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General Category => Off the Record => Topic started by: Ideologue on July 03, 2014, 08:51:00 PM

Title: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Ideologue on July 03, 2014, 08:51:00 PM
Or, more accurately, how often do you see spiders in your house, of an offensive size and manner?

Because I have seen four in the past week, three skulking about the upper corners of my habitation box, one in a chair that dodged my attempts to kill it, and it pleases me not at all. <_<
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Ideologue on July 03, 2014, 08:52:14 PM
FIVE, one evidently with a great sense of timing.  What is this, a thrillomedy starring Jeff Daniels?
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Admiral Yi on July 03, 2014, 08:52:29 PM
One every two or three months.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Ideologue on July 03, 2014, 08:54:23 PM
To what do you attribute your good fortune?  Lack of vigilance or your inhospitable Iowan clime?

Seriously, this is fucked up. :(
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Neil on July 03, 2014, 08:59:36 PM
None, ever.  Altitude and cold have defeated the arachnid menace.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Ed Anger on July 03, 2014, 09:00:44 PM
I've seen a distinct lack of daddy long legs this year and an increase in the beefy bite the fuck out of you spiders.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Admiral Yi on July 03, 2014, 09:00:58 PM
Yeah Ide, the fact that you live in the tropics probably has a lot to do with it.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Monoriu on July 03, 2014, 09:02:02 PM
None.  I almost never see spiders in my home in HK.  I know what you are talking about though, because we saw tons of spiders when we lived in Vancouver. 

I see lots of cockroaches though.  By contrast, we never had any cockroaches in Vancouver.  Somehow cockroaches and spiders seem incompatible. 
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Valmy on July 03, 2014, 09:02:28 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on July 03, 2014, 08:51:00 PM
Or, more accurately, how often do you see spiders in your house, of an offensive size and manner?

Fairly often.  Maybe...once or twice a month.  I smash them all forthwith.  But I live in a warm place with my backyard to a greenbelt.  We have bugs and animals and shit in our house all the time.  Nothing to do but rack up giant body counts.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Valmy on July 03, 2014, 09:03:08 PM
Quote from: Monoriu on July 03, 2014, 09:02:02 PM
Somehow cockroaches and spiders seem incompatible. 

They both get along great in my house.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Eddie Teach on July 03, 2014, 09:36:02 PM
I don't remember the last time I saw a spider. I do get flying insects from time to time.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: garbon on July 03, 2014, 10:05:41 PM
In Manhattan? Almost never. Quite freaky.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: HVC on July 03, 2014, 10:53:59 PM
Never seen one in the 6 years I've lived here.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Ideologue on July 03, 2014, 11:00:25 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on July 03, 2014, 09:00:58 PM
Yeah Ide, the fact that you live in the tropics probably has a lot to do with it.

It is pretty warm.  Over 100 the past couple days I think; definitely was yesterday.  Absolutely miserable and gonna get worse.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Viking on July 03, 2014, 11:01:43 PM
Never. That is one of the great things about living in scandinavia. No large exoctic insects.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Josquius on July 03, 2014, 11:04:10 PM
I have a large one just outside the door and a few small ones but its rare I see them indoors :(
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Ideologue on July 03, 2014, 11:06:58 PM
Josq's comment leads me to wonder if your criteria for considering a spider potential harmful are less severe than mine.  Pretty much anything other than those pinhead-sized ones that keep to the corners (certainly if it's more than a centimeter), I sanction with extreme prejudice.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Josquius on July 03, 2014, 11:16:52 PM
The body bigger than a cm?
I don't think I've ever seen one that big in the wild, except perhaps those freaky green ones that I've seen in the countryside and want nothing to do with.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Viking on July 03, 2014, 11:22:55 PM
I remember in Australia we had 1.5 inch cockroaches running around the place. In Egypt there were actually 4 inch long cockroaches at the training well (and an adorable kitten that stalked them). And then there was the well site where the run-off ditch (A small ditch surrounding the well site set up to collect any spills to gather them in the waste water lagoon rather than pollute the farmland around) was covered in an inch deep layer of dead insects and the whole well-site smelled of death. Certainly I prefer the measly plague of mosquitos we get for a month in summer to that disgusting crap.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Razgovory on July 03, 2014, 11:23:21 PM
I live in a basement, so I see them all the time.  I don't really care much. 
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Ideologue on July 03, 2014, 11:27:01 PM
Quote from: Tyr on July 03, 2014, 11:16:52 PM
The body bigger than a cm?
I don't think I've ever seen one that big in the wild, except perhaps those freaky green ones that I've seen in the countryside and want nothing to do with.

Legspan.  Cm-wide body would be a wide-awake nightmare.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Admiral Yi on July 04, 2014, 01:09:22 AM
The size threshold is if, after you smoosh them, you can still feel the heft through the kleenex you use to pick them up.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Tamas on July 04, 2014, 01:24:24 AM
Spiders freak me the fuck out. I eliminate them from my living space with extreme prejudice. Have yet to see any non-microscopic here urban land, luckily. In Hungary, being close to the countryside meant seeing some disgusting ones a few times a year, and annoying ones relatively often.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Razgovory on July 04, 2014, 01:25:54 AM
I didn't know so many people were afraid of spiders.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Grinning_Colossus on July 04, 2014, 01:27:30 AM
In the summer I see wolf spiders crawling across the ceiling about twice a week.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Eddie Teach on July 04, 2014, 01:27:40 AM
Some of them have strong enough poison to kill a human.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Grinning_Colossus on July 04, 2014, 01:29:12 AM
Wolf spiders are harmless. I just kill them because one dropped down on me when I was a child.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Eddie Teach on July 04, 2014, 01:34:17 AM
It was a reply to Raz. I did not make that post in under 10 seconds.  :P
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Ideologue on July 04, 2014, 01:35:20 AM
Quote from: Tam
Spiders freak me the fuck out. I eliminate them from my living space with extreme prejudice. Have yet to see any non-microscopic here urban land, luckily. In Hungary, being close to the countryside meant seeing some disgusting ones a few times a year, and annoying ones relatively often.

They are way worse in rural areas.

The worst one I ever saw was at Korea's dad's house.  Legitimate Arachnophobia comparisons could be made.  Looked about five inches legspan.  Ceiling walker.  I was spending the night; strongly considered driving home at 2 a.m., only did not do so at Korea's insistence.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Razgovory on July 04, 2014, 01:45:52 AM
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on July 04, 2014, 01:27:40 AM
Some of them have strong enough poison to kill a human.

Yeah, but most don't.  Also they are very small and I can outwit most of them.  Besides they kill the other bugs that crawl on my when I'm asleep.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: MadImmortalMan on July 04, 2014, 01:48:58 AM
Oh yeah lots of wolf spiders. The occasional black widows too. You can always tell the difference between BW webs and regular ones. They are more tensile and stringy, less wispy.


No other insects at all. I've never seen a roach or a flea in fifteen years here.

I've heard that there are some crazy cool tarantula migrations out in the desert but I've never seen that.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Razgovory on July 04, 2014, 01:53:46 AM
Spiders aren't really insects.  I let it go when viking said it, but I can't let it go if two people suggest that spiders are insects.  It just wouldn't be pedantic if I did.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Razgovory on July 04, 2014, 01:58:07 AM
Admittedly this would be a little creepy.

(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FQHPby7r.jpg&hash=c816aaf24d336104921241b3fd49884477a5bb9c)
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Ideologue on July 04, 2014, 02:02:20 AM
Are those even spiders?  The legs are all wrong.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Pedrito on July 04, 2014, 02:16:35 AM
I'm reading this thread out of morbid fascination, but it's giving me the shivers since page 1.

Small ones (smaller, legs included, than a pinky's nail) are not a problem. Everything bigger, insect or arachnid, throws me in a state of agitation and girly screechs. Usually my wife terminates things this large, when it happens that they enter my house (usually a couple times a year).
Some years ago a locust entered my kitchen while I was cooking with the windows open, and I still have nightmares about it.

L.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: MadImmortalMan on July 04, 2014, 02:18:17 AM
Quote from: Ideologue on July 04, 2014, 02:02:20 AM
Are those even spiders?  The legs are all wrong.

If they are Daddy Longlegs, then no they are not spiders technically.


/Razpedantic

:P
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Ideologue on July 04, 2014, 02:18:51 AM
Aren't daddy longlegs(es) harmless?

I mean, it's gross, but...
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: MadImmortalMan on July 04, 2014, 03:16:10 AM
They are like the second or third most poisonous arachnid, but they can't bite people. Jaws can't open wide enough or something. Otherwise, we'd be fearing them like tunnel webs or brown recluses.

Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Eddie Teach on July 04, 2014, 03:21:22 AM
Quote from: Ideologue on July 03, 2014, 11:27:01 PM
Legspan.  Cm-wide body would be a wide-awake nightmare.

(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.telegraph.co.uk%2Fmultimedia%2Farchive%2F01080%2Fearth-graphics-200_1080292a.jpg&hash=a496a656a277b347cf2a96ea279ffb0177fa3907)
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Ideologue on July 04, 2014, 03:30:05 AM
Yes, much like that special effects sequence from a movie.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Norgy on July 04, 2014, 03:39:24 AM
Spiders? Hah!
None of any real size. But enough flies, ants and wasps. I live near the woods. If it's a wet spring and early summer, there'll be a lot of mosquitos, but they're hardly that bothersome.


Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Eddie Teach on July 04, 2014, 03:40:56 AM
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fichef.bbci.co.uk%2Fprogrammeimages%2Fclip%2Fp00dlr0s_640_360.jpg&hash=bac934e658f741ea33700a62fe76bfa3e65a64c7)
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Norgy on July 04, 2014, 03:42:42 AM
If I saw one of those, my heart would explode.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Brazen on July 04, 2014, 05:21:00 AM
About one a week, though the ceiling cobwebs would suggest more are at work.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Ideologue on July 04, 2014, 06:01:22 AM
Six. :unsure:
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: celedhring on July 04, 2014, 06:14:51 AM
I haven't seen a single spider since I moved to my new apartment in February.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Zanza on July 04, 2014, 06:23:30 AM
No spiders in my apartment. I sometimes get a fly or a mosquito when I leave the windows open in the evening.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: mongers on July 04, 2014, 07:01:06 AM
I see plenty, but not really an issue here.

Helps having the windows open overnight in summer and living in the countryside, 
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Caliga on July 04, 2014, 07:13:10 AM
In the South, you just can't keep a house entirely insect and arachnid free, especially if you have a wooded estate like me. :showoff:

This year the insects have been very light, due I think to the extreme cold we had this winter.  We do have spiders, but far less than usual.  Typically they are wolf spiders, which are harmless.  A couple of months ago one crawled up my leg when I was sitting at my desk.  I killed the little guy for that transgression but I normally leave these spiders alone since I figure they eat other insects.

We also have had corn spiders in the past but I haven't seen one of those in years.  They like to spin webs along the outside of the house and in window boxes.  They're really neat looking:

(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.geocaching.com%2Fcache%2Flarge%2F66d1434e-e015-4646-a039-a827714257d8.jpg&hash=a30f00480e38be86dfa63ef8ee659bb565a2f47d)

Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: sbr on July 04, 2014, 07:33:52 AM
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F2Sr2XdN.jpg&hash=832b19a82cc3e9cbfaf6b629cf130e0de7e0f9a1)
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Malthus on July 04, 2014, 07:57:09 AM
Quote from: Norgy on July 04, 2014, 03:42:42 AM
If I saw one of those, my heart would explode.

We get dock spiders in northern Ontario and Quebec that can be nearly that size. I once woke up with one hanging upside down on the inside of my mosquito net over my bed, directly over my face. Getting out of bed without shaking the net was fun.  :lol:

Thing about dock spiders is that, unlike tarantulas, they aren't slow creepers - they can run at dazzling speed. Sometimes, they startle you if you are in bare feet on a dock by popping out of a crack in the planks, running across your foot, and disappearing into another crack before you can even react.

As far as I know they are pretty harmless - just big and startling. They are, in fact, big enough to catch and eat small fish (hence they are also known as "fishing spiders")

Some pics here:

http://arthropodecology.com/2012/08/13/canadas-largest-spider-sittin-on-the-dock-of-the-bay/

Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: DontSayBanana on July 04, 2014, 08:40:37 AM
No spiders thanks to four highly active cats. Few insects, too, for the same reason.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: viper37 on July 04, 2014, 08:49:30 AM
Quote from: Ideologue on July 03, 2014, 08:51:00 PM
Or, more accurately, how often do you see spiders in your house, of an offensive size and manner?

Because I have seen four in the past week, three skulking about the upper corners of my habitation box, one in a chair that dodged my attempts to kill it, and it pleases me not at all. <_<
I tend to keep them around, in corners where they ain't too visible, so they take care of nasty bugs for me.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: MadImmortalMan on July 04, 2014, 12:28:30 PM
When I first moved in to my house, my brother and I found a spider in the garage of Australian proportions. It was brown and very big, about the size of a saucer. It was really fast and could roll itself up into a ball and move like that. It was killed with religious zeal, but I later found out it was a wind scorpion and the college would have paid me a lot of money for it if I'd trapped it intact. They didn't want it in pulp form.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Iormlund on July 04, 2014, 02:28:36 PM
Maybe once a decade.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: The Brain on July 04, 2014, 02:33:27 PM
I don't live in the jungle.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Ideologue on July 04, 2014, 03:02:16 PM
Quote from: Iormlund on July 04, 2014, 02:28:36 PM
Maybe once a decade.

The spider-slayer robots have a pretty enormous success rate, I take it?
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: garbon on July 04, 2014, 05:53:14 PM
Quote from: Malthus on July 04, 2014, 07:57:09 AM
Quote from: Norgy on July 04, 2014, 03:42:42 AM
If I saw one of those, my heart would explode.

We get dock spiders in northern Ontario and Quebec that can be nearly that size. I once woke up with one hanging upside down on the inside of my mosquito net over my bed, directly over my face. Getting out of bed without shaking the net was fun.  :lol:

Thing about dock spiders is that, unlike tarantulas, they aren't slow creepers - they can run at dazzling speed. Sometimes, they startle you if you are in bare feet on a dock by popping out of a crack in the planks, running across your foot, and disappearing into another crack before you can even react.

As far as I know they are pretty harmless - just big and startling. They are, in fact, big enough to catch and eat small fish (hence they are also known as "fishing spiders")

Some pics here:

http://arthropodecology.com/2012/08/13/canadas-largest-spider-sittin-on-the-dock-of-the-bay/



By definition spiders aren't harmless. :x
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Caliga on July 05, 2014, 06:11:57 PM
 :hmm:
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Grey Fox on July 05, 2014, 07:53:36 PM
Everyday. Mostly daddy long legs, either in my bathroom or in my basement.

I think there's one in the corner right now.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: The Brain on July 06, 2014, 12:43:45 AM
Quote from: Grey Fox on July 05, 2014, 07:53:36 PM
Everyday. Mostly daddy long legs, either in my bathroom or in my basement.

I think there's one in the corner right now.

Do you mind?! I'm trying to lose my religion over here!
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Syt on July 06, 2014, 12:45:59 AM
I flicked a small one off my window ledge the other day. But in general I don't get many spiders.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Ideologue on July 06, 2014, 01:37:27 AM
Maybe I really do live in the subtropics.  I'd never make it in the real deal.
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Grinning_Colossus on July 06, 2014, 01:54:21 AM
I lived in the subtropics once. The spider situation was not appreciably worse than in Southern California. But Christ, the bees...
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Ideologue on July 06, 2014, 01:59:28 AM
Not... THE BEES!
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Syt on July 06, 2014, 02:52:42 AM
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F37.media.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_lpu2uroUTy1qlva78o1_250.jpg&hash=bed04fdcf25aa1337f038f4346b1d2b0a4c5df03)
Title: Re: What is your spider infiltration rate?
Post by: Iormlund on July 06, 2014, 03:51:51 AM
Quote from: Ideologue on July 04, 2014, 03:02:16 PM
Quote from: Iormlund on July 04, 2014, 02:28:36 PM
Maybe once a decade.

The spider-slayer robots have a pretty enormous success rate, I take it?

Hey, everyone needs a hobby.