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

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.

I thought about it, but didn't want to take the chance

Ok so this brings me to my grossest bit of trivia, but according to a couple of posts back it should not be true (we can hope!!)..... I heard on the radio that..... "the average human being will have a spider crawl into their mouth (yes that says into) while they are sleeping at least 8 times in their life". Now thanks to this little bit of trivia that my mind cannot seem to forget, I am SURE I am choking on a spider leg or something every couple of months. I think I have more than the norm - just cuz its so very gross to me. my husband thinks Im nuts.

Telly, back to this scorpian issue. How do you get them out of your house? they have them pinchers on one end and the stinger on the other- how do you get them up? Are they too big to squish. Do you perhaps put a bowl over them? Your view must be waaay good to deal with all them big scary bugs.

Ok so this brings me to my grossest bit of trivia, but according to a couple of posts back it should not be true (we can hope!!)..... I heard on the radio that..... "the average human being will have a spider crawl into their mouth (yes that says into) while they are sleeping at least 8 times in their life". Now thanks to this little bit of trivia that my mind cannot seem to forget, I am SURE I am choking on a spider leg or something every couple of months. I think I have more than the norm - just cuz its so very gross to me. my husband thinks Im nuts.

Telly, back to this scorpian issue. How do you get them out of your house? they have them pinchers on one end and the stinger on the other- how do you get them up? Are they too big to squish. Do you perhaps put a bowl over them? Your view must be waaay good to deal with all them big scary bugs.

It's against my religion to blatantly kill anything.. lol

I get about 4 napkins and go to grab them. If they die during this process then I am not a murderer.. but if they live, then I let them go outside, releasing them from the napkins.

We are losing the battle.

The weight of all the insects in the world is more than the weight of all the hot and cold blooded animals combined.

Maybe we should all have our Lap-Bands removed so the animals can catch up.:faint:

I did some googling and found something odd:

It says here that horse chestnuts do not ward off spiders, and it says here that horse chestnut can cure "spider" veins.

I wonder if the two stories became interwoven into a myth?

Ok so this brings me to my grossest bit of trivia, but according to a couple of posts back it should not be true (we can hope!!)..... I heard on the radio that..... "the average human being will have a spider crawl into their mouth (yes that says into) while they are sleeping at least 8 times in their life". Now thanks to this little bit of trivia that my mind cannot seem to forget, I am SURE I am choking on a spider leg or something every couple of months. I think I have more than the norm - just cuz its so very gross to me. my husband thinks Im nuts.

According to http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/spiders.htm, it’s not true. Which is good, or I would NEVER sleep again!

"TOM" you keep me entertained. I've seen the movie, read the book, about bugs being the only survivors one day. My thought is that I have to get my Band and get skinny. That's the only way I'll ever be able to run faster than all them little critters.

And Lisah25, that's the best website to dispel all those ridiculous urban legends! Before I read that, I had to check my mouth for tiny fuzzy legs every morning.

Lisah25

Ohmigod!! Can you believe that here I was sure I was getting them spiders in my mouth.... even to the point of waking up coughing sure there was a leg in there stuck or something... I cant tell you how many times I woke my husband up!! Well now i hope I can get over this odd little phobia of mine but it is pretty deep seated as of yet. Thanks for the info. That is just a rotten thing to be saying out loud.... they should be ashamed!

Lisah25

Ohmigod!! Can you believe that here I was sure I was getting them spiders in my mouth.... even to the point of waking up coughing sure there was a leg in there stuck or something... I cant tell you how many times I woke my husband up!! Well now i hope I can get over this odd little phobia of mine but it is pretty deep seated as of yet. Thanks for the info. That is just a rotten thing to be saying out loud.... they should be ashamed!

No kidding! I had already read that on Snopes before I heard it, so I didn't freak out like I otherwise would have. I HATE spiders.

The power of suggestion is a strong force!

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.

If anybody calls me TOM, I will come to your house and huff and puff and blow your house down, unless it is made of brick.

Am I that scary that people are afraid to call me TOM without asking? Maybe, I should insist on T_O_M.

TOM is fine. The only ones not allowed to call me TOM are my nieces and nephews.

I realize many of you have not figured out yet that you could highlight my name, hold the [CTRL] key down and hit [C], put the cursor where you want my name to go and hold the [CTRL] key down and hit [V].

Call me anything but "late for dinner" is what I used to say, but since becoming a member of many forums, I now say, "call me anything but stupid, anti-american, anti-christian, @#$?!%, or any other insult you can think of rather than to refute my point."

I think I have a good sense of humor and only my head is thicker than my skin. I sometimes put my foot into my mouth, but the good Lord blessed me with a mouth and shoe which are both the same size. Sometimes also, without seeing my face, hearing my tone of voice or seeing my body language, it is easy to misinterpret my meaning. 90% of communication is non-verbal, they say. (Who is "they" by the way?)

T_O_M Thanks for being generous with me. I just knew you were one of the good guys! I was afraid I had SERIOUSLY offended you.

I really appreciate your sense of humor. I have the same problem with people misinterpreting my words. I don't have a serious bone in my body.

By the way, 61 ain't old. Tired maybe, but not OLD~! Haven't you heard? 60 is the new 50!

Please call me TOM. The T_O_M was tongue in cheek or T_I_C.

Ok. Somehow "Tired Old Man" didn't go with your quick wit!

I'm still learning how to maneuver this forum site. I've never been in a chat room or participated in any online stuff before. Right now it's a little overwhelming. (Your instructions on how to press different buttons to bring up your name for instance.)

It reminds me of the little old lady who called for help to get her computer unfroze, and said to the computer tech... "Sorry, mister, I can't find the 'any' key."

The hold the [CTRL] key down and hit [C], put the cursor where you want my name to go and hold the [CTRL] key down and hit [V] method works for copying almost anything and almost anywhere on a Windows PC or in any program (application) on a Windows PC.

On a Mac, you use the "Apple Key" instead of the [CTRL] key.

The method can be used to copy a file or a block of text from one place to another. To save time writing this post, I went to the post that I had written earlier and placed my mouse pointer to the left of the word "hold", then I held down the left mouse botton and dragged the mouse pointer until I was to the right of "[V]" and then let go of the pointer. Then I did to what I wanted to copy "hold the [CTRL] key down and hit [C], put the cursor where you want my name to go and hold the [CTRL] key down and hit [V]" just the first part and after hitting the reply button, I put my mouse pointer into where those words were needed in this reply box and held the [CTRL] key down and hit [V].

I'll work on it.