Oh, by the way... Arachniphobia Redux...

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Bogie

New member
Last weekend I got all industrious and cleaned out my basement storage area. My camping and "innoculous" seasonal stuff is going down there Real Soon Now. Also cleaned out my apartment's interior storage closet, and moved a bunch of gun stuff in there, so my apartment now looks far more like a "normal" person lives there (except for the curtains in the living room - I think that the camo netting goes very nicely with the tie-dye sheets that are draped over the monster speakers...).

Anyway, somewhere along the course of festivities, I suspect that I got munched on. Not sure, but heck, I was pretty industrious.

Sunday I had a knot on my shoulder blade the size of a golfball. By Friday it had gotten a little larger, but a bit more "mellow," and my HMO doc lanced it. I do NOT do well with knives. Of any size. He had many joyful comments about how disgusting it was. Saturday and Sunday Clay poked at it and replaced the dressing. Doing major antibiotics.

My conclusions:

1) If something has more than two eyes, shoot first, and stomp on it later.

2) If it is big enough for you to actually notice it, it's big enough to really really hurt. Shoot it twice. Wear steel-toed boots.
 
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spacemanspiff

New member
oh come on now....its just the circle of life feeding on life. so you got bit by a little critter. he was just trying to get some food you know. propogation of his species is only made possible if he has a healthy food source.

you should put out some food for the critter, be a good host. i just fed two of my T's some anoles. pet store was out of pinkys.
 
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TallPine

New member
Spiders are hard critters to kill, so I recommend at least a 44 magnum for carry in spider country. You don't want to wound one of them and make them mad.

Of course, a 12g shotgun with 00 buck would be better, but you might not always be carrying it on short trips to the basement.

:D
 
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Drjones

New member
I'll agree completely with your two points.

I *HATE* spiders. Absolutely abhorr them. They are disgusting.

On another note, the movie "Eight Legged Freaks" actually was pretty good!

Did I mention I HATE spiders?
 
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Betty

New member
Just for all you arachnophobics, I'm going to post my favorite pics of Mannerheim, my pet wolf spider (who found me as I was digging through a duffle bag), and my furry friend Heinlein, a pinktoe tarantula. Mannerheim eats .22's for breakfast, so you'll need a bigger caliber than that. ;)

photos by Oleg Volk
spider-22_.jpg


tarantula_bottom.jpg
 
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Jim V

New member
After being bitten by a brown recluse spider a number of years back, I am not really pleased with the critters. If I get bitten now, I get very ill and the circulation in my left leg has never returned to what it was.

However, the spiders that wear fur coats are okay with me so ROTL's Heinlein gets a pass.
 
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Libertarian

New member
I learned to love spinders at a very young age. First, one bit my little brother which brightened my day a lot. Second, when I was living in sunny FloriDUH I watched the bigger ones eating roaches and the little ones eating mosquitoes. Both chores endeared them to me forever.

Now that I am back home in Texas, I still love and respect the eight-legged eaters of bugs. Anyone who lives around here knows how valuble that is. I won't kill them if I can avoid it.
 
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M2HMGHB

New member
I got bit by a brown recluse a while back, my knee swelled up 2-3 times the normal and they were trying to figure out what to do. It took 3 months but it returned to normal, but I dont like most spiders anymore. Only exception is the daddy long legs.
 
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bastiat

New member
Haven't seen anything that needs to be shot...yet. Hope I never do...Thank god for raid and residual sprays.
 
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DadOfThree

New member
Spacemanspiff,
you should put out some food for the critter, be a good host
Click to expand...
It appears that he was a good "host" :D :D
bastiat,
There were Bird Eating Spiders in Panama when I was there. Picture a Tarantula with 1/4 to 3/8 inch fangs and a leg span about the size of a dinner plate. I'm not steppin on one. :D
 
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45King

New member
DadOfThree,
12 ga. with #5 shot? ;)

Spiders.....brrrrrr. If they leave me alone, I'll leave them alone, unless its a black widow or brown recluse; those get stomped on sight just on general principals.

Arachnatriva: the daddy longlegs supposedly has the most potent venom of any known spider, but its fangs are so delicate that they cannot penetrate human flesh. If you're an aphid, though, you better watch out!
 
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Keifer

New member
I used to be a live and let live kinda guy

but my sister was bitten by a brown recluse two years ago - the doc ended up removing a hunk of flesh about the size and thickness of a slice of wonderbread from her thigh. Now all brown or black eight legged critters die. At least half the spiders I've killed have some kind of fiddle pattern on their back and I ain't takin' any chances.
 
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Bogie

New member
Alas, it wasn't radioactive...

And, for it to do anything for me, it'd probably have to be one of the furry variety...

Back is slowly clearing up, but last night when Clay changed the dressing, and squoze it - first he gleefully said that he had to make sure it was draining well - it spewed on his shirt, so now I get to buy him a new one....

Today the nurse downstairs says that it's still sorta infected. Eating augmentin...

This all just reinforces my feelings that one should Nuke Them From Orbit.
 
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TexasVet

New member
Actually...it's arachnafiction....

Arachnatriva: the daddy longlegs supposedly has the most potent venom of any known spider, but its fangs are so delicate that they cannot penetrate human flesh. If you're an aphid, though, you better watch out!
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The daddy long legs isn't even a spider. It has SIX legs (those other two are it's antenna) it's an insect, not an aracnid, it has only two eyes like other decent bugs, not multiples like spiders, AND it has NO venom whatsoever. And to top it all off, it has no fangs to deliver that nonexistant venom. It has mouth parts kinda like a grasshopper.
This is one of those dumb "it was on the internet so it must be true" legends.:rolleyes:
My own otherwise intelligent daughter tried to feed me this a couple of weeks ago. Sheesh! I almost billed her for those 6 years of college.
 
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spacemanspiff

New member
dadofthree, my full-grown rosehair has fangs that are a half inch, and her legspan is just over 7 inches.
those birdeaters you mentioned, most likely the goliath birdeater (reaching 11 inch legspan) or the goliath pinktoe (reaching 13 inch legspan) should have fangs well over an inch long. i've seen pics of such sized T's eating baby chicks.

i'm going to have to build a custom aquarium to house one of those critters.

but i've got another problem that may need to use some type of gun to resolve. last time i fed my bugs, somehow 2 crickets escaped, i dispatched one last weekend, but the other still is crafty enough to get away. it chirps nonstop and i'm fed up with it.
i'm pretty sure a blast from an empty pump-pellet gun would suffice, but will i hurt anything by shooting my pellet gun without any pellets loaded? i've gotten away so far with blaming the chirping on pipes in the furnace room, but i gotta kill this stupid cricket somehow. any suggestions?
 
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Charlie D

New member
spiffy spaceman,

I don't think you'll harm your pump up air gun. You've merely pumped up air pressure, then released it. Nothing moves. It's the spring-air guns that get hurt. The compressed spring is released and will be harmed if there's no resistance.

I'm not sure how the air would work on a cricket. I shoot flies with my CO2 pictol with no pellets. If they're more than an inch or two away they're not killed. Sometimes they're knocked silly and I can finish 'em off with a close shot. It's much better than a swatter 'cuz you don't get guts splattered on the surface.

Have you seen the felt airgun cleaning pellets? They're meant to be soaked with cleaner and fired through the gun. I doubt that they'd penetrate your skin at point blank range, but they'll penetrate a paper shopping bag at several feet. I think they'd be good cricket medicine.

Kind of burns me up. We get very few flies around here anymore. Maybe one or 2 in the house each season. "Silent Spring" scenario? :(

P.S. I ought to try for crickets next season. I get plenty of those in the garage.
 
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