Spider [Archive] - Cable Forum

bopdude

22-06-2003, 01:58

Spiders \ insects ? we got ti easy in this country I can tell you. I'm a sparky by trade and lived abroad a while, anyway I had to send someone up in the roof space with a brush and tin of ( doom ) to clear a path to the places I wanted to get to :(

Not that I'm a coward, it's just...........

Temporal

22-06-2003, 02:03

Originally posted by bopdude
Spiders \ insects ? we got ti easy in this country I can tell you. I'm a sparky by trade and lived abroad a while, anyway I had to send someone up in the roof space with a brush and tin of ( doom ) to clear a path to the places I wanted to get to :(

Not that I'm a coward, it's just...........

I definitely am a coward - having to go and direct three cats into the bedroom to get rid of a spider......

Martin

22-06-2003, 02:15

I don't like spiders, i always tend to get those huge spiders in. I'm sure they run at me.:(

Temporal

22-06-2003, 10:09

Originally posted by Martin
I don't like spiders, i always tend to get those huge spiders in. I'm sure they run at me.:(

The little beggars can run for England!!! That's one of the reasons I get so freaked out by them.

poolking

22-06-2003, 10:13

The other night I had one drop on my head and that just freaked me out, I don't mind them normally as long as they keep their distance from me. :eek:

The Diplomat

22-06-2003, 10:18

I must be in the minority, I like to stun flies etc. and put them into spiders webs to feed the spiders. :)

If there is a spider in the house I have no trouble in catching it in my hands and putting it outside. Mind you anything to stop the screaming hysteria which surrounds the presence of a spider in the house. :rolleyes:

Ramrod

22-06-2003, 10:18

When I was about 7 or 8 yrs old and living in Africa I was innocently spraying a particularily nasty looking specimen with a water pistol(as you do at that age). The bl**dy thing tried to attack me( it jumped about a foot towards me:eek:). Ever since then I have had a healthy respect for wildlife.
.......I squished it btw:D......cant let something that small yet agressive roam around......

Gogogo

22-06-2003, 10:22

Originally posted by Ramrod
living in Africa I...

Then there were the Baboon spiders urgghhh! The ugliest and most hated beast for me were not spiders but scorpions in the north of Zimbabwe little black scorpions My God what stings they had, unforgettable!

:eek:

Ramrod

22-06-2003, 10:27

Originally posted by Gogogo
Then there were the Baboon spiders urgghhh! The ugliest and most hated beast for me were not spiders but scorpions in the north of Zimbabwe little black scorpions My God what stings they had, unforgettable!

:eek:
got very close(unwittingly) to a boomslang once:eek: .....suddenly learnt how to move fast and yet slowly at the same time:D

Gogogo

22-06-2003, 10:46

Originally posted by Ramrod
got very close(unwittingly) to a boomslang once:eek: .....suddenly learnt how to move fast and yet slowly at the same time:D

I know the feeling, remarkable for awakening an appreciation of life and that life is wonderful having been within a few metres of an Egyptian Cobra thanks to my dog, living near black mambas and missed God knows how many puff adders, boomslangers rare but deadly.

:eek:

homealone

22-06-2003, 11:04

I used to live in Kenya & you guys are right, you get a whole new perspective on the wildlife thing, compared to living here.

Black Mambas & Puff Adders, HUGE moths like dinner plates, massive Hornets, Elephant Beetles like armoured cars & Termites everywhere. Beautiful Butterflies though - looked like they had metallic paint jobs.

Also the noises, remember one night spent sleeping in the forest & it sounded like 50 things were being murdered all at once, all night. Turned out it was cute little Bush Babies making all the racket.! Didn't find that out till the morning though!

Gaz

Gogogo

22-06-2003, 11:24

Originally posted by homealone
I used to live in Kenya & you guys are right, you get a whole new perspective on the wildlife thing, compared to living here.
Gaz

Dead right, insect life here in England very tame, no dangerous wild animals here, except those on two legs and drive cars like idiots. Spent after Zim experience two years in Nairobi near the Nairobi National Park can remember hearing lions & leopards roaring and the ocassional leopard rolling around the suburbs of Langata/Karen scares the hell out of you, and hyenas raiding dustbins, monkeys from Ngong forest that throw stones at you don't you just love it!

:wavey:

bo-peep

22-06-2003, 11:29

was in the room the other nite and my 17 year old son said 'MUM wot's that over there' only a spider not much bigger than a money spider ( well a bit bit bigger).i just got a piece of kitchen roll and grabbed it.i hate spiders but teeny weeny little ones are ok.don't like moths or wasps tho.have lived in N Africa where there are loads of cockroaches.they were fine as long as u stay out of certain areas.they did walk the streets at nite tho

Stuart W

22-06-2003, 11:37

I neither like nor disslike spiders as I live here in the UK and (AFAIK) none of them can actually 'hurt' me. They are damn creepy though, which makes me wonder.....

As Humans, we are all born with only 2 in-built fears. 1: The fear of sudden / loud noise. 2: The fear of falling (NOT to be confused with the fear of heights) All other fears must be 'learned'.

I'm not actually scared of UK spiders, but my mum is petrified of them. As a kid, it was allways me who had to get "Boris out the Bath" with a pint glass & piece of card. As an adult, I have a big spider which lives under the TV unit (mostly) and we have a kind of agreement. If he stays under there out the way, he's fine. He can run around the floor a bit, but NOT at me! If he breaks the rules, he's in the pint glass & out the door. He allways comes back though and he has slowly learned to stay in his place :)

bo-peep

22-06-2003, 11:43

handy if u have a pint glass.i aint got any

homealone

22-06-2003, 11:46

originally posted by Stuart W <snip>I'm not actually scared of UK spiders, but my mum is petrified of them. As a kid, it was allways me who had to get "Boris out the Bath" with a pint glass & piece of card. As an adult, I have a big spider which lives under the TV unit (mostly) and we have a kind of agreement. If he stays under there out the way, he's fine. He can run around the floor a bit, but NOT at me! If he breaks the rules, he's in the pint glass & out the door. He allways comes back though and he has slowly learned to stay in his place

I could do with one of them to eat the crickets that keep escaping from the tank my son keeps them in to feed his Geckos, damned things keep hiding behind the fridge & spend all night chirping. :D

Gaz

poolking

22-06-2003, 11:59

Originally posted by Gogogo
Then there were the Baboon spiders urgghhh! The ugliest :eek:

got very close(unwittingly) to a boomslang once .....suddenly learnt how to move fast and yet slowly at the same time

Dare I ask for a picture of what these look like?

Gogogo

22-06-2003, 11:59

Originally posted by bo-peep
...tho.have lived in N Africa where there are loads of cockroaches.they were fine as long as u stay out of certain areas.they did walk the streets at nite tho

Cockroaches another of nature's little wonders, breed at a fast rate, built like Bradley tanks and have their own anti-biological warfare protection only to be eliminated by a swift hard 10kg hammerlike object and an awful squishy squashy mess afterwards: did you get big black wild flying cockroaches there in Libya. Makes you wonder who designed the original model doesn't it?

:wavey:

Ramrod

22-06-2003, 12:02

Originally posted by Gogogo
I know the feeling, remarkable for awakening an appreciation of life and that life is wonderful having been within a few metres of an Egyptian Cobra thanks to my dog, living near black mambas and missed God knows how many puff adders, boomslangers rare but deadly.

:eek:
ah yes....forgot about the puffadders:( ....them too, in Zululand:eek: , dont go out after dark:eek:

bopdude

22-06-2003, 12:16

Ah yes, memory's of the good life come flooding back to me.

As requested a pic of a boomslang

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mark.jone-junn/bopdude/images/boomslang.jpg

I caught ( and killed Unfortunately ) an Egyptian cobra once whilst working on the platinum mines in Rustenburg, did not know the story behind them or how bad their bite is until afterwards, might not have gone near it if I had

Gogogo

22-06-2003, 12:22

Poolking:

Boomslang (http://www.geocities.com/fp_webhm/MyDirectory/MyPages/Features/JanFeature/boom.html)

Baboon spiders (http://www.bushveld.co.za/baboon-spider.htm)

Enjoy, believe me the real thing is far more scary than photos!

:wavey:

Ramrod

22-06-2003, 12:33

Then of course there were the button spiders in the garden:D
We really have it easy here in the UK, just the odd adder to worry about.....

bopdude

22-06-2003, 12:33

And don't forget the ever popular and present black widow, we used to get them every where in good old Z.A.

The list could go on forever, as for scorpions, we were working in Mmabatho and used a lot of the local *ahem, black *ahem labour force ( whose English was non-existant ) anyway one of them came up to me muttering about an ( insect ) bite or something so I sent him to the clinic.

He never turned up for work the next two days so I asked the other's what had happened to him.

When I was told I nearly s**t myself, he had been standing on a rock and a scorpion had crawled up his trouser leg and stung him, he had been hospitalised and was very ill.

He did make a full recovery and came back to work about 2 weeks later, from then on his knickname was scorpio....shame :)

Ramrod

22-06-2003, 12:38

Originally posted by bopdude
And don't forget the ever popular and present black widow, we used to get them every where in good old Z.A.

The list could go on forever, as for scorpions, we were working in Mmabatho and used a lot of the local *ahem, black *ahem labour force ( whose English was non-existant ) anyway one of them came up to me muttering about an ( insect ) bite or something so I sent him to the clinic.

He never turned up for work the next two days so I asked the other's what had happened to him.

When I was told I nearly s**t myself, he had been standing on a rock and a scorpion had crawled up his trouser leg and stung him, he had been hospitalised and was very ill.

He did make a full recovery and came back to eork about 2 weeks later, from then on his knickname was scorpio....shame :) Disturbed

Gogogo

22-06-2003, 13:00

Originally posted by bopdude
When I was told I nearly s**t myself, he had been standing on a rock and a scorpion had crawled up his trouser leg and stung him, he had been hospitalised and was very ill...:)

In the south of Zim, Matabeleland I think they have those big red scorpions that are known to kill thank God I never saw any of those.

Back to cockroaches a tale, and I'm sure it's happened to others: returned to England after 8 years in Zim, lodged with a family, friends temporarily in Barnet, three weeks after my arrival my four big trunks of clothes, books and teachers material arrived. Stored said trunks safely in bedroom then opened one and I glimpsed something brownish jump from the first trunk. Horror, panic hunted down ruthlessly and killed said coackroach suddenly more appeared again hunted down murdered cockroach after cockroach preventing them running out the closed bedroom door, checked other trunks carefully same procedure I think I got them all about twenty, but I swear I thought I saw one disappear between floor and wall towards the bedroom next door belonging to my hosts. I hoped and prayed it wasn't pregnant. Never told that family, couldn't, thought they would immediately fumigate me before putting me on the street! To this day I don't know if they ever found out what had happened!

:wavey:

Temporal

22-06-2003, 13:03

Originally posted by Stuart W
<snip>
As an adult, I have a big spider which lives under the TV unit (mostly) and we have a kind of agreement. If he stays under there out the way, he's fine. He can run around the floor a bit, but NOT at me! If he breaks the rules, he's in the pint glass & out the door. He allways comes back though and he has slowly learned to stay in his place :)

:eek: I'd have sealed off that room or moved by now!!!

How big are we talking here Stuart?

Does anybody know what the lifespan of a spider is?

bopdude

22-06-2003, 13:04

And what about those big black ( noisy ) black crickets

And parktown prawns.....yuk :mad: those things are indistructable

bo-peep

22-06-2003, 13:07

i used to hate dragonflies at school cos they'd all be flying round outside the lasses toilets.UGH

poolking

22-06-2003, 13:09

Originally posted by Gogogo
Poolking:

Boomslang (http://www.geocities.com/fp_webhm/MyDirectory/MyPages/Features/JanFeature/boom.html)

Baboon spiders (http://www.bushveld.co.za/baboon-spider.htm)

Enjoy, believe me the real thing is far more scary than photos!

:wavey:

That spider is definetly ugly looking. :D

So if the venom from that spider isn't dangerous to humans, it would probably be similar to a bee or wasp sting?

bopdude

22-06-2003, 13:09

Originally posted by bo-peep
i used to hate dragonflies at school cos they'd all be flying round outside the lasses toilets.UGH

well where else would you expect to get dragonflies than with all the dragons.. sorry ladies :p

bopdude

22-06-2003, 13:10

Originally posted by poolking
That spider is definetly ugly looking. :D

So if the venom from that spider isn't dangerous to humans, it would probably be similar to a bee or wasp sting?

In poison terms yes but, with fangs an inch long i think you would feel it IMHO

poolking

22-06-2003, 13:11

Originally posted by bopdude
well where else would you expect to get dragonflies than with all the dragons.. sorry ladies :p

Would you like to borrow a crash helmet? :)

bo-peep

22-06-2003, 13:11

that's it.start dissing us women and we'll leave u guys to play alone

bopdude

22-06-2003, 13:18

One of the nastiest snakes in Africa is the mamba, this snake can " stand up " on the back third of its body length and " run " extremely fast, its favourite strike is to wait in ambush at a height and strike at the head of it's victim. There were stories of the bushmen of the karoo walking about with rocks on their heads for this reason, never found out if it was true.

The average length of a specimen varies between 2 to 2.5 metres but an exceptional case was recorded of 4.5 metres.

Gogogo

22-06-2003, 13:25

So if the venom from that spider isn't dangerous to humans, it would probably be similar to a bee or wasp sting?

Thankfully, in my 8 years in Zim only saw one baboon spider never allowed myself to get too close, so can't speak for any sting or venom: I'm no Steve Irwin (Animal Planet). It's very strange that living as people do in the African bush with danger ever present you get used to it and live a normal life, well what passes for normal. You would know Black Mambas, Boomslangs, Cobras, Puff Adders were about but they knew you were there before you see them, except for Puff Adders who being one of nature's lazy snakes just want to sunbathe on your favourite path in the late afternoons early evenings. You would see various snakes sometimes and my dog was always smart in warning me.

:wavey:

poolking

22-06-2003, 13:26

Talking about Steve Irwin. Does that man have no fear??

Venomous Snakes
Alligators

Is there anything he won't do for TV? :eek:

bo-peep

22-06-2003, 13:30

wear a bikini?

Gogogo

22-06-2003, 13:34

Originally posted by bopdude
One of the nastiest snakes in Africa is the mamba, this snake can " stand up " on the back third of its body length and " run " extremely fast, its favourite strike is to wait in ambush at a hight and strike at the head of it's victim.

Yeah, Green Mamba extremely fast, lethal venom, likes banana trees, I was told upon a strike only time to spot the spade to dig your grave, Black Mamba extremely fast, lethal venom you pick up the spade to dig your grave and that's it. Either meant immediate intensive care but forget it if 120kms from Harare. I'm just thankful I never had any close encounter with them.

Now, it's time I did some work.

:wavey: