Spiders- Friend or Foe?

brianlux

Spiders. Like 'em? Love 'em? Hate 'em?

When I was a kid I thought daddy longlegs were a special breed of spider- they were cool. I hated all the others. But as I got older, I realized, hey, they're here to stay, so why not get friendly? I started carefully taking them outside and letting them loose. Now and then few would return and eventually I let a few stay in. I even started naming the ones that hung around. My first arachnid housemate was Fred. Fred lived in the bathroom of my apartment.

A few months ago I picked up a copy of the DVD, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones". For the first few weeks I had it, I'd put on the DVD to watch a few numbers and every time I did, this one small spider would run out from under a book shelf and sit in the middle of the living room floor. I named him Charlie. I haven't played the DVD or seen Charlie about lately. Might be time for another listen.

catefrances

LOVE SPIDERS and am very respectful of the ones that can kill. here in oz we have some very lovely very deadly spiders.

whispering hands

Holy FUCK I thought I was the only human in the world that named a spider!! Incidentally I named mine Fred too. He was a huge PJ fan.. and I mean he was a huge spider! He was a wolf-spider.. He lived in a burnt out outlet in my living room in OK. I would play PJ really loud and he'd crawl out of his outlet, and up the arm of my couch, and do Spider push-ups to PJ songs.. he was way cool til a friend who was terrified of spiders but loved PJ squished him in a fright..believe it or not I was extremely mad that she had squished my freaky little friend..She couldn't understand why I was so upset.. But then I moved to TX for a summer job and found this kick ass Sun Spider and named it Bob.. It lived in the tack room and every morning when I'd come out to feed and tack up my horse for the day, he'd sit in his/her web and watch me..so one day I put my finger up to the web and the Spider crawled up my finger and arm and sat on my shoulder..was totally cool.. then it crawled away and I never saw that spider again.. those are the only two spider friends I've had.. but they were cool!

SatansFuton

When I was in high school I got bit by a spider in my sleep, on my eyelid. I went to the doctor, and he said I needed to go to the hospital, it was possible I could lose my eye. I didn't lose my eye, but my vision in that eye was affected for a good year or so after that. Since then, if I see a spider in my home, I kill it.

If I had been messing with the spider and gotten bit I'd be more sympathetic, but I was sleeping, not bothering it at all, and it came after me. They aren't welcome around me or get any special treatment in my home. I don't go out into nature hunting them down, but when they leave nature and enter my living space, I kill them.

catefrances

SatansFuton wrote:

When I was in high school I got bit by a spider in my sleep, on my eyelid. I went to the doctor, and he said I needed to go to the hospital, it was possible I could lose my eye. I didn't lose my eye, but my vision in that eye was affected for a good year or so after that. Since then, if I see a spider in my home, I kill it.

If I had been messing with the spider and gotten bit I'd be more sympathetic, but I was sleeping, not bothering it at all, and it came after me. They aren't welcome around me or get any special treatment in my home. I don't go out into nature hunting them down, but when they leave nature and enter my living space, I kill them.

thats a shame. but remember your living space encroaches on their nature.

SatansFuton

catefrances wrote:

thats a shame. but remember your living space encroaches on their nature.

Like I said, I don't go out in nature hunting them, but I keep them out of my personal space due to my bad experience. We aren't talking about deer or something where they need room and I built a house right in the middle of their stomping ground. I know a spider doesn't really know any better, so it's not personal, but they don't have to come in my house, and they have plenty of room to live outside of my house. If a poisonous snake were to come in my house, or a skunk, I wouldn't let them have freedom to chill out just because my house is some unnatural abomination destroying the beauty of the land.

I live in a house so I don't have to sleep with spiders.

By the way brian, I love Ladies and Gentlemen... The Rolling Stones. It's mind blowing. It's a shame, I live so close to the place in Ft. Worth where much of that was filmed, it was just before I was born. I did see them in '97 at the Texas Motor Speedway though, but it was nothing like the 2 Texas shows from that DVD. The Exile On Main Street Tour was crazy.

stardust1976

Spiders are very scary foe. And yes, here in Australia we have many scary varieties. Huntsmen are the worst. Yes, I KNOW they don't really have enough venom to do us any harm, but when I see a giant (hand size) hairy brown spider running sideways across my wall, I can only stand motionless, absolutely petrified. I cannot kill them, my arm doesn't seem to work, so I wait very nervously and impatiently for someone brave to rescue me. Once I actually got some guy who lived across the road, who I'd never met, but was gardening in his front yard to come and kill the spider because I couldn't go into the house, but I couldn't kill it myself. Sad but true... I also trained my dog to eat spiders. He would pounce on them and bite them...shaking his head with each bite cause they must've tasted really gross. Sadly, my current dogs have not learned that skill....*sigh*...

Snakes on the other hand, don't really bother me...I was bitten by a copperhead when I was two, so I guess that's why. :?

conman

when i was a kid my sisters would scream on the top of their lungs when they saw a spider and i would have to kill it just to shut them up.


i don't kill them anymore. anything that kills the annoying flying insects is ok in my book...

Sonja_S

conman wrote:

when i was a kid my sisters would scream on the top of their lungs when they saw a spider and i would have to kill it just to shut them up.


i don't kill them anymore. anything that kills the annoying flying insects is ok in my book...

My (older) sister once called me in hysterics in the middle of the night because there was a spider in her bathroom, so I got dressed, walked over to her place, killed the spider and went back home to sleep

I usually don't kill spiders in my apartment, only those that would bite. When they go on my nerves, they go out of the window (there's a tree), the others are welcome to kindly rid my place of mosquitos.

catefrances

stardust1976 wrote:

Spiders are very scary foe. And yes, here in Australia we have many scary varieties. Huntsmen are the worst. Yes, I KNOW they don't really have enough venom to do us any harm, but when I see a giant (hand size) hairy brown spider running sideways across my wall, I can only stand motionless, absolutely petrified. I cannot kill them, my arm doesn't seem to work, so I wait very nervously and impatiently for someone brave to rescue me. Once I actually got some guy who lived across the road, who I'd never met, but was gardening in his front yard to come and kill the spider because I couldn't go into the house, but I couldn't kill it myself. Sad but true... I also trained my dog to eat spiders. He would pounce on them and bite them...shaking his head with each bite cause they must've tasted really gross. Sadly, my current dogs have not learned that skill....*sigh*...

Snakes on the other hand, don't really bother me...I was bitten by a copperhead when I was two, so I guess that's why. :?

im sorry but this made me laugh. of all our spiders here in oz its the huntsman that freaks you out the most???

Jason P

Foe

Poncier

conman wrote:

when i was a kid my sisters would scream on the top of their lungs when they saw a spider and i would have to kill it just to shut them up.

My wife is terrified of them, so it is my duty in life to kill them when she spots one (And she has an eagle eye for them).
Its funny cause now my son (7) is becoming fascinated with them, has no fear of them, and when he sees one in the house, he wants to play with it and it freaks her out.

conman

Sonja_S wrote:

conman wrote:

when i was a kid my sisters would scream on the top of their lungs when they saw a spider and i would have to kill it just to shut them up.


i don't kill them anymore. anything that kills the annoying flying insects is ok in my book...

My (older) sister once called me in hysterics in the middle of the night because there was a spider in her bathroom, so I got dressed, walked over to her place, killed the spider and went back home to sleep

I usually don't kill spiders in my apartment, only those that would bite. When they go on my nerves, they go out of the window (there's a tree), the others are welcome to kindly rid my place of mosquitos.

you're a better brother than me, no way in hell would i get out of bed to go kill a spider for my sister :P

pandora

relocation in the house... ignore them in the garden

friend definitely and not one to mess with ...

but I do wonder who created them

numb you .. wrap you up alive ... let you sit for awhile and contemplate ...
while they sit and watch you contemplate.... with their 8 eyes

then come and suck you dry

evil little .....


I'd much rather chill with an anoli

conman

Poncier wrote:

conman wrote:

when i was a kid my sisters would scream on the top of their lungs when they saw a spider and i would have to kill it just to shut them up.

My wife is terrified of them, so it is my duty in life to kill them when she spots one (And she has an eagle eye for them).
Its funny cause now my son (7) is becoming fascinated with them, has no fear of them, and when he sees one in the house, he wants to play with it and it freaks her out.

haha he's already a rebel! wait until he's a teenager :shock:

PureandEasy

There is probably nothing in this world I HATE more than spiders.

stardust1976

catefrances wrote:

stardust1976 wrote:

Spiders are very scary foe. And yes, here in Australia we have many scary varieties. Huntsmen are the worst. Yes, I KNOW they don't really have enough venom to do us any harm, but when I see a giant (hand size) hairy brown spider running sideways across my wall, I can only stand motionless, absolutely petrified. I cannot kill them, my arm doesn't seem to work, so I wait very nervously and impatiently for someone brave to rescue me. Once I actually got some guy who lived across the road, who I'd never met, but was gardening in his front yard to come and kill the spider because I couldn't go into the house, but I couldn't kill it myself. Sad but true... I also trained my dog to eat spiders. He would pounce on them and bite them...shaking his head with each bite cause they must've tasted really gross. Sadly, my current dogs have not learned that skill....*sigh*...

Snakes on the other hand, don't really bother me...I was bitten by a copperhead when I was two, so I guess that's why. :?

im sorry but this made me laugh. of all our spiders here in oz its the huntsman that freaks you out the most???

That's ok that you laughed...let me explain my logic to you.

So...I don't remember living in NSW (although I did for a couple of years, but that was when I was a baby), so I have no recollection of funnel web spiders - you don't get them in Perth and you don't get them in Victoria either. Redbacks surprisingly I CAN kill. I think it's because well, for one, it was necessity - being on my own with the kids in WA you kind of HAVE to kill them so no one gets sick from being bitten (I really don't like being the adult in that circumstance though), plus they don't move like huntsmen do. Yes, they're more poisonous but they're littler and they stay still so you can squish them in between a big pair of shoes. Also, wolf spiders freak me out ALMOST as much as huntsmen, but they again aren't as big. They're aggressive though so that kind of adds to the scariness of them. Oh, and also, huntsmen over in WA tend to be aggressive like wolf spiders (weird I know, but the huntsmen over there rear up like wolf spiders and jump at you, which is SCARY!). I don't like garden spiders, especially Orb spiders cause they get big, but again, they don't move across the damn walls like huntsmen do.

So that's my logic. Sorry for the rambling. It's the alcohol. It does that.

stardust1976

Oh! And also, I forgot to say that I don't like white tails either. They're like, number 2 next to huntsmen for me. Cause they're crunchy when you squash them. GROSS. And when they bite you your skin kind of is eaten away. Again, GROSS.

Sonja_S

conman wrote:

Sonja_S wrote:

conman wrote:

when i was a kid my sisters would scream on the top of their lungs when they saw a spider and i would have to kill it just to shut them up.


i don't kill them anymore. anything that kills the annoying flying insects is ok in my book...

My (older) sister once called me in hysterics in the middle of the night because there was a spider in her bathroom, so I got dressed, walked over to her place, killed the spider and went back home to sleep

I usually don't kill spiders in my apartment, only those that would bite. When they go on my nerves, they go out of the window (there's a tree), the others are welcome to kindly rid my place of mosquitos.

you're a better brother than me, no way in hell would i get out of bed to go kill a spider for my sister :P

I'm a sister actually, not a brother
She's been an awesome sister to me too, so it was my turn. Not that she didn't hear about it a few hours later when I was dead tired at work for wandering around town on a killing mission at 3am. I'm afraid I'm not a lot of fun when getting dragged out of bed

conman

Sonja_S wrote:

I'm a sister actually, not a brother
She's been an awesome sister to me too, so it was my turn. Not that she didn't hear about it a few hours later when I was dead tired at work for wandering around town on a killing mission at 3am. I'm afraid I'm not a lot of fun when getting dragged out of bed

:oops: well don't i feel like an idiot

EmBleve

I have respect for them, but I have to vote foe because I have arachnophobia. This thread is giving me the creeps, and I'm so glad I don't live in Australia now. I would totally freak if I saw one of those kinds of spiders. :shock: