Spiders and I

~~Lord Larehip~~ · 09-12-2014, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoathsomePete

There's been a nest of black widows somewhere in the house. Normally I'd live and let live with them because they help keep down the flies, but I have cats and a dog and while they might not be deadly to me, they are to them so they meet a sad end with the vacuum.

I wouldn't assume they couldn't be deadly to you. That venom is 10 times more powerful than a rattlesnake's. You can't have those in your house. Same with the brown recluse. You just cannot afford to be bitten. I was talking about wolf spiders and the kind that spin a little web in the corner. They're harmless and keep down the vermin.

Spiders in the house are self-regulating. They go after the pests and, if they do too good of a job, will turn on each other so they won't overpopulate. I had a buddy who bought a house with so many spiders he began wiping them out. The walls were actually covered with silk. I knew his property needed to be condemned because you normally just can't get that many spiders because they'll devour each other. Since they weren't then it meant he had a bad insect infestation. Killing the spiders would only reveal that to him and it did. He moved out and let the bank foreclose on the house. It's still standing though and that was over a decade ago.

~~Lord Larehip~~ · 09-12-2014, 03:53 PM

The dream catchers of American Indian lore are stylized spider webs. The original dream catcher was said to be woven by Iktomi, the trickster god of Sioux lore who takes the form of a spider.

Anansi is a trickster god of west African lore and thought to originate in Ghana. He is sometimes a spider, sometimes a spider with human traits and sometimes a human with spider traits. Anansi plays a huge role in the mythology of West Africa.

Jorogumo is a Japanese kind of predatory spirit, also a trickster, who takes the form of a beautiful woman to entice men to their deaths by devouring. The bizarre Japanese horror movie "Audition" depicted this.

The most important god of the fierce South American tribe, the Moche, was Ai Apaec, the Decapitator, whom they depicted as a spider. In his name, the Moche took the heads of their prisoners captured in battle. Here he holds a human head in his rear legs.

The Indians who made the amazing lines at Nazca thought highly enough of the spider to depict her.

The Batlord · 09-12-2014, 04:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord Larehip

Jorogumo is a Japanese kind of predatory spirit, also a trickster, who takes the form of a beautiful woman to entice men to their deaths by devouring. The bizarre Japanese horror movie "Audition" depicted this.

Thank you for that. I've been meaning to see that movie and I was hoping someone would spoil the plot twist for me.

DwnWthVwls · 09-14-2014, 12:58 PM

Wolf spiders also leave quite a bite on humans (not deadly but certainly uncomfortable for a few days, maybe longer). I always catch spiders and let em go outside.

Diving Bell Spider

This one is particularly interesting to me:

Quote:

It is the only spider known to spend its whole life under water. As with other spiders, it breathes air, which it traps in a bubble held by hairs on its abdomen and legs. Females build underwater "diving bell" webs which they fill with air and use for digesting prey, molting, mating and raising offspring. They live almost entirely within the bells, darting out to catch prey animals that touch the bell or the silk threads that anchor it.

~~Lord Larehip~~ · 10-11-2014, 01:39 PM

A family was driven from their suburban St. Louis home by thousands of venomous spiders that fell from the ceiling and oozed from the walls.

Brian and Susan Trost bought the $450,000 home overlooking two golf holes at Whitmoor Country Club in Weldon Spring in October 2007 and soon afterward started seeing brown recluse spiders everywhere, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported . Once when showering, Susan Trost dodged a spider as it fell from the ceiling and washed down the drain.

She told St. Louis television station KMOV-TV in 2012 the spiders "started bleeding out of the walls," and at least two pest control companies were unable to eradicate the infestation.

The couple filed a claim in 2008 with their insurance company, State Farm, and a lawsuit against the home's previous owners for not disclosing the brown recluse problem.

At a civil trial in St. Charles County in October 2011, University of Kansas biology professor Jamel Sandidge — considered one of the nation's leading brown recluse researchers — estimated there were between 4,500 and 6,000 spiders in the home. Making matters worse, he said, those calculations were made in the winter when the spiders are least active. <snip>

Spiders Force Family From of Upscale Missouri Home - ABC News

The Batlord · 10-11-2014, 01:52 PM

~~Lord Larehip~~ · 10-11-2014, 02:05 PM

Talk about walls ooozing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DQX9gq1PHU

DwnWthVwls · 10-11-2014, 02:08 PM

What movie is that? I didn't know those 2 did a movie together.

~~Lord Larehip~~ · 10-17-2014, 02:20 PM

Even though I don't collect spiders anymore and believe they should be left alone to do whatever it is they like to do, somebody gave me one of these for my birthday. Apparently, they are plentiful in China and Vietnam. It is classified as "Eurypeima spinicrus." That immediately raised suspicions since in all my years of spider-studying, I have never encountered a naming convention as that. I looked it up and found that it is even more commonly called "Eurypelma spinicrus" and that the name is apparently meaningless.

Google definitions even translates the name as "Preserved spider in a framed box." Works for me.

So what IS this spider then? Not sure. A bird spider of some kind resembling some I have seen in Texas. In fact, I am at least 50% convinced that it is American. The only tarantulas I know of in China and Vietnam are the earth tigers named for the distinctive tiger-like markings on the abdomen:

Malaysian Earth Tiger. Very beautiful spider. Even a chickens-hit like Batlord would have to admit that this is a very lovely spider.

But the boxed-up spider looks more like this:

This is a California bird spider. The only problem is, abdomen is too big. the spider in the box has a small abdomen. Is it just shriveled by the preservation process? No. I've seen a number of living tarantulas that have abdomens like that such as:

A very large tarantula native to Borneo. It is definitely not the spider in the box but resembles it. So I am afraid that, at the moment, I can't say for certain what Eurypelma spinicrus actually is. Until better data come along, I still say it is a bird spider of the American southwest.

Btw, "tarantula" is a misnomer. The real tarantula is a wolf spider native to southern Italy. It was believed that if one bit you, you would fall into a frantic dance or that the venom had to be danced out of your system. In the town of Taranto, such a dance developed and evolved and that is where the spider gets its name. The dance is called the tarantella and is still done in southern Italy and in Argentina.

In reality, the tarantella has been traced back as far as 1100 BCE and was likely a dance of ecstasy, i.e. a frantic dance that allows the dancer to reach state of communing with a god or gods which has its roots in shamanism. The tarantella was like an ancient Roman bacchanalian rite. When the Church moved to stamp it out (no pun intended), the dance was disguised as something brought on by a spider bite or as therapy for a spider bite.

The tarantella is performed with tambourines shook in 4/4 or 6/8 time. Its connections to shamanism is apparent when we realize that most of the voodoo drumbeats done for their ecstatic dances are in 6/8 time--a very primal-sounding beat.

Classic Tarantella Calabrese - Zingarota (Gypsy) - Salvatore Ida - YouTube
Gypsy tarantella.

Lycosa tarantula--the little lady blamed for the dance. Whether the dance was always, in some way, connected to an ancient spider deity as Anansi would be an interesting research project.

Chula Vista · 10-17-2014, 02:27 PM

If there is a God, and he really did create everything in 7 days, then spiders are proof positive that he took acid on 1 of those days.

09-12-2014, 03:53 PM	#2 (permalink)
~~Lord Larehip~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Jun 2013 Posts: 899	The dream catchers of American Indian lore are stylized spider webs. The original dream catcher was said to be woven by Iktomi, the trickster god of Sioux lore who takes the form of a spider. Anansi is a trickster god of west African lore and thought to originate in Ghana. He is sometimes a spider, sometimes a spider with human traits and sometimes a human with spider traits. Anansi plays a huge role in the mythology of West Africa. Jorogumo is a Japanese kind of predatory spirit, also a trickster, who takes the form of a beautiful woman to entice men to their deaths by devouring. The bizarre Japanese horror movie "Audition" depicted this. The most important god of the fierce South American tribe, the Moche, was Ai Apaec, the Decapitator, whom they depicted as a spider. In his name, the Moche took the heads of their prisoners captured in battle. Here he holds a human head in his rear legs. The Indians who made the amazing lines at Nazca thought highly enough of the spider to depict her. Last edited by Lord Larehip; 09-12-2014 at 04:11 PM.

10-11-2014, 01:39 PM	#5 (permalink)
~~Lord Larehip~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Jun 2013 Posts: 899	A family was driven from their suburban St. Louis home by thousands of venomous spiders that fell from the ceiling and oozed from the walls. Brian and Susan Trost bought the $450,000 home overlooking two golf holes at Whitmoor Country Club in Weldon Spring in October 2007 and soon afterward started seeing brown recluse spiders everywhere, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported . Once when showering, Susan Trost dodged a spider as it fell from the ceiling and washed down the drain. She told St. Louis television station KMOV-TV in 2012 the spiders "started bleeding out of the walls," and at least two pest control companies were unable to eradicate the infestation. The couple filed a claim in 2008 with their insurance company, State Farm, and a lawsuit against the home's previous owners for not disclosing the brown recluse problem. At a civil trial in St. Charles County in October 2011, University of Kansas biology professor Jamel Sandidge — considered one of the nation's leading brown recluse researchers — estimated there were between 4,500 and 6,000 spiders in the home. Making matters worse, he said, those calculations were made in the winter when the spiders are least active. <snip> Spiders Force Family From of Upscale Missouri Home - ABC News

10-11-2014, 02:05 PM	#7 (permalink)
~~Lord Larehip~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Jun 2013 Posts: 899	Talk about walls ooozing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DQX9gq1PHU

10-17-2014, 02:20 PM	#9 (permalink)
~~Lord Larehip~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Jun 2013 Posts: 899	Even though I don't collect spiders anymore and believe they should be left alone to do whatever it is they like to do, somebody gave me one of these for my birthday. Apparently, they are plentiful in China and Vietnam. It is classified as "Eurypeima spinicrus." That immediately raised suspicions since in all my years of spider-studying, I have never encountered a naming convention as that. I looked it up and found that it is even more commonly called "Eurypelma spinicrus" and that the name is apparently meaningless. Google definitions even translates the name as "Preserved spider in a framed box." Works for me. So what IS this spider then? Not sure. A bird spider of some kind resembling some I have seen in Texas. In fact, I am at least 50% convinced that it is American. The only tarantulas I know of in China and Vietnam are the earth tigers named for the distinctive tiger-like markings on the abdomen: Malaysian Earth Tiger. Very beautiful spider. Even a chickens-hit like Batlord would have to admit that this is a very lovely spider. But the boxed-up spider looks more like this: This is a California bird spider. The only problem is, abdomen is too big. the spider in the box has a small abdomen. Is it just shriveled by the preservation process? No. I've seen a number of living tarantulas that have abdomens like that such as: A very large tarantula native to Borneo. It is definitely not the spider in the box but resembles it. So I am afraid that, at the moment, I can't say for certain what Eurypelma spinicrus actually is. Until better data come along, I still say it is a bird spider of the American southwest. Btw, "tarantula" is a misnomer. The real tarantula is a wolf spider native to southern Italy. It was believed that if one bit you, you would fall into a frantic dance or that the venom had to be danced out of your system. In the town of Taranto, such a dance developed and evolved and that is where the spider gets its name. The dance is called the tarantella and is still done in southern Italy and in Argentina. In reality, the tarantella has been traced back as far as 1100 BCE and was likely a dance of ecstasy, i.e. a frantic dance that allows the dancer to reach state of communing with a god or gods which has its roots in shamanism. The tarantella was like an ancient Roman bacchanalian rite. When the Church moved to stamp it out (no pun intended), the dance was disguised as something brought on by a spider bite or as therapy for a spider bite. The tarantella is performed with tambourines shook in 4/4 or 6/8 time. Its connections to shamanism is apparent when we realize that most of the voodoo drumbeats done for their ecstatic dances are in 6/8 time--a very primal-sounding beat. Classic Tarantella Calabrese - Zingarota (Gypsy) - Salvatore Ida - YouTube Gypsy tarantella. Lycosa tarantula--the little lady blamed for the dance. Whether the dance was always, in some way, connected to an ancient spider deity as Anansi would be an interesting research project.

10-17-2014, 02:27 PM	#10 (permalink)
Chula Vista Toasted Poster Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: SoCal by way of Boston Posts: 11,332	If there is a God, and he really did create everything in 7 days, then spiders are proof positive that he took acid on 1 of those days.