• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Arachnophobia

I was going to say it won't survive the cold weather, but this Autumn has been fairly mild...
 
gncxx said:
I was going to say it won't survive the cold weather, but this Autumn has been fairly mild...
Click to expand...

It's about 9 degrees up here, plus wind and a lot of rain on the way.
 
You might be able to sleep easy, then. Best check under the covers before you climb into bed, though - I once got up one morning to find I'd been slumbering on a big spider I'd squashed turning over in the night.
 
gncxx said:
You might be able to sleep easy, then. Best check under the covers before you climb into bed, though - I once got up one morning to find I'd been slumbering on a big spider I'd squashed turning over in the night.
Click to expand...

One that big would probably kick me out of bed :)
 
A man whose death was reported by his family to be linked to a spider bite in fact died from a ruptured oesophagus, an inquest heard. Following the death of John Francis Kennedy, aged 48, of Avoncore Place, Midleton, Co Cork, his widow had told how he became unwell and died last summer as a result of a venomous spider bite.

However, pathologist Nollaig Parfrey yesterday told Cork City Coroners Court that he died from a ruptured oesophagus, ag-ainst a background of bleeding veins, secondary to alcohol cirrhosis. Asked by coroner Myra Cullinane if the death was related to a spider bite, Prof Parfrey replied: “No”. Mrs Kennedy also asked Prof Parfrey if he had investigated the bite. “I took it into account but could find no evidence,” he said. ...

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/ma ... 99056.html
Click to expand...
 
His corn and bean fields ravaged by drought, Nicaraguan farmer Leonel Sanchez Hernandez grudgingly found a new harvest: tarantulas. He gets a little over a dollar for each of the hairy critters, which breeders sell overseas as pets.

His take may not be much, but in Nicaragua, a dollar buys a kilo of rice or a liter (quart) of milk. And in just two weeks, Sanchez Hernandez, his aunt Sonia and cousin Juan caught more than 400 of the spiders.

The hunt is playing out in northern Nicaragua, which suffered severe drought from May to September. Sanchez Hernandez's fields were a total loss. ...

http://phys.org/news/2014-11-nicaragua- ... op.html#ms
Click to expand...
 
Some will find this hard to swallow.

Humans have been chasing longer and stronger erections for centuries. Fromground-up ants and “Spanish flies” to modern drugs, men hope to bring back some magic into a cocked-up sex life. How far would you be willing to go for an erection? Would you take a drug made from genetically modified spider venom? Medical researchers think that will be the next big thing to…. make things bigger. ...

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/gmo-spider-venom-may-be-the-next-viagra/
 
Great! We should all keep poisonous spiders next to the bed, ready and waiting...


...or maybe not...
 
A mother was scared stiff after opening a bunch of supermarket bananas and finding rare spiders whose bite can give a man a painful four-hour erection.

Maria Layton, 43, spotted the arachnids after opening the bag of yellow fruit she bought from Tesco. She found the bananas, shipped from Costa Rica, were infested with eggs from the Brazilian Wandering Spider - the most deadly in the world. As soon as she discovered the cocoon they started to hatch so she quickly put them in a sealed container in the freezer and called Tesco customer services.

The species is deadly and its venom can kill a human in just two hours - but can also give male victims a four-hour erection. ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ear...ur-hour-erections-found-in-Tesco-bananas.html
 
A four hour erection? Where can I buy these spiders?
 
I've had reoccurring dreams of spiders trying to chock me to death. Haha. I'm usually at a family members house in the dream, or an old apartment where I once lived. Suddenly the rooms are infested with ants, and bug of all kinds. But its the spiders coming down from the ceiling that always seem to have power and control over the insects. Me and family, sometimes friends do battle with them. Lots of bug spray. But the theme of the dreams seems to be a spider web rapped around my throat. Thankfully I haven't had these dreams in a very long time.
 
Giant 40-inch tarantula discovered in Catamarca, Argentina

The gigantic tarantula was found by young activists while helping residents of Bañado de Ovanta, Catamarca Province, Argentina, affected by heavy storms since a week.

The arachnid is similar to so-called Goliath Tarantula, the largest spider in the world and native of the Amazon rainforest. It is a spider migalomorfa type and inhabits the northern parts of Latin America, reaching 30 centimeters in length and no more than 100 grams.
Click to expand...
http://strangesounds.org/2015/03/gi...marca-argentina-mutant-goliath-tarantula.html

giant-tarantula-catamarca-argentina-march-2015.jpg
 
It's huge, but that measurement of 40 inches is a bit off. More like 40 cm.
 
Bigphoot2 said:
Two words I really don't like seeing together: Giant and Tarantula
Click to expand...
True! *shivers* In this case, though, my money's on hoax. Shame the Museum of Hoaxes website seems to have ceased to be updated.
 
I can say that I'm veeery afraid of spiders. Each time I see some of these horrific creatures crawling near me, I start to panic and hardly cope with myself :eek:
 
This will end in tears.

A team of researchers working in Italy has found that simply spraying a spider with a carbon nanotube solution can cause the spider to spin stronger webs. In their paper they have uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, the team describes their experiments with both graphene and nanotube solutions and what happened when they sprayed it on ordinary spiders.

As the researchers note, while silk production using silkworms has been quite successful, doing the same to harvest silk fromspiders has not, (because of their territorial traits, the complex nature of the silk they make and their cannibalistic tendencies) which is frustrating as the silk they make to spin their webs has so many outstanding qualities. Intrigued by prior research efforts that investigated the possibility of enhancing spider silk by spraying the spiders or feeding them different materials (titanium, zinc, aluminum, lead, etc.) to improve the mechanical, electrical, magnetic or even fluorescent properties of the silk, the researchers wondered what would happen if they sprayed the arachnids, with a graphene or carbon nanotube solution. ...

http://phys.org/news/2015-05-spiders-carbon-nanotubes-superstrong-webs.html
 
Here's a tip that might help some arachnophobes out there, study them.
It worked for me quite by accident, as a wildlife enthusiast I began to identify species and learn their habits and now they hardly bother me at all. I actually like having them around!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top