Spider love thread

[highlander]

I hate spiders. Saw the new SpiderMan movie last weekend though. It was really good.

 

[kyuuei]

^

I think I have a love/hate relationship with them.. I mainly avoid them since I have trouble identifying harmless ones from ones that do really hurt humans. Anything all brown in color, or all black I tend to destroy on sight. Small jumping spiders I will shoo away if they're just in the house, and I'll kill them if they're in my room. That's a no-animal territory. I always tell my dog, "See that? Thats why you don't come in here." I like daddy long legs, but they make a huge mess with so much webbing. Anything too small isn't a bother. The small black ones that are common to Texas that hide in firewood I still cannot identify as harmless or not, so I kill them on sight too.

 

[jcloudz]

creepy but extremely fascinating what nature has turned out.

 

[jcloudz]

creepy but extremely fascinating what nature has turned out.

 

[Cellmold]

Not quite a real spider but I feel it's still relevant .

 

[Lexicon]

The Spider by Isolda Solodova

I loved this. Poor spider.

[YOUTUBE="fNdO-hRQgqg"]His life would've been easier if he were normal.[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Cellmold]

I loved this. Poor spider.

[YOUTUBE="fNdO-hRQgqg"]His life would've been easier if he were normal.[/YOUTUBE]

That made me laugh so much .

Im going to have to start watching more of these.

 

[sprinkles]

^

I think I have a love/hate relationship with them.. I mainly avoid them since I have trouble identifying harmless ones from ones that do really hurt humans. Anything all brown in color, or all black I tend to destroy on sight. Small jumping spiders I will shoo away if they're just in the house, and I'll kill them if they're in my room. That's a no-animal territory. I always tell my dog, "See that? Thats why you don't come in here." I like daddy long legs, but they make a huge mess with so much webbing. Anything too small isn't a bother. The small black ones that are common to Texas that hide in firewood I still cannot identify as harmless or not, so I kill them on sight too.

Most in the US are relatively harmless. There are only a few - Black Widow, Brown Recluse, and Hobo spider come to mind - and really the Black Widow is the main one as they inject a lot of venom. Brown Recluse can cause severe reactions but they aren't aggressive and most of their bites are either dry or have low venom.

The horror stories of Brown Recluse bites that eat giant holes in people are very exceptional. Most bites do not result in that.

However, if you live with small children, elderly, or have a weak immune system, it's probably better to be safe than sorry and go ahead and squish the brown or black spiders that you find in your house. Chances of actually being bitten are very low, and getting a bad bite is even lower still, but it's bad enough that you don't want to risk it if you aren't sure.

 

[Lexicon]

^

I think I have a love/hate relationship with them.. I mainly avoid them since I have trouble identifying harmless ones from ones that do really hurt humans. Anything all brown in color, or all black I tend to destroy on sight. Small jumping spiders I will shoo away if they're just in the house, and I'll kill them if they're in my room. That's a no-animal territory. I always tell my dog, "See that? Thats why you don't come in here." I like daddy long legs, but they make a huge mess with so much webbing. Anything too small isn't a bother. The small black ones that are common to Texas that hide in firewood I still cannot identify as harmless or not, so I kill them on sight too.

@bold- would you like em if they were in your house like this?
[YOUTUBE="_hvQoTM8sQc"]*shudder*[/YOUTUBE]

 

[sprinkles]

@bold- would you like em if they were in your house like this?
[YOUTUBE="_hvQoTM8sQc"]*shudder*[/YOUTUBE]

Haha, it's crazy when they do that.

And now some interesting facts about daddy longlegs:
1. There's a few kinds, and one kind, the Harvestman, is not actually a spider.

2. The myth that Harvestmen are the most venomous spider but can't bite humans is untrue - they aren't venomous at all, and do not have fangs. It is true that their mouth parts are too weak to bite humans, though.

3. The Pholcid spiders, otherwise known as Cellar Spiders, are actually spiders. These are the ones that make the crazy random webs and they are often called daddy longlegs as well. Interestingly, their web is not sticky, and it only catches prey by its random and tangled construction. Pholcids can bite humans rarely, but their venom is simply not toxic on humans.

 

[sprinkles]

Yay spideys!

 

[jcloudz]

this thread gave me nightmares last night.

 

[kyuuei]

@bold- would you like em if they were in your house like this?
[YOUTUBE="_hvQoTM8sQc"]*shudder*[/YOUTUBE]

When I was a kid we visited an old series of castle-like towers in Oklahoma, and the walls and ceiling were black--I assumed shadows and a previous fire.. but when I went inside, I realized the black was moving. It was literally thousands of these clustered together in the tower. It was really cool.. I remember being a bit frightened, but not enough to go running out of there screaming. I just starred at the wall moving and wriggling around. It was really odd.

 

[kyuuei]

Yay spideys!

I love those! We have them along our running trail where I live at currently, and I was sad to see that the weather changes and drought drove most of them off last year.. It is rather fun running along the trail in the summer with those crawling all around. The yellow webs look ultra cool in the sunset.

 

[Totenkindly]

Most in the US are relatively harmless. There are only a few - Black Widow, Brown Recluse, and Hobo spider come to mind - and really the Black Widow is the main one as they inject a lot of venom. Brown Recluse can cause severe reactions but they aren't aggressive and most of their bites are either dry or have low venom. The horror stories of Brown Recluse bites that eat giant holes in people are very exceptional. Most bites do not result in that.

I agree with all that, from what I've seen and read. People really freak out over the thought of Brown Recluses, but the number of cases are amazingly low, an dit's not even clear if it was the recluse. (Same thing with the hobo spider.)

I did see a nasty show on Netflix a few months back about Infestations -- one house was infested by an aggressive ant breed, one by snakes, and the other by hobo spiders. The son and the mother did eventually get bitten and they left the rental property; an entire colony of hobo spiders had taken over the underside of the building. The sad thing is that they did a bug bomb at some point, and all it did was kill the other spiders and bugs, letting the hoboes run wild. (I think the only house where the owners "won" was the ants -- they had to basically pour a new cement casing to surround the foundation and bottom parts of the house, to keep the ants out.)

I gotta tell ya, I would have been out of the spider house in a day or two. That would have just been too horrible for me to contemplate, I just wouldn't have been able to deal. Snakes seems so much better to me, ironically.

However, if you live with small children, elderly, or have a weak immune system, it's probably better to be safe than sorry and go ahead and squish the brown or black spiders that you find in your house. Chances of actually being bitten are very low, and getting a bad bite is even lower still, but it's bad enough that you don't want to risk it if you aren't sure.

I agree. And it's typically those with weaker immune systems that take the brunt of any thing -- a bite, an epidemic, a drought, etc.

Haha, it's crazy when they do that.

And now some interesting facts about daddy longlegs:
1. There's a few kinds, and one kind, the Harvestman, is not actually a spider.

2. The myth that Harvestmen are the most venomous spider but can't bite humans is untrue - they aren't venomous at all, and do not have fangs. It is true that their mouth parts are too weak to bite humans, though.

You are a plethora of useful "spider" tips. All that is correct. I was kinda shocked when I heard the rumor saying they were poisonous, when it seemed really clear they wouldn't even be able to break the skin. I used to play with them when I was young; for some reason, they didn't bother me.... not like authentic spiders.

I hate spiders. Saw the new SpiderMan movie last weekend though. It was really good.

I wonder if the spiders would make a movie called "Manspider," about a spider who is bitten by a human and starts to get human powers.

It might freak them out.

("Yuck! What is that smell? Teenage boy puberty? And it likes to play video games and smartphone games all the time! Run away!")

 

[sprinkles]

[MENTION=7]Jennifer[/MENTION]

Yeah, Recluses are scaredy cats and would rather hide in the woodpile or run away than bite you. Bites are usually from them getting in clothes or in places you can't see and you press against it and the spider does what it can to save itself.

 

[Eric B]

You are a plethora of useful "spider" tips. All that is correct. I was kinda shocked when I heard the rumor saying they were poisonous, when it seemed really clear they wouldn't even be able to break the skin. I used to play with them when I was young; for some reason, they didn't bother me.... not like authentic spiders.

The clusters shown are harvestmen (another family of arachnid). You can tell by the singular little round body, where spiders have the double thorax (like most insects).

Never knew they clustered like that (like a huge ant colony). I couldn't live in a house with those.
When I was young, you might see a bunch of them on a wall on a country building, or under a rock. I think I developed my fear of spiders when turning over something, and you would see what looked like a little bug floating an inch or so above the ground, but then you see it's walking on these legs.

 

[Lexicon]

[MENTION=7]Jennifer[/MENTION]

Yeah, Recluses are scaredy cats and would rather hide in the woodpile or run away than bite you. Bites are usually from them getting in clothes or in places you can't see and you press against it and the spider does what it can to save itself.

Ugh, you just reminded me of the time I had just a hoodie zipped up over a sports bra, my intp friend came over, and i was talking to her in the kitchen, when I suddenly felt a small tickle inside the hoodie against my upper abdomen. I just stopped mid-conversation, thinking no..NO.-- peeked down, and shrieked, nearly tearing the hoodie off as I threw it to the floor, backing up. A huuuuuuuuuuuuge wolf spider crawled out. My basement in my old house- where my bedroom was- was actually infested with these things like you wouldn't believe.

I don't mind most spiders unless they're the hunting kind and wander onto me unexpectedly.

 

[Totenkindly]

Yeah, Recluses are scaredy cats and would rather hide in the woodpile or run away than bite you. Bites are usually from them getting in clothes or in places you can't see and you press against it and the spider does what it can to save itself.

Yup. That's the case for lots of spider bites, to be honest. I mean, the hobo is known for being aggressive because it has poor eyesight, but most spiders just want to get away.

I feel a little bad for being horrifically terrified of them.
I blame "IT" by Stephen King for reinforcing my psychosis.

Ugh, you just reminded me of the time I had just a hoodie zipped up over a sports bra, my intp friend came over, and i was talking to her in the kitchen, when I suddenly felt a small tickle inside the hoodie against my upper abdomen. I just stopped mid-conversation, thinking no..NO.-- peeked down, and shrieked, nearly tearing the hoodie off as I threw it to the floor, backing up. A huuuuuuuuuuuuge wolf spider crawled out. My basement in my old house- where my bedroom was- was actually infested with these things like you wouldn't believe.

Holy fu**!!! I would have been so out of there. And felt my skin crawl for the next 20 minutes.

 

[sprinkles]

Ugh, you just reminded me of the time I had just a hoodie zipped up over a sports bra, my intp friend came over, and i was talking to her in the kitchen, when I suddenly felt a small tickle inside the hoodie against my upper abdomen. I just stopped mid-conversation, thinking no..NO.-- peeked down, and shrieked, nearly tearing the hoodie off as I threw it to the floor, backing up. A huuuuuuuuuuuuge wolf spider crawled out. My basement in my old house- where my bedroom was- was actually infested with these things like you wouldn't believe.

I don't mind most spiders unless they're the hunting kind and wander onto me unexpectedly.

Wolf spiders are another harmless-to-humans spider, at least in the US they are.

One cool thing about wolf spiders is they are the caring mothers of the spider kingdom. It isn't uncommon to see a mommy wolf spider trucking along carrying all her newly hatched spiderlings on her back.