gardens will not be the same without Mac. Our staff, even the guys, loved Mac and the history he represented here. Year after year, Mac consistently scored as one of the top favorite animals in our Guest surveys. Sadly, in the last couple of years Mac had begun to show his age. He was losing his eyesight and his energy. Our veterinarian did all she could but ultimately he just couldn’t fight the good fight anymore. The staff of Wildlife Experiences has been caring for Mac, and our other parrots, for some years now. I know they too are much saddened by his death after working so closely with him for so long. Whether you know it is coming or not, it is always heartbreaking when we lose one of our animal residents, especially one you have known for so very long.

Mac was never in a show or trained to do tricks. His status as a senior member of our staff was established early and he always got to do just what he wanted. This impressive bird will live on in the tens of thousands of photos taken of him over the past half a century plus that he spent here keeping us on our toes and enriching our lives.

Mac on his outside perch in the early 1970's

Mac the Scarlet Macaw is a post from: Scales & Tales

Sometimes the internet is a great source of information and sometimes…well…it is like the National Enquirer.  If you are not intimately involved in a particular area of study it can be pretty hard to know the difference when reading things online or seeing them on TV. To make matters more complicated, most of us (me included) tend to be pretty trusting anyway. When it comes to reptiles and amphibians, you can count on the staff at Reptile Gardens for the true facts, no sensational tabloid-style lies or exaggerations from us.

The infamous "giant" rattlesnake

We have all seen the viral photo below, or something like it, haven’t we? Our staff gets sensational reptile photos sent to us on a regular basis, so we want to address some of the over the coming months. Today, it’s time to talk about GIANT RATTLESNAKES!

Giant Snake Caught!

Each time we see this photo, the snake gets bigger and the story more fanciful.  It is 8 feet long, it is 9 feet long, it is 10 feet long, it weighs 50 pounds, it weighs 75 pounds, it weighs 100 pounds.  The simple answer here is that no one has EVER reliably recorded a rattlesnake 8 feet long.  For as long as there have been reptile researchers and herpetologists, and for as long as records have been kept, there have been NO credible reports or actual measured specimens of that size.  An 8-foot rattlesnake of any species would be a world record.  In spite of what one may hear about species like the prairie rattler or timber rattler, there are only two, maybe three, species that could even come close to growing that big (Western Diamondback – Crotalus, atrox; Eastern Diamondback – Crotalus adamanteus; Mexican West Coast – Crotalus basiliscus).

OK, I will just make an 8 foot rattlesnake

A number of years ago, a friend of ours tried to raise a genuine 8-foot rattlesnake.  He picked newborn babies from especially large mothers. He then devised a very intensive (and unnatural) feeding regimen.  In the end he got some of the hugest, most obese rattlesnakes I have ever seen…but he never got an 8-foot snake.  He ultimately gave up and gave all the snakes to us.

WANTED: 8 Foot Rattlesnake – Reward!

Since the mid-1950’s, here at Reptile Gardens we have offered a reward for an 8-foot rattlesnake.  We have regularly increased the dollar amount as the years have gone by. Never once, in almost 60 years, has anyone brought in a rattlesnake that came even close to 8 feet long.  Oh, believe me, we get calls all the time.  I once talked to a woman in North Carolina who wanted to know “how many of them 8 foot rattlers” we wanted before she sent “the boys out to fetch” them.  I told her to just get us one to start with and we could negotiate on more.  We never heard from her – or any of our many other callers – again. And they certainly never showed up with one.

The Real Story

Forced perspective

So, what is the story of the obviously large snake in this particular photo?  Well folks, it is all a matter of perspective, actually what is called “forced perspective”.  If you shoot a photo with a long lens, staged properly (and at the proper angle) you can get all kinds of great results.  To show you how easy this is, we shot the photo on the left yesterday in our parking lot.  No Photoshop here, just forced perspective.

Yes, the snake in the photo is big – a nice big Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) probably around 5 feet long.  It weighs maybe 10 pounds.  So it isn’t anywhere near as big as claimed but it is a formidable rattlesnake to be sure.  We have had many over the years of this same size.

So having said all this, I will extend our offer once again:  If any of you out there have one of these 8 or 9 foot rattlesnakes on hand, bring it by.  We’d love to have it.  If it is over 8 feet long, delivered live and in good condition, we’ll give you $25,000 for it!

And by the way, do have a look at our other rewards.  Who knows, you might just have one of these other giants in your backyard that you just don’t know what to do with now that it has outgrown your aquarium or bathtub!

GIANT RATTLESNAKES! is a post from: Scales & Tales

This week I am posting a column written 44 years ago by long-time Reptile Gardens General Manager, Jim Campbell. In 1965, Reptile Gardens ran a series of newspaper columns in celebration of the move to our new location on Highway 16. For our first 28 years we had been closer to town but  were forced to move when the highway was widened and moved.

Right smack in the center of the giant dome at the new Reptile Gardens there is a huge, gnarled pine tree, some forty feet high.  And lots of it is underground to keep it from falling over.

Cavorting, or resting, in the tree are lizards, monkeys, snakes, and hundreds of beautiful birds from all over the world. [Over the years we tried a lot of different animals in the Safari Room, including monkeys, muntjacs, wallabies, giant fruit bats, and, free roaming iguanas and snakes. Some worked and many did not. JM]

Several times daily someone asks casually, “Where did the tree come from, was it already here?”  When we tell them “No, we had to move it in,” it is always with the feeling that if they really knew the whole story they might be less casual about it.

At least to someone not in the tree moving business, it was quite a chore.  First, Earl Brockelsby selected the tree, down over a hill on Skyline Drive, after several months’ search.  After obtaining permission to move the tree, we selected a day for moving.  Needed were eight or ten men, a huge lowboy truck, and the biggest truck crane available.  Moving day dawned clear and windy.  Gusts to…50 miles per hour.

Some superfluous limbs were trimmed away, the crane hooked up, and then a fearless (or foolish, I haven’t decided which) workman volunteered to sever the trunk with a chain saw.  And then things happened fast.  The wind caught the tree as it came free and it started down the hill, lifting the wheels on the far side of the crane completely off the ground.

I recall seeing the man with the chain saw running for his life and I decided to take a vacation myself in the opposite direction, when I saw the crane men rushing to the crane and jumping on the high side.  I recall thinking how silly this looked, but I didn’t want to seem chicken, so I joined them.  But it helped, and this along with some quick action by the crane operator kept the whole mess from winding up in the bottom of the canyon.  From then on it was just a lot of slow, careful work to load the tree and plant it where it now is.

The crane crew was very offhand about the whole thing, but I can still see that huge tree dancing in the wind whenever someone asks about it.  And the worst was the suggestion of the dome designer who found the tree to be such a hindrance to his planning that he suggested we cut it up for kindling.  Not on your life.  We’ll defend that tree to the death.

[After the fire in 1976 the tree still stood, with the collapsed dome structure around it.  It was a bit shorter and singed but still there. Now it is covered with our huge bougainvillea vine. JM]

HOW TO CARE FOR A DEAD TREE is a post from: Scales & Tales