I have my own little sort'a personal survey going . . . so far, I am amazed at the number of men who are afraid of spiders . . .I think what's really amazing is the number of guys who admit it . . .
I'm not talkin' wimps and wusses either . . .
I know of one particular man . . .he's 6'2. Strong, a full blown red-neck, covered in tattoo's, he could pick my broad butt up like I'm a rag doll, but he screams like a little girl over a spider . . .
Once, I ran into the bathroom after hearing that scream. . . .I was freaking out because I could'nt imagine WHAT could possibley cause a man to scream that way . . .
I found him dripping wet, in a standing, but nearly fetal position, shaking uncontrollabley . . .
At that moment I was sure he was having a severe drug hallucination, but no . . .it was a spider.
Between whimperings and sobs and one shaky finger pointing to something behind the shower curtain I deciphered the request... "Would you please, please kill it??
I was kind'a expecting a tarantula . . .but I finally found a plain ol' spider smaller than my pinkie-nail . . .
LOL . ..go ask Alice . . .
And by the way . . .did I kill his bug for him and chase HIM around the house with it??
ANYWAY, my electrician buddy who often has to crawl under houses and go in attics is also terrified of spiders . . . I still wonder what twisted, self-sadistic mental state made him choose such a spiderey occupation . . .
What reminded me of this again was another guy on the BB who just mentioned fear of spiders . . .
Even though I've seen horrific pictures of what some spiders can do to the flesh . . .I just ain't afraid of them . . . not that I would sit in a vat of spiders or allow one to crawl around on me . . .I just easily kill them without fear . . . *SQUASH*
I'm not afraid of most bugs or vermin or snakes . . . . .but I admit . . . . my worst fear is . . .those real big black cockroaches . . .
I will go stupid, ballistic and shreik like a banshee over one of them things . . .probably because they can fly . . .and also they just LOOK like they are full of germs and diseases.
I also hate stepping on them as I can not stand such a crunchy bug.(I need a 'eee~uuuwww' gremlin) I will only kill them with a fly-swatter . . .NEVER spray them because bug spray intoxicates them and they will fly drunkenly at you . . .
So, what's your 'big' scarey 'bug' or critter??
Posted by Barry Branscum (Member # 445) on :
I admit it's spiders...I have fought the fear by being THE family spider killer...but it's made worse by the fact that our shop is infested with recluses...now THAT is scary.
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
Yup! If you have been bitten by a brown recluse spider..you don't want to go thru it again!!!
I don't panic when I see one, I just kill it!
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
I think it's called "arachnophobia"(sp?) Black widows, brown recuse, and hairy wolf spiders, all found here in my neck of the woods, are very dangerous. It would pay to fear them. I was changing the brake rotors on my truck a couple years ago and found a black widow had built her nest inside the brake rotor. She was a big one. Bet that was one heck of a ride at 80mph on the interstate. We sometimes run into those big banana spider webs in the swamp when coonhunting or fishing in the late evening. It's kinda creepy feeling that big old spider crawling on your head. You just slap them off real quick, keep going, and walk into another one.
[ June 29, 2005, 10:53 AM: Message edited by: Wayne Webb ]
Posted by Bobbie Rochow (Member # 3341) on :
I LOVE snakes, & reptiles, & all sorts of critters, but spiders... The fat 'ol fuzzy ones TERRIFY me! I mean, I get weak, shaky, & WHITE when I see them.
Once, when my husband & I lived in West Virginia, I was sitting on the toilet in the trailer & saw this HUGE fat fuzzy brown spider, it's abdomen was as big as the end of my thumb, & he was walking across the floor in front of me. I threw something heavy on him & boy did he make a SPLAT noise! When I looked int he mirror, my face was WHITE!
One more spider story....
We were camping in the mountains years ago, & I was sitting in the outhouse going no.2, & I say that because there was no way I could get up... & right next to me I noticed a spider. A fuzzy mountain type spider, pretty good sized. Soon, another spider approached him across his web, & they began to fight!!! I mean, they were swinging back & forth next to my arm while I wailed a noise kinda like, "Whooooaoaaaaaoooo!" I finally did escape the scene unharmed!
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
Somene sent me the e-mail with the pics of the rotting hand from a brown-recluse bite . . .
I also met a lady in person who had a bad bite . . . The amount of poison released into the flesh is the same amount of tissue that will be permanently lost from the bite. Yeh~yeh~ yeh . . .hope I never get a spider/wasp/snake/shark bite . . .all that . . .
But we are getting too serious and focusing on 1% of poisonous critters. . .
I wanna hear your silly 'psyco' fears . . . Posted by Michael Clanton (Member # 2419) on :
I used to be somewhat squemish around the creepy crawley critters until I had run in with one several years ago.
I was visiting some folks who were commenting on how many spiders were taking over their house. Apparently one (or maybe several) made their way down the back of my shirt and stayed for awhile. I kept feeling something biting and itching- so I would try to scratch (never knowing I was making the spider mad, so he kept biting) At one point I could not take it any more and asked someone to look at my back. They gasped and informed me to get to the doctor- The doctors and nurses didn't help keep me calm, either- with comments like "Oh, my God! I've never seen anything like this, go get "so-and-so" to come and look at this"
With 2 doctors and 6 nurses all around me, they confirmed that I had been bit by a spider 32 times in a 6 inch area right in the middle of my back. Fortunately it must have not been poisonous, or very large- but I was having an allergic reaction to the amount of bites.
After a couple of shots, I was allright- but it kinda changed my fear of spiders. they don't bother me anymore. I figure what don't kill you makes you stronger.
I am quick to check if I feel something crawly or itchy- I don't want to go thru that again.
Now recluses are bad news! Kill 'em all!
BTW- after all those spider bites, I still can't shoot webs out my wrist or climb walls- and I definetly don't have much Spidey sense!
Posted by Artisan Signs (Member # 3146) on :
Put it this way,..when my wife kills a spider for me, she knows better that to ask for my shoe to kill it with. I am a big baby when it comes to spiders.
Other than that, I love snakes, hornets, bees, etc. Love all reptiles, and amphibians. I have a pet Iguana, and he is awesome.
I don't know what started the spider thing though.
Peace out, Bob
Posted by Doug Allan (Member # 2247) on :
when I was in Peru, I woke up in my tent & was in that half awake state just getting my eyes used to the light... moving real slow..not quite ready to greet the day, when the dim light of dawn allowed me to spot one of those fat fuzzy brown spiders as big as the end of my thumb that Bobbie was talking about. It was calmly walking by... a foot from my head, minding it's own business... but in MY tent, so I calmly lifted a groggy half woken hand for a quick swat before returning to dreamland... or so I thought... I guess the mother spider was carrying her young on her back... (or they hadn't been born yet??) ... but instead of turning into one flat carcass.. the one fat spider suddenly became a frenzy'd mass of near microsp[copic critters scurrying in every direction near me, my sleeping bag & whatever folded clothes I used for a pillow that night... DAMN.. if you think they was moving fast... you shoulda seen me I was slap-happy in a heartbeat shoving all my belongings to one end, while smooshing, smearing & slapping every inch of the other end of my tent for quite some time
8" black centipede's creep me out a bit... 1" roaches are gross too... I hate killing them with my hand, but I will before I'd let one sneak off!
Posted by Dale Manor (Member # 4858) on :
Don't mind the spiders too awful much..I just kill them.
I did get treated for Lyme's disease a few years ago and that was really unpleasant! The tick's around here are nasty!
Now Bats on the other hand...I hate them. I have had far to many run ins with bats in houses around here. People tell me, oh bats are great they eat all the other bugs. I don't care about bugs...I have screens on my windows to keep them out...bats can get in anywhere! Damn flying rodents!
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
sharks at the beach rattlesnakes in the woods gators in the swimmin' hole
Posted by Peter Gariepy (Member # 5434) on :
I LOVE SPIDERS... the bigger the better!
Posted by Scott Telfer (Member # 3949) on :
It was watching the Incredible Shrinking Man when I was a kid that put me off spiders for life.... I had never heard of a Brown Recluse until a pal of mine went Youth Hostelling in Florida and found one in his bed. He kept rolling onto it and it kept biting him in the belly..It could have been worse if it was lower down I suppose..Dont think you want a recluse biting your DŁ$5 ... The moral of the story people is always take out travel insurance....
Posted by Jane Diaz (Member # 595) on :
Two friends are walking in the jungle. Suddenly a tiger appears in the distance running toward them. One friend pulls a pair of 'Nikes' out of his bag and quickly puts them on. With a surprised look, the other friend says, You don't really think you can out run that tiger with those?" "I don't need to out run the tiger", his friend replies, "I just need to run faster than you". Posted by Russ McMullin (Member # 5617) on :
I remember catching black widows in bottles when I was a kid, but somehow a phobia shoved curiosity aside. Once, as a teenager, I was with friends, floating down an irrigation canal on innertubes. As we floated through a large pipe I saw the silhouette of a black widow. I had no choice but to pass directly underneath it. I was scared then, but I think the years magnified that fear to include most other spiders. I have never been afraid of tarantulas for some reason.
I have tried to reverse the phobia by exposure. Most small spiders are allowed a free pass to roam my apartment. I draw the line at anything that looks like a hobo spider, and black widows are also on the hit list. Supposedly we don't have recluses in this state.
My fear of black widows is slowly coming back to rational levels. I have talked with quite a few people that have personally been bit by black widows. Most of those people didn't even seek medical attention. They were sick for an afternoon, or day or two, and that was that. I also watched two different episodes of "Venom ER" where small children had been bitten by black widows. One boy received anti-venom, which led to a quicker recovery, but an even smaller boy (3 or 4 years old) didn't receive any treatment, and he also recovered fairly quickly.
Hobo spiders and brown recluse worry me more. However, I rarely hear of anyone being bit by hobo spiders in my part of the country. My nephew was bit by a brown recluse in Illinois, and the wound started to look serious according to my sister, his mother. She found a doctor on the internet who uses nitroglycerin patches on the wounds with good results. The nitroglycerin is supposed to help circulation in the affected area, which in turn leads to healing. My nephew got better quickly after applying the patch. My sister swears by it.
Cockroaches don't scare me, but they sure are disgusting. The crunch is particularly disturbing when you squash a cockroach that is crawling up your pant leg. Posted by Bobbie Rochow (Member # 3341) on :
Bob, you have an iguana? I had a pet iguana up until a couple of months ago, & he died. It was so very awful. I was very attached to him, & he had the run of our house. I just had a customer from a pet stor offer me an iguana (fairly big & healthy) for lettering one window, & my husband said no. I had mine potty trained to go on paper in the bathroom, too! How big is yu our iguana, Bob?
Doug, that sounds worse than BOTH my spider stories!!! What kinds of awful critters do you find in Hawaii??? Oh yea, & have you ever seen seen Dawg the bail bondsman while you are out?
Dale, you don't like bats? I LOVE them, but I am afraid to pick one up for fear they will bite me!
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
Got these delightful creatures all over the place here. I've really go to stop going barefoot at night.
Posted by Jean-Claude Theriault (Member # 966) on :
Russ - I only had one experience with cockroaches when it came to rental apartments. I moved into a somewhat decent building in Fredericton NB and it was located above a chinese restaurant.
I saw my first one when I turned on the light when coming home from a night at a bar and saw this critter make a run across the carpet. I thought it was the beer playing tricks on me so I ignored it.
A couple of weeks later I poured out a serving of Kelloggs Raisin Bran and a raisin scurried out of the bowl when I poured on the milk. A roach in my cereal?? It wasn't long before I moved out of that spot. I'd hate to have seen the infestation in the chinese joint downstairs. Yuck
[ June 29, 2005, 02:15 PM: Message edited by: Jean-Claude Theriault ]
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
HAHA good one Jane!
Tonto and the Lone Ranger are riding through a canyon when, all of a sudden, 2000 indians appear at one end of the canyon and 2000 indians at the other end.... no way to scape. Kimosabe turns to Tonto and says: "well Tonto....I guess we've had it"
Tonto says: "what do you mean 'we'....white man?"
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
Did anyone get the e-mail showing the brown-recluse bite that left a rotting black hole in someone's hand . . .?? Show Russ.
Pretty gross . . .
Cooka-ratchaphobia:
Years ago we lived in a huge antebellum which was made into apartments. Lots of huge old trees outside too. Lots of those big ol' black cockroaches. The rooms had this ornate cut-out crown mould all around the 12 foot ceilings.
Just I layed down and clicked the light off I spotted a roach up there.
Light back on.
Stare at it.
Wonder HOW, in the name of all that's good and safe can I get it down here to kill it??
What if it fell on me??
I KNOW there will be no sleeping until I KNOW it's dead.
Getting a Large roach down to a decent height for a sure-killing can be tricky.
I might run it back into the crown mould, where it would certainly come out later after I fell asleep and . . .touch me.
I also risked scaring the stupid thing or having it lose it's balance which they can do...either way, it could start flying. They are entirely unpredictable when airborn except they will be aiming to land on you.
A direct hit would be best, but a near miss could enrage it.
I finally decided to throw a shoe at the wall just above it.
It crawls downward 2". Good. Only 11 feet to go . . .
It's hard to retreive my shoes each time. They are falling below the roach on the wall. God forbid if he falls down and ...touches me.
After several attempts to get it down, it finally hit the floor running where it ran directly under the bed.
I could'a swore I heard it laughing.
I ripped the mattress and then the box springs off the bed...frantically watching in case it might . . .touch me.
I finally find it right under the slat . . . I 'touched' it first.
One more drama-in-real-life:
In another house , I discovered a cockroah on my kitchen counter!! My then-husband went armed with the swatter to kill the demon, huge cockroach. To shut me up, the whining damsle in distress who hid behind him cowering like a beat dog.
His swat was a glancing blow unfortunately. . . leaving a lumpy, white streak of roach guts down the side of his entire face . . .
EEEUUUWWW! ACK!! BLECH!! UGGGG!!
What a guy though, huh??
[ June 29, 2005, 03:09 PM: Message edited by: Sheila Ferrell ]
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
For future reference Sheila - Raid Ant & Roach Spray sprays out in this nice long stream and when they say it KILLS BUGS DEAD - they mean it! I can't imagine what's in this stuff!!! You just get that little bugger with that stuff and it will twitch for about 10 seconds and then it looks like the one on the can!!!!!!!!!!! LOL
The downside is it smells AWFUL.
It doesn't however do anything to black widows except slow them down so you can then SLAM 'EM!
Posted by Tony McDonald (Member # 1158) on :
I don't care for spiders. Got bit on the back of the leg at about age 12 or so. From what I remember it turned yellow and dark blue (black) and rotted a hole large enough to stick your pinky finger in. Mom put a bread and milk poltuss on it.
Got kicked in the hip by a horse bout the same time, but.......I still like horses Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
LOL Kimberly . . . I know . . .
~~~~eeeuuuww~~eeeuuuww that smell~~~~the smell that surrounds you~~~~
The bug-spray smell is so bad, and I have come to identify it so strongly with bugs, I feel entirley uncomfortable and get phobic from the smell . . .lol.
Also, mabey desert roaches don't have quite the constitution that roaches bred in the hot, lush, humid environs do . . .
Around here, they are just HOPING you'll spray them, so they can take off after you in a drunken stupor, to cling their velcro-legs to your hair or skin . . .***SHRIEK**!!!
Thankfully, my bug-man sprays something odorless and the only ones I ever see inside are on their back dead as dirt...
ROACH FACT: Roaches can't breath on their backs or turn over by themselves. HAHAHHAHAHHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Posted by J.T. Gazaway (Member # 2001) on :
That was probably a recluse, Tony. That's exactly what they do. Leave a big hole in you. If you're ever unfortunate to have that happen to you, you'll never want it to happen again. I still have a dent in my leg almost 30 years later. Never saw it. Never knew it bit me. Didn't feel a thing. Until my leg started to rot off. It sucked. I don't really have a fear of any insects though. Other than what can happen if the right one bites you.
One other thing. Someone earlier said Wolf Spiders are dangerous. They're totally harmless. Unless you have a heart attack when one runs up your pantleg.
Posted by Russ McMullin (Member # 5617) on :
Kimberly, are you trying to freak people out with that black widow photo? It's working! LOL
Sheila, I have seen tons of gross spider bite photos. I am not ignorant of the damage they can cause. I just choose to believe those photos are the exception rather than the rule. Please let me take comfort in that thought.
Jean-Claude, I haven't had roaches in my food...that I'm aware of. I don't fear roaches, but they aren't allowed in my dwelling or my food - UGH!. I spent some time in Guatemala, and the roaches were everywhere. Sheila, don't ever visit Guatemala unless you are ready to face your fear head on! LOL!
Edited to ask Kimberly if she has ever been bit by a black widow.
[ June 29, 2005, 03:38 PM: Message edited by: Russ McMullin ]
Posted by Russ McMullin (Member # 5617) on :
Hobo spiders look a lot like wolf spiders. One is dangerous, and the other is not. I wish I knew how to tell the differnce. There are websites that try to explain it, but the photos are never clear enough, and I'm not inclined to take the time to count the eyes on a spider.
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
LOLOLOL Russ. . . I just got a mental picture of a spider sporting a bumper sticker:
"If you can count my eyes, you are too close!"
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
the reason men fear spider so much is because of the spider mating behaviour. most black widow MALE spider become dinner after sex..FOR THE FEMALE!!!!! same for praying mantis! this is a deeply planted psychlogial phobia imprinted on the mind from an early age......hehehehehehe me the only things i really have a fear of are RATS...it started after watching the play 1984 on tv when i was 7-8 yrs old. in my years in fl....ive come to have a great respect for any creature that has BIGGER TEETH then me!!!! gators 1st...i was fishing in MYAKA state park...1982(new to fl)and i was wading in water just above my knees. i had a fish stringer(one of the cotton string type)tied to my belt that i always wear when in the wood or fishin with a razor sharp 8" hunting knife in a sheath. i was doin good caught 2 nice "cookin sized largmouths" and had them on the 3 ft stringer.... iam fishing paying attention to my pole..when the stringer jerked, then it jerked again...and me like a dummy figured it was just the fish...all of a sudden it jerked again almost pulling me over....THEN I LOOKED ...a 7-8 FOOT GATOR HAD MY FISH....AND THE STRINGER IN HIS MOUTH...and want to leave the AREA!!!!!! i saw him, grabbed my knife, cut the stringer....and GOT THE HELL OUTA THE WATER!!!! and ive NEVER WENT BACK IN!!!!!! SINCE!!!! seen a lady in sarasota get tore up by a BARACUDA....she caught fishin and once it got in the boat...did some serious damage....ive caught 2-4 foot sharks...while fishin ...I CUT THE LINE...will not stay in the same boat with a shark....any of you ever fishin and catch an ALLIGATOR GAR???????? now one of those got some serious teeth!!!!! i have more respect for TOOTHED CREATURES... then i would for a man pointin a gun at me!!!!!
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
If you use a magnifier, look real close, if'n it's a hobo spider, he'll have a teeny little stick hangin' over the right side of his back. At the end of the stick is a teeny weeny li'l sack.
Reminds me of when my son was little, he saw a homeless man walking toward the interstate with a backpack. He says: "daddy....there goes a mountain climber". No...homelessness is no laughing matter. But my kids said a lot of cute things when they were little.
sorry....back on topoc now.
[ June 29, 2005, 06:28 PM: Message edited by: Wayne Webb ]
Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :
I don't have any problems with spiders except when I see or feel one crawling on me, other than that I just squash 'em if they're inside the house.
I leave the black widows alone though. I have them all over the place on the rear patio and I'll crush egg sacks if I see them but for the most part I let the widows be. I did see one hanging out in the kitchen between the fridge and end of the cabinet but it disappeared before I could take care of it - haven't seen it in a couple months. I sometimes find them when I clean out closets too, they hide under/behind all the junk.
My brother in-law collects reptiles and spiders. Every time he comes to visit with my sister he goes out and collects the black widows - and keeps them alive doing it. I don't know how he does it, I'd much rather relocate them (yet not get bit doing it).
Posted by John Deaton III (Member # 925) on :
Here you go Shelia! Posted by Hugh Potter (Member # 5748) on :
lol ! i'm not particulrly bothered by spiders, i'll often rescue less fearless people and pick em up to be thrown out the window, i guess i jump a little when they run up me arm tho !
luckily we don't have any poisonous spiders in the uk, except those that make the national papers cos some little old lady found a deadly one in her bananas !
i used to keep pet pythons tho, snakes have never bothered me, my big python was 12ft long and weighed about 80lbs !
what am i scared of ????........ mummies !!! i sleep with the light on if i've watched a film with them in ! i wont even go into a museum if i know there's some there and i might accidentally se one, i went into a museum on business once, just a small town type, been there loads before, but i asked where the toilet was, and followed the directions, little did i know that a mummy was laying in a glass case outside the gents, as desperate as i was, i stood at the urinal for five mins, nothing worked and every little noise freaked me, damn... i was even sweating ! after that experience, i decided to never chase someone with a spider again !
Posted by Suelynn Sedor (Member # 442) on :
I don't mind spiders. What really gets me is bloodsuckers. I got a tiny one stuck on my foot once, and honestly, I damn near fainted. Something about them (besides how utterly discusting they are)makes me go weak in the knees!
Suelynn
Posted by Bobbie Rochow (Member # 3341) on :
OP, that was some story about the gator! Yesterday morning on the Pittsburgh news, some guy & his girlfriend found a 4-5' alligator on the highway next to a swamp!!! Yea, in Pennsylvania! They said it must have been someone's pet they didn't want anymore.
I get fuzzy grey wolf spiders up here, & they have dropped from the ceiling on my arm, & my legs before. We have rough cut hemlock lumber on my shop ceiling which was nailed up there wet & dried & shrunk, thus big wide cracks for the spiders to come out of. THAT is freaky for me!
Hugh, I like Boas, but I am not crazy over pythons. their faces look MEAN! I catch snakes when I see them in the wild by sticking astick behind their neck. I think the biggest one I caught was about 4' in the mountains. The thing is, they let out this stinky milky white stuff, & you have to be careful it doesn't get on you or it won't wash off! EEEEWWWWW!!!!!
Kimberly & Mike, you guys act like you see these Black Widows all the time! I have never seen one, & it would probably scare the pee out of me if I did!
Posted by Jed Pedersen (Member # 2344) on :
The only spider that I don't mind are Tarantulas, I guess being raised in the desert they were kinda like lizards and snakes, fun to catch and scare the girls with.
For Russ,
I work for the phone company for my day job in northern Utah and so far have been lucky enough to have been bitten by two hobo spiders that I know of for sure and possibly one other that there was not enough to identify left (big smear). The joys of working and crawling in basements and things that barely pass as crawl spaces. They seem to like to crawl up pants-legs and sleaves. All that aside here is how you can identify the difference between Wolf spiders and Hobo spiders.
Wolf Spider
Hobo Spider
As far as the bites I was pretty lucky and did not get a full bite or what they call a dry bite as they healed nicely.
Posted by Myra Grozinger (Member # 327) on :
All of this scares the daylights out of me, but NOTHING to me is more gross than maggots. The sheer thought of them makes me unable to eat.
Once my Xhusband went into the basement to take the bottom off the toilet which had been stopped up for maybe a long time (I can't remember the details, but it had to do with opening the pipe that leads up to the toilet) and as he did this in his non-trained way it opened up and dumped maggots all over him and I promplty threw up.
Now, with that revived memory, I may be able to lose the 10 pounds I want to shed. Without a doubt, they are d i s g u s t i n g.
Posted by Dave Sherby (Member # 698) on :
My name is Dave and I'm an arachnaphobic.
I know how I became one but it doesn't help. My mother was weeding her garden. I was 3 and a big spider crawled on her hand. She screamed and ran into the house. I've been afraid of them since. But not fetal position, screaming, turning white afraid, just don't like them.
I have a fear yet a curiosity about them. I'll watch any spider show on the Discovery channel. I've thrown flies into webs to watch them capture the fly. But if I see one in my shop I step on it. I'll kill them in the house, and when one gets on me I suddenly can move at warp speed to knock it off.
My female employee picks them up and releases them outside.
Nothing else really bothers me.
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
ACK-EEUUWW-UGH JOHN! Yer'a sick puppy!! (lol)
Myra,
We still laugh at this story my electrician buddy Jerry tells . . . about when he had to go under a mobile home with his helper (a girl).
They found a huge & furry-stinking mass and tried to slide it onto a peice of cardboard to get it out from under the short, dark, uncomfortabley enclosed area . . .only causing it to fall apart and discover that the furry mass was full of 'rice' (his term for maggots) . . . lol
Upon shining her flashlight on the wiggling mass, his helper crawled out from under the trailer as fast as she could sayin', 'Aw -eeuuww! AW! eeuuw!' and bumping her head repeatedly on the trailer bottom until she got outside and doubled-over puking . . .
The woman who owned the mobile home wondered what the 'bump-bump-bump' sound was and came out to see and Jerry explained what they found . . .
Then the lady said, "OH!!! My cat's been missing for days . . . and I wondered where that bad smell was coming from!"
Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :
quote:Originally posted by Bobbie Rochow: Kimberly & Mike, you guys act like you see these Black Widows all the time! I have never seen one, & it would probably scare the pee out of me if I did!
We DO see them all the time. I usually have at least 2 or 3 nests right by the back door/patio. I see a pretty good web growing out there now (always low to the ground) but I haven't seen the widow building it. Usually they're not hard to find, I used to have a bunch of stuff on the patio that they liked to build their nests in but moved it away from the house and now they're not as common.
Posted by Kelly Sawyer (Member # 5760) on :
I was always afraid of spiders as a kid, so much so that it caused problems, like skipping school in 2nd grade (I hid in the garage all day)because I saw a spider in the hall. It was a major issue. Then my Native Granddmother took control. I got a tattoo of a spider on my left shoulder at age ten with ink that contained amoung other things, spiderwebs. Once that healed the tattoo was killed with a burning stick during an intense ceremony. I was permenantly proscribed from ever killing a spider. I can trick them into dying though. For instance, spider crawls on a stick and the stick goes into the fire, the spider chose to die. Same thing with spiders in a bathtub or sink, I'm just rinsing it out, the spider decided to surf. I don't even breath hard anymore and not a one scares me at all, poisonious or not. Call it Native Psychotherapy Call it what you will. I call it good for me and mine. I would post a picture of the tattoo but try as I might I can't fathom how to do that here. I'm an artist, not a computer wiz. HTML and UBB? That's SNAFU.
Posted by Russ McMullin (Member # 5617) on :
I see a few black widows every year. One interesting thing about the black widow is how tough their webs are.
Sheila and Myra, those are some seriously disgusting stories. Maggots, leeches, and ticks creep me out big time.
Thanks Jed for the clarification on the spiders. It looks like most of the ones I'm seeing are hobo spiders. LOL. I've gone this far without any necrotic crater bites so I hope my luck holds out. The fingers are crossed.
Posted by Todd Gill (Member # 2569) on :
SSSS...SSSSSSSPPP....SSSSSPPPPPPPIDERS!!!!!!
(said like the girl found in the sailboat in the Jaws 2 movie....."SHHHH....SHHHHHHHH....SHHHHHHAAAAAARK!!!)
I HATE spiders.....scare the sweat out of me.....
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
WOOSIES!!!!!!
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
Russ, Nope never been biten by a black widow. Just lucky I guess...they are everywhere here.
I've got another spider story for you. I moved into an apartment which was the downstairs floor of an old victorian house way back in the woods north of San Francisco. After a while, I started seeing these BIG spiders. I asked the landlady (a good friend of mine) if she knew anything about them and she said no. I was a little concerned because they were fairly aggressive. If you went near them with a broom or something they would literally jump at the broom.
I managed to trap one in a jar and took it to the local department of agriculture office and they sent it over to University of California at Berkley for identification since no one there could do it.
A few days later I get a phone call. The guy tells me that it's a spider that is indigenous to that area, not very common at all and they don't know much about them. He then asked if I had any kids or small pets. I said, yes I have a kitten - why? He said they didn't have info as to whether or not they were poisonous but they put the spider in a cage with a rat - the spider bit the rat and the rat died.
OKAY!
Needless to say - even though I really liked the place, I moved fairly quickly after that.
Posted by Bobbie Rochow (Member # 3341) on :
Boy, them spider pictures are REALLY creepy looking! Those ones are the kind that bug me... & they really aren't even fuzzy. Maybe it is the long slender legs. Actually, they are really beautiful, in an odd way, but frightening all the same.
Hey, do you guys out West have to check your boots before you put them on?
One more thing, I use maggots & mealworms to trout fish, & this is the first year I was about to actually touch one. I usually use the lid to the container to hold them still while I hook them.
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
quote:Hey, do you guys out West have to check your boots before you put them on?
absolutely! I wouldn't think of putting on a shoe, jacket, anything without checking it first.
Posted by Hugh Potter (Member # 5748) on :
lol, i dont go fishing much these days, but used to handle maggots, worms and other such thigns every day for years as a youff, i dont see why people worry,
what did make me wonder today tho, was when i was cleaning out the big spong filter that covers the pond pump, i found several large (4" x 1/8th) worms living in the sponge, just like earthworms but still alive ! a large pupae type that wriggled when touched (not dragonfly as pond is too k=new for them) several large caterpillar type grubs about 2" long, poss dragonfly. and hundreds of little wormlike things !!! very odd.
i did once find a spider at my previous employers warehouse, not being woried about them i chased it onto my hand, the damned thing jumped at, and onto my hand and clung on for dear life, i couldnt chake it off when i got to the door, wasn't sure if it was biting me or not but it wasnt very comfortable, i didnt look like a native spider that i was aware of, but i squashed it anyway in the end as it was a little to aggressive for the local wildlife, and my liking !!!
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
Did you know maggots are used by the medical profession to 'clean' seriously infected flesh wounds!
*SHUDDER*
Posted by Mike Lavallee (Member # 320) on :
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
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![[For Your Information]](graemlins/fyi.gif)
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I was slap-happy in a heartbeat shoving all my belongings to one end, while smooshing, smearing & slapping every inch of the other end of my tent for quite some time 
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