Hi Everyone,

My husband, son and I came home today and when we stepped out of the car, the first thing we saw was the biggest WOLF spider in the history of mankind in our garage. I could identify it and knew it wasnt poisonous so I had my hubby chase it out of the garage.

While inside, my husband was looking at the garbage can which is in the garage and saw a black spider with several egg sacs. IT looked to be at the end of its life cycle, but it was still quite alive. He brought it outside and it was rolled over as he put it in the dirt along with the 1/2 inch egg sacs.

He came in and mentioned that he found a black spider with red markings on its belly. I totally freaked and asked him to see it. IT was most definitely a black widow spider and her egg sacs. There were 4 of them and I really freaked out. Apparently the red ants who are quite ferocious here in TX decided to start eating the black widow and they were crawling all over the egg sacs as well. It was totally nasty. I took a quick look on the internet and it said to step on the sacs because bug spray wont do anything and there is a chance that the ants would not be able to penetrate the sacs, so that was the only way to ensure that they were truly dead.

I have been living here in TX for 8 years and have never seen a black widow although I know they exist here. There is a less than 5% chance of death if bitten, but it sounded really really bad if you were bit because within 1-3 hours its worse than the pain of an apendicitis and you hallucinate, have the sweats, fever etc... Now I am totally freaked out. I feel like moving.

Babs in TX

334/180 ish

Nothing from the "insect" species will ever enter my mouth unless it's from me biking or riding. :speechles

Don't eat hotdogs or cold-cuts. And be careful about ordering meatloaf in a restaurant.

Hi Again,

You guys are all totally nuts, but you rock!!! LOL

Ole man: I have enough cricket friends to make a fricassee

I have never tried to eat any bug even at my highest weight! LOL

I saw an episode of the Amazing Race where they have to eat a bowl of fried crickets. EEEEWWW!

I dont know how or why people want to participate on shows like Fear Factor and eat pig intestines or balls or plunge themselves into a vat of hissing cockroaches etc... No amount of money would be worth that to me!!!

Babs in TX

334/180

-150 ish

I have a gecko that lives in my house with me right now. First time I saw him, it scared me to death. But, honestly, he's harmless and they eat bugs, so I let him live. Now and again, I see him by accident, and he's really cute. I'm afraid I'm gonna squish him someday because he's so tiny he's hardly visible unless you actually see him move. As long as he stays out of MY chair, or my bed. We can co-exist, otherwise, he's out of here.

Scorpions are known to be attracted to brick, stucco, concrete type structures. Now those are hideous, scary creatures. We also have something here in Texas called a vinegarone (sp?) almost like a scorpion but even scarier to me. http://www.nem5.com/photos/vinegarone.html

I have a gecko that lives in my house with me right now. First time I saw him, it scared me to death. But, honestly, he's harmless and they eat bugs, so I let him live. Now and again, I see him by accident, and he's really cute. I'm afraid I'm gonna squish him someday because he's so tiny he's hardly visible unless you actually see him move. As long as he stays out of MY chair, or my bed. We can co-exist, otherwise, he's out of here.

Scorpions are known to be attracted to brick, stucco, concrete type structures. Now those are hideous, scary creatures. We also have something here in Texas called a vinegarone (sp?) almost like a scorpion but even scarier to me. http://www.nem5.com/photos/vinegarone.html

I am in a Stucco home, so that includes me. Uggh!

A few years ago someone told me that horse chestnuts will keep spiders away. Our old house was full of spiders of every shape and description, so when I happened to see some kids selling chestnuts by the roadside I bought 2 paper lunchbags full. Right after that our son became very ill and I ended spending several months in the hospital with him. It took me awhile to notice the absence of spiders, but I couldn't remember what I did with the nuts. During that time I did no housecleaning and I don't normally leave bags of things on my kitchen floor for months, however that's where one of the bags was. The other was in the basement. Our place was virtually spider free for 2 years! They're coming back again now, so I plan to get more chestnuts when they start falling. Someone also told me that if they have holes drilled in them they're even more effective.

I just read in the paper that hospitals are reporting an unusual amt of spider bite victims (my mom is one-last week) come to find out.....staph infections......on the rise...it used to be that you could only get it from the hospital...but now.....you can get it anywhere. (eww) Sent my mom to the allergist last week cause these spider bites (weekly) are getting rediculous....guess what????? Bed bugs are back!!!!! They like old mattresses!!! The doc gave my mom a bed bug proof sheet...hmmm never heard of that but okay! Mom's mattress is like 30 yrs old. Time for a new one!

Horse chestnuts? Please enlighten me.

I think it may be what we call 'crabapples' here in Texas.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Telly

Nothing from the "insect" species will ever enter my mouth unless it's from me biking or riding. :speechles

Don't eat hotdogs or cold-cuts. And be careful about ordering meatloaf in a restaurant.

OR... Bread!

OR... Peanut Butter!

Eeeekkkk! I looked at the pix of a "vinegarone" and want to move to the frozen tundra somewhere. (I live in TX too)

Morsaille- are you saying that hot dogs, cold cuts, restaurant meatloaf, bread and Peanut Butter have bugs?

I was told in a home ec class in college, that cereals can have X percentage of "anything" in their ingredients, and it's legal. Guess that could be bugs too.

Maybe "TOM" has the right idea. Embrace the little critters. You never know when we might have to "eat off the fat of the land."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Telly

Nothing from the "insect" species will ever enter my mouth unless it's from me biking or riding. :speechles

Don't eat hotdogs or cold-cuts. And be careful about ordering meatloaf in a restaurant.

OR... Bread!

OR... Peanut Butter!

LOL and just for shock value: it's been quoted that over our lifetime, each of us ingest a number of bugs/spiders just by having our mouths open at night when we sleep. :biggrin1: :notagree :hungry:

Just my luck I'd eat one in my sleep and have a pb in the morning. Ewwww.

Yeah. I had a little trouble dealing with that "urban legend" Then I read a website that is used to dispel all those unbelievable things we hear and read about. It said that spiders don't like air blowing on them and that our breath keeps them from climbing in.

Hmmm. Wonder if that applies to sleep apnea people. Maybe spiders sit around waiting for us to stop breathing for a whie and then they dive in!!!

I don't doubt the meat products listed, but that was Tired Old Man.

The bread and peanut butter was me, yes. With the mechanical harvesting techniques used for nuts and grains, a large number of insects are collected right along with the "good" stuff and ground into commercial goods.

I think Peanut Butter has the highest concentration of allowed bug segments.

A good reason not to buy crunchy brands. By the way, I decided to call Tired Old Man "TOM" for short. Wonder if he's offended.