Phobia?

[stevej37]

I have a square mile of woods bordering my property.
For every spider near my house that I kill...there are thousands more waiting to move in.

[KFC911]

I get spider bites all the time ... don't even know it at the time, where I got 'em or even see the lil' bastids. I have at least 6-7 places on me still visible.... none are recent.... some at least six months old.

I'm also in the woods a lot .... I wield a stick like a Samurai Warrior to fend off webs

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by JackDidley

I probably would have done the same. I am ok with spiders and snakes outside but do not want them in the house.

Depends on the spider. Leave the outside ones alone, unless they are black widows, they are going to die, and their egg sac is going to burn. Don't see them in the house

Non venomous snake, no problem, they get left alone, relocated if they find their way inside. Venomous is a different story. Had issues with them when I lived on a lake in Texas, primarily due to my neighbor having dog food in her garage that attracted food for the snakes. Copperhead is a nasty critter

[HobieMarty]

Yeah, I would absolutely kill a Black Widow or Brown Recluse. I relocate the big garden spiders, Wolf spiders, things like that. I use a stick because, well, I don't want them crawling on me!!!!

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[Evans, Marv]

My wife had a tarantula as a pet that she kept in her office in a terrarium. Its name was George. The students were fascinated by it. Sometimes when a teacher would send a troubled student to her office, she'd let them watch "George" while she talked to them. Some students would make excuses to come in to see "George." My sister had one of those big wood spidets outside the doorway of her house. When they moved, she trapped it in a jar & let it go outside the doorway of the new house, where it lived there for several more years. The only spiders I totally dislike are Black Widows, which I kill imediately.

[RobFrost]

Last week I was emptying some chipboard out of the car at the tip, which had been left in the front garden for a couple of weeks. I felt something on my hand which I thought was probably a big bug of some description.

I turned my hand and looked down and it was a massive spider. Not with huge legs, they were only small. But the body was a massive bulbous thing like a small golf ball. I kept turning my hand as it walked about so it stayed on the top and didn't fall off, I walked over to the hedge and allowed it to walk into the hedge.

We tolerate spiders in the house, until they reach a certain size, because I hate mosquito bites, and spiders are the most effective way of guaranteeing you have no mosquito bites. When the spiders get too big, we catch them in a glass and drop them out of a window.

My phobia is not living until I die. The idea of having some crippling illness or becoming an incoherent, confused, dribbling vegetable, sat in a chair all day terrifies me.

Sent from my SM-G988B using Tapatalk

[Pazuzu]

Black widow? Meh.

Brown recluse? Meh.

Brown widow? Super duper hip new thing.

Yes, brown widow. Never heard of them, but the lighted sight at work is now infested with them. Had to go in there for some electrical work, and found widow looking spiders, but not black, with spiky egg sacs all over. Turns out they're brown widows.

Of course, the sign had to burn at that point. Nuked from orbit.

[Noah930]

My somewhat arachnophobic 17-yr-old son texted me once at around 11 pm or midnight. I was in bed, and I guess he was trying to go to bed, too. He sent me a pic of a small wolf spider by the light switch in his room. His caption: "I think he knows he has the advantages."

[flatbutt]

I'm not afraid of spiders but if they ambush me I will jump like a drop of water on a hot griddle. Too many eyes!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Bob Kontak

+1

Tarantulas, wolf spiders, cicada killers, rat snakes, etc. are extremely frightening yet benign.

The cow killer, an attractive, wingless wasp will mess you up for real and does not carry that ominous look. Saw a few in Houston.

Yes, I've seen cicada killers and tarantula hawks and a tarantula. I've been looking for, but never seen a cow killer/velvet ant. I've been looking for them, but not seen any yet.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by HobieMarty

Aww man, just catch it in a bucket and take it back outside. I don't mind spiders around as long as they aren't going to be in my way when cutting the grass, definitely don't want them inside the house.
Out in the yard, if they are in my way, I get a long stick and get them to crawl onto it and then I relocate them to the woods.
I picked up a baby snake the other day and took it out to the woods also.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

I do the same as much as possible. I even relocate wasps if I find them in the house.

[GH85Carrera]

To my knowledge I have no phobias. I certainly give snakes their space and the leave me alone. With spiders, if they are inside, I kill them on the wife's orders. They all make a web of some sort, and they produce spider crap that will need to be cleaned up.

Spiders outside I leave alone unless they make a web across the doorway area.



This lady made a cool web in our Koi pond area. She ate a lot of bugs, and then I think a bird or one of the skinks got her. The old food chain at work.




The dogs alerted up to this critter. We just locked the dogs in the side yard, and it left in short order.


Our mighty hunter keeps the mouse population in control. He is my early warning system. If he is circling the storage building I know it is time to put out traps.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by oldE

Why would you need a stick to pick up and relocate a spider? They will usually climb onto your hand with a bit of encouragement.

Best
Les

Naw, I'm not a "crawl on me Mrs spider" kind of guy.

[Roswell]

I was good with spiders, had gotten over my childhood arachnophobia, all was well...

Until last year, when the Joro's started to show up. These things are huge...

This one is about the size of your hand...



not my photo

[GH85Carrera]

Yea, I have killed a few black widows on sight even though they were outside. Brown recluse are never outside, usually up in the attic or somewhere with very little going on.

My mom had a tarantula as a pet. Of course she also worked at the zoo as a docent. She handled a 6 foot boa constrictor, and 4 foot alligator, and a couple of other critters. She often took those animals to schools to show school children.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Yea, I have killed a few black widows on sight even though they were outside. Brown recluse are never outside, usually up in the attic or somewhere with very little going on.

My mom had a tarantula as a pet. Of course she also worked at the zoo as a docent. She handled a 6 foot boa constrictor, and 4 foot alligator, and a couple of other critters. She often took those animals to schools to show school children.

I've handled someone's pet snake before. I've held a wild caught caiman (3-4') in the Amazon jungle in Brazil. I've moved various spiders out of the house with sheets of paper or sticks. I have moved copperheads (with improvised "snake hooks"). I don't even necessarily kill black widows. If a black widow or brown recluse were in the wrong place at the wrong time, I'd kill it, or if someone else insisted.

[livi]

Sharks. I can´t even look at a picture and video is full retard panic.

[OK-944]

Spiders and I go way back. I ran a study back in high school biology class - I’d built some wooden frames, and to each of these added a barn spider (araneous cavaticus I think, like in Charlotte’s Web) - and would feed them various chemicals to see how this affected their orb web designs. Very interesting! (I think nicotine caused the most bizarre results). Thing is…a baby orb weaver will spin a web with near-perfect symmetry, then as it ages (if its so lucky) its web will gradually acquire a “signature” all its own…much as we have fingerprints unique to each of us.

When my daughter was in high school she had a pet tarantula (a “rose hair” which is noted for its gentleness) - and it was the most interesting pet. Lived in a terrarium with wood chips, a couple of rocks, and a quonset hut shaped piece of bark which we dubbed the “spider garage.” Once per month or so, we’d introduce a dozen crickets, upon which the spider would immediately pounce on one of them to begin snacking…while at the same time collecting about five or six more and holding them in her arms for future snacking! Also…I could dangle a piece of hamburg on a thread in front of her garage, and she’d slowly creep out and grab the burger! Oh…another very cool thing, watching the tarantula shed its skin - a very taxing/arduous looking process which took a couple of hours…I have photos (prints from film) of this someplace and will post here if I can find them.

Finally…a number of years ago, while on one of my desert southwest photo trips with my students - our group had just left Dantes View in Death Valley one October evening, heading back to the Furnace Creek campground…when we started noticing a large number of black furry objects progressing in the same direction (west to east) across the road in the fading light. Turns out that they were all male tarantulas…looking for ladies! Turns out that this is a thing every October, and apparently, the females at this point have all shedded their skins and are receptive to mating so long as their new skins are still soft - but are thus also more vulnerable to predation and so are hiding under rocks, waiting for their dates to arrive!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by OK-944

Spiders and I go way back. I ran a study back in high school biology class - I’d built some wooden frames, and to each of these added a barn spider (araneous cavaticus I think, like in Charlotte’s Web) - and would feed them various chemicals to see how this affected their orb web designs. Very interesting! (I think nicotine caused the most bizarre results). Thing is…a baby orb weaver will spin a web with near-perfect symmetry, then as it ages (if its so lucky) its web will gradually acquire a “signature” all its own…much as we have fingerprints unique to each of us.

When my daughter was in high school she had a pet tarantula (a “rose hair” which is noted for its gentleness) - and it was the most interesting pet. Lived in a terrarium with wood chips, a couple of rocks, and a quonset hut shaped piece of bark which we dubbed the “spider garage.” Once per month or so, we’d introduce a dozen crickets, upon which the spider would immediately pounce on one of them to begin snacking…while at the same time collecting about five or six more and holding them in her arms for future snacking! Also…I could dangle a piece of hamburg on a thread in front of her garage, and she’d slowly creep out and grab the burger! Oh…another very cool thing, watching the tarantula shed its skin - a very taxing/arduous looking process which took a couple of hours…I have photos (prints from film) of this someplace and will post here if I can find them.

Finally…a number of years ago, while on one of my desert southwest photo trips with my students - our group had just left Dantes View in Death Valley one October evening, heading back to the Furnace Creek campground…when we started noticing a large number of black furry objects progressing in the same direction (west to east) across the road in the fading light. Turns out that they were all male tarantulas…looking for ladies! Turns out that this is a thing every October, and apparently, the females at this point have all shedded their skins and are receptive to mating so long as their new skins are still soft - but are thus also more vulnerable to predation and so are hiding under rocks, waiting for their dates to arrive!

Interesting. According to the Internet, the tarantula mating season around here is May-Jul. I've heard that you can see them crossing roads. I guess I don't get out enough. I saw one while mowing the lawn ~1.5 years ago. I don't know if the mowing disturbed it or if it was already "on the prowl" and the mowing just made grass short enough for me to see it.

Very cool. There are folks around here that have posted photos of them on the walls around their front doors at night, presumably attracted to the porch light. I think if I walked out a door and realized that I'd just walked under one, or one was on the wall near me, I might need a defib machine. I do know that they aren't jumpers as a long fall can damage them. I'm just thankful that they don't make webs that you run into at face height.

[mjohnson]

Black widows abound here in our part of NM. I'm nearly the dali lama and will rescue (or likely send back outdoors to become birdfood) all insects and the like, but there's that unmistakable "snap" and feel to a BW's web that puts me into full on search-and-destroy mode. I've never been bitten luckily!

Rattlers, too. With our last two decades of forest fires the microclimates have changed and we don't get the cold wet air coming down the mountain every night. I'm pretty certain the low temps are 5-10F more than they were pre-fire. And now our paradise of "too cold for rattlesnakes" is no longer too cold. Doggo got the bad end of one last year and that was a dramatic and multi-kilobuck tour through the vets. Bull snakes are welcome but the rattlesnakes will get a quick trip to the belt-store if I can manage. No phobia on my part, luckily, just pure hatred.

I guess we have tarantulas here, but like scorpions in AZ, I've never managed to spot one. That would be cool though...