Speedy's Cafe - General Chat about anything you like!

[Carol the Dabbler]

My parents' tree is small and light. I managed to pick the whole thing up while decorated and moved it about 10 feet from where it was in the living room out on to the 3-season porch. It means decorating it next year is essentially done.

 

Oh, good -- and here I was thinking we were the only ones.  Though we're actually even lazier.  Because of our cats (who love to "investigate" new stuff), we set up our tree (a small fake one that sits on a table) out on our enclosed porch in the first place.  We can see it just fine through the windows, and the cats can't get at it.  Then come Groundhog Day we just unplug the lights.

 

I want to get a somewhat larger one eventually, maybe four feet tall, and still put it on the table so that from either inside or outdoors it'll look like a full-size tree.  That would be a bit much to leave in situ year round though, so I may chicken out.

 

 

I wish I could say the same, but I found a spider in my tub the other day despite the sub-freezing temps outside. Thankfully it was of the kind that I was able to take care of it without freaking out.

Huh. That's one of my favorite things about winter; no bugs in the house. Wonder what the difference is. Maybe your bugs are hardier than ours?

 

For some reason though, Mom has been getting stink bugs in her house lately.  I found two in the kitchen just last week, during that really cold spell.  I took one down to the basement, where it might stand a chance to survive, and left the other one on the curtain, telling it that I'd take it outside after the current warm spell melts the snow.  Haven't seen it since, though.

 

That too, lol. My supposition was only based on a trend I’ve noticed where I seem to see a surge in the number of spiders crawling around the house in the fall, as it starts to get colder outside. I see more inside the house in fall than any other time of the year, actually. Mice too.

 

We get all sorts of bugs trying to move into our house when the weather starts to get cold -- generally spiders, lady bugs and flies for the most part.   Our house is too tight for mice to get into, though (and we have cats).

 

.... house spiders can get to hand sized (my hand, not a man's hand). What are the biggest spiders where you guys are?

The biggest spider I've ever seen here was about 3 inches (8-ish cm) in diameter, legs included.  But that was uncommonly big.  Most of our spiders are quite small, like 1 or maybe 2 cm.  Might be the cold, but I'm not sure.

 

Yeah, that's about like what we see here in Indiana -- anywhere from minuscule to maybe 3" counting the outstretched legs.  I never thought of the biggies as hand-sized, but I guess one of those would pretty much cover the palm of my hand (not that I'd care to let it).

 

Out in the SW United States, near Mexico, they have tarantulas, which are way bigger, really pretty, and not particularly toxic to humans.  I used to know some people whose son kept one as a pet.

[Artemis]

I don’t like spiders, but tarantulas have never bothered me, for some reason. They’re actually quite benign (as long as you’re benign with them too). Of course, I don’t have any crawling around my house; I might feel differently then.

[T.o.b.y]

Tarantulas creep me out but less so than another spider of the same size would. It's weird. I wonder why.

[Pseudonym]

Yup, ditto. The two biggest spiders are the Goliath bird eating tarantula and the giant huntsman - to me the huntsman body type is much more horrific, maybe because it looks faster? That being said I wouldn't want to find a tarantula in my house either!  

 

There have been a fair few incidents here where people have had Brazilian wandering spiders in amongst their bananas. Often a patch that 'looks like mould' until it erupts with hundreds of baby spiders and they have to get the house fumigated.  :o

 

This is a great little story - a man in 1897 'driven mad by spiders.' Warning there is a big tarantula pic. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-27246823

 

I was also told this story by a guy I used to work with. He bought some bananas, and in amongst them found this strange twig about the length of his finger. He picks it up, and realises it has a weird hinge in the middle. Se he's bending it back and forth, curious. He accidentally drops it, and the end hooks onto his jumper. At which point he realises he had just been playing with a giant spider's leg. 

[Artemis]

Yup, ditto. The two biggest spiders are the Goliath bird eating tarantula and the giant huntsman - to me the huntsman body type is much more horrific, maybe because it looks faster?

 

Yeah, I think it's the fastness, and maybe also the general chubby/fuzziness of tarantulas that looks a bit less threatening.  They're the bumble bee of arachnids.

 

 

[T.o.b.y]

Ewwww! Ewwww! Ewwww!

 

My husband is out grocery shopping. I feel like calling him in a panic and telling him to check the bananas before putting them in the cart. Or you know what, just don't get any at all.

[Pseudonym]

Yea I went off bananas for a good while after the culmination of those stories. 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I can't imagine that those baby spiders would actually cause any harm (unless that species is awesomely toxic). They can't grow big, or even stay alive unless they eat, right? So what are they going to eat? A few could get lucky and come across an ant or something. But mostly I suspect they'd end up eating each other till only a few were left. At which point it boils down to how buggy is your house?

 

Our house would provide pretty poor pickings for them except in spring and fall. But any that got big enough to be really noticeable would either be played to death by the cats or else taken outside by us -- where they'd live a merry life till the first hard freeze. I'm guessing they're not terribly hardy.

[Pseudonym]

Brazilian wandering spiders are known for being really dangerous and aggressive, so I guess you don't want to risk even one baby surviving and living to adulthood inside a wall. Hence the fumigating. They get big enough to eat mice. :wacko: There are recorded cases of them killing children (with their venom, not in a serial killer way ;)), so I'm pretty sure a cat wouldn't stand a chance. 

[Pseudonym]

Omg, this might give me nightmares. 

 

'There are also large huntsman spiders in Australia. They usually hide under loose tree bark, but their long legs have also been spotted behind wall clocks and sun-visors in cars.'

 

Clock spider is infamous, but imagine flipping down your sun visor whilst driving and having that fall into your lap. 

 

[Arcadia]

O God. I'm trying not to.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Pass the brain bleach to prevent nightmares.

[Artemis]

 

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

XD

Spider falls from visor must be nightmare.

Which one do you guys think is worse? That, or riding a motorcycle and have a bat or other small animal crushes into your chest.
The bat one didn't happen to me, but I have fair share of other animal crushing into me, the last one I couldn't identify it but it's a as big as my palm and it's moving when it landed. I just quickly grabbed it and threw it to the side forcefully, good thing I'm wearing glove, because it felt disgusting. That thing was writhing, I think it's some kind of insect. Bat is no less horrifying if not more. It happened to him, and when he grabbed it, that thing hissed (or whatever bats do). I had grabbed bat before that landed on my pillow when I slept in bat infested house, and it's not something fun at all.

But still, I'd prefer those than big spider fell from sun visor, because in the car, you are trapped with it. While riding, when it's gone, it's gone and we can dispose them as soon as we are aware, and it's very hard not to aware.

Car on the other hand, there are so many hiding places, even breeding places.

And before reacting, they would run out of your view or how if they drop into your shirt?

When riding motorcycles, we normally wrap ourselves very properly but I imagine driving car is different.

[Arcadia]

You're determined to torture us, aren't you?

[Pseudonym]

I don't think I'd be too upset if a bat flew into me, but ours are tiny cute little things. If it was a fruit bat I'm sure I'd feel differently. 

 

I was watching a documentary the other day about the swarms of cicadas that sometimes erupt in bits of the US. I think I'd just sit inside, in a windowless room, rocking. 

[Artemis]

I think some bats are adorable.  Probably not when they're flying around your head, but still.

 

 

 

[Arcadia]

I don't think I'd be too upset if a bat flew into me, but ours are tiny cute little things. If it was a fruit bat I'm sure I'd feel differently. 

 

I was watching a documentary the other day about the swarms of cicadas that sometimes erupt in bits of the US. I think I'd just sit inside, in a windowless room, rocking. 

 

 

Make sure you have sound dampeners in your room. That was the worst part of the cicada invasion here ... the incessant noise was maddening. Always made me think the Martians were invading.

 

The cicadas around my house were fairly well behaved and stayed mostly in the trees where they belong. But I will never forget driving through a swarm on the interstate, and watching literally millions of the things slamming into cars, road barriers, signs, each other .... utter carnage. Fortunately, they were flying across the highway; if they'd been flying straight into us, we wouldn't have been able to see through the windshield after the first few hits. Cicadas are incredibly greasy. Maybe that's why my cat liked them so much.....

[Artemis]

Yeah, the noise is the worst.

 

 

[Pseudonym]

... Yum. 

[HerlockSholmes]

How about this little beauty

[SherlockedCAMPer]

How about this little beauty

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=worlds+biggest+spider&rlz=1C9BKJA_enGB704GB704&oq=worlds+biggest+spider&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l3.9087j0j8&hl=en-GB&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=yIOR5053VLlCqM:

After our previous lines of discussion, I'm afraid to click.

[Artemis]

I clicked and the title said “World’s Biggest Spider”, so I quickly closed it again, lol. Sorry, Herlock.

[T.o.b.y]

It shows the largest spiders there are next to human hands for comparison. They're pretty big.

[HerlockSholmes]

I’m not too bad with spiders. I once had a work colleague who had a special licence so that if someone found a dangerous or even a non-dangerous spider he was called out to collect it. Then he’d pass it on to a zoos if he didn’t have room himself. I’ve held a tarantula but I can’t say that I particularly like them. I’d go nowhere near the one in the photo though. It looks like something out of a 50’s sci-fi movie.