One of the places they like to hide, though, is in stacks of firewood.

I'm now going to have nightmares about the combination - being bitten on the genitals by a brown recluse....

Don't forget the whales!

True. Same with the black widows. I used to HATE our wood pile when I was a kid. I was terrified of stoking the fire. I could have put on work gloves to alleviate the fear - but I was also afraid that there were spiders in the gloves. I was a hopeless case.

- trs

A friend of mine is getting skin grafted from her hip to her ankle where she got bitten by a brown recluse recently. It's the worst injury I have seen in person.

Well, for future reference, this is a wolf spider:



They're harmless, and keep pretty much any other insects/arthropods above the size of an ant out of the house. They have the same effect on my aunt, usefully

This is a small one, I think probably a male. It's only about 2 inches across the legs at most. There are some much bigger ones around somewhere, maybe two to two and a half times the size (you sometimes hear them thumping around the room at night, lots of little feet going clatter, clatter, clatter...). The only one I know the current whereabouts of is under the bed, but the last time I tried to get it out with a stick to take a picture we had a brief tug-of-war, and I lost.

Pixel loves them.

Actually, she just hits them until they stop working, then goes off to find some other source of amusement. Sometimes I have to rescue one from her, very occasionally with a really big one I have to rescue her from it...

pca

LOL

Wow, that would freak me out. I'm impressed by your comfort with them

Sadly, I am positive that was not the type of spider I had in my house. This little guy would not fit on your palm, let alone your finger. Plus he was far more bulky than that one.


[On a side note, I am currently on hold with T-Mobile customer service, and am struck with the feeling that a musak version of "Living in the Past" by Jethro Tull is highly unnecessary. Mainly because it doesn't sound any different from the original ]

A little bit of research turns up the fact that the skin bitten can become full-depth necrotic

Clearly, nobody else has repeatedly clicked Philip's link to the picture of the brown recluse bite.
People! The initial page is just Day 5.
If you have the stamina to follow it all the way through to day 10, you will see why it is extremely important to seek treatment for one of these bites.
You may also lose your lunch. Not for the squeamish.

This little guy would not fit on your palm, let alone your finger

I've heard of wolf spiders getting that big sometimes. <shudder>

/me considers not reading this thread any more, even though he started it...

One of the guys I work with is married to a nurse. He was telling us about a guy who went into her emergency room with a brown recluse bite. Definately not a pretty image. Their poison is mean, but I suppose any kind of poison isn't exactly nice.

I'm not fond of spiders, but we use to have a family of black widows living near our water heater when we were stationed in Utah.

I tried to find a link to contribute to this thread, but I have no idea where it is. I might have to look at it when I get home. Anyway, this spider was huge, its legs stuck out from under a clock and it was ENORMOUS! The photo taker removed the clock so he could see the whole thing. The consensus between everybody I showed the link to and myself was that we wouldn't kill the thing, we'd just move, right then.

Edit: Woo! Found some of the pics...

Only three here.
There is a great thread about those pictures that still make me laugh.

Clearly, nobody else has repeatedly clicked Philip's link to the picture of the brown recluse bite.

Yeah, I figured that out after the fact. Nasty.

Clearly, nobody else has repeatedly clicked Philip's link to the picture of the brown recluse bite.

I hadn't. I have now. Wish I hadn't.

At this point I am feeling so glad that I live in the UK where the scariest wildlife we get is a flea ridden rabbit...

pca, whats wrong with that spider in your picture?
looks like its got a leg growing from the top of its back.

It is also important to note, if you get bitten by a spider that you THINK is a brown recluse, catch it and bring it with you. It is very helpful when trying to determine what type of antivenom, if any, to give you. My dad was once biten by a brown recluse on the hand. More specifically the left thumb. He's a surgeon, so you could imagine how nervous we all were. All was well after a few hours at the hospital though.

Personally, spiders don't bother me a bit. Roaches, on the other hand...... -=shudder=- I know, I know, roaches don't bite, spiders do, but... Roaches are just GROSS. And spiders are cute and hairy and only eat other insects.

pca, whats wrong with that spider in your picture?
looks like its got a leg growing from the top of its back.

Think Patrick is working with more dangerous substances than jet engines and electricity?

Just had a look at Phillips pics. That guy is insane. how could you let that go for so long?

...struck with the feeling that a musak version of "Living in the Past" by Jethro Tull is highly unnecessary. Mainly because it doesn't sound any different from the original...

Don't worry. Ian Anderson thought the same thing. In one of the Jethro Tull box sets (25 years, I think), he introduces Living In The Past something like this: (not an exact quote, this is from memory, but it will be pretty close...)

...Here is an oldie that we have utterly loathed for fifteen long years. But now it is back, rewritten in a slightly trickier form making it more fun to play. It's called Living In The Past...

The beginning and the end are still very muzak-ish, but the center there is a lot of improvisation and good stuff.

Personally, spiders don't bother me a bit. Roaches, on the other hand...... -=shudder=- I know, I know, roaches don't bite, spiders do, but... Roaches are just GROSS. And spiders are cute and hairy and only eat other insects.

I'm with you on this. Spotting a roach inside would literallycause me to move. Literally. Because if you see one... you've got a million in your walls.
(Pardon the MadTV reference.)

Spiders, on the other hand, experience unique evolutionary pressures in my household. I kill the big ugly hairy ones and let the cute little ones be. After a few years of this, I only have cute little spiders who I trust to keep all the other insects under control.

By the way, anyone else remember a children's book called "Be Nice to Spiders" which exhorted you leave them alone because they are good to have around?

which reminds me.. this one is from New Zealand a year ago..

Great pic! I wish I had some good pictures of my pet tarantula we had in Haiti.

I was in Haiti for a month, and we kept getting tarantulas in the bathroom. They would wander in from outside and we would remove them by taking a branch from a tree, leading the tarantula onto the branch, then throwing the branch far away outside into a cane field. I was the designated tarantula catcher around and one day we decided to get one and keep it in a cage. We caught it in a super-large mayo jar, the tarantula was a medium sized one, about 6-8 inches long. While it was in the jar we fed it a gecko. That was pretty interesting, the tarantula has two claws around it's jaw and it bit the gecko with them. Then it used them to pull the gecko's body into it's mouth leaving only the head and tail. After that we made a cage out of a box and screen, and the tarantula just kind of hung out the rest of the time we were there (I think it was really full after the gecko). We let him go when I left.

I was talking to my "cubicle buddy" about this thread, and she was quite interested. She's an odd one. She wanted to go into forensic science for the longest time.

Anyway, she was telling me that when she was a kid, she and her parents lived in Australia, which evidently has the largest share of venemous spiders in the world. She was telling me how they also had perfectly harmless spiders, but they grew to enormous sizes. Apparently we're talking about the exact same spiders from "Aracnaphobia", and she'd see these in her bathroom regularly.

No thanks.

Yeah, they've got some weird animals down there in Australia. I'm told that certain species of animals down there can have up to six assholes.

Reminds me of when I was in college. A friend of mine had a problem not with spiders, but with the other cool arachnids, scorpions. While there was construction going on in the neeighborhood, all the scorpions would get displaced from the woods they were clearing and kept invading homes in the area. We'd find 2-3 a week for months. They were the harmless little 1" long ones, but still, they looked awfully menacing to me.

Why'd you have to go and do that? Now I keep thinking of a present from my mom's friend who lives in Malaysia. For some reason, she thought a great birthday present for me when I was about 10 or 12 would be a scorpion in a glass case (a dead one). The box was about 10 to 12 inches long, and the scorpion filled it. That thing creeped the hell out of me.

I'm glad I live where is gets cold enough to kill all of these bugs

I'm told that certain species of animals down there can have up to six assholes.

sounds my previous boss.

Huntsman is one large growing one. Wolf is another.

Crikey, hang one a minute mate. I gotta go. The last Kangaroo is just about to leave and I haven't even finished my billy tea and damper

all the scorpions would get displaced from the woods they were clearing and kept invading homes in the area. We'd find 2-3 a week for months

I've heard stories about subdivisions built in former scorpion habitats. Apparently it takes quite some time (a year perhaps?) before people stop seeing scorpions appearing in their houses.

In a related note, once upon a time, I worked in a 10-story office building which had recently been built in the middle of nowhere atop a wooded hill. It turns out that this was the major local cricket breeding habitat. Every spring, for about a week, millions of crickets would carpet the parking lot and swarm up the side of the building to the second or third floor. Hundreds of crickets covered the marble lobby floor. The parking lot seemed to be alive and moving. As you drove out you could hear the disgusting sound of many crickets crunching under your wheels.
And the smell! Do you know what large numbers of squashed crickets smell like? It ain't pretty.

Then, within a week, they would all vanish, not to be seen again until the next year.

Let the swarming insect stories begin. I'm sure my story has nothing on the Aussies. Not to mention the ocean of rats they had down there one time. Disgusting.

Let the swarming insect stories begin.

My God, what have I done by starting this thread?

My God, what have I done by starting this thread?

Yes, Tony, perhaps you should have waited until closer to Halloween.