The Nature Photography Thread

[ConcinusMan]

If I were to taunt a spider, I think I would use something other than my finger!

[kibakiba]

I would have screamed if I even saw the spider. Let alone have it jump at me. The spiders we have that come in our house are actually vicious and will run at you if you move anything near it. They're the size of my palm. I might have small hands, but I have nothing to compare my hands to.

[Mommy2many]

Ok, Chantel. What kind of spider is that? Cause if it is as big as my palm, there is no way it's living under the same roof as me. That means I can see it's hairy legs, and I already broke down the spider rules on the other forum.

[kibakiba]

I'm not sure, a friend of mine who saw a dead one said it was either a wold spider or a hobo spider. It looks like neither. I looked online and the closest match for what it looked like was a "giant house spider". I can't wait to move to Canada. My boyfriend rarely sees spiders in his house, while I have spiders running across my my floor literally once a week if not more. I'm not sure if it's the same spider that I get bitten by on a yearly basis, but I wish they would all jst die. I hate getting cyst like bites every year... Haha.

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, Chantel, giant house spiders are common here in the northwest. Giant house spider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikipedia says the bite doesn't pose a threat but that's a lie. That's what bit me a few years ago. I know this because I caught it and had it identified. The infection (MRSA) that follows is worse than terrible. It's life-threatening if not treated within a couple of days. The venom isn't serious at all but it always gets infected.

This one is mild compared to what I had just 3 days after being bitten:


I ended up with a crater on my arm big and deep enough to place a stack of quarters in.

If you live in an old house that isn't in the best shape, you get infested with them. I don't have that problem but still see wandering males running across my floor from time to time in late summer and fall. They give me the willies.

[kibakiba]

I live in a 30 year old trailer that has a 7 year old room build onto it from when a tree fell on our house. We have lots of holes in different areas of the house. There was a gas spill where the pond was and since then we've been getting extremely aggressive bugs here. It's a weird coincidence. Haha.
Mine never get that bad, it's usually a big purple hard bump that I get. I tend to get them in awkward places. I got one on my under arm once. That was painful as heck. I find that lavender oil literally solves all of my problems. even with snake bites since I'm allergic to their saliva, rub some lavender oil on it and within a couple minutes its 100% gone. I haven't had a spider bite in about 6 or 7 months though so I haven't tried it.

I think most of the spiders are females, they're pretty huge. The ones that run across my floor sometimes have black and red legs and are slightly bigger than a quarter. The bodies are usually a fade between tan and red. I cant find anything that looks like them, all I know is that they are fast and they are EVIL.

[PINJOHN]

what a relief, reading these posts about spiders, i have always felt very guilty about my aversion to spiders, i call it an aversion but the truth would be it is more like a horror of them.
i know our phobias dont necessarily follow any form of logic as i have kept tarantulas and they didn't bother me at all, but let me catch sight of what we wrongly refer to as a daddy long legs and i can be found trying to climb on my wifes shoulders, i gave up the tarantulas because i found them so boring
i have struggled with my attitude towards spiders because i have always been into nature and animals and could never rationalize my view of them, i have on occasion even killed them when being surprised by one in the room and this is at odds with my live and let live attitude.
well there it is, my guilty secret is no more, no more guilt because it seems i'm not the only one, and no more secret because i have told you guys

[guidofatherof5]

How to Overcome the Fear of Spiders - wikiHow

[PINJOHN]

thanks for that steve but i suspect it will take more than that advice to get me passed my problem, i have always assumed it comes from my being brought up back in the fifty's in an old house with an outside toilet which had no light but plenty of spiders

[guidofatherof5]

That can be a pain in the butt.
Sorry, I just had to go there. Not there there but there to the joke.