Arachnophobia anyone?

[pitbulllady]

Originally Posted by One Radical Dude

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

[One Radical Dude]

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.

[Bloofanatic]

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

[Howard]

Originally Posted by pitbulllady

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

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!

[pitbulllady]

Originally Posted by duck2k

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!

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

[Howard]

Originally Posted by pitbulllady

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.

[GrimTheLost]

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

[Verity]

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

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!

[Partymember]

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

[pitbulllady]

Originally Posted by Partymember

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