Spiders

Our first nigh on an Indian Ocean island and we went to our rooms - a big spider sitting on the floor. Tried to catch it - boy or boy did it move fast - literally grease lightning. Imagine that, a fast big spider. At least the one in the vid is a little slow. But just to show that they don't all get their way:

Ok that's it! I'm using the RAID on my computer screen and driving afterwards to Basel to hunt you down with another dose of Crawler killer, Carlos! *shakes fist*

I'm gonna have nightmares today... Why, oh why, is it that the thing that freaks you out the most triggers the self-defence mechanism "keep eyes open on target. do not let go of the image of target. back away from target slowly without getting your eyes out of the bugger"

Jeebus!! Those things sound freaky.

Thank goodness I can't see YouTube at work to view Carlos' vids too.

p.s. Helm, you don't have to head over to Basel to get him....I'll do it for you.

That reminds me of some nature programs I've seen in which wasps actually seek out large spiders in / upon which to lay their eggs. The one that comes to mind was one that looked similar to the one in that video, laid eggs in the paralyzed spider and as the young hatched, they fed upon the still living spider. Eeewww... neat but still, eeew!

Looking for it, I came upon this story about "zombie" spiders under the influence of mind-controlling wasp larvae:

I'm only trying to show you that if spiders can be beaten by a little wasp/hornet thingy, you have nothing to fear. Would you like me to post some more videos for you to help prove my point?

Burn it with fire.

I used to have a terrible problem with spiders, but I'm now OK with most that live in these parts. I still don't like them much, especially the big fat ones.

But those one like in the video freak me out, that raising the front legs is a warning isn't it? Used by primitive spiders, after which the f***ers are supposed to run towards you, instead of away.

How do you differentiate a male or female spider?!

Dunno, what's the punchline?

With the typical house spiders the female has a chunkier body with shorter legs, while the male has longer legs and the body is thinner. The females don't move around that much and you tend to find them in dark undisturbed places, but the males run all over the place at breakneck speed this time of year looking for totty.

I thought we were talking about spiders here...

Gaaa now I can picture all the little buggers running everywhere in my place at night when I sleep... brrr...

An hour and a half later and this is all we get? What's up with the forum today?

So when you think you are having a bad day, have a read through this news article that an antipodean friend brought to my attention...

Big Fat Poisonous Creapy Crawlies..

Here is the pic from the article. It's not showing on the link for some reason.