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Old 05-26-2007, 11:46 PM   #1
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Bug stories

I don't like spiders. At all. Once, I killed a tarantula in my bathtub. With a 8 lb. dumbell.

What? I wasn't going to leave the thing in my house! It was it or me!

I also don't like scorpions, and here's why: When I was a girl, living in Mexico, my bedroom ceiling was bamboo stalks laid together. You could hear the scorpions walking around up there at night. And occassionally . . . one would drop down on the bed.



What are some of your favorite bug stories?
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Old 05-27-2007, 10:25 AM   #2
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I was recently bitten by a spider. Not the first time and not the last. All of us have probably been bitten a few times, but we just don't know it.

This bite however came at an extremely inopportune time and place, both where I was working and where on my body. Right boob, just under the lacy edge of my bra. Because of what I was doing at the time, I had to tolerate it with no more than a quick brush, so I couldn't find the crushed beast. However, it looked brown and small, no more than a dime size. Right location for a brown recluse... In a dusty room with old boxes and moldering books.

The bite site festered and showed signs of incipient sepsis. I went for emergency treatment at a walk in a couple of days after the bite... The pain at that time was significant. Hospitalization was out. Wound culture was out. My educated self wound treatments at home were now out. The doc brought in other docs for wow purposes and all the staff now recognizes me as the girl with the festering tit. I suppose they are a bit more restrained about it, but the glowing purple corona around a black and necrotic bite wound is probably high on their lists of Gross Things Seen at Work. Subsequent entrenched staph infection, scar tissue, multiple antibiotics and topicals and special dressings. All out of pocket, I'd say this spider bite cost me between $600 and $800. Only, I'm no longer employed by the service that sent me to that god-forsaken armpit of humanity. So really thousands more. And uncounted more because of the lack of insurance and other bennies.

We think now that this was not a brown recluse. We don't know what it was exactly, but a brown recluse bite should have been more painful immediately.

I like spiders. I rarely kill them.
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Old 05-27-2007, 10:28 AM   #3
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oooh, sad story, Lizzie. Black widow, maybe? Hope your tit is on the mend!

Sad to say, we have both brown recluse and black widows here. I had to move out of one apartment, because the porch was infested.
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Old 05-27-2007, 11:14 AM   #4
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Nah, I know from black widows, too.

I've been bitten or stung by a number of insects that would freak others out. The worst was a velvet ant, aka cowkiller, a ground dwelling wasp that is covered with scarlet hairs on the carapace. I knew what I saw, but it took several days for us to find some university entomologist to confirm. Pain was excruciating, and I am extremely pain tolerant. Three days in bed, with foot in a bucket of ice. I'd keep it there until the freezing was too painful, then rest it on a towel for ten to twenty minutes until the pain was intolerable, return it to the ice water. This was around the clock. The pain from either the bite or the ice would wake me so I spent three days in a very drowsy state. I was stung on a Thursday at 6 PM or so, and late Sunday afternoon the pain abated with no followup twinges. Absolutely no indicators save pain to identify the site.

Pics here.Beautiful creature, though.
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Old 05-27-2007, 11:31 AM   #5
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wow, yeah. wow. You must be so sweet!

I've never been bitten. I think I've only been stung by a scorpion once. No biggie. But needless to say, I don't haunt any woodpiles around here, or anything.

My other big bug story came when I was a 17-year old freshman in college. It was in Mexico, and a friend and I rented some little shanty at the bank of someone's house. We were so desperate to get out of the dorms--why is that, I wonder now? Anyway, this place had such minimal plumbing, the kitchen sink drained out a hole in the back. Two rooms, very, very basic in a dirt street colonia.

One afternoon I was sitting on my bed when I looked down, and there was this . . . .CREATURE scuttling toward me. Bright orange, big as a softball, too many legs!

and it was between me and the door.

After spending some time shrieking, I finally got the nerve to LEAP over it, grab the broom and pummel the shit out of it.

Still don't know what it was, other than the biggest freakin' spider I ever saw. It looked like a crab, but after I got through making sure it was dead, dead, dead, there wasn't enough left to identify the species.

I remain pretty traumatized by this event.
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Old 05-27-2007, 12:03 PM   #6
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Yeah, I can picture that! Sorry to laught at your misfortune, but it is a humorous story this long removed.

I experienced a bit of cognitive dissonance with any of my negative insect related experiences. I'm awed by Nature, wowed by the individual observations, and can separate that almost completely from any natural feelings of revulsion or fear. So I would hyperventilate a little at the idea of going barefoot in my cracker back yard after the velvet ant bite, and for a brief moment think I should asphalt the entire thing, but my earth mother nature would relish the fragile ecosystem. Very odd position to be in.

It's the same hearing about your ginormous spider experience. Fascinating and curious, but I can empathize with your fear as well.

Okay someone tell a good bug story. Cloud's experiences and mine are fine, but yours will add another dimension, nu?
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Old 05-27-2007, 12:21 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lizzymahoney View Post
Okay someone tell a good bug story. Cloud's experiences and mine are fine, but yours will add another dimension, nu?
they're all too manly to be frightened of little ol' bugs (sticks out tongue)
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Old 05-28-2007, 01:52 AM   #8
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I have a love/hate relationship with bees--they love me, and I hate them.

One recent night, I left my window screen open for some idiotic reason, and awoke in the morning to find a gigantic bee hovering mere inches from my face.

All I could do was stay very still, and say my bee prayer to myself (pleasegoawaypleasegoway). Thank god it flew back out the window, after what seemed like an eternity.
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Old 05-28-2007, 05:13 AM   #9
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Bees are attracted to sweet people.
Or people that drink sweet booze.
Oh yeah, purple eye shadow too.

On the news last night they had a clip of a truck that overturned carrying bee hives. Lots and lots of bee hives. About 20 people in hazmat suits and bee keepers headnets, cleaning up.

Hmmm... interesting question, I wonder if the nets are one of the standard pieces of equipment for a emergency team truck? I suppose they would be handy if they suspected West Nile mosquitoes, nasty ants or a crawl space full of black widow spiders.
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Old 05-28-2007, 07:46 AM   #10
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A friend was an EMT. She described the 'banana suit' they had on the truck for any situation that required coverage. It was a hazmat suit, but could be used for other needs including insects and filth. It would not be something you'd want to put on unless necessary. They also have disposable gowns and masks for lesser stuff.
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Old 05-28-2007, 07:54 AM   #11
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An old love was allergic to bee and wasp stings. Or so he said. Funny, his mama didn't recall that. Anyhow, he would give this high pitched yelp if he saw one of the little fuckers, and run and lock himself in a bathroom or closet, stuffing the cracks in the doors. Then he'd plead with me to hurry up and get rid of the critter.

I suppose I should be more afraid of them. My older brother and I were toddlers playing in our backyard when we stumbled into a yellowjacket nest. They say I was stung more than a dozen places, and he was twice that. Neither of us are particularly fearful, but we both remember the fuss made over us with the sharp tang of ammonia and the feel of the ice packs.
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Old 05-28-2007, 01:27 PM   #12
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I've been stung scores of times over the years, hazard of being a country boy, and sometimes multiple stings at once. Twice I've had a bad reaction to single stings. The first was on the cheek, just below my eye, where I'd expect to react, if I was going to. The second was just a sting on the calf, no big deal, but my leg got really swollen and put me down for a day.

Doesn't make sense, but it has made me more apprehensive about stings, wondering if I'll have another reaction. Therefore, when I do get stung, I treat it with copious amounts of alcohol, usually Bourbon, plus keep it warm and moist.
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Old 05-28-2007, 01:37 PM   #13
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Wolf's wonderful bug story from here

Quote:
I was menaced by a praying mantis at work the other night.

I was peacefully standing outside on the porch and I noticed a mid-sized mantis (about 4 inches) clinging to the door to the nuthouse.

I was admiring it when it suddenly decided that I looked like a better perch than the glass door. It leapt at my chest, in a particularly aggressive manner.

I screamed. No. I didn't. I shrieked.

They aren't used to hearing me shriek at work.

It had a particularly vicious streak in it, so noting my discomfort, it lept onto my bare arm and started making it's way toward my face.

So I shrieked a lot. Again.

Now, of course, this is a Praying Mantis. Like everyone else I have know since childhood that they are cool, nice helpful insects, and they eat other icky bugs, and they do all kinds of cool things. I also, like everyone else, know incorrectly, that it's against the law to kill one.

My coworkers came running to my rescue, but once it was established that my attacker wasn't Bob the Crazy Guy who Sleeps on the Porch Sometimes getting angry over us not being able to give him coffee any longer they wandered off, leaving me to deal with this beast from outer space.

With lots of saying of "eeeuaw, eeeuaw, eeeeuaw" I gently tried to coax the thing onto my hand so I could return it to the garden where it clearly belonged. Instead, it decided that it would be much happier in the foyer, causing me to have to chase it around a small enclosed area.

It eventually responded to my entreaties to move outside.

(PRAYING MANTIS – Spiritual Realms. Praying Mantis brings you a strong, clear connection to the spiritual realms. It facilitates moving beyond the visible and everyday and supports devotion to Spirit.)
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Old 05-28-2007, 01:40 PM   #14
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LOL!

Maybe it was a messenger trying tell you something.
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Old 05-28-2007, 07:31 PM   #15
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I dunno (says the atheist), a praying anything would be a yawner for me. Mantises are a lovely color, though.

I always thought they should be called Preying Mantises.

My understanding is that they will bite humans if handled incorrectly. Could be wrong.
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