[SwinneySwitch]

"What would you rather have in your house — roaches or a tarantula?”

I think I'd take the roaches, Jacob!

[blueberry12]

That was a scary bed-time story...

[Nachum]

yeeeuch!

[explodingspleen]

Send a few my way. I'll sneak them into the girl's dormatory. ;)

[Fiddlstix]

While its fangs can leave “a little puncture wound,” the tarantula’s bite packs as much venom as a honeybee’s sting, he said.

Nope. The honeybee sting hurts a lot more. I speak from experience.

[cyborg]

Speaking of tarantulas...my brows need a trim.

[cmsgop]

Here is a pic.........

[vetvetdoug]

Tarantulas also come out in droves near Henrietta, Texas, in the Spring. Henrietta is in North Texas. They search out warm places like roads in the sun when they come out. I love blowing by them driving fast and watching them in my rear view mirror tumble like paper.

[Billthedrill]

Come here, my little snugglebunny...

[Conservatrix]

I guess these beat the Palmetto bugs we used to get every full moon in Honolulu... swarms of them... their tenatacles are as long as their bodies... and their bodies are about 3 inches long...

[Blue Screen of Death]

They are great deep fried. Dip them in some egg and roll them in corn meal/chili powder and toss them into hot peanut oil. Tastes great with 2 quarts of Jim Beam (before you eat them).

[cajungirl]

I'll take spiders over roaches any day.

[spinestein]

Spiders and insects don't bother me a bit. I let spiders and even bees and wasps walk on me because I know they won't bother me unless they feel threatened.

Snakes, on the other hand, always give me the willies!

[Calpernia]

Alright. This is a very appropriate thread to tell a funny.

We are members of a children's museum. They have a woman that use to be a curator of the Smithsonian's reptile display. She does hands on zoological educational overviews for the kids.

She had her tarantula out for the kids to 'shake hands' with. A child would stick out his finger, the spider would put a leg on it and tap the child's finger.

My daughter was hiding behind a pillar, not wanting to even catch a glimpse of the spider. I don't like her to have irrational fears ::I hate spiders!::. I don't want her to be afraid of things for no reason ::all spiders should be killed::. So I sat down next to Bernice (the curator) stuck my finger out and called to my daughter, "Look honey, mommy is touching the spider" ::kill it!::. My daughter pokes her head around shaking her head at me. Bernice (she knows me from the museum) lets the spider ::the monster!:: crawl onto my hand ::AHHHHHHH!:: Through gritting teeth, I call to my daughter again, "Look honey, mommy is holding the spider" ::AHHHH GET IT OFF ME!!:: Well my words didn't fool my daughter. She broke out in laughter at the sight of my face.

I will say, I'm very proud of the fact I didn't throw that creepy creature into the wall. I didn't scream. I didn't faint.

I didn't succeed in convincing my daughter that she shouldn't be afraid of spiders ::kill them all!:: either.

Just a funny for the evening.

[ScreamingFist]

“A lot of people don’t like them because they look scary,” he said. “But they don’t bother me. I grew up in South Texas. We used to play with them as kids — catch them and keep them in aquariums. You’d keep them two or three days and turn them loose if you got a bigger one. Like a goldfish, we’d look at them and see what they do.

Bwwwhahahahah. Ok, try this. Pick out the largest female tarantula you can find. Try to put one in a shoebox. Dare you...

My brother and I found out three things, tarantulas's hiss, tarantula's jump, and tarantulas attack when threatened. The shoebox is still sitting by some old blacktop road in Texas....

[Celtic Rose]

I am actually slightly less scared of tarantulas than other spiders. I think its because they look more like an "animal". I can't handle daddy-long legs, and mosquito eater bugs creeps me out, but I don't tarantulas as much.

[RandallFlagg]

Y'all can keep them spiders.

I'll keep these handy.
Breed 'em big enough and they're great for guarding our Bush-Cheney signs in the yard.

[fella]

You really have to get rough with them to get them to bite (I guess it's just to much effort for them) but they will lunge and jump at you to scare you off. After awhile they figure out that you mean no harm and will let you handle them. Then you get bored with them and let them go. At least that's how it works with the ones we have here in North Texas.

[Between the Lines]

It was several years ago when I worked in the gas fields around Laredo that I found out just how many tarantulas there are in South Texas.

One day several of my gas compressors went down in one area and I was called to go check it out. Getting near the location I noticed that a gully washer had occurred recently and being as the countryside was mostly flat it was all covered with about 4 inches of water. The highway was the only thing that was not covered with water, but it was covered with hundreds of thousands of tarantulas seeking higher ground. They would pop and fly up as I drove over them and the ones I missed would blow about like trash.

When I reached my compressors the water had subsided but I found out what made them go down. The spiders looking for higher ground got sucked up in the breathers and stopped them up. Also many of the tarantulas had climbed onto the exhaust pipes and mufflers and had fried to death. It stunk to high heaven, and removing the spiders from the breathers (some still alive) still gives me the willies when I think about it.

[Lockbar]

[DennisR]

Question: How many known human deaths have been attributed to tarantulas (according to "Animal Planet")?