Rare Spider Silk

[herbalicious]

Me no likey.

[deadly_habit]

Me no likey.

[Rekah]

spiders creep me out, just looking through those pics makes me get all itchy and stuff. the worst thing is i reckon is when you walk through a web, feels so horrible

[BLAHBLAHJAH]

For anyone intruiged... Here's a short compilation of the real nasty spiders











Only a couple really tally up concernable amounts of deaths per year though, mainly due to secondary infections from 'arachnid necrotism' that leads to rotting flesh at the bite area http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_recluse_spider

The infamous black widow only has a 1% death rate per bites anyway, and that's without including anti-venoms. Same as any other threat to human life, the media hypes it because fear sells. Dogs fuck up far more people, and they're hairy with multiple legs

[kay]

I find spiders fascinating.

Not sure about having them crawl on or near me though.

[nousd]

I always seem to live in places where, if you go out at night, you walk into golden orb spider webs.
Sometimes they end up sitting on your face like a hand.
So you sorta get used to them.
Their webs are not like other spiders' webs that I've walked into...it is that urine colour & very tough to push thru.
Heaps of redbacks too...they get real big during rain & you've gotta be careful picking up wood etc.
But currently I'm living in a place with a spider I haven't lived with before
and people are telling me it's worse than a funnelweb
it's called a mouse spider...relatively small and undistinguished until it opens its mandibles (?) and inside they are bright red
The only spider whose bite I really worry about
are the ones that fall out of trees down the south coast & bite you on neck
they kill a person now & then
and the funnelwebs that get in your shoes on the coast.

[deadly_habit]

anyone know what that species is that when born shoots out like a web of silk for them to travel on the wind and lives where it lands
apparently they have been found in orbit

[WhosZena]

I find spiders fascinating.

Not sure about having them crawl on or near me though.

Yeah thats like me. Although recently I havent been bothered by them being near me.

[kay]

I find spiders fascinating.

Not sure about having them crawl on or near me though.

Yeah thats like me. Although recently I havent been bothered by them being near me.

Thinking about it, the one place I really can't stand spiders is bath tubs. Coz they can't get out!!!

[WhosZena]

I find spiders fascinating.

Not sure about having them crawl on or near me though.

Yeah thats like me. Although recently I havent been bothered by them being near me.

Thinking about it, the one place I really can't stand spiders is bath tubs. Coz they can't get out!!!

What you mean they cant get out?..Thought about getting the shower head and rinsing it down the drain?

[kay]

I find spiders fascinating.

Not sure about having them crawl on or near me though.

Yeah thats like me. Although recently I havent been bothered by them being near me.

Thinking about it, the one place I really can't stand spiders is bath tubs. Coz they can't get out!!!

What you mean they cant get out?..Thought about getting the shower head and rinsing it down the drain?

As in they can't get out unaided. So either I have to get something to pick 'em out, or it's down the drain with them. They're also usually big buggers that get stuck, so no way I'm gonna get near enough to scoop 'em out. So it's down the drain with 'em, which tends to kill 'em. I dislike the forced confrontation.

[BLAHBLAHJAH]

Classic trick for those who are cautious o' spiders but still have the decency not to kill a living organism is to simply make a trail of toilet-roll from inside the bath upwards and over the bath's ledge... Gives adequate grip for the spiders to crawl out. Most o' the time it'll just be a horny male spider stuck in the bath anyway. For anyone who cares about nourishing their brain and learning, look into the micropscopic details of electrostatic charge control within the hairs of a spider's gripping 'toes' and you'll soon see why they can't grip onto manmade surfaces such as the polyester bath material

Deadlyhabit - that trait you're asking of pertains to nearly all of the world's smaller spiders (including several larger spiders in the younger phases of life, though it's dependant on the structural composition of the spinnerets and silk formation)
It's a trick nerds label as 'ballooning' whereby the spider uses a strand of web to increase its surface area to the extent that it can essentially 'take off with the wind'. It aids in the explanation of the mass distribution of the major spider families... Interestingly, the 'prehistoric' classes are only found within the continent of australasia (prior to the seperation of land)

sd5 - mouse spiders arn't bad at all. I think a lot of australians may even confuse the funnelwebs with them to be honest, they do look similar. In the UK we've only got one type of mouse spider which I regurlarly find when opening a window, but they really do no harm here

Anyway... Everyone hating spiders, they probably don't give a fuck about humans. If you're naturally inclined to suffer paranoid thoughts that threaten your feeble life, do the world a favour and just worry about other humans. They're the ones who purposely made it easier to kill and rob! Sit back and admire the beauty that spiders have, or if you can't, admire something else. Don't live in fear or hatred of critters that serve a greater ecological benefit than humans

P.S. if anyone genuinely enjoys killing spiders, enjoy the thought of karma in which many 'spider enthiusiasts' own 12" tarantulas that are highly capable of devouring a kitten! I had one called 'War Bastard' with an arse the size of a tennis ball (never fed it any live vertebrates though, not my cuppa tea)

[kay]

P.S. if anyone genuinely enjoys killing spiders, enjoy the thought of karma in which many 'spider enthiusiasts' own 12" tarantulas that are highly capable of devouring a kitten! I had one called 'War Bastard' with an arse the size of a tennis ball (never fed it any live vertebrates though, not my cuppa tea)

I notice you didn't say it hadn't eaten any vertebrates.

[BLAHBLAHJAH]

P.S. if anyone genuinely enjoys killing spiders, enjoy the thought of karma in which many 'spider enthiusiasts' own 12" tarantulas that are highly capable of devouring a kitten! I had one called 'War Bastard' with an arse the size of a tennis ball (never fed it any live vertebrates though, not my cuppa tea)

I notice you didn't say it hadn't eaten any vertebrates.

I'm a fan of honesty, and I realise it can cause mental trauma to some people, but I did used to give my big bugs the occasional dead rat/pinky mouse. Obtained these through either breeding them or buying them. A big mouse would feed a big spider for maybe 6 months - 1 year, as oppose to having to take 100 or so lifes in the form of the crickets. May seem an enigma, but consider vegetarians that won't eat a tiny section of a massive cow but will readily fill a plate with the lives of 50 prawns

Whist some avid spider collectors would say "it's just nature" I did realise ti wasn't my place to be keeping bugs in glass tanks and throwing other bugs into said tank. It'd be a travesty to class that as 'just nature'. I got towards finding solace through the ample humans who readily exterminate 'pest' species (even including poor ants!) - I'd use them as a food source for critters I'd treasure (and sad to say critters with which I'd make a lot of money)

Anyway... I can see how that makes me seem like a creepy virgin with Linkin Park Tattoos, but the internet is full of illusions

[deadly_habit]

ah ballooning that's the term
spiders are cool as hell, dunno if i could own a bigger one as a pet though
camel spiders in iraq kinda sacred me out of that. those lil bastards look like the predator and move fast as hell
then again i think it's neither a spider or a scorpion if i recall

[BLAHBLAHJAH]

Ayeeee! A lot of people actually end up dissapointed with bigger spiders because they expect them to be monsters constantly threatening their life. Comes a shock when after a day of buying the spider it digs a burrow in which it hides for 20 years ha

I held a 'camel spider' as a wee nipper, could never get one as a pet though as they just looked to require too much room

Anyway, if you've seen them in Iraq, you've got more experience than me with them! Sadly most the cool bugs I've come accross in life have been captive specimens. Kinda grateful because otherwise I wouldn't of seen them, but is a bit of a travesty I know, would love to see them 'wild' though... Been looking into doing rainforest volunteer work (similar to your idea of the communcal living) but it turned out to be waaaay to expensive, like £1000 for 2 weeks prior to flight prices etc!

But aye you're right, they're kind of half way between
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solifugae
Think the most important factor is that they have no vdenom glands at all though, so technically they're only as dangerous as the bite is deep, ha

Can definately understand why they elecit fear in people though, maybe I wouldn't be so intruiged if I grew up in a place filled with dangerous bugs!

[deadly_habit]

yea they just kind of evoke a natural fear in people hence all the myths. think the bite one of my soldier got from a brown recluse was way worse than the random camel spider bites i ever saw.
someday i may get a pet spider if i can provide a big enough habitat and proper care for it, because between spiders, squids and sharks (fish in general) i'm always fascinated.

[kay]

P.S. if anyone genuinely enjoys killing spiders, enjoy the thought of karma in which many 'spider enthiusiasts' own 12" tarantulas that are highly capable of devouring a kitten! I had one called 'War Bastard' with an arse the size of a tennis ball (never fed it any live vertebrates though, not my cuppa tea)

I notice you didn't say it hadn't eaten any vertebrates.

I'm a fan of honesty, and I realise it can cause mental trauma to some people, but I did used to give my big bugs the occasional dead rat/pinky mouse. Obtained these through either breeding them or buying them. A big mouse would feed a big spider for maybe 6 months - 1 year, as oppose to having to take 100 or so lifes in the form of the crickets.

Would the spider eat the mouse all in one go? Or would it keep it around for a while and feed on it from time to time? I'm just curious as to whether the dead rat would keep for that long.

[the tits]

holy shit!!! This is awesome! I want spider silk boxers to so can pretend it's 1990 all over again! Seriously though, the internet blows my mind yet again

The military has been interested in spider silk for years, pound for pound there is nothing like it it terms of strength vs. width vs. flexibility...

[BLAHBLAHJAH]

Ayeee, I had a massive spider called 'Bruce' that would eat a full dead rat but it'd do it constantly over 2-3 days. They feed by excreting (or dribbling) digestive enzymes onto the grub then sucking the digested parts up through the mouth (not through fangs like the assumption, they're only for venom going out). For best efficiency the spiders often end up rolling their prey into a ball, touched up a bit with silk and digestive enzymes. At the end all of the undigestables are rolled up furtethen discarded to an antibacterial webby area. The leftovers absolutley reek though, like a day at the futuristic seaside haha

Deadlyhabit - Did your buddy end up with rotting flesh and a 1-3day erection? hah. that spider's venom has a reputation for those... ayeee nice one man! Spiders especially are very easy to keep... Forgiving bugs that can go beyond 6 months if you forget to feed/water them. Just a case of getting an easy to look after one to start and you'll be pleasantly surprised how little attention it needs

Yeah octopus and squid are up in my rankings too, just not as practical to keep them as ornaments hah