Arachnophobia anyone?
 

For the spiderphobic people, tell all about your encounters with spiders. And yes, the thread is even for the spider lovers as well.

Now, little spiders don't freak me out, but the REALLY BIG ones!.....:wiltshock:
I remember one time there was a huge spider in the house that covered the hinge of the door, which covered nearly 5 inches!

I'm not afraid of spiders but the BIG ones unnerve me.;) My dad has started to grow a fear of spiders in his old age. I remember a few summers ago whene I was helping to paint the house, there was this spider looking right at my dad and my dad yelled "How many people did you eat?!". He had to have me clear away all the spiders just so we could get close to the house.8D

I am, of course, absolutely UNafraid of spiders; in fact, I love the darn things, the bigger and hairier, the better! So many tarantulas out there, and so little money in my bank account!

I used to be one of those silly people who was afraid of spiders, not really phobic, but they used to give me the heebie-jeebies. Then, I grew some additional brain cells and realized how hypocritical it was of me to fear spiders out of the same reason so many people fear snakes, ignorance, when I had spent much of my life, as a child and an adult, trying to educate people that snakes were not the slimy, nasty, evil, mean, and by-default deadly creatures that most people believed them to be. I began to educate myself about spiders and to dispel my own needless fears. When a kindergarten teacher offered to give me her son's Chilean Rosehaired tarantula, which he'd left at home with his none-too-happy mom when he got married, I accepted it, as a way of defeating my fear face-to-fang, so to speak. That one spider turned out to be something of a "gateway drug", since I have now expanded my tarantula collection(and this does not include "true" spiders that I keep, as well)has grown to close to 50 animals! Since taking up the additional hobby of macro digital photography, my interest in spiders has really picked up, since being able to photograph them and see them in details not visable with the naked eye has really shown me how fascinating they are. Their colors and patterns never cease to amaze me, and their behavior can be just as remarkable as that of "complex" animals. Quite honestly, right now, I'd happily trade every single dog I have(well, maybe not two of them)for additional tarantula species, since the spiders are so much less trouble to care for.

pitbulllady

Just watch out for contaminated foodstuffs that you give you're spiders, Pitbullady or Eight Legged Freaks could start all over again.8D

I have no negative experiences/encounters with spiders - well I mean, none involving me being afraid or whatever. I have experiences witnessing people who horribly tortured/killed spiders for no good reason, or even asked ME to do it FOR them! Those are negative, but too sad to tell I think. I guess I have nothing for this thread.

I live in AZ - "Black Widows, Brown Widows, Scorpions, and Recluse - OH MY!":o

I would absolutely LOVE to go to Arizona to collect spiders and scorpions, especially since you have some really nice tarantula species there, including one of my favorites, the "Flagstaff Orange", Aphonopelma chalcodes.

pitbulllady

Even though I'm not at this time planning to get another T, if I found a female Flagstaff Orange I'd snatch it up! COOLEST LEGS EVER.

I'm not afraid of spiders...

Really, I'm not...

I mean, I don't have any pet spiders, but that doesn't mean I hate them.

I'm indifferent to them... I think they are cool. I'm not obsessed; I just think they are cool.

Snakes can freak me out occasionally, only when I know it's a species that could potentially hurt me...

I have no issue with mice, either...

Stuff like that doesn't freak me out.

There are so many girls at school who go wild if they see so much as a fire ant near them, and that bugs me (no pun intended). Hey, they don't hurt me.

Which is why I always take the spider outside instead of squishing it when I find one in the house. It just wanted to explore a bit; no reason to end an innocent life.

I feel like a total nerd... In a good way.
-Marty :goo:

I think they're great to look at, though I'm not very fond of the ones that carry the venom. Had a friend over the summer that got bitten by a black widow. When he went to the hospital, they said he didn't need any medication, and the he wasn't going to die. I guess he had a dry bite or something, but he did swell up pretty big.

Is he absolutely certain that it was a Black Widow? Black Widows have neurotoxic venom, like a Cobra's, which attacks the central nervous system but generally does not cause tissue damage and swelling. Black Widow venom molecules bind to pain receptors in the brain, while overactivating the nerves that control muscles, causing virtually every muscle in the body to cramp violently, while at the same time magnifying the sensation of pain THAT causes. Eventually, the heart muscle goes into spasm, along with the breathing muscles, which can result in death.

pitbulllady

Well, I wasn't there, when it happened. This was before seeing my friends in CA. It may not have been a Black Widow, but then again, I wasn't around for that.

I don't mind the small ones but the big ones......*shudders*

Come on down! There are 3 types of scorpion, and all the orange T's you want! Just watch out for the T hawk - it's sting is so unbearable, that the only thing you can do is scream!:wiltshock:

Yep, we have those colorful Pepsis wasps here, too, only they have to settle for big Wolf spiders and the occasional Kukulcania. I've never been stung by one personally, though I've had one give me a good "telling-off" for getting too close to her burrow, and she was about two inches long, which is HUGE for a wasp, so I took her advice and backed off! I've seen dogs that had made the mistake of trying to eat one of these, and their faces looked almost as bad as if they'd been bitten by a small rattler!

If you know anyone who doesn't mind capturing tarantulas, and can round me up a few females(though I could use a male, which are the ones found out wandering around, since I've got a couple of lonely girls over here), and follow directions on shipping, I would really love to have a couple more, and Sparky probably wouldn't turn down another A. chalcodes, either. They're such nice animals, pretty to look at and to touch, like eight-legged Golden Retrievers! YOu might better hang onto the scorpions, unless you know for sure that you haven't found an Arizona Bark ScorpionCentroides exilicauda, since those can actually kill people, and in tests on their venom, have been shown to be even more potent, drop-for-drop, than the infamous Israeli Death Stalker Scorpion, long thought to be the deadliest invertebrate on land. You've probably got lots of big Desert Hairy Scorpions and Dune Scorpions, though, which aren't too bad.

pitbulllady

I'll see what I can do. I have friend who owns and breeds African Emperor (Empress) scorpions; I am sure she can point me in the right direction on who to talk to.:frankiesmile:

I got bit by some random spider on my hand when I was little. It looked like a balloon. Spiders creep me out.

I'm afraid of spiders and I've always been. Tiny spiders aren't that bad, but I don't want them near me. One thing about spiders is that to me, they (like many other arthropods) appear to be faceless. I know they're not, but that's how I feel. Some of them are like a body with long, scary legs. I'm looking at picures of spiders right now, I shudder, and it feels like somethings crawling on me :macwor:

Snakes have never really bothered me. I touched one earlier this year at Skansen (a Swedish open air museum and zoo, in case you don't know) and it was rather nice!

oh yeah, we have the Brown Recluse all over up here. Scary.

Where ARE you, by the way? A lot of people claim to have Brown Recluse where they live, when they live far outside its range. I've seen countless pics on DA of "Brown Recluse" that were actually Wolf Spiders, Cellar Spiders, Tegenarias, and even a Jumping Spider once! I'm not saying you DON'T have 'em, but knowing where you live could at least let me give you some peace of mind that maybe things aren't as bad as they seem as far as having these venomous little buggers around. A lot of people also assume that the Brown Recluse must be a big, scary spider(hense the Wolfies getting stuck with that misidentification)in order to do so much harm when it bites, but they're actually rather small and plain-looking. Even still, in areas where they are very, very common, actual confirmed bites are extremely rare.

pitbulllady

upstate NY. They could be Wolfs in retrospect.

They DEFINATELY are not Brown Recluses, since that is WAAAY out of their range! They most likely are indeed a species of Wolf spider or Tegenaria and quite harmless.

pitbulllady

oh good! They still scare the shizzle out of me, though. Massive creepy scurrying things. I love snakes, though, is it illegal to own an anaconda? I want a gavail, too.

In New York State, unfortunately, it's pretty much illegal to own ANY animal, other than a run-of-the-mill cat or dog or livestock. All large boids are banned, along with every species that's native to the state, and Gavials are prohibited under INTERNATIONAL law(CITES), as these are highly-endangered. Yes, NY bans all crocodilians, too. In the city of NY, it's even worse; tarantulas are banned as "dangerous", along with ferrets(under the totally incorrect assumption that they are wild animals), iguanas, all constricting snakes(such as Ball Pythons and Corn Snakes), Bengal cats(a domesticated breed), Emperor scorpions and Hermit crabs-all under the premise that they are "dangerous".

I am SOOO glad that I live in South Carolina!

pitbulllady

hermit crabs LOL!

Don't forget the incredibly rare "Canine Hyena," pbl. 8D

Ooops...how could I forget THAT critter! I take it you've been following the thread on Arachnoboards then. It never ceases to astound me how many people on that board-a forum devoted to keeping EXOTIC and to some, controversial wild animals-are actually strongly in favor of banning many kinds of animals, if not ALL of them. Many fail to see any connection between banning the animals THEY keep, and banning everything else, though. They cannot comprehend that the same folks who are behind the push to ban Pit Bulls and ferrets are also behind the move to ban their scorpions and tarantulas, and that these are also the very same groups who want to see every last dog and cat in this country sterilized and no more puppies and kittens being born, EVER.

But then, if the "hyena dogs" were legal in New York, wouldn't they eat all the tarantulas and other "dangerous" spiders running around up there? I'm pretty sure they'd devour all the child-eating Pit Bulls, but then, the dope fiends and gang-bangers(and according to the media, those are the ONLY people who would want a Pit Bull in the first place)would all start wanting hyena dogs, so I can see how that would be a problem.

pitbulllady

they found an alligator in a drug house, guarding the place. It was a few years back. We have coydogs up here, thats a feral dog/coyote mix. I think they would own any heyenas. They are incredibly wily, i've been out several times and can't get a single one.

My uncle in Michigan had a wolf, he had it taxidermied when it died. Seeing a wolf standing on a rock in the living room scared the heck out of me when i was 5.

I take it that you've not been around many hyenas, have you? A Spotted hyena is the same size as an English Mastiff, and has the most powerful jaws of any land animal. I've seen coydogs-we have those here in South Carolina, too. I've also been around live hyenas and seen what those jaws can do. One of my Pit Bulls might last....oh, three seconds in a fight with a hyena, and then it would be lunch, and hyenas LOVE to eat dogs! A friend of mine who had an exotic animal rescue outfit had a hyena named "Jake" who was his house "dog"(they are not canines, by the way, not even related). For some reason, Jake hated me with a passion. After he exploded through a locked storm door(he lived in the house, all 180 pounds of him)and bit through my steel-belted radial tire down to the rim without so much as seeming to strain his jaw muscles, I got the point that Jake wanted to kill me, and decided that dropping in unannounced would not be a good idea. There is a heckuva big difference between that and someone having a tarantula for a pet, let me tell ya! That can really put something like a little spider into perspective, when it comes to really being confronted by a large flesh-eating animal like that.

pitbulllady

it depends on the intelligence factor, are they smart? The coydogs up here are more wolf than coyote, they hunt in packs. Large packs. I really really have been trying to get one, but they are wiley animals. They only show up when they want to, and no amount of scent block and wounded rabbit calls can bring them out. I think if the hyena is as smart as a coydog, which are smart animals, then they could take them. Of coursem, the coydogs might not last long now that the wolves are coming back up here.

How big are your coydogs? Ours are wolf-size.

Coydogs here tend to be roughly Pointer-sized, around 40-50 lbs. Many of the specimens from northern states are very likely carrying a high percentage of Timber Wolf genes, which is why they are so large, and this is going to become even more of a factor now that wolves are re-entering their old stomping grounds once more. We do not have wild wolves here in South Carolina-Dingoes, yes, but no wolves. But, yes, hyenas are intelligent, and are also pack animals. I think that the one factor which would prevent them from surviving up where you are would be the winter weather, which is very different from sub-Sahara Africa! Still, the NY law is not so much to prevent non-native species from establishing there, as to protect humans from ourselves-Big Brother in all his glory. It's based on the assumption that if something has even the remotest chance it could hurt someone, ban it, for our sakes, without of course bothering to find out if something is a legitimate threat or not. A bite from a native Wolf spider, while not life-threatening, has a longer-lasting and more painful effect than a bite from Rosehaired tarantula, and is MUCH worse than a sting from an Emperor Scorpion, but the latter two are banned as being "dangerous". Ditto for a critter called a Solfugid(the infamous "Camel spider" of Urban Legend), which has NO venom at all; I guess it was banned based on its looks alone-"if it LOOKS scary, ban it!" All laws like this serve to do is to promote the often-erronous beliefs that things like spiders are inherently evil and horrible and always deadly, which counteracts any attempts by people like the late Steve Irwin to try to educate the public.

pitbulllady

Camel Spider is a scary-looking bug for sure.

Its the same thing with rifles, believe it or not, if a gun has black plastic stock on it as oppossed to a traditional wooden one it is automatically the target of a would-be ban, regardless of the gun itself.

with the way winter looks now, i don't think environment would be a factor anymore LOL!

Hmmmm...methinks i hijacked the thread. Sorry!

okay I am not scared of spiders but..... my sister does the most dumbest things because she is scared of spiders it makes me so mad!!:terrence: (belive me you to not want to know know what she does):o

Most people in my family are afraid of spiders, and even tend to kill them: not fair! They also deserve to live, even though they look a bit nasty.
I'm not afraid of them but I do not fancy to hold one.

My firend's son got stung by a bark scorpion recently; terrified? Absolutely!

I'm scared of spiders as well... especially 3 types:
- Long-legged ones, those freak me out, no matter how tiny they are, ewww!!!
- Ones with huge abdomen and small legs.
- Big ones, I mean, larger than 4 cms.
As for tiny little ones that sometimes crawl on me, all I can say is "Awww, how cuteee!!!"

But I got over it somehow. I simply took out my camera and began to photograph cross spiders, and filled my DeviantArt gallery with the results: cross spider in the darkness, cross spider in the light, closeups, profiles, etc...

I'm particularly proud of this one:
http://ic3.deviantart.com/fs12/i/200...omalhaut48.jpg
Link: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40331600/

Nice pictures! Good ole' Araneus diadematus-believe it or not, we have this species here in the US, too. That girl is sure wrapping up that Assassin Bug!

pitbulllady

I know you like spiders, check out my DA gallery, there are some more. :D

I love spiders (from Mars lololol), but scorpions scare the stardust out of me. Stingy stingy.

My mom is horrible, she smushes any bugs she sees and LEAVES THEM ON THE WALL because she thinks it'll scare away other bugs.

This one time though, there was an egg sack in our glass cupboard and I opened it up and there were spiders all over the cups. AAHHHH!

Ooo creepy crawlies!

Now I love the spiders, people think I'm nuts when I see one and gently take it outside...everybody else usually freaks out!
We even have a bunch of various spideys all over my parents house and they cannot imagine getting rid of them.
Last summer we had quite a few, with some newcomers fighting the regulars over the best spots by the house. I of course got pics of one of the "fights" which were sometimes brutal!
http://www.oneandonemakefive.com/gal...m01/spider.jpg
The defending spider (the brown one) started getting attacked by that red one, and both they and the web dissapeared. We were getting worried but then the brown one returned a couple of days later and just spun a new web in like, minutes.

I have more pics of that "fight" here if you want to take a look. Photographing Spiders is fun! :D