Forum Moderators: open
I still get ribbed about the time I killed a big, hairy spider with a dead plant. I was at work, saw motion near a coworkers foot, screamed, grabbed the big dead plant and tossed it on the spider.
I'm a sissy. There-I said it.
If it was coming out of your nose, I could see someone freaking out, but on your hand - please. But in your case I guess a sore hand is better than a broken nose.
I like spiders. The long-legged fast-moving really-skinny ones are creepy... I like the the big-bodied fat ones that make huge intricate webs.
It's EARWIGS that I hate. I had a bunch of them land on my face once when shaking off a canvas awning, and I just about jumped out of my skin. Eeeeeyuch!
I did have one rather scary experience with an insect however...
while camping in the Australian bush I was awoken by a scratching sound coming from near my head. I put on the torch and froze in shock. There was a HUGE centipede... about 20cm long, and 8cm wide, I'd estimate... scrabbling with its hundred legs on the tent floor right by my head, trying to get up the wall. At least it wasn't headed for me! But it was only about 15cm from my head!
I moved slowly away and found a suitable container, caught it, and released it about 50 km's (well, ya know) away from the tent! Every time I heard a scratch or rustle for the rest of that trip I found it hard to sleep! :)
I was 8, digging in the yard and unearthed one but didn't realize it, the clump of dirt in my hand began to wiggle, I thought I had a very uncreepy buddy of mine, an average earthworm. The dirt all fell away and there in my palm, crawling toward the soft part of my wrist was the ugliest creature my young eyes had ever seen, now very WIDE young eyes. I screamed like a girl, yes a girl not a linebacker, a girl, threw myself back onto the grass crawling toward the house, my entire body trembled with the most intense case of heebie-jeebies you can imagine . . . couldn't sleep for weeks and they still creep me out, alive or dead, I can't even bear to squish them. :O
It was the only time in my life I peed my pants. :O
The only thing that comes close is a big, fat, black widow, those creep me out for some reason, they just look terribly evil and creepy. Not even camel spiders bother me as bad.
I don't really mind the spiders as long as they're outside. But what I do mind are all of the scorpions I keep finding. Now there are bugs that freak me out, big time.
Anyhow when my daughter was about 3 she walked into my office where I was furiously programming... walked up and said .. "I have a present for you mommy" So I held out my hand expecting a dandi lion flower or a half eaten cookie and instead she placed the biggest garden spider in my hand. I just about peed myself.
Probably not. Widows are seldom deadly too. :(
Nope.
Nah, but they really hurt, and they make you sick for a day or two. And their shiny black appearance skeers me. ;) Insects, spiders, creepy-crawlies don't really bother me. Rattlesnakes on the other hand...
<added /> One exception to the creepy-crawlie issue - Maggots. Maggots freak me out. A writhing mass of them devouring whatever unfortunate creature happens to feed them always makes me turn my head and walk the other way. Can't stand them.
I did get a suprise when I found a black widow spider on my front door. Trust me, it didn't live long.
[edited by: PhraSEOlogy at 3:28 pm (utc) on July 31, 2006]
The way I understand it is that maggots only eat dead tissues and rotting things. That's why they make good medical treatment for people with festering injuries. The maggots eat away the dead tissue, leaving behind the good tissues.
got one of those this spring setting on a warm pool pipe in my back yard. Exactly 7 inches from where I had just reached to flip a lever for the pool pump. It was setting on river rocks. You could not even see the thing setting there unless you looked really close - it blended in perfectly.
On the other hand, last fall I did see a snake you could see quite clearly on the rocks - near the same place. It was perty red, yellow, and black...ya, the right combo of colors ... I about freaked. We have had it all at this place, but that what you get when your house backs to the wild kingdom of the texas hill country...
But my all time favourite is the particularly disgusting Palmetto Bug. People here call it that, but to me it is just a massive cockroach. Man ... those things are so big you could strap a saddle on those suckers and ride them. Oh ... and they fly which adds that much more to their charm! Yecccchhh.
I am constantly finding tree boas in my garden and on my porch as well. Not afraid of snakes, but when when I saw my dog standing on my bed and watching something move under the sheets ... that just about drove me out of the Caribbean for good! I have screens on everything, buy geckos, lizzards, snakes and bugs always manage to find their way inside somehow!
Oh sheeze - I almost for got we foudn one of those too : texas sized about 8-10 inches long. It very tough to - umm - dispose of.
Yeah..insects....you either hate them or live with them .. with the exeption of the person who studies and loves them...
Here in New Zealand we have one native poisonous spider - the Katapo, which is restricted to a very small area in the north of the North Island.
We do have black widows, but I'm not even certain they're the same black widows as elsewhere, though they do bite and it does pack a punch, same with white tail spiders.
Really though... that's about it. It's not well known that we do have a very small scorpion in a couple of tiny areas, but they've never been an issue. And we have no snakes at all. No crocs, alligators or reptiles larger than geckos and tuataras... and no wild mammals larger than a possum or wallaby (both imports).
Being from New Zealand and travelling overseas... the natural dangers out there in the rest of the world are guaranteed to prey ('scuse the pun) on your mind.
a radio DJ was sacked from his job some years ago in Oz because while reading the news about a woman who was bitten on the finger by a funnel web spider... he got 'confused'... and announced to the nation that a woman had been bitten on the funnel by a fingerweb spider.
