Not what you want for a neighbor.

[icarus]

This is the spider that I took out of our bathtub in a jar last night. It was a good three and a half inches across, hanging out threateningly over the cat's water dish.

Yes. I noticed the fact that it tried to bite me through the jar.

Repeatedly.

Yes, turns out it is a Hobo Spider. Yes, it is poisonous.

About 50% of Hobo Spider bites are 'dry,' meaning that no venom is injected and nothing happens to the victim. In fact, often times the victim does not even realize that he has been bit. Typically, when venom is injected, the victim will experience an immediate redness which develops around the bite then begins to disappear within a few hours. Very often, for the first 24 hours, the bite appears to be no worse than that of a mosquito; then it begins to blister in the center. Within 24 to 36 hours the blister breaks open, leaving an open, oozing ulceration.

This ulceration 'scabs' over within three weeks from the initial bite, leaving a permanent scar. If the bite is delivered in fatty tissue, the lesion may be very deep and extensive, not healing for over two or three years. Systematic reactions to Hobo Spider poisoning include severe headaches, nausea, vomiting, soreness and flu-like symptoms.

I thought that spider seemed a little cocky. wildernessguru's gonna freak and want to bomb the entire apartment with napalm.

Now the cat's bugging me. Lay off, kitty, and show some gratitude. I may have saved your life last night.

Comments

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Ha. Well, I have this Buddhist training, plus a mother who grilled us on spiders. Spiders and ladybugs (in Michigan) were good. Mosquitos and ants and other critters were bad. That was the self-serving gardener's perspective on pest control.

Icarus

[retrofit88.livejournal.com]

In Michigan these days, most of the ladybugs have been replaced with Asian Lady Beetles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_lady_beetle), so you still don't want to squish them, but mostly just because it _stinks_ when you squish them. If you find them inside, you definitely want to get them outside, or you'll end up with (hundreds of) thousands in your house for the winter.

Spiders are still mostly okay. Which is good, because my apartment is half below-grade, so I have a _lot_ of multi-legged visitors. We coexist peacefully unless they get bigger than my pocket change. After that, we have a serious, meaningful discussion about how buggies need to live _outside_, where there are cute little bunny rabbits they can eat.

I had a bad scare last month when I found one of these (http://www.kendall-bioresearch.co.uk/carab.htm) (common black ground beetle) in my bathroom. They are the right size and coloring to be mistaken for a cockroach, and I was _freaked_. But it didn't run away from me fast, so I thought it might be something else, and after much looking at pictures, I finally figured out what it was. Whew. Then we found three more in my sister's bathroom in Minnesota last week. She was happy they weren't cockroaches, but was of the "flush it, flush it!" school of thought. So I did.

Buddhism is a hard line to follow, when it comes to things that _creep_... :)