Has anyone else noticed the apparent increase in the population and size of the spiders, most notably the black “beach rock” spiders, this spring?
While enjoying a beautiful walk on the boardwalk in Eastern Passage today with my dog, I encountered countless fuzzy creepy crawlies along the rocks. Luckily, my trusty brute of a dog was able to bound ahead and bravely shoo said crawlies away. Or, he just wanted to eat the little suckers, who cares really? the point is, they were gone in time for me to pass.
Anyway, my bitch isn’t so much about spiders, which are a necessary evil in my mind, it’s about arachnophobia. How the hell did I manage to end up allowing a teeny little creature that generally does good, potentially ruin an otherwise peaceful and perfect walk along the shore? There is one section of boardwalk I may have to cut out, at least temporarily, until the spiders die off, or something. After today, my heart has enough of the constant barrage that comes with sudden spidey-sightings!
Frig arachnophobia, and frig the fact that I try and try and can’t frigging well just get over it!
—Ugh.
This article appears in May 21-27, 2009.
You’re lucky you weren’t on one of the military exercises I was on. We had killerpillers. Every morning, every tent would be covered in thousands upon thousands of these things.
You talking about Wharf Spiders? Those fuckers are just bizarre, and yet not a lot of people know about them.
http://www.flanderslane.com/2007/07/wharf-…
*shudders* Bro tim, I have no problems with bugs, but spiders get me. I lived in a place where the general rule of thumb was that if a spider “stands up” and is furry, it’s poisonous, flat and not furry, ok. Point being, the spiders you see around the harbor, while not huge, are definitely “standing up”(sorry I don’t know how to better describe it) and furry..so my brain tells me poisonous. Same with centipedes. I can’t grasp the concept that in one place they are poisonous, another(here) aren’t. They look the fucking same to me.
ugh, bastard fish, I will be having nightmares tonight after reading that article.
1falling I hope you don’t actually believe the fuury/non-furry thing. Tarrantulas are big and furry and nonpoisonous. Black Widows are small and nonfurry and extremely poisonous.
Yeah, but for where I lived, there were no black widows, and the tarantulas were big and furry and poisonous. The big spiders that weren’t poisonous followed my other description. Not foul proof, just a general rule for the area I lived in. And Black widows still “Stand up” off the ground, they aren’t flat. Plus I have an irrational fear of spiders, so I make every reason to make my fear an excusable one lol. I did hold a tarantula to try and get over my fear …didn’t work ha.
This guy I know told me a story once about when he was in elementary school. This was over 50 years ago when it happened.
He was telling his teacher about how big the wharf spiders can get (about the size of a child’s hand, sometimes larger, sometimes smaller), and how many there were near the shore where he lived.
Well the teacher didn’t believe him, she denied that they existed. Large spiders around Nova Scotia? Haven’t seen them before.
So, for the next couple days, he collects these wharf spiders and puts them in a shoe box. (apparently he doesn’t have any form of arachnophobia like me). Soon enough he has this box full of a dozen wharf spiders, and he brings them to school to show his teacher.
She basically flipped shit and started screaming, the box went flying and there were spiders everywhere. He got in a lot of trouble, but he proved her wrong.
HAHAHAHA that’s a pretty funny story.
And I hate myself for reading this post.
Sorry to be that guy, but technically, all spiders are venomous. Some are just more so than others. Not that there are any spiders in NS that are dangerous to humans.
Also, in my basement recently, I found two of the biggest damn spiders I have ever seen outside of a glass case. It was crazy.
I know geekchick..lol…Is it true daddy long legs are suppose to be one of the most poisonous?
Amen PAS, but now..I can’t get away from it…
Tis’ the spider season… it’ll all be over in a few weeks, as the breeding season is over. You want creepy? Go turn over a rock and you’ll see earwigs, and millipedes. Those fuckers are creepy.
Bastard, that’s an awesome story. I assume the spiders were still alive when he brought them into school?
I used to work down by the harbour and I had to deal with a few of those fuckers. I hate spiders but I always seemed to be the one person who was ended up having to do something about them, other than waving my arms and screaming like a little girl. But those things terrify me. I just always assume they can jump, like the things in Aliens, even if they can’t.
Just went outside, had a little run in with a june bug….literally… It was so awesome that I just had to share it with the rest of you guy’s.
Nooooooo
I was afraid of spiders, until I went to Mexico and had some close encounters with a few scorpions. A small yellowish brown one was in my luggage. I didn’t even know it was a scorpion at first, it was perfectly still with its extremities curled up against it’s body I guess. It looked like a shapeless splinter of wood or a torn leaf to me, but I had never seen one before. As soon as I touched the folded shirt it was sitting on, it transformed; whipped out its front claws, rose up on its legs and arched it’s tail all at the same time. It moved like a tiny mechanical robot. So much more creepy than any spider I have ever seen. Long story short, I freak out, trap it in a pot and burn it to a crisp because our neighbor said it could kill us.
I got itchy reading this bitch. And it’s comments. EW! I hate Spiders.
And I just saw one walking across my floor.
Now that you mention it, yes. And also, had the oddest looking thing buzz into my head the other day while I was reading. I swatted it and examined it but really couldn’t put a finger on what it was.. almost looked alien. I’ve studied entomology enough to know it wasn’t local
If you find a little blue and red one around, let me know….
it went missing a few days ago.
don’t know how it escaped from the lab….
I’d need to check with my SO for the citation, but from some entomology article he read we are, apparently, never more than six feet or so from a spider. The only environment exempt from this rule is the extreme North. FWIW: While our spiders are not venomous, per se, I had a spider bite near my eye ~20 years ago and it looked like I’d been whacked by a baseball.
Small children!!!! WTF!
i used to work at a newspaper with stacks of papers all around, and there was a rock wall outside, well in the summer we would have the bay doors open…and those fucking rock spiders would lie in wait for you to move some papaer…and then fucking jump at you. i almost had several nervous breakdowns over those bastards, fuck now i’m all itchy remembering
Where I’m from, near Sudbury, Ont the spiders can get very large.. A few years ago, in our cottage, I could hear a “bump, bump” in the night that scared the crap outta me… woke from a sounds sleep… It sounded very close, so I got a flashlight to look under the bed..
We stored the “storm windows” against the wall, beside the bed in the summer, and a huge black spider, approx body size of an uncooked hamburger, w/legs about 8-10 inches in diameter. It was stuck behind the storm window, and was actually moving it away from the wall..
I had nightmares for weeks…
Now these are some scary looking spiders…they give me the heebie jeebies..blah!
http://www.camelspiders.net/
geekchick: that’s not true. There have been several reports in the last 15-20 years of people finding Brown Recluse nests here in NS.
http://pestcontrolcanada.com/INSECTS/spide…
Did you kill it Mikey??? I would have freaked.
LOL, nevermind: the checking of shoes, ahh yes.
I remember when I first moved back to Canada so many of these little things(like checking shoes) had become second nature to me. Of course I didn’t realize this until, by now back in Canada, I would be looking inside my shoes and look up to see some strange looks from people lol. I also remember following people into long grass with no paths alll ways tripped me out for the first little bit. People I’d be with just plow right through it, mean while, my brain is telling me it’s ok but my heart’s going nuts.
Also use to get some really strange looks when we would be walking with some people and there would be a squirrel or something that would make a noise in the grass or bushes. I’d leap ten feet away from the bush of said noise, once again with a wide range of strange looks and a nervous giggle on my side.
Ahh the memories, I am not as jumpy as I use to be, but still pretty dam jumpy.
One of the perks of living this far north NA is that there are not very many poisonous animals, or insects, or even plants for that matter. I can’t imagine how paranoid I would be living in a more tropical climate.
Miles: You would be paranoid at first, but you adapt quite quickly, and your instincts change with those adaptations. I lived in asia for 5 years and was never slightly bothered by the poisonous bugs, snakes killer animals….as well as some of the “civil” problems and crazy road rules or lack of. If I moved back to a place like that, I would take a stab that I would be super jumpy and freaked as hell at some of the above for the first little bit. But soon after would not even think about it(provided some of the instincts listed above just become second nature). As an example completely off topic, when i first moved there, with the heat, I thought I would never get use to it. Someone told me that within 3 months I would be wearing jeans and not be bothered in the least. I gave them the look as to say “yeah right, your crazy, jeans in this”. Yet, sure enough, he was right.
I should correct myself …I was slightly bothered when having a close encounter, but not like you would think.
The thing about dock spiders (or wharf/rock spiders whatever) is that they ARE a little poisonous. They excrete a mild anaesthetic that that allows their prey to stay alive while they eat them. Anyway, that anaesthetic works on us too. In the night time they move towards heat, and in the day they burrow away from heat. So if you are camping or they are in the house they will be attracted to your body heat and will actually “burrow” inside you but you won’t feel it. Anyway, its pretty common for them to lay eggs into you, you might be carrying around spider eggs feeding from you and just waiting to hatch and climb out of you right now.
Creepy crawlers like that make me FLIP. Like if I see a spider of any shape/form/colour, I will literally do backflips. I’m just glad Halifax doesn’t have a Locust/flying beetle issue, those things are fucking nasty.
I’ve heard that story about spiders laying eggs but I can only ever find articles to refute it:
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/insects/spid…
If you’re familiar with Living Dead Dolls, they’ve done a series of “Urban Legends” and one is called “Spider Bite”:
http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/index.php…
Maybe that’s why my damn ears are so itchy.
Anyone ever hear the cockroach eggs in the tongue myth?
I’ll never sleep tonight now.
@ Mole Rat. I’d assume they were still alive, but he didn’t mention is. Wait.. harbour spiders? I guess since I don’t live in the city they’d never be a problem for me, but I always assumed large spiders didn’t live in cities. Doesn’t sound fun.
there are spiders in my basement i leave them alone they hang out…on the floor is fine but if they are above your head…yikes…hats and long pants all around
No I was totally lying – adding to the fear. Let’s get real people, these things are super tiny. The only thing smaller is a ladybug or a piece of dust. Seriously. And at least here they aren’t too poisonous – but not too many die from spider venom anyway (but its not worth finding stats on it).
Stay calm.
Mikey,
“approx body size of an uncooked hamburger, w/legs about 8-10 inches in diameter”
that’s a little too far fetched.
my legs aren’t nearly a foot in diameter.
@ NeverWrong
Crap, is that true? That’s not good, but I can see how it could be true. “Killer” bees are slowly adapting and moving further north… eep!
Oh well, I don’t think it’s time to worry yet.
What I think we really need to watch out for are potato bugs. Sure, they look innocent….cute, even. THOSE ARE THE ONES TO WATCH. They’re constantly scheming against us. They might even be in cahoots with the spiders. “Potato bugs” my ass. More like “world domination bugs.”
i effin hate potato bugs. I was traumatized when I was 7 and running along a lake at my grandfathers cottage. I jumped over a little hump in the ground and directly into a “nest”…I didn’t know they lived in huge clumps like that, but I pulled my feet out and they were completely covered in the little bastards. *shudder* I still get the creeps 22 years later.
Where there are spiders….There’s are a Tons more bugs,
The amount of bugs each one eats, …well if he wasn’t there,
You’d be really freak-N.
K.