Spider Season

Spiders......No thanks! >>

These guys terrify me and have been the bane of my existence ever since I was a child. Story time!

When I was 5 years old I had a rather horrifying experience with spiders which still leaves me seething in a rage at them today [I'm 25].

It was literally the night before Christmas Eve, I remember waking up to go to the bathroom and after doing as such I crawled back into bed and started to find a comfortable position to go back to sleep. The house I lived in at the time was TINY AS HELL. Literally I opened my door and the bathroom was smack dab in front of me. I could jump from the foot of my bed and land on the toilet seat lid provided it was closed.

Anyways, I had decorative lights in my room and windows which cast really pretty shades of gold, green and red all over my ceiling. I turn over on my back to stare up at the lights and I immediately froze. My ceiling was BLACK as could be...and it was MOVING! Literally hundreds of thousands of spiders COVERED my ceiling! I SCREAMED bloody murder and took off straight to my parent's room and hid under the covers. My folks of course woke up and they thought I had a nightmare as I couldn't stop screaming about spiders being everywhere and they were going to eat me.

I remember my mother flicking on the light next to her side of the bed as she pulled me out from under the covers. I took one look at the ceiling, screamed and scrambled out of her arms to hide again. My folks looked up and completely flipped shit! Their ceiling was COVERED in hundreds of thousands of spiders!

We all bolted into the living room, desperate to figure out where the hell this horror movie level infestation was coming from and we look over to see the Christmas Tree COATED in a thick blanket of webs and spiders crawling out of it and up onto the walls and ceiling!

The tree we had was a real one, we'd gotten it just about last minute from this kind of rinky-dink place. Never have we ever regretted doing something so much. We never thought to check it for spider egg sacks as we had figured the place sprayed them down before selling them. WRONG. Now, for the amount of spiders all over you'd THINK we have seen the egg sacks. Not true..the trunk of the tree had this odd layered-thick bark. The egg sacks were all tucked under the bark where we couldn't see them! And considering the fact a single egg sac can have anywhere up to 10,000 spiders in it depending upon species...UGH!

The heat from the house caused the eggs to hatch thus the infestation.

I remember my father grabbing the tree and hurling it out the front door onto the lawn, lights and everything. My mother grabbed the vacuum cleaner and was using the hose to try and suck up as many spiders as she could. My father ran and grabbed the shop-vac from the garage and did the same thing. I, at this point, ran and hid in the bathroom as it was the only place I had yet to see spiders.

Ever since then not only have I been terrified of spiders...but we have never had a real Christmas Tree since then.

And, as an addendum to my original post, just came across this article:

Car rolls into water after Hunstman drops from the visor

The spiders are OK I guess. I get these tiny cure red and orange spiders. They are so innocent and small. I end up throwing them out of the window.

There's something I don't get about the Huntsman spider and the visor thing. I understand the attraction scurrying behind a visor would have for a spider. They love that stuff. But surely being sandwiched between the visor and glass with a burning hot sun slowly roasting it isn't the best hidey-hole to choose?

Yeah, that's true. What goes on in the mind of a spider? What's his motivation? Another thing I haven't figured out, in my research is why my spiders would always show up on one wall. When I first moved into this basement apartment, like I said, I wasn't very nice to the spiders and it took me a little while to realize we were going to share this space together and I had to get used to it. So, back then I'd kill every single one I saw. They appeared on the clear space on this one wall right by the closet and just sit there, frozen. I'd squish one I saw resting there, wipe up his guts and legs and then the next day, another one just as large, if not larger, would be in the exact same spot...sitting there...frozen. I'm not sure if they were licking the wall of the blood of their fallen, dead brothers, or if there was something about that wall in particular. but once I stopped killing them as much, they stopped appearing on that wall.

Lol. You're a brave one in the basement! Spiders love those places. I don't know your building, of course, but it may be they're attracted to either the driest or dampest wall. This doesn't mean you'd know it, depending on the building and climate, but spiders know. Generally, a lot of breeds like damp and dark. Also, before I got used to spiders, I too noticed that if I killed one, another would take its place. So far this autumn, I've had two biggies; one on the kitchen wall and another in the bathroom wash basin. I did my usual heavy duty card and big tumbler trick then wished them well before putting them out the window. No replacements so far! I do think they have a special intelligence all their own. The webs I've seen are just phenomenal. But I do hope you don't get any more biggies. I can still remember how I used to react!

Yeah, I think spider's are a lot smarter than most people would give them credit for. Not necessarily in the sense that that can be taught tricks or whatever, though I'm sure that pet spiders get used to captivity and being handled. They do have basic common sense and survival instinct though. It's a big part that ties in to why they so badly not want to bite people, cause they know it's a horrible, suicidal thing to do!

They're baaack! Finally it seems to be that time of year again, having seen 2 in the same week cross my path(two different sizes so I'm pretty sure they're different dudes). I saw one on the ceiling in the corner and I think he was trying to make himself a web. All of a sudden, as I'm watching, he's dangling loosely and then falls into my floor lamp! XD Oh, how precious, the little graceless fool!

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLw-9dpHtcU[/video]

Spiders are basically tiny, eight legged cats. (Just to be clear, I say this in an jokingly endearing sense, not as a factual comparison.)

That has got to be the funniest video I've seen in a while! XD Perfect! They really are! Just like poised and vaguely threatening wherever they sit and then occasionally slipping up in the most ridiculous ways. It's hard being a tiny creature in such a big world!

Oh, absolutely. It's especially noticeable in areas that have temperature shifts. I live in Maine, so around this time of year the spiders all scuttle inside, but during late April till October-ish, these guys are EVERYWHERE. At my apartment for example, I live on the second floor. We have a walk out and they LOVE to weave webs everywhere between the railing and banisters. My room mates hate it but I love it because it creates a natural barrier to mosquitoes and hornets and stuff that love to swoop in and out up there.

And I was thinking South France was bad...

Rudolph Quin said:

That has got to be the funniest video I've seen in a while! XD Perfect! They really are! Just like poised and vaguely threatening wherever they sit and then occasionally slipping up in the most ridiculous ways. It's hard being a tiny creature in such a big world!

Click to expand...

Eheh. ^^ But then again when you consider how arthropods make up more than 75% of all animal life on earth, perhaps it's less a matter of it being a big world for them but more of it being a very small world for us!

And, this is why I frigging hate Huntsman!

Must be a little difficult to be thankful to the spider for keeping mice out of the house when she decides it's a good idea to hang said mice on your fridge. XD