People are going to be out more now that it's warming up, so this is a good time to remember how to identify two poisonous spiders that you might encounter: The brown recluse and the black widow. Check out these sites:
http://www.brownreclusespider.org/brown-recluse-spider-location.htm
http://www.brownreclusespider.org/black-widow-spider/black-widow-spider-bite.htm
The brown recluse is the more venemous of the two. It's tell-tale sign is a small violin shape on the back of the cephalothorax. For the black widow, only the female is venemous. Her tell-tale sign is a red hourglass on the abdomen.
Not sure the Brown Recluse lives in So. Cal. I've not seen one in my life thus far here. As for Black Widows... they are pretty common in my backyard. Feisty little gals...
We get both in Arkansas. The recluse is the real nasty one. It lives up to its name. You have to check your shoes and even the sleeves of your shirts before you put them on. They like to hide, so if you stick your hand in some place dark you might come out with a flesh-eating problem.
Quote from: AnimatedDirt on May 29, 2012, 10:36:57 PM
Not sure the Brown Recluse lives in So. Cal. I've not seen one in my life thus far here.
I was told they did not, and then met a local guy who'd been bitten by one. Made a nasty mess of this thigh and he got it treated early.
QuoteAs for Black Widows... they are pretty common in my backyard. Feisty little gals...
I had a black widow pet for awhile -- my mother had accidently chopped off a couple of its legs while gardening and I made a home for it out of a large jar. I intended to catch flies for it but it freaked my mother out and she flushed it down the toilet one day while I was at school. I didn't speak to her for a week.
Quote from: BooksCatsEtc on May 30, 2012, 04:31:05 AM
I had a black widow pet for awhile -- my mother had accidently chopped off a couple of its legs while gardening and I made a home for it out of a large jar. I intended to catch flies for it but it freaked my mother out and she flushed it down the toilet one day while I was at school. I didn't speak to her for a week.
I had one too, but then it had a bunch of babies and freaked everybody out (had put a couple of egg sacks the spider was "hugging"), so she threw them all down the sink and left the water running for quite a while. plenty of similarities between your story and mine.
I had not, in my calculations prior to securing the animal in an old coffee jar, thought that baby black widows could go through the holes I had punctured through the lid. ::)
Quote from: BooksCatsEtc on May 30, 2012, 04:31:05 AM
Quote from: AnimatedDirt on May 29, 2012, 10:36:57 PM
Not sure the Brown Recluse lives in So. Cal. I've not seen one in my life thus far here.
I was told they did not, and then met a local guy who'd been bitten by one. Made a nasty mess of this thigh and he got it treated early.
Since the BR often hides in boxes and containers, they can get inadvertently shipped all over. Their natural habitat is from the Midwest to the South, but they can show up just about anywhere that is engaged in commerce.
This thread is literally making me shudder and shake. My one true phobia is spiders. We have both BRs and BWs in CO. I'm terrified of one biting T or our dog because they are both so little. :-[
We have brown recluse here, and they love hay. I am always careful to wear gloves when feeding.
Blimey, BH, do you eat hay?
Luckily we have no poisonous spiders here and no seriously poisonous snakes.
Quote from: OldGit on May 30, 2012, 07:26:57 PM
Blimey, BH, do you eat hay?
Luckily we have no poisonous spiders here and no seriously poisonous snakes.
Haha OG, very funny. I meant feeding the horses. :P
I despise house spiders they move way too fast, grow way too large (seen them approximately about 160mm in total span in my house before), and they seem to love me. I have had three crawl onto my face in the last year alone whilst watching tv, and a few smaller ones crawl onto to my laptop whilst browsing in bed. I seriously dislike them. Other types of spiders are fine but house spiders just no.
Quote from: Crow on May 30, 2012, 09:12:55 PM
I despise house spiders they move way too fast, grow way too large (seen them approximately about 160mm in total span in my house before), and they seem to love me. I have had three crawl onto my face in the last year alone whilst watching tv, and a few smaller ones crawl onto to my laptop whilst browsing in bed. I seriously dislike them. Other types of spiders are fine but house spiders just no.
:o That's it. That's proof. No loving god could let something like that happen. Proof. ;D
Quote from: Crow on May 30, 2012, 09:12:55 PM
Other types of spiders are fine but house spiders just no.
How about car spiders? I don't mind house spiders since they eat all the mosquitos (can't even remember my last mosquito bite) but the spiders who chose my car to live in sometimes bug me (heh). But seriously, I hate having to destroy a spider web before I get into my car some mornings. Don't know what it is about the car they like.
Here's a Texas yellow garden spider, for your viewing pleasure. Non-poisonous, but creepy.
http://www.bugsinthenews.com/Texas%20Spiders/Argiope%20aurantia%2028%20July%2020078%20Stephen%20M%20Justin%20TX%20WA%20dorsal%20body.jpg
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on May 31, 2012, 04:03:28 AM
Here's a Texas yellow garden spider, for your viewing pleasure. Non-poisonous, but creepy.
Ohhh, what a beauty! Love the pattern on her back, looks like an Indian blanket.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on May 31, 2012, 04:03:28 AM
Here's a Texas yellow garden spider, for your viewing pleasure. Non-poisonous, but creepy.
http://www.bugsinthenews.com/Texas%20Spiders/Argiope%20aurantia%2028%20July%2020078%20Stephen%20M%20Justin%20TX%20WA%20dorsal%20body.jpg
That
guy girl looks very familiar, we have St Andrew's Cross Spiders, Argiope keyserlingi. (https://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ft3.gstatic.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcQbOKEgUHZmqYZL0lARaRIeHCyqzuraLzkjbNjqEomg9L9hOTQZBmRHrw&hash=f452c44e4efe232d84c284332de4ef781a86adde)
In my area, there are very occasional black widows, and the brown recluses can be found in parts of Ontario and Quebec. I've thankfully never seen one. I share Ali's spider phobia. I don't like house spiders, even. About the only sort I can stand are daddy longlegs spiders, and that's because they look more like an odd stick bug, and less like a spider.
Spiders seem to like me, too. The affection isn't shared. I've had them land on me in bed, or while working at home. I found one in my daughter's room that was truly creepy, and I don't know what kind it was -- it was short, thick, dark and had HAIRY little legs, and was hiding in the corner of the door, at the bottom, where the baseboard connects to the floor. Even worse, it's startled by movement or noise, because it could jump very quickly back into its hidey-hole. It was also incredibly strong, since I tried for about 10 minutes to suck it up with the vacuum, and it refused to get pulled in! I finally got it when it ventured out a bit further.
Ack. Ack. Ack. My skin's crawling, now! :o
I remember last year a neighbor's pet turantula escaped and found its way into my room one night. I can honestly say that I have never screamed louder in my life. That thing was huge! I immediately went to the neighbor so that they could collect the offending spider because there was no way I was touching it.
Quote from: Budhorse4 on May 31, 2012, 10:07:15 PM
I remember last year a neighbor's pet turantula escaped and found its way into my room one night. I can honestly say that I have never screamed louder in my life. That thing was huge! I immediately went to the neighbor so that they could collect the offending spider because there was no way I was touching it.
*Puts her head between her knees and breathes into a bag*
Quote from: Budhorse4 on May 31, 2012, 10:07:15 PM
I remember last year a neighbor's pet turantula escaped and found its way into my room one night. I can honestly say that I have never screamed louder in my life. That thing was huge! I immediately went to the neighbor so that they could collect the offending spider because there was no way I was touching it.
Actually, here's the weird thing - If I know for a fact that a tarantula can't hurt me/is de-venomized, I don't mind them all that much. I have no freakin' clue why -- after all, they're a huge, hairy spider. You'd think I'd be terrified. I guess it's just that they look more like an animal than a spider. If I saw one in my house, I'd be properly freaked out, since I wouldn't know whether or not it could hurt me. My survival mechanisms would just kick in, and... yeah. But I've been to zoos etc where there were pet/trained/totally safe tarantulas, and I was assured it was safe, so I actually held one in my hand. :o I couldn't believe I did it. But it was warm and soft, and reminded me of a small mouse with eight legs.
Quote from: Amicale on May 31, 2012, 11:21:00 PM
Quote from: Budhorse4 on May 31, 2012, 10:07:15 PM
I remember last year a neighbor's pet turantula escaped and found its way into my room one night. I can honestly say that I have never screamed louder in my life. That thing was huge! I immediately went to the neighbor so that they could collect the offending spider because there was no way I was touching it.
Actually, here's the weird thing - If I know for a fact that a tarantula can't hurt me/is de-venomized, I don't mind them all that much. I have no freakin' clue why -- after all, they're a huge, hairy spider. You'd think I'd be terrified. I guess it's just that they look more like an animal than a spider. If I saw one in my house, I'd be properly freaked out, since I wouldn't know whether or not it could hurt me. My survival mechanisms would just kick in, and... yeah. But I've been to zoos etc where there were pet/trained/totally safe tarantulas, and I was assured it was safe, so I actually held one in my hand. :o I couldn't believe I did it. But it was warm and soft, and reminded me of a small mouse with eight legs.
Yeah, no. Not getting near anything with eight legs unless it is a horseshoe crab.
I've had a tarantula crawl over me once. It was slow.
Quote from: BooksCatsEtc on May 31, 2012, 04:33:18 AM
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on May 31, 2012, 04:03:28 AM
Here's a Texas yellow garden spider, for your viewing pleasure. Non-poisonous, but creepy.
Ohhh, what a beauty! Love the pattern on her back, looks like an Indian blanket.
It is! *Looks up* The ones that ornament my ceiling are kind of plain (I let them stay there, I like the insects they eat less).
The house I grew up in had a big fiddleback (brown recluse) problem that had to be sprayed for frequently. None of us ever got bit but I shake out my clothes, towel, shoes etc before putting them on to this day (and it has saved me from a bite more than once).
I didn't know fiddlebacks were more poisonous than black widows...I know the fiddlebacks cause loss of flesh that can get out of control if not treated immideately but thought that black widows basically meant death.
OK, now this is creepy. Here's a story about a town in India that just got invaded by poisonous spiders, and two people died.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/06/03/2-people-dead-after-swarms-venomous-spiders-invade-indian-town/
Quote from: Amicale on May 31, 2012, 04:51:50 AM
In my area, there are very occasional black widows, and the brown recluses can be found in parts of Ontario and Quebec.
Goddammit! I didn't know this! >:( This adds to my desire to get back to Newfoundland. They might have polar bears, but at least you can see those coming. >:(
I used to do volunteer work at the Invertebrate House at the National Zoo in Washington DC. We had a lot of spiders on display. One was a corner of the place that was open, no glass and we had Madagascar Orb Weavers there. They really don't leave the area if the food is good. Their spindly legs aren't so great for walking on the floor.
It was always fun to see people walk up to it and then flip out when they realize there was no glass, haha.
But anyway, we had a beautiful black widow in the back lab that was not accessible by the public. Her abdomen was as large as a US quarter!
The zoo keepers always told us that the BW is poisonous but not fatal to grown adults. They can be, however, fatal for kids and those with compromised immune systems. And wouldn't you know, they usually build their webs along the sides of houses and other such places in which kids like to hang out.
I remember a few years ago someone's husband from one of my other forums was bitten by a Brown Recluse and ended up in the hospital as they ended up carving up his arm in order to save it.
I've never seen one around here, but they exist.