Seriously, who the hell thought those vulgar little creatures up. It's like god gave the devil one choice of something to make, and unlike the John Ritter version of the devil, it wasn't trees.

and we have some here in Australia that I literally bounce off their webs when I walk in my garden. I got one of them on me just the the other day... they probably heard me scream in New Zealand lol

What's hairy, has 5 eyes, 8 legs, and 2 venomous fangs?

-Sandy(anyone seen my pet tarantula? it was here just a minute ago...)

Yeah we get wolf spiders where I am... they dont build webs they just run around and they can get pretty big

The Wet West coast with all the big, big trees and very little frost is very fond of spiders.  All kinds.  Lots and lots and lots of them.  Coastal Redwood rain forests must be ground zero for the entire notion of spiders.  Spiders look at this area of the world like it is  Olympus, Valhalla, and Xanadu all rolled into one.

And California has big assed very scary wolf spiders, wild tarantulas, and the never popular Western black widow spider.

The fear of these things is generally greater than the threat.

I understand that, during the entire 20th century, there were only 20 cases of people actually dying from spiders.

13 from the Australian funnel web.

So, that leaves 6 in the rest of the world.

That can't be close to being right.  I'll bet its at least a couple hundred a year.

I'm going to GIS this and find out.

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Post Merge: March 09, 2010, 09:23:46 AM

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Yeah, from bites and mostly from complications, and its almost all children under seven, and the worst offender are the members of the recluse family of spiders, a few hundred per year, all young, and largely in the third world.

Yuck! I hate spiders. I try to get my kitty to take care of them for me, but he seems to be quite the scaredy cat!!

I hate spiders! We have the brown recluse, wolf spider. and black widow around here and those are all pretty nasty. but what I am scared of more than those are the little jumping spiders that always seem to make their way inside.

I know they are not that dangerous but, I am dreadfully afraid of them. I am afraid they will jump at and bite my eyes, I know that sounds irrational, but due to this fear I won't even get close enough to use a shoe on them. I have found I an throw a copy of the PDR with accuracy and spider killing force about 20 feet.

I hate spiders. ~shudders~


And I can see you ..................

I Like spiders. I Like them a whole bunch!
They eat the flies!

I don't hate all spiders... Just the venomous type

We have the Hobo spider (AKA Aggressive house spider) where I live

I basically "Go to WAR!!!"    with them for a few months out of every year

Left untreated their bites can swell up with infection and become very nasty

There was a famous Australia singer called Slim Dusty (country and western), and he wrote and sung this song "Redback On the Toilet Seat" and starts of:

There was a red-back on the toilet seat
When I was there last night,
I didn't see him in the dark,
But boy! I felt his bite!
I jumped high up into the air,
And when I hit the ground,
That crafty red-back spider
Wasn't nowhere to be found.

Me, I am not scared of spiders, creepy crawlies or venomous snakes.  However, when I encounter them, I just take care.

Kind regards
Sarah B

My brother lived in Australia for two years. Unfortunately for him, during his time there he got bit by a recluse and had to go to the hospital.

I hate spiders.

I've been afraid of spiders all my life. I used to be terrified of them when I was a kid. Now not quite so much but they still scare me if they're big enough

If they're super super tiny, I won't mind. If they're in a spot where it's dangerous for them, I move them to somewhere less dangerous

Last Summer, I went to climb in my top bunk bed and I was just about to lay my head down until I looked in the folds of my pillow and saw a decent sized spider. I did all I could to mute a scream lol

If I see a spider crawling on my sheets, then I will freak out a little, but otherwise I love them.  They kill and eat all sorts of nasty other insects you really DON'T want crawling around your house, like earwigs, silverfish, flies, centipedes, etc.  Spiders are like the cats of the insect/arachnid world.

My cat is quite fat, rarely bothers to hunt, and is the only pet in the family that comes IN the house to poop. The dogs think he's disgusting. They are going to have to go stay with my brother for a couple days while I bomb for spiders, because they are waking up with the changing weather and overruning my house.

I especially love jumping spiders. Many of them are cute as hell rather than intimidating. They are active hunters--I think that's cool--and they operate on hydraulics. Isn't that neat? They just adjust the pressure of their blood, and VOOM! they're hopping all over the place.

Once my then-partner and I were hiking around our alma mater and wound up in a field off the beaten track. I looked down and saw that we were standing in a sea of little black and red jumping spiders. They were bouncing around like rubber bands. We knew that we must have killed some on the way in, so we just stood and watched for a little while before carefully making our way out. It was awesome.

P.S. There's lots of cool info about Salticidae at the Tree of Life site,  tolweb.org/Salticidae.

I smush the big ones, but I let the little ones live to kill other bugs.  Big spiders freak me out so bad, I'm scared to even hit them with a shoe because I imagine them crawling up my arm or something if I miss.

Big spiders freak me out less than little ones.  A big one is easier to see and hence easier to catch --the smaller ones disappear when you try to catch them, and then you're stuck for hours thinking every slight itch on your body is that spider.

In general, if it doesn't fly it doesn't bother me so much.  I got stung in the ear by a bee at summer camp when I was a kid, so now if anything buzzes by my ears I freak out.  I just shivered thinking about that.