June 20, 2004

Spider myths debunked. No, you don't inhale four spiders a year in your sleep. No, the daddy longlegs doesn't have the world's worst venom. No, hobo spiders don't chase you down to attack you. What is it about spiders that invites so many fabricated scientific facts? Rod Crawford, curator of arachnids at Seattle's Burke Museum, helps debunk some of the more notorious claims. (Also see this spider myth page.)
posted by rolypolyman 20 years ago
  • The only health hazard posed by keeping pet tarantulas comes from the irritating chemicals on the hairs of the abdomen, which can cause skin rashes or inflammation of eyes and nasal passages. To prevent such problems, simply keep tarantulas away from your face. Why would people be putting tarantulas on their faces?
  • AAAAAaaaaaaarrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh! *runs away from the horrible spiders and their terrifying overabundance of knees*
  • I actually like the skinnier, ethereal-looking, small ones with their incredibly thin legs. If one of those shows up on my keyboard or pillow, I carefully take it as not ot harm it, and dispose of in a plant outside. And now I read that's bad for the critter. Mmmmhh... But no way I want to have nothing to do with those hairy, thick-legged, leathery, bulging-bellied ones, with their shiny eyes lookin at me... no WAY... /starts rubbing arms and nervously eyeing at corners, under furniture and behind curtains
  • I got bitten on the calf by a brown recluse when I was nine (I grew up inside the circle this guy speaks of, and quite a few recluses were found living in our apartment after the fact, so I'll assume my bite was genuine). It took practically a year to heal. I still have a scar about the size of a dime.
  • I dont like spiders. Am i evil?
  • No, ramix, you are just subject to generations of social programming. Same with snakes, wolves, any "varmints," or pretty much any other creature of nature that we don't like. rolypolyman, AWESOME link. Thank you so much. I learned tons, and I hope every Monkey here visits it and learns that the spider and the human should be friends. cue "Oaklahoma" music
  • Although some house spider species can survive outdoors, most don't do well there, and some (which are native to other climates) will perish rather quickly . . . I can't wait to tell the Misses. This is what I used to do to help them escape her wrath, but now I'll insist they stay inside. I feel stupid for never having questioned the "put them outside" mentality.
  • Pretty neat day by day journal of Linda's brown recluse spider bite... (NSF Arachnophobics)
  • I've got loads of redbacks in my garden.
  • Kudos to her for keeping such a detailed record. The Bite Site it's on is not very easy to browse, but with 1200+ records it shows that this is a pretty underrated area of study.
  • I was bitten by a radioactive spider and now I can climb walls and I have the sarcasm of ten men, four women and a small stoat named, "Eric"
  • Weezel, The problem with spiders could also be a deeply embedded evolutionary reaction, programmed as a survival technique.
  • I just put together and am mailing out a spider mix CD for my blog... here's the tracklisting: EIGHT LEGS GOOD, TWO LEGS BAD 1. The Electric Company - "Spider Man" 2. Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup - "Just Like a Spider" 3. Lowell Fulson - "Black Widow Spider Blues" 4. John Lee Hooker - "Crawlin' Black Spider" 5. Muddy Waters - "Mean Red Spider" 6. The Rolling Stones - "The Spider and the Fly" 7. Fantomas - "Spider Baby" 8. TV Theme - "Spiderman" 9. Timbaland - "Here We Come" 10. A. R. Rahman - "Spiderman" 11. Ramones - "Spider Man" 12. Joan Osborne - "Spider Web" 13. Ce'Cile - "Spider (Bushy Bushy Riddim)" 14. RZA - "Kiss of a Black Widow" 15. TLC vs The Cure - "No Lullaby (Ultra 396 Remix)" 16. Dick Jacobs and his Orchestra - "Tarantula" 17. TV Theme - "Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends" 18. They Might Be Giants -"Spider" 19. UCA Marching Band 2001 - "Spider" 20. Lee Perry & The Upsetters - "Eight for Eight" 21. The Wurzels - "There's a Spider in The Bathtub" 22. Herbie Hancock - "Spider" 23. Raffi - "Spider On The Floor" Whatcha think?
  • jeff, i just read that story and flipped the pictures. Holy shucking fit. I knew brown recluse bites were bad, but I had no idea it got that ugly. Not for the faint of heart, but a helluva thing to see in action.
  • forks -- you forgot No Doubt's Spiderwebs [use caution, some of these lyric servers have horrendous popups]
  • Re: the site in the above comment. When I pulled it up a second time it somehow got through my maxed security settings and was trying to install malware through ActiveX holes in IE. Avoid, avoid, avoid, jeezus christ.
  • 24. Boris the Spider.
  • Beat me to it, Wolof. Also excellently covered by The Accused.
  • Actually, didn't forget either of those. Just don't like them.
  • Actually, that sounded kind of dismissive. Suffice it to say, I listened to both of those and tried to see how they fit in the mix and they didn't.
  • ) Did anyone else read this as: "Those large, hairy spiders I find in my house are wolof spiders" also see: MoFi post #1
  • #1 -ahem- #2 Also, how did you all original Monkeys ever meet? Or has that already been narrated somewhere us three-month monkeys know naught of? And I'm getting spider bites like every night. Kind of freaks me out since yesterday morning when I learned that the funeral my parents were going to was of a lady who maybe died of an infection caught of a spider when she was in a low white blood cell state due to a bone-marrow transplant due to lukemia which had sent her from 20% chance of recovery to 90% chance, and then she caught this infection maybe from a spider and died and two hours before, knowing she was basically dead, she was reviewing her husband's appointment book for the next week with him, and making sure there was someone to iron his shirts until he could hire proper help, and teasing him as he wept, kneeling by her bed, and she made fun of him, and then she died. There were other stories of her, but as I don't know her name, I don't feel right telling them. Or that one, but my heart is full.
  • Also, how did you all original Monkeys ever meet? Here.
  • I had a dream about this thread.
  • God, that brown recluse site made me even more queasy about those damned little demon-spawn. They crop up in the worst places, too -- I once pulled a Kleenex out of a box only to find one crawling around on it. I shudder to think what would have happened if it got on my face.
  • middleclasstool, that spider would have eaten your braaainnnnss ...
  • W - thanks! You , Kimberly, tracicle, the_bone, possibly BlueHorse(?), some of my favorite monkeys!
  • well, as regards roly's question in the FPP, why are there so many falacious myths re arachnids?? I think the overall tenor of posts in this thread answers that question. BECAUSE WE ARE ALL SO FUCKING FREAKED OUT BY THOSE DISGUSTING TOO-MANY-LEGGED TOO-MANY-EYED CREEPY CRAWLY CREATURES. (yes, I am an arachniphobe of the first order & yes, I love alliteration!) from what I understand (altho I suppose this too could be a myth) spiders & snakes are the two most common phobias. (usually its one or the other for a particular person. me I think snakes are awesome. after all, THEY DON'T HAVE ANY LEGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! or 8 legs bad, no legs good) the point being that such a prevalence [um, sic?] of fear around spiders is almost certainly responsible for spawning so much hooplah & hysteria....me, they drive me bonkers, ugh. be assured I did not click a single link on this thread. nor will I. EVER.
  • And i STILL dont like spiders!!!
  • First monkey to find a sound sample of the "I want to eat your brain" venom soundbyte gets a platinum banana from me. I used to have that toy and hit the button REPEATEDLY, like to the point of bothering people. I miss those days.
  • forksclovetofu - There's also "Spiderman" (can't remember offhand if they spell it as one word or two) by Moxy Fruvous. Same tune as the theme song, somewhat stranger lyrics. ...that's my obligatory plugging. The original link is interesting. Though a couple of them seem shaky - "all spiders are male" I have to chalk up to more of a linguistic tic (or cultural bias) than something related to spiders in particular, and "all spiders should be referred to relating to coins" sounds like a pet peeve of the author's rather than a literally held belief. (Oh, and "bigger than a breadbox" is a carb-loving fallacy, I suppose.) So I guess my only quibble is that they lump "things that people have said about spiders that are wrong" under "myths," when they're not all myths, urban or otherwise. But I'm quibbling about quibbling now. Interesting.
  • forksy, I don't have a website or else I'd post it for you, but the following site has a Marvel vs. Capcom zip file you can download. Extract it and play the .wav file called "Just you wait" and I think you'll finally find what you're looking for.
  • I have a friend (I do *sob* I really, really do *sob sob*) in Sweden who is deathly afraid of spiders so every year I find some spider related thing to send her for Christmas.