When my flesh crawls and all my senses go into high alert, I usually don’t hang around to take pictures!

Alloniscus Speaks
I love photographing and learning about creepy-crawlies like spiders, bugs, snails and other flightless critters I come upon in my rambles.

Praying Mantis on high alert, looking sinister with it’s long shadow.
Growing up in the sandy sagebrush hills of central Washington, I learned to identify Black Widow Spiders, Scorpions and Rattlesnakes, and to be aware of places they might call home. It was my responsibility to stay clear of their territory.


This spider is a common orb weaver, like Charlotte, of E.B. White fame.
Orb spider web.

Velella velella, also known as ‘by-the-wind sailor,’ is a species of jellyfish which floats on the ocean’s surface. Usually found in the open ocean feeding on plankton, they are at the mercy of the wind. After a spring storm at Long Beach, the coastline was strewn for miles with these gelatinous creatures. Though not creepy on their own, a whole shore full is eerie.
~Now for the really scary stuff ~

Human Generated Trash (HGT) picked up from the beach on one morning walk.

Blond mopped dragon at Women’s March, January 21, 2017, Portland, Oregon.
Thank you Leya, for this opportunity to feature often maligned though decidedly innocent creepy critters, and to expose two images that represent realities I find to be particularly threatening and sinister in our world.
https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2019/11/09/lens-artists-photo-challenge-71-creepy/