Spiders/Spider Bites

[High Priestess]

Earlier this year I learned about the Brown Recluse Spider who's bite can be detrimental to human tissue. So fascinated by this discovery, I looked at some very horrific bite victim pics and suffice to say I came away suitably horrified :(

Thankfully, here in the UK we don't get many dangerous arachnids unless they come in via fruit crates that are imported.

I personally don't care much for the things and the mere sight of a spider is enough to create a chemical reaction sufficient to render me incapable :D

I recently visited a spider house and braved up by looking closely into the various tanks. Species such as the Mexican Red Back had me fascinated from beyond the safety of the thick glass!

Has anyone got any interesting tales to share I wonder with regard to the eight-legged menace?

Louise :p

[Curt581]

Originally posted by High Priestess
I personally don't care much for the things and the mere sight of a spider is enough to create a chemical reaction sufficient to render me incapable :D

Louise :p
A spider? To render you incapable of what? :D

Most American women respond better to alcohol.

:p

[Migraman]

When I was stationed in Texas I was part of a tunnel interdiction team. The tunnels that we crawled through were inhabited by brown recluse and black widows. The biggest thing we had happen was finding a black widow on the back of one of our guys after a patrol. Other than that just the usual willys of having a web hit your face when your crawling through the dark. I'll try to attach a picture of the spider but can't make any promises in that my computer skills are fairly limited.

Sorry, I misspoke. I thought I had the spider picture in my files but I don't. I do have one of a killer crayfish attacking my boot but apparently it is too big to attach and I don't have a clue how to make it unbig (yes I know its not a word).

[TPO]

we got into a car chase with a Z28 one night. we ran it down off the highway when the guy took a road that ran down along a creek. we kinda lost it in the dust, but when we finally got up on it, the door was open and the suspect was gone. the other officer and i took one look around. after seeing the huge spiders and the massive webs they'd made, we decided it was best to let this guy get away.

no way in hell i was going in after him.

brown recluse spiders are pretty common around here. they're not too bad if you go to a doctor early. if you don't, you'll watch the tiny little sore start to turn black as the skin under it goes necrotic. it kills everything from the inside out. so what looks like a harmless little bite will end up with you having a nice fist-sized chunk of meat and flesh removed if you don't catch it early enough. they can be a bit nasty. my aunt got bit on the face by one. that was really bad. her face swelled up like a balloon.

[TRichie]

A couple of years ago there was a big issue about spiders in Galveston County here in Texas. It seems the county jail was infested with Brown Recluse spiders. The problem was they could not completely evacuate the jail for a few days to treat for the spiders. Everytime they treated just in sections, the spiders would just move to a different floor or something insead of dying. Something like 50+ prisoners had to be treated for spider bites.

[High Priestess]

In 1974 my father was stationed in Singapore with the military. I remember there were plenty of snakes and Chit-Chat lizards but these were never very frightening to me. One day we were sat in the lounge when we saw this enormous spider - not immediately apparent as one, it moved with such speed and with such stealth we thought it was a mouse!

Once Mum and I realised what it was the usual pandemonium broke out and we had to stand frozen rigidly to the spot as my father quite literally chased this thing up the marble stair case nearly breaking his neck in the process! We used to have mosquito nets over the bed too and I remeber lying there one morning and seeing a spider crawl over the top of it. It was multi-coloured and quite hideous. I still to this day don't know what species it as but dad turned the room upside down and never found it.

I have seen those spider bite pics whereby the tissues are eaten up from the inside out and the hand one was particularly gross as the male adult victim had to have his thumb wired to keep everything in place (what was left of it). Until last year when this series of thumb pics were doing the rounds on the Internet I had never heard of the BRS. It may be relatively harmless in appearance but seeing the aftermath of a bite left me feeling quite convinced that my fear of spiders is justified afterall!!

Louise :)

[kirch]

There was just an article in the local paper explaining why our spiders had grown really big around here this year. For an area without tarantulas or other normally large spiders, it's unsusual to see anything larger than an inch across, legs included. Apparently, due to a very moderate summer about perfect for insect proliferation (otherwise known as Purina Spider Chow), the arachnids have been eating very well all summer long. So they're getting big.

The other night I was running radar when I saw somehing fall onto the hood of my squad car. It hit and rolled halfway across the hood. Then all these legs came out and it stopped. It was a spider about 3 inches across. Freaky enough, but then it started skittering up the hood towards the windshield. I immediately rolled up my windows. I know we don't really have dangerous spiders around here (other than the occasional BR), but I knew if I lost sight of it with the windows open I was going to be feeling things crawling on me all night long. It reached the windshield and disappeared into the crack between the hood and windshield. I damn near dropped the laser gun in my haste to shut the vents.

I swear this spider just got off an Arachnids and Eigh-Legged Freaks movie marathon. He had a mad gleam in his eyes -- all eight of 'em.

[shudder]

[High Priestess]

Kirch I could almost hear that damn thing skittling up the bonnet as I read that :eek:

I wonder if in America folk tend to get quite a few spiders in the house because my understanding is that many houses are built mostly from timber? Not that this should necessarily attract them but my garden shed was full of the wee beasties when I moved in (aaah!) I live in a flat and you know what? I have this big vent on my bedroom wall and every night I have to check the room - not obsessively but a quick peak around the walls is usually in order because they seem to get into brick houses via such vents as well as the usual plug holes of course and in gaps under the floor, as in any house.

Spiders tend to like warmth - winter is the worst and even if I see a small spider I have a tendency to ponder whether it is a baby and will grow into one of those eight-legged freaks you mentioned! Either that or it's got some big fat hairy mother lurking in wait nearby :D

[Styx]

It was early September up in Boise about 2 years ago . It was still pretty hot. I had just returned from the store and was about to take munchkin out of her car seat. Parked in the garage, I opened the back door while looking down. I saw this FAAAAT Spider. I hate spiders and immediately stompted on it.((Natural instict in order to protect self and child). The damn spider was not fat; it was pregnant. So a GOZILLLION itty bitty teeny tiny arachnids scamper around their dead mommy, trying to flee my stomping New Balance tennis shoe. So I am screaming like a little girl while killing these things. It was so gross....

When my husband came home, he promised to spray for critters. I lived in fear until he did thinking Daddy spider would come back for revenge.

That is my spider story that I had thought I had forgotten about, but reading thses stories gave a flash back. It was a very disturbing sight...especially for one so scared of spiders.

[kirch]

Originally posted by High Priestess
I wonder if in America folk tend to get quite a few spiders in the house because my understanding is that many houses are built mostly from timber? I don't know if it's the wood construction or just that shelter is shelter. I have a 100YO house, and with a house of such age there's no way to keep them out entirely without spending a fortune in extermination costs. So we just learn to live with them. The most common type I find in my house are the Common Garden Spider -- small body, long spindly legs. By the end of summer they might get a couple inches across, legs included. But they're harmless. About twice a year we use the ShopVac to suck up all the spiderwebs on the basement ceiling.

[Yxboom]

I hate spiders. < shudder >