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Today a friend posted a cute thing on Facebook about jumping spiders. I happen to adore them, they are very cute little creatures. If you google "jumping spiders with raindrop hats" you'll see what I mean. They have cute little faces, and they're fuzzy. And they don't hurt people. Although they have venom like all spiders do, they're really tiny, and not aggressive, and their venom is not considered medically threatening to humans.
I commented about how overjoyed I was when I had one on my arm not long ago. I peered at it, it peered back at me, then I carefully released it into the grass. (I was happy, because it's not every day I get such an up-close look at one, and they're so small you can't see how cute they are unless you get a close look.)
Anyways, some fool came along with a photo of a nasty infected wound on someone's finger, and claimed that this was her friend after a jumping spider bite. *sigh* I question if the pic wasn't something they just found on the internet. If real, how does this friend know it was even a spider, and not a staph infection or other infection of another kind of wound, if known as a spider bite, was the culprit collected for identification, or is it somebody's random guess, if identified, by whom? An expert? Or an ER nurse, who doesn't know a ton about spiders? Etc. If proven to be a jumping spider bite, I'd say that person has like a one-in-a-million allergic sensitivity, or a useless immune system.
Reminds me of how I was recently at our local zoo, and a woman was getting a corn snake out to give a talk on it. A little girl came up close, wanting to see, and her idiot of a grandpa said, "Oh, look...she's touchin' a snake! She's gonna git bit! You best come back here, you'll git bit too!" Bless that old woman, she turned such a look of scorn on him, and she scolded him and said, "Oh, hush! This is a very nice snake. Her name is Clementine, and she's not going to bite anyone. We don't need your drama here." Then she sat down and did her talk and let the kids pet Clementine.
It drives me crazy when people want to act all dramatic and make out pretty harmless animals to be some kind of a public safety hazard, when they aren't.
If you really want to make the point copy the picture into tineye and you will find where they stole the pic.
Today a friend posted a cute thing on Facebook about jumping spiders. I happen to adore them, they are very cute little creatures. If you google "jumping spiders with raindrop hats" you'll see what I mean. They have cute little faces, and they're fuzzy. And they don't hurt people. Although they have venom like all spiders do, they're really tiny, and not aggressive, and their venom is not considered medically threatening to humans.
I commented about how overjoyed I was when I had one on my arm not long ago. I peered at it, it peered back at me, then I carefully released it into the grass. (I was happy, because it's not every day I get such an up-close look at one, and they're so small you can't see how cute they are unless you get a close look.)
Anyways, some fool came along with a photo of a nasty infected wound on someone's finger, and claimed that this was her friend after a jumping spider bite. *sigh* I question if the pic wasn't something they just found on the internet. If real, how does this friend know it was even a spider, and not a staph infection or other infection of another kind of wound, if known as a spider bite, was the culprit collected for identification, or is it somebody's random guess, if identified, by whom? An expert? Or an ER nurse, who doesn't know a ton about spiders? Etc. If proven to be a jumping spider bite, I'd say that person has like a one-in-a-million allergic sensitivity, or a useless immune system.
Reminds me of how I was recently at our local zoo, and a woman was getting a corn snake out to give a talk on it. A little girl came up close, wanting to see, and her idiot of a grandpa said, "Oh, look...she's touchin' a snake! She's gonna git bit! You best come back here, you'll git bit too!" Bless that old woman, she turned such a look of scorn on him, and she scolded him and said, "Oh, hush! This is a very nice snake. Her name is Clementine, and she's not going to bite anyone. We don't need your drama here." Then she sat down and did her talk and let the kids pet Clementine.
It drives me crazy when people want to act all dramatic and make out pretty harmless animals to be some kind of a public safety hazard, when they aren't.
I might be the biggest spider lover on Earth. hahaha I've been dealing with this kind of nonsense for decades, and its frustrating. 99% of spiders are not harmful whatsoever to humans. And its very important to remember that even the potentially dangerous species aren't even very lethal to a healthy adult. I posted a picture of a tarantula that I found in the mountains over the weekend and the amount of hate that got directed towards that poor thing was astonishing. I got comments like "kill it with fire" and "I would've run it over" and "don't get too close!" I couldn't believe it! I spent a good portion of my day defending the poor spider, and scolding those ignorant enough to want to kill it.
Spiders might scare people, but ONLY because people don't understand them. They wont harm you unless you bother them, and you most likely wont even know if you get bit. Theyre not out to get you, and they actually protect you and your loved ones from dangerous bugs like cockroaches.
OMG, yes. Jumping spiders are as harmless as it gets. The omly really nasty N American spiders are the widow species and the fiddleback. Oh, and I've heard hobos are rather nasty. Never had any experience with them. Tarantulas, as big a they are, are VERY docile really. You have to really antangoninze one to get bit. Now, scorpions, they sting for spite
Like spiders, there are defensive species and docile species. Ive owned dozens of species from all over the world, and most wouldn't attempt to sting you unless you REALLY pissed them off. Genii like Pandinus, Heterometrus, Hadogenes, etc, are utterly docile. More so the doggies!
And you have to remember that while it appears scorpions sting "out of spite", they are basically blind, despite having sets of lateral and medial eyes. If something touches them out of nowhere, they most likely will sting out of instinct, not just because they feel like stinging something. They feel their surroundings using the hairs on their bodies, and "smell" using their pectines, located underneath their bellies.
I might be the biggest spider lover on Earth. hahaha I've been dealing with this kind of nonsense for decades, and its frustrating. 99% of spiders are not harmful whatsoever to humans. And its very important to remember that even the potentially dangerous species aren't even very lethal to a healthy adult. I posted a picture of a tarantula that I found in the mountains over the weekend and the amount of hate that got directed towards that poor thing was astonishing. I got comments like "kill it with fire" and "I would've run it over" and "don't get too close!" I couldn't believe it! I spent a good portion of my day defending the poor spider, and scolding those ignorant enough to want to kill it.
Spiders might scare people, but ONLY because people don't understand them. They wont harm you unless you bother them, and you most likely wont even know if you get bit. Theyre not out to get you, and they actually protect you and your loved ones from dangerous bugs like cockroaches.
Show spiders some love, it will only do you good.
Yes, seriously!
I've been doing "catch and release" with the ones I've found indoors, since I was a child. And even so, the main reason I did that, is I didn't want my cat to eat the poor wee spider. I once made the mistake of trying to keep a rather large (for the species) black widow in a pickle jar, and give her captured buggos, she did not live long. No idea if captivity disagreed with her, or she was just near the end of her days.
Spiders are awesome.
Also, the excessive mis-identification of brown recluses...I lecture people about that constantly. We are in Colorado here, we're not even in their range. People keep seeing these harmless little brown house spiders and hollering about a brown recluse. Then I'm like, "So you got it under magnification and noted the number and array of its eyes, right?" and they look at me like I'm nuts, and I tell them, that is the only way you can positively tell if it's a common house spider or a brown recluse. Which is what I've read in the publications by actual spider experts, whose assessments I trust. Sure it's possible that the odd recluse might hitchhike here with someone moving in, but I would bet my next paycheck that at least 90%+ of supposed recluses are actually something else, something probably harmless.
And no one ever fussed about 'em until those "shock and horror" TV shows about some of the worst cases taught these folks what the word "necrosis" means. Feh.
Anyhow, I have gotten some spider-haters converted with some of the adorable pics and vids of jumping spiders. Oh, and my boyfriend had the most beautiful orb weaver in his garden early this year! I'm pretty sure she was a gravid female and we identified her as argiope trifasciata. She looked like this 'un:
I've been doing "catch and release" with the ones I've found indoors, since I was a child.
We have a plastic cup and a playing card that we call "The spider retrieval unit". When one of us spots a spider, we either fetch the SRU or yell for the other one to bring the SRU and be quick about it. We put the plastic cup over the spider, slide the playing card under the cup and bring the spider outside. We've gotten quite adept at this maneuver. Much better karma than squishing it, don't you think?
I was weeding my raised beds earlier this week, when a large striped spider jumped out. She had a beautiful egg sac on her rear! I kept a close eye on her, to make sure I didn't accidentally crush her. I find a lot of different large spiders in my raised beds; not sure why they like that environment so much.
I find a lot of different large spiders in my raised beds; not sure why they like that environment so much.
Raised beds are less disturbed and safer for them during daylight hours. The birds, shrews and other small animals that eat spiders and insects are less likely to go hopping and poking around looking for food in raised beds as much as they do at ground level garden beds.
I get a lot of mother wolf spiders taking up residence in my raised beds for as long as they're still carrying their hatched babies on their backs. Once the babies have become more independent they leave the raised beds and venture out into the world for bigger hunting grounds.
I've been doing "catch and release" with the ones I've found indoors, since I was a child. And even so, the main reason I did that, is I didn't want my cat to eat the poor wee spider. I once made the mistake of trying to keep a rather large (for the species) black widow in a pickle jar, and give her captured buggos, she did not live long. No idea if captivity disagreed with her, or she was just near the end of her days.
Spiders are awesome.
Also, the excessive mis-identification of brown recluses...I lecture people about that constantly. We are in Colorado here, we're not even in their range. People keep seeing these harmless little brown house spiders and hollering about a brown recluse. Then I'm like, "So you got it under magnification and noted the number and array of its eyes, right?" and they look at me like I'm nuts, and I tell them, that is the only way you can positively tell if it's a common house spider or a brown recluse. Which is what I've read in the publications by actual spider experts, whose assessments I trust. Sure it's possible that the odd recluse might hitchhike here with someone moving in, but I would bet my next paycheck that at least 90%+ of supposed recluses are actually something else, something probably harmless.
And no one ever fussed about 'em until those "shock and horror" TV shows about some of the worst cases taught these folks what the word "necrosis" means. Feh.
Anyhow, I have gotten some spider-haters converted with some of the adorable pics and vids of jumping spiders. Oh, and my boyfriend had the most beautiful orb weaver in his garden early this year! I'm pretty sure she was a gravid female and we identified her as argiope trifasciata. She looked like this 'un:
Ugh, the whole "brown recluse" thing gets on my nerves, too!!!! Every brown spider is a "brown recluse" in peoples' eyes. The eye arrangement is one perfect way to ID them, the other much easier way is to look for the viola/violin/fiddle mark on its body, its very distinct.
The widow you kept might have died due to improper housing. They need a very wide glass or plastic container that's vertically oriented. Inside the cage you need several well-anchored sticks or vertical rocks from which she can spin her web to catch food. You should always provide plenty of air holes in the lid as well, and a small cap for water containment. Don't get it just right and they can die.
Ugh, the whole "brown recluse" thing gets on my nerves, too!!!! Every brown spider is a "brown recluse" in peoples' eyes. The eye arrangement is one perfect way to ID them, the other much easier way is to look for the viola/violin/fiddle mark on its body, its very distinct.
The widow you kept might have died due to improper housing. They need a very wide glass or plastic container that's vertically oriented. Inside the cage you need several well-anchored sticks or vertical rocks from which she can spin her web to catch food. You should always provide plenty of air holes in the lid as well, and a small cap for water containment. Don't get it just right and they can die.
Keep up the good work on converting the ignorant!
I tend not to want to accept the "fiddle mark" method, because some folks will see a stripe and call it a fiddle, and wolf spiders can have variated striping that can be mistaken for a "fiddle" shape.
Like I'd understand people being worried or over-cautions perhaps if we were in a state known to have them in any kind of numbers...but we're not.
I was fascinated to learn about a new creepy-crawly since moving here. The "sun spider" or "wind scorpion," which is related to the camel spiders they talk about in Iraq...and how they aren't in fact spiders, or scorpions at all. They are their very own thing, order Solifugae. My goodness they are FAST! They are not venomous, but I hear they've got a very nasty bite nonetheless.
I haven't seen a Zebra Back jumping spider for years. I think once or twice I've had them in my present home (27 years). But when I was growing up, zebras were always present in our home. They were so cute and harmless; Mom always said they brought good luck and we should leave them alone. They hung out in and around the windows, on the screens and the sills mostly, sometimes on the glass. They were fun to watch!
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Last edited by PJSaturn; 09-07-2017 at 09:34 PM..
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