Arachnophobics

[hervoheebo]

I don't get why everyone vilifies spiders. Do you people live in third world countries or something?

[GreyGhost]

hervoheebo said:

I don't get why everyone vilifies spiders.

I think I can sum it up on one word - arachnotronphobia.

[Olympus]

I was only kidding :p But I do dislike spiders.

[printz]

hervoheebo said:

I don't get why everyone vilifies spiders.

Because some of them are deadly? I would never ever consider having a pet that can bite me like that.

[bgraybr]

printz said:

Because some of them are deadly? I would never ever consider having a pet that can bite me like that.

Hmm? I've never had a tarantula try to bite me, and even if one did their bites are virtually harmless to something human sized.

I've only been bitten by other spiders a handful of times, and it didn't do anything but sting for a few seconds. That said, I wouldn't let a black widow crawl on my hand.

[printz]

bgraybr said:

That said, I wouldn't let a black widow crawl on my hand.

Well, I did see documentaries saying some bad things about those after all. As for tarantulas, if they're really just cute and harmless, someone really needs to debunk their deadliness myth, so people like former me won't try to kick them on sight.

[Du Mhan Yhu]

I had a Tarantula that lived 4 1/2 years. It's name was "Dirty Sanchez"

No joke. Thing was mean. I used to feed it hamsters and crickets. It was funny too, I am very afraid of spiders.

[Seeker_of_Truth]

I used to work at a pet store, and I was told that all spiders are poisonous, though obviously it wouldn't much bother a human most times. If a tarantula bit you, it was supposed to be equivalent to (or maybe a little less) a bee sting, unless you had a reaction to it. The thing with tarantula's is the hairs on their abdomen. I've heard some species of them can launch the hairs off and it would be like needles shooting through the air. I would imagine that could be quite painful.

[DoomUK]

Seeker_of_Truth said:

I've heard some species of them can launch the hairs off and it would be like needles shooting through the air. I would imagine that could be quite painful.

As an arachnophobe who literally trembles when he sees something as relatively innocuous as a common house spider on the floor and probably needs some kind of therapy to address it, is pains me to get involved with this. But I (reluctantly) watched a BBC documentary a few years ago about giant spiders. Some brave guy was rummaging through the Amazon and picked one of them up, only for them to launch those hairs straight into his face... which only made him sneeze and become disappointed that he lost it.

Yeah, when it comes to spiders bigger is better in terms of how much danger they pose to humans I think. I guess the small ones who have to defend themselves against more predators need a higher concentration of poison to be able to put up a better fight, or something like that. Though I don't claim to know what every single spider is capable of.

[hervoheebo]

printz said:

Because some of them are deadly?

see:

hervoheebo said:

Do you people live in third world countries or something?

Personally, as for unpleasant insects? Ants, they're not disgusting or anything, just annoying during spring when you leave anything sugary out in the open, you can bet a thousand ants will be eating it in a minute.

[bytor]

EDIT: pic of "Raid" removed.

[Mithran Denizen]

hervoheebo said:

Personally, as for unpleasant insects? Ants, they're not disgusting or anything, just annoying during spring when you leave anything sugary out in the open, you can bet a thousand ants will be eating it in a minute.

Amen to that. I seem to have some kind of ant nest in the foundation of my house or something, because the stupid things are all over the place for two weeks each summer.

I set a half-eaten apple down on my desk yesterday, and came back a couple minutes later to find it completely covered in the little black bastards. Insects don't really bother me much on an 'ick' level, but I sure hate it when they infest everything in sight.

Spiders are alright, though, so long as they keep their stupid webs out of the way. Of course, wolf spiders are about the most dangerous type to be found where I am, so I might not be so accepting if I lived in brown recluse territory or whatever.

[bytor]

Are ants taking over the world or something? I've never seen ant infestations like I have recently. I keep going into the kitchen to find the cat dish blanketed with them. Single 'scouts' are runnin' around all over the place. Got trails of them outside all over the walks.

It's kinda funny 'cause the cat will come to me bitching about something so I get up and follow her to the food dish. We're both standing there staring at these damn ants. She looks up at me and says "MEOW" which I think means "Grab the Raid!"

[exp(x)]

bytor said:

Are ants taking over the world or something? I've never seen ant infestations like I have recently. I keep going into the kitchen to find the cat dish blanketed with them. Single 'scouts' are runnin' around all over the place. Got trails of them outside all over the walks.

It's kinda funny 'cause the cat will come to me bitching about something so I get up and follow her to the food dish. We're both standing there staring at these damn ants. She looks up at me and says "MEOW" which I think means "Grab the Raid!"

This stuff works really well on the ants here in Oregon: http://www.terro.com/

[Technician]

My mom hated spiders. I have absolutely no fear of them. People should be more worried more about cockroaches, dust mights, beg bugs, or these Brazilian monstrosities.

[geo]

I grew up having a fear of spiders... then 10 years ago I dated a girl that spotted a spider in the corner of her room like 12 feet away. She wanted me to kill it. So I climbed up on a dresser and said no wait his spider friends might miss him! So in all my manleyness, I grabbed the spider by one of his eight legs, went through her room, down the stairs, out the front door and threw him on the lawn. It was a big one.

Sex.

Since then I haven't been afraid of spiders.

btw has anyone heard of the social spider community in TX that takes up an acre of land?

[Technician]

geo said:

I grew up having a fear of spiders... then 10 years ago I dated a girl that spotted a spider in the corner of her room like 12 feet away. She wanted me to kill it. So I climbed up on a dresser and said no wait his spider friends might miss him! So in all my manleyness, I grabbed the spider by one of his eight legs, went through her room, down the stairs, out the front door and threw him on the lawn. It was a big one.

Sex.

Since then I haven't been afraid of spiders.

So much win.

[Aliotroph?]

Spiders are awesome. I like them a lot. Tarantulas are cute. Might have to get one some time. Guaranteed to scare mom and my bro's wife! :D

[geo]

One of my relatives has a 7 legged tarantula named Lucky (number 7)

[DuckReconMajor]

I'm afraid of spiders. I think a lot of it is not being able to read its facial cues to get a sense of what it might want to do. Same reason I'd be afraid of a headless cat walking toward me.

[Csonicgo]

CSB and threadshit/derail time...


I'm not afraid of spiders. I'm afraid of ladybird beetles. Well, the asian kind. why? welll...


I live in Alabama, where failed experiments with non-chemical pest control seem to run rampant. I was told that the asian ladybird beetle is hardier and can take aphids and other nasties on crops. The thing they didn't tell me is that they love to be pests themselves. Just on a residential scale.

Anyone in the south can attest to the fact that somehow, someway, there are dead ladybugs on their windowsills. They also know that sometimes they horde up when a cold winter comes along.

Back in the early 90s (1992 actually, I was about 5), my family moved into a new house. it was recently built and finished in the winter.. just in time for a snowstorm. the conditions were reasonably hot, then suddenly cold (just days before the cold snap, mosquitoes were out).

Enter Ladybug nightmare.

I woke up in my new house, on my new bed, with hundreds, no, THOUSANDS of these 6-legged spotted horrors. I screamed in agony as they were angered by my flailing, emitting a smell that still bothers the piss out of me when I smell it. it smells like the most rotten potato in the world.


And that's one of many reasons I'm not stable.

[bytor]

Thanks, exp(x). I see that it's available at Lowe's and I've already got "ant traps" on the list, so, I'll look for it.

Technician, that is a common House Centipede that is found pretty much all over. Our basement was infested with those when we first moved in which prompted a complete tear-down and remodel. Those damn things creep me the most.

I think this is the south american monstrosity!

[Sharessa]

Around here we have hobo spiders, which are allegedly as dangerous as brown recluses, and are ugly as sin. I once saw a house spider murder one twice its size, though, so I don't kill those guys even though they have creepy spindly legs.

[Technician]

bytor said:

Technician, that is a common House Centipede that is found pretty much all over. Our basement was infested with those when we first moved in which prompted a complete tear-down and remodel. Those damn things creep me the most.

Yeah, I know, we have them here in Canada. They are technically an invasive species that are native to South America. They followed the roach population up North in luggage.

Damn immigrants.

Danarchy said:

Around here we have hobo spiders, which are allegedly as dangerous as brown recluses, and are ugly as sin.

Well, maybe if you quit feeding them they'd get their act straight and get jobs. I'm sure they have family that they haven't eaten to live with until they get their shit together.

[Fulgrim]

Right now I can see at least 3 spider webs in my room. When ever there webs start to get big I knock down part of them. Other then that I leave them alone. Living in Tennessee has given me a new found respect for spiders. During the summer there are bugs every where and no matter what you do they will get in your house. So I leave the spiders in my room alone so they can keep the number of bugs in my room to a minimum.

I was fortunate enough to have a female Golden Silk spider build a web in a tree in my front yard right when the Cicada infestation hit is peak around the middle of May. I was so happy to see that spider. There was hardly any of those annoying Cicada bugs around that tree. I'm pretty sure that the Golden Silk spider was a natural deterrent to the Cicada.

[Csonicgo]

Technician said:

Well, maybe if you quit feeding them they'd get their act straight and get jobs. I'm sure they have family that they haven't eaten to live with until they get their shit together.

Yeah, you're just supporting their lifestyle, you hobospider enabler.

[GreyGhost]

I don't mind spiders, so long as they don't wake me in the middle of the night by crawling over my face.

bytor said:

Are ants taking over the world or something? I've never seen ant infestations like I have recently. I keep going into the kitchen to find the cat dish blanketed with them. Single 'scouts' are runnin' around all over the place. Got trails of them outside all over the walks.

Sounds like Argentine Ants. We have them down here in Oz where a lack of genetic diversity allows them to form super colonies that could easily run to hundreds of millions. Baiting and barrier spraying are the best ways of dealing with them, baits need to be specifically formulated to account for their narrow stomach opening and unusual feeding cycle.

[EarthQuake]

Spiders are my friends around here because they take care of all the other nasty, creepy, crawly things lurking around my home. I know because I find their hollow corpses all over the floor and stuck in webs. I never see any bugs crawling around except for spiders.

It's a mutual relationship. They exterminate the pests, and I leave them alone.

[Xeros612]

bytor said:

raid can

You're doing it wrong.

Better.

[Technician]

Xeros612 said:

Shotgun

Reminded of this scene.