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I've been sort of reviewing the defensive reactions I've seen from various spiders. Tarantulas rear back and raise up their front legs, garden spiders just run, and curl up in a ball when they hit a dead end, (I've NEVER killed a garden spider or a tarantula) Black Widows will attack when disturbed. I LOATHE them and have and will continue to kill them wherever I run across them. The big wolf spiders just run and run quite well, the little jumpers crack me up, for no bigger than they are they can clear some distance.
I suppose the abilities of spiders is what makes a character like Spiderman so appealing. If humans had the abilities of spiders we would be a formidable species indeed. In North America, most of our spiders are harmless, Widows and Fiddlebacks being the big exceptions. Unlike Australia where everything with 8 legs or that slithers will have you lighting your last smoke. uggg. Down Under can keep its spiders.
Here in southern NV, we get a lot of black widows that come to eat the field roaches ( called waterbugs back east) every summer. I've had lots of them, and they always curl up and play dead when disturbed. I wonder if we have different varieties down here. We have those bark scorpions that were imported from AZ via palm trees. I've never encountered one though.
Here in southern NV, we get a lot of black widows that come to eat the field roaches ( called waterbugs back east) every summer. I've had lots of them, and they always curl up and play dead when disturbed. I wonder if we have different varieties down here. We have those bark scorpions that were imported from AZ via palm trees. I've never encountered one though.
There are different varieties of Widows, but the ones out West here are all pretty much the same. Ours up North here may have more aggressive traits because of the colder climate, IDK, but I've had far more widows attack than try and get away or just curl up like a garden spider does. I've been bitten, and it's not pleasant. I encountered all manner of beasties in my line of work, and the flat nastiest were the Widows.
Bark scorpions are pretty bad for no bigger than they are. We have scorpions up here that can get 4-5 inches and better in length. But big or little they aren't any worse than being hit by a wasp. The big ones are. They have a pretty painful sting, but the worst critter I've tangled with was the vinegaroon. They are sort of a cross twixt a spider and a scorpion. Colored like a scorpion, but no tail and really long front legs with smallish pincers for grabbing chow. The bite. Have a proboscis like thing. It's like getting jabbed with a big hypodermic needle, and the venom really stings. The rumor is it makes you taste vinegar thus the monicker. But I didn't experience that. At least not that I noticed. I was pretty busy cussing and fishing some ice out of my lunch box. After I squished the little nasy to a smear on the pumphouse floor. They favor cool dampish places like pumphouses, and they climb walls very well. As do scorpions.
To me it appears to be a Haitian Voodoo Spider. This spider’s bite is almost, but not completely, fatal.
After foreclosures or evictions people often release their exotic animal collections into the wild and they sometimes find their way into people's houses.
Watch out for exotic snakes, too.
they said they identified it as an Australian Huntsman -- the only Aussie spider I've ever heard of that ISN'T lethal. My question is, how did it show up in Shelby Twp, Michigan? Especially without anyone noticing.
I rarely used to kill spiders in my house until one time I was bitten on my eye by one during the night, and my eye swelled shut for three days. Of course wouldn't you know it, we were booked for a trip to Vegas so I wore sunglasses everywhere, outside, inside, daytime, evenings. I felt strange wearing sunglasses, but it was better than people thinking my husband had slugged me one! LOL
Now they die if they are in my house, period. (except daddy long legs- they are so harmless and easily identifiable)
I rarely used to kill spiders in my house until one time I was bitten on my eye by one during the night, and my eye swelled shut for three days. Of course wouldn't you know it, we were booked for a trip to Vegas so I wore sunglasses everywhere, outside, inside, daytime, evenings. I felt strange wearing sunglasses, but it was better than people thinking my husband had slugged me one! LOL
Now they die if they are in my house, period. (except daddy long legs- they are so harmless and easily identifiable)
There is a myth, which is just that, a myth, that daddy long legs spiders (or cellar spiders) have the most toxic venom of all spiders but cannot bite humans. This is a falsehood, same as the one about juvenile rattlers being more dangerous than the adults. There is zero scientific evidence to back either of these stories. Daddy long legs are indeed harmless.
Daddy long legs are the only spider I won't immediately kill since I saw the movie "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids". That is when I learned to accept them.
Now I feel bad about a Tarantula I squished years ago in my bathroom. Middle of the night I get up to go pee, turn the light on, tarantula!!! Middle of winter, Massachusetts. Not supposed to be here! My brave husband had died so it was just me and all I could do was squish it. Now I know what all the noises were I used to hear coming from the bedroom for 11 years since we bought the house. It had to have been a pet of one of the kids. Sorry Mr./Ms. T.
Wolf spiders like to hang out at the pool here in SW FLA. Haven't seen any Widows yet, TG. We do have a cotton mouth that likes the banana tree though.
Part of me misses the cold weather up in Mass. cuz it kills the bugs. My second year down here and I am learning to live with bugs year 'round but I still don't like it!
Daddy long legs are the only spider I won't immediately kill since I saw the movie "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids". That is when I learned to accept them.
Now I feel bad about a Tarantula I squished years ago in my bathroom. Middle of the night I get up to go pee, turn the light on, tarantula!!! Middle of winter, Massachusetts. Not supposed to be here! My brave husband had died so it was just me and all I could do was squish it. Now I know what all the noises were I used to hear coming from the bedroom for 11 years since we bought the house. It had to have been a pet of one of the kids. Sorry Mr./Ms. T.
Wolf spiders like to hang out at the pool here in SW FLA. Haven't seen any Widows yet, TG. We do have a cotton mouth that likes the banana tree though.
Part of me misses the cold weather up in Mass. cuz it kills the bugs. My second year down here and I am learning to live with bugs year 'round but I still don't like it!
That would have been a bit of a shock. Tarantulas are pretty scary looking and finding one where they aren't suppose to even be would be a tad unnerving. As scary as they look though, it takes an act of God to get them to bite. They will, but whoever is getting bit is REALLY asking for it. N American tarantulas anyway. The jungle varities are different and many of those are pretty poisonous as well.
During the Summer when working on pipelines out in the desert we would get tarantulas wandering in to say howdy all the time. I worked with this lady who would just put her hand down, they would crawl on and she would pick them up and pet them. I never did this myself, but I was never bothered to be around them. I wouldn't freak if they crawled across my foot or something while I was working. How mellow they are is really amazing. I have touched them, and they are soft and furry. Not that I find them as cuddly as a kitten, but in reality they pretty much are.
I don't even pay daddy longlegs any mind at all. Though their cobwebs can be annoying. Meh, that's what we have brooms for. The little scuttling jumpers will get in frequently, and I don'y pay them any mind either. After dark in the Summer, they pick off any flys that have gotten in when they go to sleep on the ceiling after the lights go out. Flys annoy me far more than those little spiders. Grrrr, the flys always find me when I'm trying to take a nap and buzz around my face. The thought of the jumpers catchng up with them gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. Or the daddy longlegs.
People keep tarantulas all the time. I don't know about breeding them, but they actually aren't bad pets. Unconventional, but not bad. Of course if Toby the Tarantula gets out of his terraarium in little Jonny's room and crawls in bed with Mom while she's napping, that can and has led to many a heartbroken child who's beloved pet winds up a smear. .
My son caught two really big green scorpions once from under a hay bale and put them in an old aquarium. I flat refused to let those be anywhere in the house however. Those critters are mean and nasty and WILL get out. So he had them in the barn. But only for a day or so. They got out. Had to have actually climbed the glass. Scorpions are consummate climbers and stick like glue. There was no way I would let him keep them in the house. I knew better.
The boy was always catching some critter or another. Scorpions, snakes, lizards , Horned Toads. The snakes lizards and especially the Horned toads I always made him let go. They don't survive in captivity and they are hugely beneficial to have around. One alligator lizard he caught he let out at the pumphouse and it lived there for a couple years. Got pretty big. She (it was a female) kept the nasties out of my pumphouse and was a real boon. One of the barn cats killed her in the end. None of them would fess up though. lol, I questioned them in true KGB fashion and the secret was never revealed. I was quite disturbed about that. But the cats wouldn't crack. Code of Silence ya know.
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After I squished the little nasy to a smear on the pumphouse floor. They favor cool dampish places like pumphouses, and they climb walls very well. As do scorpions.
Middle of winter, Massachusetts. Not supposed to be here! My brave husband had died so it was just me and all I could do was squish it. Now I know what all the noises were I used to hear coming from the bedroom for 11 years since we bought the house. It had to have been a pet of one of the kids. Sorry Mr./Ms. T. 
Or the daddy longlegs.
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