Killer Spiders, and Giant Turtles

Catherine Penfold-Waxman: 7th Feb 2006 - 00:08 GMT

Kudos on getting that close to a black widow(?).
Do you think the turtle is a comment of the speed of construction?

johnny E: 7th Feb 2006 - 00:20 GMT

Spider terrified me. Those things move FAST! First time seeing one, so needed the pic. Those ginormous turtles are all over that section of the I; anyone know what they represent, if anything?

GGP: 7th Feb 2006 - 01:46 GMT

nice black widow. when i stayed in Taos awhile back, I had a brown recluse (also poisonous) in the water meter outside my cabin, so this brings back happy memories.

mtb4ever: 7th Feb 2006 - 02:34 GMT

Nice photo of the widow. I have a good-sized one living in my irrigation meter in the backyard. Always comes out at night. It doesn't bother us so I don't bother it. They eat nasty bugs that eat my plants, so Ms. Widow can stay as long as she likes! We have lots of them in Southern California. The meter widow is about the fifth one I've found in my yard.

Jono Cono: 7th Feb 2006 - 04:26 GMT

Nice pictures!
Spiders are fascinating and yet intimidating at times. I'd feel a bit creepy knowing I was that close to a black widow. This is a tarantula which was just sitting in the middle of a floor of a store I walked into. The lady inside was nice enough to shoo it outdoors with a broom, cause I kind of jumped when I saw it. Being from Canada that was the first one I had ever seen in it's natural habitat. For some reason I always imagined that they moved a lot faster then I saw this one move. Maybe it was too humid (I was in Cuba) and it was feeling a bit sluggish. Or maybe it had too much beer to drink, Cuban beer isn't half bad, they also get tons of stuff imported from Holland who also has good beer, but that's getting off topic...

Catherine Penfold-Waxman: 7th Feb 2006 - 14:42 GMT

Looks like a toupee taking a stroll.

Clive James (an Australian writer, famous in Britain) once described a particualrly nasty spider as looking like a clenched fist wearing a toupee.

jack: 7th Feb 2006 - 16:44 GMT

i have to tell you that i am particularly frightened by spiders. i don't like lions or big cats or wild boor. snakes make me scream (quietly of course)and mosquitos, oh yes mosquitos, those blood sucking varmints and ants, and cockroaches and water bugs and girls yelling at me and threatening to pull my hair and falling into a rose bush and waking up with my hands around my throat and choking on my saliva and wondering if tomorrow will come and if it does will i know it....

Catherine Penfold-Waxman: 7th Feb 2006 - 16:51 GMT

Luckily, Jack, you're mostly safe from spiders in New York. I think the cockroaches eat them all. Rose bushes are another story...watch out for those damn rose bushes.

des: 7th Feb 2006 - 17:04 GMT

i used to have this girlfriend she was jewish,anyway once this aunt of her's in israel was going to get married,so on the wedding day she was putting on her shoes and there was a poisoness spider inside of one of the shoes that bit her,she died ,this is a true story i swear, now how tragic is that?

sebass: 11th Oct 2006 - 03:49 GMT

Geuss what i went to work and got bit by a black widow on the neck it fell on me and i thought it was a fly so i hit it and it bit me i had to run to the E.R and i nearly died! how tragic is that ae!

chris: 11th Oct 2006 - 03:53 GMT

i ate a yam spider once nasty thing... i didnt know what it was (obviously) though it taste like crap!

Susannah: 11th Oct 2006 - 16:54 GMT

I'm really scared of those brown ones- I heard about them in Kansas City, Mo many years ago - still scared.

GGP: 11th Oct 2006 - 17:52 GMT

in Mexico I saw a lot of tarantulas--they stand so high off the ground, they cast a serious shadow. but they are pretty slow.

Susannah: 11th Oct 2006 - 18:23 GMT

Was the Yam spider supposed to be on the menu, or was it an accident?Just wondering if its something to avoid if I go to another country and I don't know what I'm ordering.

Susannah: 11th Oct 2006 - 18:26 GMT

Be afraid - be very afraid:
brown-recluse-spider.ascendedhealth.com/brown-recluse-spider-bite-pictures.htm

anon (cs181112189.pp.htv.fi): 22nd Jan 2008 - 23:43 GMT

Michael: I was on a holiday at greece long time ago and i got bitten by a black widow but i didnt know that it was a black widow so I just calmly continued my holiday and here i am alive. No medicines or nothing.

imani: 9th Feb 2008 - 03:43 GMT

that is the uglyest spider I'v ever seen i need more than all of that

Michael Yacques: 26th May 2008 - 04:21 GMT

Most people in florida who think they were bitten by a brown recluse spider Or Black Widow because of decaying flesh on a wound they have, are wronge. MRSA staff infections are rampant in florida.Ask any er doctor. I found out the hard way.I have a scar the size of a fifty cent piece under my arm pit. I waited 24 hours to get treatment,the e.r.team had to cut out all the dead and rotting flesh...It started out as a pimple that really hurt like a cigertte burn when i poped it ,then grew and grew,hot,red and burning like a cigar was being put out on me....Dont wait for treatment.....

Stefanie: 3rd Jul 2008 - 21:01 GMT

Where exactly did you find this turtle?!? is it still there?!? im going to vegas next weekend and I want to find it!!