The not so itsy bitsy spider.

Yes, but men, as we all know, are the weaker sex.

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boomerang wrote:

Really, dlowan?

The show I saw presented them as one of the most poisonest animals on earth that ejected some deadly neurotoxin.

I'm going to have to go looking now.....

Deadly?

Hmmm, well, if you are cursed by the goddesses enough to get spurred, apparently it IS nasty:

Platypus

For a shy little animal, the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) can cause a lot of grief. Tucked away on the back legs of mature males are a pair of short spurs each hooked-up to a venom gland that makes a viciously painful toxin.

Platypus spurrings of people are rare, but the select group who have survived the trauma (often fishermen trying to free irate monotremes from their nets) report pain strong enough to induce vomiting which can persist for days, weeks or even months. The pain is resistant to morphine and other pain-killing drugs and anaesthesia of the main nerve from the spur site is often the only way to relieve the patient's suffering.

A witness to one of the first recorded platypus spurrings made these observations:

"... the pain was intense and almost paralysing. But for the administration of small doses of brandy, he would have fainted on the spot: as it was, it was half and hour before he could stand without support: by that time the arm was swollen to the shoulder, and quite useless, and the pain in the hand very severe." - W.W. Spicer (1876)
Professor Philip Kuchel, from Sydney University, says there are at least 25 components in the platypus venom, including a protein that lowers blood pressure causing shock, digestive enzymes called hyaluronidases and peptidases that dissolve body tissue helping the poison to spread, and a protein that increases blood-flow to the spur site causing severe swelling. The slight acidity of the venom adds further sting.

But the special ingredient in platypus venom that accounts for its outstanding pain-inducing qualities is thought to act directly on nerve cells that register pain, called nocioceptors. Greg de Plater, who discovered the compound recently at the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra, says it works a bit like capsacin (the active ingredient in chillies that makes them taste hot) by stimulating electrical activity in the pain cells.

Why this placid animal swims around with such a nasty toxin hidden in its back legs is still something of a mystery - the platypus doesn't use its spurs to catch or kill prey as far as anyone can tell. Cliff Gallagher, an emeritus professor studying the platypus at Sydney's Taronga Zoo, says the toxin is most often used in deadly skirmishes between rival males to stake out territory and also as an "excruciatingly painful" defence mechanism.

Study on the toxin is continuing and, ultimately, Greg de Plater hopes an understanding of how the different components of the platypus venom work could lead to new treatments for chronic pain sufferers.

May I say that, until you mentioned it, I had never even heard a whisper of such a thing happening.

Things you learn!

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gustavratzenhofer wrote:

I remember when my sister used to have a habit of smoking a cigarette before bed. She would allow herself one cigarette per day and always kept a box of Marlboro Red by her bedside. She would get comfortable in bed, grab the pack, have her smoke, then drift off to sleep.

She hated spiders with a passion. She was scared to death of them.

I was about ten years old at the time and capable of mischief. When she was at work I emptied her cigarette pack and spent the day hunting down spiders. When I had filled the box I returned the pack to its place on her bedstand.

That night she opened the cigarettes as usual and all these spiders came racing out, running across her chest and toward her head.

The screams not only woke my parents but the neighbors as well.

If I was your sister, you would not have lived to tell that story.

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http://www.srv.net/~dkv/hobospider/index_files/malehob2.jpg

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oh and here's a whole bunch of different tyes link

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I checked out the insect/spider book at my sister's house. And came to the conclusion that that spider is....... how the heck should I know! I had fun being grossed out by the creepies, handling the pages of the book by their edges as if the spiders and scorpions on the pages could hurt me. But, after some guessing and flipping, I decided I didn't have enough info. Then I relaized that Boomer prolly couldn't answer any more thoroughly than she has already. So, my conclusion is: next time take a picture and/or buy an insect/spider reference book.

You're welcome. Next question!

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A fat lot of help you are littlek.

Just kidding.

Thanks for looking! I can't find anything on interior decorator spiders.

Hey husker!

That second photo in your link looks a bit like my spider but mine was HUGE - a saddle-em-up as CJane noted.

Next time I'll take a picture. I really was wishing for a video camera that day.

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The spiders I saw in the book that rang any bells at all were the nursery web spider who builds webs to protect her young, but not to hunt with. But, their webs are very very dense and 3D, like tent caterpillars.

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Anything on this site
look familiar, boomer?

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I've now spent too long in spider land. I fear I'll be having creepy crawly nightmares tonight. I am worried that I can't find an good ID for the spiders who take over my house in the colder months. I did find a bad ID for them, though. If they are the yellow sac spiders, I am going to need to start showing them out.

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Ah, shoot. It's them.

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I live with hobo spiders here. They are everywhere. Their webs look like funnels so they are easy to spot. While they don't built webs near ceilings, they will run some webbing just under the ceiling to make it easier to get around - kind of like a spider highway. The only things to watch out for are when moving piles of wood or similar objects that have been sitting around outside for quite a while - spider hotel. I never worry about my kids playing outside or anywhere else. The spiders like darkness - tend to run away from light.

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>shudder<

holy crippes , sh__ and hell i hate spiders.

but i have to say, having been bitten by a brown recluse, ... they dont get that big.
I doubt that is what you had.
To my understanding , they MAY get about as big as your thumb.
Of course, when you describe this big ball of hairy mass hinging in your garage, I picture being able to hit it with a tennis ball.. and heairng the impact.
Laughing

But that is my phobic mind for ya..

was its hind end sort of clear?

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Boomer -- You've probably heard all you want to hear about spiders, but yesterday they were in the Seattle news... and there was a handy link to this website (Thought you'd want to read it.)

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/homehort/pest/hobo.html

This was the original article:

http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_102105WABhobospiderEL.1189e24e4.html

Quote:

SEATTLE - A Seattle man is in serious condition in the hospital Friday after he was bitten by what relatives believe is a hobo spider. ...

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Wow, I never saw anything like it.

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I let the giant ones roam in my house and try not to freak when I see them. A spider expert said that they are the very best defense and much healthier than putting down poison.

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Solution to getting rid of the hobo spiders: introduce other spiders (shudder). European domestic spider pushes hobos out and doesn't sting. but they are huge and creepy,too

Quote:

As hobo spiders are noticeably absent from the premises of most buildings with large domestica colonies, yet are present in similar habitats where domestica has not established colonies, the domestic house spider can be exemplified as a competitor which can successfully prevent the invasion of hobo spiders by the principle of competitive exclusion. Domestic house spider colonization should be encouraged in rural areas within the North American range of the hobo spider; destroying domestica colonies with sprays, bug bombs etc. in such areas is extremely foolish, and is an open invitation for subsequent invasion by the hobo spider. from www.hobospider.org

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dagmaraka wrote:

Solution to getting rid of the hobo spiders: introduce other spiders (shudder). European domestic spider pushes hobos out and doesn't sting. but they are huge and creepy,too

Well, you don't have to "introduce" them. Very Happy

They just seem to appear. Mine are mostly gone now... after they eat all the other spiders, then they eat each other, I guess. <slight shudder>

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<strong shudder>

i don't come from a part of the world where spiders are big. the biggest one i know is a "crusader" or cross-head. brown with a cross on its back. it's related to this funky one. look at the artsy web:

http://pdubois.free.fr/araignees/images/ArgiopeBruennichi.jpg

but back on the subject of hobos. other spiders that compete with them and push them out are also gigantic house spiders, that kinda look like them. hopefully that's what boomer had. they make funnels and funky webs, too:

http://www.the-piedpiper.co.uk/graphics1/sp-tegenaria-gigantea.jpg

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I had this guy living outside my window for the summer.
I wonder how it was able to get up to the 34th floor.

http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0SwCTAtIV*iLXTko*RJR7C3tDqi8tVd4pn1Pobq*zBs0cI3s6hNpuuBTmBASr9cJOG1wtxP4bJOp2gtWIGOKHk*n6wCqU6UxTAMw*N6p*yzun61HtkwQCwg/DSC01156.JPG

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The not so itsy bitsy spider.

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