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Topic: Spiders are awesome (Read 306507 times)
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Der Helm
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4025
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Pretty sure that would not have saved her.
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"I've been done enough around here..."- Signe
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Paelos
Contributor
Posts: 27075
Error 404: Title not found.
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NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE
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CPA, CFO, Sports Fan, Game when I have the time
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23626
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It's like Charlotte's Web
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Triax
Terracotta Army
Posts: 156
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I don't consider myself arachnophobic and even that one squicked me out, gotta say...
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Signe
Terracotta Army
Posts: 18942
Muse.
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I wonder if most people are freaked out by spiders? It seems that way. A lot of people I know are freaked out by common bugs, too. It doesn't seem to matter how often they see spiders and bugs, it never lessens. I used to think they didn't bother me because I grew up in a very woodsy area and there were just bugs and spiders everywhere but now I'm not so sure. I'm beginning to think I'm just really really brave and very nearly mostly everyone else is just a big giant pussy. What about Australians? I can't imagine how awful it must be to have a fear of creepy crawlies and other stuff when you risk death every time you wear flip flops. And you guys who live in places like New Mexico and Arizona. FFS, they have fleshy coloured centipedes the size of pick up trucks! So how can a little spider the size of the tip of your thumb creep you out so much? What exactly is it about them that's so horrible? Some of them are even tiny and cute, although the tiny cute ones are usually venomous. Just ask Australia.
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My Sig Image: hath rid itself of this mortal coil.
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Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029
inflicts shingles.
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Those are daddy longlegs but I guess your question is valid. Arachnophobes have some wierd brain stem issue with the whole legs and eyes configuration of a spider that isn't easy to verbalize.
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I should get back to nature, too. You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer. Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached. Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe
I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa
Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
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Signe
Terracotta Army
Posts: 18942
Muse.
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Yeah, but Engels, there are SO many people who are afraid of spiders that I think it would make people with Arachnophobia the normal and people without it abnormal. It just seems like there are more people who are scared of them than not scared. Or is this just my perception being outré? Which, in fact, is very mega super possible.
Edit because I spelled Engels wrong.
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My Sig Image: hath rid itself of this mortal coil.
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Lantyssa
Terracotta Army
Posts: 20848
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It seems to be more common than not.
I do kind of get it, since roaches freak me out to an unreasonable extent, but only them.
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Hahahaha! I'm really good at this!
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angry.bob
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5442
We're no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I.
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I wonder if most people are freaked out by spiders?
iI think so. Spiders have a lot characteristics that should trigger "keep the fuck away" survival instincts. They move fast, move unpredictably, move silently, have venom, have huge fangs in relation to their size, bite unpredictably, actual threat completely unrelated to size, are often unseen until they're very close, and the list keeps going. Other than we both live on the same planet we have nothing in common that we can relate to that could help mitigate our instincts. Spiders completely violate my one-inch rule for pets. Anything that's first instinct is to eat me if I were shrunk to one inch tall should never be a pet.
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Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen.
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Signe
Terracotta Army
Posts: 18942
Muse.
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Your cat would probably accidentally step on you, anyway.
When I lived in Santa Fe I was given a tarantula for a present. I loved him. He was soft and tickly and sweet. I accidentally killed him with a pencil. :(
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My Sig Image: hath rid itself of this mortal coil.
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Der Helm
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4025
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I accidentally killed him with a pencil. :(
Not that I want to unbury traumatic memories, but how did that happen ?
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"I've been done enough around here..."- Signe
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Hawkbit
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5531
Like a Klansman in the ghetto.
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As they grow, they become extremely fragile. We have some friends with a few tarantulas and the largest is ~6inches toe to toe. I don't personally go over when the spiders are out, but they tell me that a one foot drop will split her body and kill her instantly. One of the most amazing things about them is the 30-40 year lifespan. Buying one as a pet is an extreme commitment.
Personally, I'd rather pet a rabid bobcat riding a python than one of those things. But who am I to judge?
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Kitsune
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2406
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Tarantulas are ironically delicate. That whole 'how come there aren't bugs the size of dogs' question is answered by tarantulas: the limits of structural integrity without a skeleton is strained to the breaking point once you reach tarantula size. As much as people would totally lose their shit over a tarantula in the room, they actually sort of suck compared to other spiders. They're too heavy to climb up steep surfaces like other spiders, so they have web glands in their feet to stick to things instead. They're too big and relatively slow to run down prey like wolf spiders, they can't jump, they don't weave big webs to snare things. And their primary defense against humans and big things is flicking their hairs off at whatever frightens them in the hopes that their irritating hair will make the thing go away.
That said, I still very much want to hold a tarantula. By all accounts I've heard, they're very soft and gentle when walking around on a person, which sounds sweet. Not going to buy one just for that purpose, however, and nobody I know owns one, so thus far it is an unrealized dream.
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Der Helm
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4025
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That said, I still very much want to hold a tarantula.[...] so thus far it is an unrealized dream.
And here I thought people who fantasize about being eaten by someone or something are weird. Get help.
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"I've been done enough around here..."- Signe
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Kitsune
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2406
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Well not like a pissed off tarantula that's liable to try to bite me, of course. But as far as giant buglike things go, tarantulas are pretty much king of the hill, and I like big awesome bugs. I caught a giant millipede as a kid, that thing was great. They're impressively big and utterly harmless, and the rippling motion of all those teensy legs when they walk is something I could just watch forever. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOQJG4lik-8
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Signe
Terracotta Army
Posts: 18942
Muse.
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I accidentally dropped the pencil, point down, it got nicked it and a few days later it died. I think it got infected or something. Spiders aren't particularly hearty. As a kid, I didn't have luck with small mammals, either. I guess living in a woodsy area you play with everything you find and some things really aren't meant to be played with. Stupid people used to give us live presents, too, because we had a lot of space outdoors. Stupid people. We all got chickies for Easter one year. We loved them and we named them. One day when we (by "we" I mean me, my sister and my cousin, Donna) came home from school, they were all dead and we were expected to pluck. I plucked Susan. Also, little tiny turtles do NOT pop out of their shells like they do in cartoons. No matter how hard you pull. :( I WAS FOUR! I was good with dogs, cats, most birds, cows, goats, sheep and horses, though. Stuff like that. By the time I got my goldfish home from the church fair, it was already upside down in it's little plastic bag. This post is one giant frowny face. Happy Xmas.
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My Sig Image: hath rid itself of this mortal coil.
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Draegan
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10043
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Your avatar is very appropriate for that story.
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calapine
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7352
Solely responsible for the thread on "The Condom Wall."
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Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic!
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pxib
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4701
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Bloodworth?
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if at last you do succeed, never try again
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Selby
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2963
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I could have taken the same picture in several different places at my job ;-)
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Pennilenko
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3472
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If not pulling that lever meant people might die, I am afraid to say that people would die.
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"See? All of you are unique. And special. Like fucking snowflakes." -- Signe
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Ingmar
Terracotta Army
Posts: 19280
Auto Assault Affectionado
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If that was a toilet handle, that would be one of the bathrooms at my high school many years ago. The grossest one.
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The Transcendent One: AH... THE ROGUE CONSTRUCT. Nordom: Sense of closure: imminent.
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angry.bob
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5442
We're no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I.
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If not pulling that lever meant people might die, I am afraid to say that people would die.
Just run back to the fire and grab a piece of something that's on fire. Then kill it with the fire.
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Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen.
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apocrypha
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6711
Planes? Shit, I'm terrified to get in my car now!
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Nightmare gif.
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"Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1915.
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RhyssaFireheart
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3525
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Nightmare gif. Fuck, that made me jump.
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23626
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Draegan
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10043
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pxib
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4701
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if at last you do succeed, never try again
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Lantyssa
Terracotta Army
Posts: 20848
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How romantic.
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Hahahaha! I'm really good at this!
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TheWalrus
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4319
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I've always thought those guys were cool. Those and the ones that throw their web. Unless and eight legged freaks thing happens, then they suck.
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vanilla folders - MediumHigh
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lac
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1657
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Sometimes you just have to become the new you.
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Cadaverine
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1655
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Creepy, but it's a crab, from the look of the pincers on the front legs.
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Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
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