I Hate Spiders

[chid]

My sister is the same, tough chick but if she is near a spider she loses her cool. I was the tormentor of it, I love picking them up by their legs and chasing her around with them.. I love spiders

[CaptainCrunch]

Snakes . . . Its always gotta be snakes.

[OutOfTheCube]

Only girls are afraid of spiders.

Man-up, they can't hurt you (at least 98% of the ones here can't). Try letting one walk on you, it's actually kinda cool.

[jayswin]

Hobo Spider


Brown Recluse



Black Widow


All three of these are venomous, and all three supposedly call Calgary home, although the Black widow is the only one that is regularly spotted here. The Brown recluse is feared because it is often mistaken for a common house spider, yet a bite from this spider can have life long effects, with the immediate scar resembling flesh eating disease, and if not treated properly, can be fatal.

The Hobo spider is often mistaken for a brown recluse (which is often mistaken for a house spider), and the bite of a hobo spider is also often mistaken for a recluse bite. The hobo spider was common in NW US (ie, washington state) and BC, but has now spread to more eastern states, and has subsequently been spotted in Alberta, with their presence in calgary being very likely.

Also, in BC, there have been many cases of deadly spiders from overseas catching rides in cargo on ships that port in vancouver, now that scares the hell out of me.

But all in all, as scary as it sounds, the chance of being bit by one of these spiders in Calgary is so small, it's not even worth worrying about.

[BuzzardsWife]

We had huge spiders in our house on Vancouver Island when I was a kid. Snakes too, in the yard, not in the house. I read somewhere that the spiders we get in canada do not actually bite you. I'll have to look that up on google. The ugliest things I've ever seen are spider crabs. I got one in a bag of prawns off a boat once, and actually got one in a crab trap. Those things are super freaky.

[jayswin]

A little off topic, but did anyone else know that Alberta is home to rattlesnakes and scorpians? That one shocked me a bit. Also off topic, there was a linx spotted in Woodbine in SW Calgary, I thought that was pretty neat.

[Kjesse]

Originally Posted by flameswin

A little off topic, but did anyone else know that Alberta is home to rattlesnakes and scorpians? That one shocked me a bit. Also off topic, there was a linx spotted in Woodbine in SW Calgary, I thought that was pretty neat.

I'm from Medicine Hat. There is a hill just down from Alexander Junior High School where you'll most often find the scorpions. We'd collect them and put them in a tank in the science room that was specifically there for scorpions. They weren't too big, the biggest being a couple inches long, but more commonly being 1 inch.

Medicine Hat also has lots of rattlesnakes in the surrounding areas. I had a summer job reading rural irrigation gas meters, and drove around on a quad, with a computerized handheld device to put the readings in, and a hockey stick. The hockey stick was to brush the tall grass in front of me when I was walking, or to knock on the meter boxes before opening them. The idea being, I wanted lots of warning if I was about to find a snake. I'd see at least one rattler a week. One time I forgot to knock the meter box and opened it to find a rattler hissing at me for disturbing his warm place, wrapped around the warm pipes. My computer had a code for "snake" and "dog", with just one button push, then I could skip that meter

One time, while doing leak tests on underground gas lines, I was carrying the sniffer while the guy in front of me was operating the locator. Suddently, he jumped as high as i've ever seen anyone jump, straight up. He had stepped on a rattler just as it was slithering into a hole. The rattler went crazy but its head was in the hole, so the rest of its body was thrashing about. I was creeped out at first but within a few minutes we relaxed and laughed about it the rest of the summer.

[Weiser Wonder]

I've had long battles with huge speedy demons I've found at my dad's house. My weapons: my shoe, and a bottle of foaming spray clothing stain remover. I would have to chase it around the house spraying it for a good 20 minutes until the fumes finally overcame it, at which point I brought the pain (my foot). It was a pain in the ass to clean up, but there's a sense of victory in it.

[Delthefunky]

I love spiders

[Stumptown]

Originally Posted by algernon

I seem to get bit in the abdomen quite often, usually while sleeping. Is this normal? I think the welts are spider-bites, as there are usually two tiny holes in the area.

I've had a number of those, lots when I lived in Denver. Not much worse than a mosquito bite, but they last a lot longer. Regular house spiders, I believe, though I never caught one in the act.

Personally, I love spiders. I've got a big cellar spider that lives in the window by my desk, she's like a pet. The dangerously venomous ones are very rare, and as with most animals, they're not going to mess with you unless they feel threatened.

Just curious, how can you not have seen a spider in ages? Do you live in a hermetically sealed box? Spiders are everywhere. Spiders are good.

[Hack&Lube]

RAID is useless against bugs when you want to knee-jerk just stop them in their tracks. It takes time... and it leaves nasty insecticides and chemicals in your room.

What you do is buy the maximum strength instant freeze aussie brand hairspray. If you see a bug, SPRAY IT, it'll get stuck in seconds and suffocate because all it's pores are filled with glue and it also dies from the alcohol. Wipe up with warm water and all is clean again.

It even kills insects in mid flight. Their wings get stuck, too heavy, they fall and die.

[metallicat]

I think I'm arachnaphobic as well. I hate the s. I'd honestly rather come home to find some sort of bear in my house, than a spider.

[Machiavelli]

Originally Posted by Stumptown

Just curious, how can you not have seen a spider in ages? Do you live in a hermetically sealed box? Spiders are everywhere. Spiders are good.

By ages, I was exaggerating. Maybe a couple of months, then. The point was that I shouldn't have randomly dreamt of a spider in my room.

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

RAID is useless against bugs when you want to knee-jerk just stop them in their tracks. It takes time... and it leaves nasty insecticides and chemicals in your room.

The RAID I used once outside. Air freshener is usually my chemical of choice.

What you do is buy the maximum strength instant freeze aussie brand hairspray. If you see a bug, SPRAY IT, it'll get stuck in seconds and suffocate because all it's pores are filled with glue and it also dies from the alcohol. Wipe up with warm water and all is clean again.

It even kills insects in mid flight. Their wings get stuck, too heavy, they fall and die.

I don't use hairspray, but maybe I will stock up on this stuff in case of a spider emergency.


Oh, and whoever posted about the girl with the spider in the car, I completely understand her. I've had spiders in my car before, and the entire time, I watch it while I drive, until I reach my destination when I can make sure it won't be crawling near me or I can open a window and wait for it to leave the car.

And if one got on me while I was driving, I would most definitely freak and probably crash my car.

[PowerPlayoffs06]

Years ago, I was laying in bed reading a book, all calm and relaxed when suddenly this spider comes running right across the pages. I slammed the book shut and friggin' whistled the thing into a corner so hard it left a little dent in the wall and crushed in the spine of the book. At the exact same time as I was hurling the book, my body had somehow instinctively tried to leap from a laying position in the middle of the queen sized bed and was attempting to land standing and poised for flight from the room. I fell short though and landed right on the edge of the bedframe, which snapped with a loud crack and unceremoniously dumped me onto the floor with a resounding thud.

Quite the laughs were had explaining what had just happened when my folks rushed into the room to see what the commotion was about.

I hate spiders.

[zukes]

Machiavelli, my wife is the exact same way, to a tee. Personally, I find them a little creepy, but I am not scared of them. I get creeped out when I first see them, but then my rational mind takes over and I squish the thing, usually with a different part of my anatomy to show my wife I am a man!!

[BlAcKNoVa]

Spiders? Not so much. Bees, hornets, wasps? GET THEM THE HELL AWAY FROM ME! I'm a fair sized guy but when one is flying near me I run like the wind.

Originally Posted by PowerPlayoffs06

I fell short though and landed right on the edge of the bedframe, which snapped with a loud crack and unceremoniously dumped me onto the floor with a resounding thud.

Off topic: reminds me of one time when I was a kid and the phone rang in the middle of the night. My my teenage-girl response was "MUST GET PHONE!!!!" So in one fluid motion: I jumped up on my bed, (not realizing that I had slept on my leg wrong and it had fallen asleep) my leg gives out and I take a header off the bed, head hits the doorframe and then I land on my face in the hallway...I never got to find out who was calling at 1am

Back to spiders... When I was a kid I used to pull the legs off daddy-long-legs (yes, I have since received help) but after watching arachnaphobia, I can't stand them. I can't be in the same room as one. My co-workers thought I was I little strange when I refused to go back to work until someone killed the spider that was on my computer.

[kdogg]

Originally Posted by Jiggy_12

I hate spiders too. They are near the top of my list of fears/hates, right next to oceans and eyeballs.

I hear ya. Spiders, eyeballs, and seaweed definitely top my list.

One of my worst fears is getting a paper cut in the eye, while being pulled down into water by seaweed, and a spider is crawling on me.

I rather die....
________
Side effects from depakote

[troutman]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Snakes . . . Its always gotta be snakes.

Enough is enough! I have had it with these mothering snakes on this mothering plane!

[J pold]

Personally I’m not afraid of spiders whatsoever my little brother loves them and one year got a tarantula for Christmas it’s probably about the size of a computers mouse

I have taken it out of its tank and let it crawl on me before hands, legs, face whatever

Its pretty harmless if it where to bite you (which it one has once) it would be the equivalent of a bee sting if it didn’t break your skin

But this thread is funny it reminds me of my roommate (who happens to post on CP) he is terrified of spiders so every time me or any of our other roommates finds one we put it in his room

One time we held him down and I took a spider I had found on the roof and held it up to his face, I have never seen anyone so terrified in my life…he was on the verge of tears