Which spider are you most afraid of..?

Scariest spider?


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rbkwp

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I read somewhere -- and am too lazy to verify it online at the moment --
that daddy long legs spiders *are* indeed quite poisonous, however their jaws/fangs/mouths/etc. aren't strong enough to break human skin so they are no threat to us. My mom was quite shocked to hear that as she said she used to let me play with those spiders at our cottage when I was a toddler.


yes
come to think of it that refreshes my memory
and like you i am also too lazy to check the facts? ha
oh well?
when i lived in a Caravan on an Island for maybe 3 years of my time there, i had heaps and heaps of sipder webs adorning the Caravan
never got rid of them as i thought i was being cool having them knock off the flies etc
still used Fly Spray tho, i hated the Fn Mozzies (mosquitoos)
 

ActionBuddy

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Well, I'm not lazy!... When it comes to spiders... lol

Daddy Long Legs: Pholcidae - Wikipedia

When I was a kid, we were told that they were harmless and good for the house and garden because they thrive on eating bugs that we don't want around. I thought they were rather cute.

Now that I have read about them, I guess they do have venom, (but aren't a danger to humans), and they eat other, more venomous spiders. They are our friends!... I put them outside when I find them, 'cause I'm afraid of mistakenly stepping on them, not because I am afraid of them.

A/B
 
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rbkwp

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smiling 'like'

your a cool dude buddy ha
knew you would research and suss daddy long legs out ha cool as

yeah will add that info to my memory now Yay'


btw
they canmove really FAST ..seen a few paralyze there victims and suck away to there little bodys content .. made me damn envious'..
 

Daisy

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Interesting feedback. That camel spider FREAKS me out. Any insect thats light brownish in color for some reason really bothers me.

House spiders- I tend to leave them alone if they're in a corner or on the ceiling because I know they eat bugs. In CA the spiders that come in my house are tiny and fairly harmless looking.

This weekend I was cleaning out a wicker chest outside when I flipped it over and 2 big ole black widows were clinging to the bottom...YUCK! I hate black widows.

Tarantulas don't freak me out that bad. i see them as being somewhat harmless to humans.

AB thats damn scary that you got bitten by a brown recluse. Ive seen a lot of stories on Discovery channel etc. about spider bites and I really don't want to get bitten and have my limbs fall off. So far I've been lucky :-/
 

ActionBuddy

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Don't worry about it too much, Daisy... Generally spiders avoid us, unless we invade their space. Oh, and I got corrected by a smarty-pants member who says I was most likely bitten by a Desert Recluse, (Loxosceles deserta), not a Brown Recluse, because of where the couch that I bought came from. Apparently they aren't as venomous.

I was napping and my hand was sorta inside the "crotch" of the couch when I felt the bite, woke up, and smacked it down. Weirdly, I had the wherewithal to actually put it's body in a cup, and took it to the hospital with me, (Isn't that very CSI of me?... lol)... The lab there identified it as a Brown Recluse... So, who knows?

Anyway, the worst part of it was having to give up my dad's ring. The doctor refused to treat me unless I would let them cut it off my finger!

Do you folks find spiders in your bathtubs?

I often did at my parents house... Big ones, like Wolf Spiders, or Daddy Long Legs, usually... I always wondered if they actually drink water, as opposed to just getting hydrated from sucking out the fluids of insects. I looked that up today, too:

Do Spiders Drink Water?

A/B
 
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MisterVIP

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All spiders have venom, but not all of them are powerful enough to harm humans.

If you have a brown/desert recluse in your home, odds are you have hundreds.

Daddy long legs prey upon black/brown widow spiders as do alligator lizards. Unfortunately, geckos and their cousins can recognize widow spiders and don't eat them because they make them sick.

I remember seeing a magazine article years ago showing a recluse bite on a guy's quadriceps; looked like a bowl of chili.
 

MisterVIP

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I chose brown recluse. The idea of their bite is terrifying. I think they are all kind of scary, though I have affection for these kind of spiders. Florida also has these huge yellow spiders that live in the tops of trees and in the mangroves. I still have nightmares about them even though I moved to Virginia, where my garage is full of black widows.

I don't worry about black widows so much. Don't mess with them, they don't mess with you. We store lumber, fire wood, and homemade paper briquettes in the garage, and since the black widows love to live amongst those things, we wear gloves and use a log tool to pick up and inspect those items before bringing them into the house. Not that it matters as far as the firewood and briquettes go. Those things are immediately set on fire when we move them.

My house also hosts jumping spiders and wolf spiders. My policy is, don't touch me, and stay smaller than a nickel and you can be my arachnid roommate. If they get too big, I scream until my ex comes to relocate them; if he isn't home, they die. If they touch me, or my grandma, they die. One exception. There was a huge spider, looked kind of like a mini version of a daddy long legs. She was about to be relocated, but when she saw me, she turned into an eight-legged commando, doing somersaults and cartwheels. Anything THAT cool is welcome to live in my home with me.

I never saw a black widow in Virginia, didn't know they were around there. But, I did have plenty of those million legged things....silverfish?. Never saw them in coastal san diego either, but further inland, they're everywhere.
 

ActionBuddy

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... I remember seeing a magazine article years ago showing a recluse bite on a guy's quadriceps; looked like a bowl of chili.

That will happen if you don't get immediate treatment... So, people, if something other than a horse fly or mosquito bites you, no matter what you think it was, get to a clinic, ASAP... Would you wait if it had been a rattlesnake or scorpion?... I doubt it.
 
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Have on purpose snuffed 2 spideys in my life. 1 was a Huntsman I was trying to capture to set free outside, the little bugger turned around, leaped on my thumb and dug it's fangs in. Instant reaction from me was...bastard...stomp...feel bad later.

Next was a Redback that bit me twice in the same spot near my BBQ, I thought it was an ant bite at first, until the second bite. Was hiding in the herb garden. Sent the fucker to spidey heaven. Ended up with a swelling, sweaty lump on my thigh for weeks. Spidey ended up worse off though.

Had a Paper Wasp nest out back, being the amature entomologist I observed that a Redback had set up a little web under their nest. it was interesting to watch how she caught the wasps in the web but managed to stay clear of their sting. She always won out, and Waspy ended up being next weeks mummified dinner.

Always remember, a sting will always be a sting until you are stung..https://youtu.be/_WxfjWnuEno
 
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silvertriumph2

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Had groceries delivered this morning and in one of the bags was a dead spider...about 1-1/2 inch in diameter including the legs. Two of the front legs were longer than the rest and it was black on the underside and a shimmery blue/green/yellow on it's top with to red dots on the head. Quite beautiful I must say! I looked on the net but found nothing like it. I have never seen one like it. It was in the bag with the bananas so it might be from Equador, since that is what the sticker on the bananas says.

Anyone here from Equador who might know what kind of spider it might be?
 

rbkwp

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oh ST2
i am envious of you
USA supplying you guys with fumgated spiders per bannanaz now


keep an eye out for how the Dept of Ag allow JDs dogs of Terrier back into the Country .. unfumigated i hope
 
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Mr Ed in Mass

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Not a spider,but I saw a news story about how they found Box jellyfish in New Jersey.Great,one more thing to watch out for.
 

AlteredEgo

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I never saw a black widow in Virginia, didn't know they were around there. But, I did have plenty of those million legged things....silverfish?. Never saw them in coastal san diego either, but further inland, they're everywhere.

We had silverfish in NY. You might also be talking about common house centipede. We have those sometimes.
 

ActionBuddy

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Silverfish are related to centipedes, but are harmless to humans... But, they thrive in moist areas of houses, apartments, and buildings.
One of the worst things that they do is get into your books and eat away at the paper.

Like we need more adversaries destroying historical documents!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silverfish

"Silverfish are considered household pests, due to their consumption and destruction of property. However, although they are responsible for the contamination of food and other types of damage, they do not transmit disease."


Plus, they are kinda gross seeing them wiggle around near your bathtub... Smash them!


A/B
 
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MisterVIP

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Interesting feedback. That camel spider FREAKS me out. Any insect thats light brownish in color for some reason really bothers me.

House spiders- I tend to leave them alone if they're in a corner or on the ceiling because I know they eat bugs. In CA the spiders that come in my house are tiny and fairly harmless looking.

This weekend I was cleaning out a wicker chest outside when I flipped it over and 2 big ole black widows were clinging to the bottom...YUCK! I hate black widows.

Tarantulas don't freak me out that bad. i see them as being somewhat harmless to humans.

AB thats damn scary that you got bitten by a brown recluse. Ive seen a lot of stories on Discovery channel etc. about spider bites and I really don't want to get bitten and have my limbs fall off. So far I've been lucky :-/

Tarantulas are harmless unless you are allergic to their venom, which I guess you'd only find out once bitten.

Brown widows are on the rise in CA.

I read somewhere on some spider ID site that house spiders are dangerous to children.

Be careful of the tiny "harmless looking" spiders near doorways, 12" or less from the floor. I've terminated a few immature black widows that found their way in. They aren't black and the hourglass isn't as easy to see. Stripey legs...it's a widow.

Unfortunately, geckos and their CA cousins don't eat them because widows make them sick. I did have an alligator lizard in my front landscape for a while. They do prey on widow spiders, but he disappeared, leaving a daddy longlegs as the only natural widow predator outside.
 

MisterVIP

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Had groceries delivered this morning and in one of the bags was a dead spider...about 1-1/2 inch in diameter including the legs. Two of the front legs were longer than the rest and it was black on the underside and a shimmery blue/green/yellow on it's top with to red dots on the head. Quite beautiful I must say! I looked on the net but found nothing like it. I have never seen one like it. It was in the bag with the bananas so it might be from Equador, since that is what the sticker on the bananas says.

Anyone here from Equador who might know what kind of spider it might be?

check whatsthatbug site?