Spiders

[SiG Lady]

I refuse to even enlarge those photos.......

[lmccrock]

My wife hates spiders (daddy long-legs are ok - go figure). This is why there is no loaded gun in the house. I really did not want to come home to find holes through the wall. Then we move to Red Rock: Scorpion Central. And, the tarantulas go wild in May. There is a gadget akin to a handheld vacuum cleaner which sucks up such insects, into a small, internal, electrified grid, which dispatches them. TAKE THAT !!!!

Lee

[Madmark]

According to the old "Foxfire" books on backwoods wisdom, the treatment for the bite of the Black Widow is Alcohol........Taken internally!

When I was 13 I was bitten at a friends house while rummaging through a scrap pile for some bicycle parts I needed. I didn't see what bit me, just smashed it, got my parts, then rode 2 miles to score some beer. Halfway into the trip I started getting winded and dizzy, and feeling weird. But I was on a beer run, and did what I had to do. I found a willing adult to go into the circle K and buy me a 12 pack. When he came out and handed me the bag, a Mesa police cruiser pulled a U turn and hit his lights. We scattered, but the cop chased me, for 2 miles! I was going through peoples yards, alleys, parks, schools, parking lots; anywhere a bicycle could go that a police cruiser couldn't. By the time I made it back to my friends house, I could barely breath, as if someone was squeezing my chest. I ditched my bike, started chugging beers and trying to catch my breath. My friend got a flashlight, and I lifted my T-shirt and found a large Black Widow smashed on my belly. I figured I was going to have to show my Mom, which would have meant being grounded when she smelt the beer on my breath. So I reasoned, if I'm gonna get grounded for bieng drunk, I'm gonna be plenty drunk! 7 beers later, I felt as good as I could, and was able to ride the 8 miles home with absolutely no discomfort. It seems the alchohol counteracts the poison, and it works like a charm! Just make sure your Mom doesn't find out!

[SiG Lady]

Whatta helluva story!!

[Shooter Grrl]

I coulda sworn Mark was a preacher - are you sure you want that story out in the public

I have to go puke now - cause that's what spiders do to me, even in pictures! At least now we have little pictures so I don't end up with anymore surprises like the two on the first page - :puke:

[hopalong]

Grrl,

Just FYI....

We have that small little brown spider that caused the ugly hand....AND them darned Black Widows too....

In a month or two I might be able to show you one or two at the range, they like hangin out in the Pepper popper bases.

The Black widow poison acts on the nervous system, usually causes uncontrolled muscle action (usually MAJOR cramping of the muscle).

The Brown Recluse poison destroys tissue to make it easy for them to digest their chow.....

with the cats in the house you should have no problems with either....

at the range just look before you grab.....

See you Tomorrow for the steel match.

Hop

[Chuck D]

Living in the "snowbelt" has its advantages.

This damn thread gives me nightmares.

[ipscron2000]

Grrl,

Just FYI....

We have that small little brown spider that caused the ugly hand....AND them darned Black Widows too....

In a month or two I might be able to show you one or two at the range, they like hangin out  in the Pepper popper bases.

The Black widow poison acts on the nervous system, usually causes uncontrolled muscle action (usually MAJOR cramping of the muscle).

The Brown Recluse poison destroys tissue to make it easy for them to digest their chow.....

with the cats in the house you should have no problems with either....

at the range just look before you grab.....

See you Tomorrow for the steel match.

Hop

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hop

We have the Black Widows, but I've never seen one that I know of. Never seen Brown recluse that I know of and I have seen one Scorpion at the range. After that Pepper Popper comment, I'll never unload steel from the shed the same way again.

[gm iprod]

The only spider here in New Zealand that will bite you and cause a problem is the Katipo. Rarely seen and rarely does it bite people. But if you put your hand inside an old log or crevice in the forest you may get a bite. You will have to be really young or really old and with a heart condition to actually become ill enough to warrant a hospital trip.

The one that scares the most people is the Avondale Spider (remember Arachniphobia). These things are HUGE, the largest I ever saw lived under the high school I attended, it was about 8" across the legs, hairy as all hell. Bid bodie too. Totally harmless. We had a few live under my dads house, best place to hide stuff from my mother.

If the image loads properly the toilet paper roll the spider is on is a std width of about 5".

[Bear1142]

If ever there was a candidate for the mozambique drill, there he is. I'm not playin'

Erik

[carinab]

Okay, just to give you all the serious willies. How many times have you used a porta-john at the range and seen a spider web in the corner?

Yah, I'm the one on the airplane commenting how take-offs and landings are the most dangerous part of the trip.

[robomanusa]

This whole thread gives me the willies, I give new meaning to the word paranoid about spiders. Those are one of the things god coulda designed a little better or left completely out of nature. If I saw a spider on my toilet paper roll like that one I would never feel safe while taking a dump ever again and now after seeing that evertime I go to the bathroom I will be constantly checking the roll of paper out.

[jessej]

I like squishing spiders with my bare hands and looking at the color of their guts.

[D.Hayden]

Black Widows you can spot from a mile away... they're fairly big and slow, and look like no other spider. The webs are buit like no other, you can tell from the sound, when you brush one. They're everywhere, I kill them all the time.

These Violin/Brown Recluse suckers scare the crap out of me, because I can't tell 'em from a freaking common garden spider.

And jesse... you're nuts.

[Putty]

Its a myth that californians have true brown recluses. Mostly in the southern states with some merging into texas. Violin pattern on cephalothorax and 6 eyes forming 3 distinct diads.

[SiG Lady]

Bleh... spiders just have way too many eyes and legs...

There was a special on cable a couple of nights ago about spiders in the Amazon. Gah! There's a tarantula there (among other huge, toxic hideous types) that drags off people's chickens and eats them. <insert totally freaked-out icon here>

[Stuck in C]

True brown recluses only live in the south/mid-south, but there are related poisonous brown spiders all over the country, sometimes known as "aggressive brown house spiders". By the way, there is a large (1.5-2") dark brown almost black spider which you see in houses, which will scare the &*^^% out of you but which hunts and kills brown house spiders (and other spiders). Maybe you should leave those alone.

[D.Hayden]

True brown recluses only live in the south/mid-south...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is this like those "Africanized" bees only living in South America?

Everytime somethings shipped or moved those little $#%@ are coming with it.

[Carlos]

Hurray! No Brown Recluse here in VA!

We just the black widows & I have only seen those at Quantico range where we are not currently shooting. Heard they are at Fredericksburg though.

"By the way, there is a large (1.5-2") dark brown almost black spider which you see in houses, which will scare the &*^^% out of you but which hunts and kills brown house spiders (and other spiders). Maybe you should leave those alone. "

Like I said, spiders in general are OK by me generally & I would not mind distributing a few of these large hunter/killer spiders around the house if it meant never getting a bite from a brown recluse like the one pictured above; yuck! (willies).

[Putty]

Spiders are pretty habitat (microclimate, area-specific) dependent creatures. There have been some foci of brown recluses found in other states that were moved with boxes etc. but were only found, say in basements or other dwellings where the micro climate and habitat closely reflected their endemic area and were not to be found outside that specific locale, otherwise they perish.

[SiG Lady]

Well, we've got 'em up here, and about every year-and-a-half we see a news story about them or some spider very similar to them... warning us what to watch out for, what kind of habitat they prefer and generally don't stick your hands or feet down any brushy holes or into any lingering woodpiles and the like.

[Putty]

Up here, as in OR? The scientific article(s) I read recently iterates that in most cases, bites that are blamed on recluses outside of their endemic area, are patently false and unsubstantiated. The liberal newsfeeds are most likely to blame for the yellow journalism. Only in cases where the bites occurred outside the endemic areas AND the spider was kept for identification can they be 100% sure. Not to say its impossible, but statisically (up to now) unlikely. I would be more concerned in your area with Hobos and yellow sac spiders, or Widows if your in the desert areas of OR.

[D.Hayden]

Sandoz... I hope you're right..

We're not supposed to have Piranha (sp?) in California either, but they catch them once in a while.

Pet owners releasing them..

[Putty]

Yah, that snake release problem is huge in FLA, as they are releasing venomous species that can kill pretty fast. Luckily FLA has the best anti venom facitiliy in the country, its just finding the snake that bit you is the bitch...........

[Stuck in C]

More than you want to know about spiders, especially in the Pacific Northwest.

spiders

Sig Lady and Sandoz: read the section in the linked article about aggressive house spiders (in funnel web weavers); that's the bad brown spider you would find in Oregon rather than a recluse.

Edited April 26, 2005 by Stuck in C