Killing Spiders...

[jcook922]

Quick Googling about has produced several interesting items. First, to reassure the fearful, the sleep-spider eating thing is likely hogwash, unless there are baby spiders at ballooning stage in your room, in which case you might eat a dozen in one night. >;-D

Second, there is likely an average of one spider per sq.ft. living in your home, most of them decidedly out of sight, in your closets, attics, basements, in the walls and under the floor boards. This is a good thing, as they likely eat a lot of bugs you want even less in your home. And that's a lot of spiders.

Third, those spiders are almost universally harmless to humans. Most haven't the fang strength to bite through your skin and haven't the motivation to try, and the few that do either have no effect, leave a small itchy bump, or at worst, and very rarely if you live where really poisonous spiders dwell, will make you sick and in need of medical attention. (Do not Google for that video of the self-lancing idiot who let a really bad spider bite get to the stage of liquidizing half the flesh under the skin of his jaw, unless you are a big fan of really gross stuff, in which case, you're welcome.)

I have a killing policy with spiders because I grew up in the High Desert in Southern California.... We have black widows and brown recluses, the latter of which causes nasty necrosis in the skin. After my cousin got bit by one and had to have some serious surgery multiple times, my hatred of spiders is pretty strong. It's been years and he still carries the scar.

 

[Bombila]

Well yes, that kind of experience does raise the 'kill with prejudice' stakes considerable. But most of us don't live in Brown Recluse territory.

 

[pgp_protector]

Well yes, that kind of experience does raise the 'kill with prejudice' stakes considerable. But most of us don't live in Brown Recluse territory.

Most ? No, but quite a few do.

 

[brinny]

ugh..i just kill 'em...i don't want them crawling in my mouth or sneakin' up on me,,,,*shudders*

 

[Bombila]

Most ? No, but quite a few do.

Pfft! See that big grey area at the top of your map? No BR spiders here. ;-D.... and:

http://spiders.ucr.edu/necrotic.html

In regard to diagnoses of "spider bites", the medical community is overreliant o

n the brown recluse as the causative agent of these wounds in many portions of the United States. In South Carolina, 940 physicians responding to a survey reported 478 brown recluse spider bites in their state in 1990; in stark contrast, the definitive scientific study on the distribution of all recluse spiders in the U.S. lists only 1 brown recluse from South Carolina. Recently, I have heard of several verifications of brown recluses in the westernmost tip of South Carolina around Greenville but they are virtually non-existent in the remainder of the state. In a 6-year database for the 3 Florida poison control centers, 124 brown recluse spider bites from 31 counties were diagnosed by medical personnel in that state (this is only a small portion of the actual number of diagnoses made). In comparison, in 100 years of arachnological information totaling over 100,000 identified spiders, only 11 finds of recluse spiders have been found in 10 counties and only 2 of these finds were in homes. In a study published in October 2003, four western U.S. arachnologists were contacted in regard to 216 brown recluse spider bite diagnoses made in California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado in 41 months. In contrast, only 35 brown recluse or Mediterranean recluse spiders could be verified as EVER being found in these 4 states. None of these 35 spiders was involved in an envenomation and in the 67 years of our collective experience, not one “recluse bite” victim has ever submitted a brown recluse to us for identification. In contrast, homeowners from endemic recluse areas submit brown recluses for identification about 70% of the time and people with necrotic skin lesions submit a recluse spider about 10% of the time. What should be becoming apparent to you is that 1) recluses spiders are common where they are found, 2) you need decent populations of them before you get a significant probability of a bite from one and 3) doctors from non-endemic areas are diagnosing bites from these spiders far out of proportion to the actual number of spiders that can be historically found in their states.

 

[Caitlin.ann]

Ugh I'm in brown recluse territory...

 

[lawtonfogle]

So I was round a friends, when we noticed the biggest spider you've ever seen crawling along the floor. Anyway, there was no way I was touching it and she didn't fancy it either, but then we had a brainwave, you could say it was inspired even...

Her 3 year old nephew was sleeping in the room next door, so we woke him up and asked him to place the biggest book we could find (the Oxford English Dictionary) to place on the spider's head.

Is it fundamentally wrong, exploiting the naivety of a toddler and asking him to murder an innocent creature?

Or is it simply a case of pulling together as a team, making the most of our resources at hand, to exterminate an unwanted pest?

(I wish I wasn't scared of spiders )

Me + home + spider = quickly made explosive being used.

Who cares if I risk burning things, there be spiders to kill.

I personally hate them, and the fact that the average person eats 8ish a year (probably much lower of 1st world and much higher for 3rd world countries) while you sleep. Think about that one next time you go to bed... meh heh heh heh.

 

[lawtonfogle]

Ugh I'm in brown recluse territory...

Brown recluse/black widow here. I was at a camp once, looked up from my bunk and saw a big, and by big, I mean [wash mouth] huge for the species, black widow less than a foot from my head. I haven't been the same around spiders sense. I dare say that was one of the more traumatizing moments of my life. I rather break bones than have to go though that experience again. Even as I type this and remember the incident, I get the chills...

 

[QuakerOats]

Learn to use a wide mouth container and a piece of cardboard to catch spiders so they can be released outdoors when you don't want them inside.

Yep, that's what I do. I actually have a jar labeled 'Spider-Catching Jar,' although it gets used for a variety of other 'creepy-crawlies,' as well. Of course, I don't live in an area where we have very big spiders, or really any seriously poisonous ones, so I can't say that the spider might not die in some unfortunate circumstance if that were the case. However, I remain optimistic. I believe one should try not to harm a life, even the life of a spider, if one can help it.

Edit to add: There are rumours of Brown Recluse spiders around here, but I've not seen any (any hopefully never will!). If all of those larger, and/or poisonous bugs start migrating up here, I'm becoming an Eskimo. I kid you not.

 

[Garyzenuf]

Here's something that'll keep you up nights:

I heard, or read, somewhere that spiders (and other creepy crawlies) sometimes enter our mouths while we sleep. Can you guess what happens next? We've all probably chewed up and swallowed a few multipeds in our lifetimes without knowing it.

Pleasant dreams.

~Barbara

No way did I need to know that, (duct-taping my mouth closed tonight). As for the spider, I would have killed it myself, with a snow shovel if need be. Although I've heard if all the spiders in the world died, we'd be 30 feet deep in bugs within a month. Go figure.

 

[brinny]

Originally Posted by stan1980
So I was round a friends, when we noticed the biggest spider you've ever seen crawling along the floor. Anyway, there was no way I was touching it and she didn't fancy it either, but then we had a brainwave, you could say it was inspired even...

Her 3 year old nephew was sleeping in the room next door, so we woke him up and asked him to place the biggest book we could find (the Oxford English Dictionary) to place on the spider's head.

Is it fundamentally wrong, exploiting the naivety of a toddler and asking him to murder an innocent creature?

Or is it simply a case of pulling together as a team, making the most of our resources at hand, to exterminate an unwanted pest?

(I wish I wasn't scared of spiders )

Me + home + spider = quickly made explosive being used.

Who cares if I risk burning things, there be spiders to kill.

I personally hate them, and the fact that the average person eats 8ish a year (probably much lower of 1st world and much higher for 3rd world countries) while you sleep. Think about that one next time you go to bed... meh heh heh heh.

ROFL!!!

 

[brinny]

Actually, hair spray, enough of it, will stiffen them up so that you have a chance to whatever it is you need to do to get rid of them....but if they're really big you might want to use that foaming bathtub cleaner or oven cleaner...

ughhhhh...spiders

 

[BlackSabb]

So I was round a friends, when we noticed the biggest spider you've ever seen crawling along the floor. Anyway, there was no way I was touching it and she didn't fancy it either, but then we had a brainwave, you could say it was inspired even...

Her 3 year old nephew was sleeping in the room next door, so we woke him up and asked him to place the biggest book we could find (the Oxford English Dictionary) to place on the spider's head.

Is it fundamentally wrong, exploiting the naivety of a toddler and asking him to murder an innocent creature?

Or is it simply a case of pulling together as a team, making the most of our resources at hand, to exterminate an unwanted pest?

Well, I have my own pathetic tale. Many years ago, my then girlfriend and I were living in separate rooms of a nurses quarters. And I have a morbid fear of cockroaches! And I mean morbid.

So, one early morning about 3:00AM, I am disturbed by one rattling around in the metal venetian blinds. I panic and I knock on my girlfriend's door and ask her to get rid of the bug.

She comes out half asleep and enters my room whilst I wait outside. She comes back out and says "it's gone". Whew! I can sleep again.

Well, I married that same girl. And years later she told me a postscript to this tale. She said that she went into my room and rattled around and made a bit of noise-making no attempt to kill and remove this cockroach! She then just came out and said "it's gone". I nearly cried tears when I think of myself going back to sleep with a disgusting cockroach in my room. She just laughed and laughed and said, "darling, cockroaches can't hurt you".

So I've had my revenge many a time since then when I've left leaving a spider behind in the room. Particulary the larger huntsman spider which terrifies her but doesn't bother me at all.

So darling wife, if you read this, let me just say one thing-"karma".

 

[RealDealNeverstop]

The op sounds like an after school version of how the neocons got americans to supporting the iraq invasion. I don't know if the op question is serious or not but yes, it was wrong to wake up a 3 year old. It was also wrong to kill a spider because you're afraid of them. I've had arachnophobia most of my life but I've learned to not kill them out of being afraid and they are extremely necessary creatures to have around.

 

[tammym1972]

I HATE spiders. Even a picture of a spider creeps me out. If every spider on the face of the earth jusy dropped dead I would be a happy camper lol. I will take an over abundance of the other bugs any day.
I used to have a cat that killed and ate spiders, roaches too.

 

[RealDealNeverstop]

Spiders are magnificent architects and are not something to be feared. Working outside on peoples' home I run into spiders all the time and always try to avoid killing them because it is just weird to me to kill something, that hasn't threatened me in any manner, simply because iam afraid of it. Think about the logic of that code...it means if anything or anyone fears any one of us then it is justified in killing us. Would anyone object to that?

 

[EnemyPartyII]

Spiders are proof that Satan directly designs and introduces new horrors into the world to torture and devastate the sanity of humans.

Look, its not that I think all spiders should be caught, compressed into a dense liquid, put into a rocket and blasted into the Sun... or better yet, some other Sun, the further away the better. Not really. I'd just like a guaranteed 50km2 exclusion zone around me at all times, guaranteed clear of all creepy abomionable disgusting arthropods. If that simple request could be granted, I'm more than happy to live and let live as far as spiders are concerned.

(p.s. yes, my irational fear and loathing of spiders carries over to crabs as well, yet, oddly, not scorpions or lobsters. Any other arachnophobe out there who can attest to something similar, or is it just me?)

 

[cantata]

Whenever I find a spider in the house, I catch it under a glass and have a good look at it to try to make friends with it and not be scared of it.



It's working!

 

[EnemyPartyII]

Well, I have my own pathetic tale. Many years ago, my then girlfriend and I were living in separate rooms of a nurses quarters. And I have a morbid fear of cockroaches! And I mean morbid.

So, one early morning about 3:00AM, I am disturbed by one rattling around in the metal venetian blinds. I panic and I knock on my girlfriend's door and ask her to get rid of the bug.

She comes out half asleep and enters my room whilst I wait outside. She comes back out and says "it's gone". Whew! I can sleep again.

Well, I married that same girl. And years later she told me a postscript to this tale. She said that she went into my room and rattled around and made a bit of noise-making no attempt to kill and remove this cockroach! She then just came out and said "it's gone". I nearly cried tears when I think of myself going back to sleep with a disgusting cockroach in my room. She just laughed and laughed and said, "darling, cockroaches can't hurt you".

So I've had my revenge many a time since then when I've left leaving a spider behind in the room. Particulary the larger huntsman spider which terrifies her but doesn't bother me at all.

So darling wife, if you read this, let me just say one thing-"karma".

My partner and I have an arangement, she deals with all eight legged fiends from the bowels of the pit, and I clean up when the cats vomit. It works out fine, except when she's away and I have to seal up an entire end of the house and spray several cans worth of fly spray under the hallway door.

 

[EnemyPartyII]

Whenever I find a spider in the house, I catch it under a glass and have a good look at it to try to make friends with it and not be scared of it.

You are a better man than me!