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I fcuking hate spiders


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6,000 Venomous Brown Recluse Spiders Infest Missouri Couple's Home

 

A Missouri couple is facing a web of legal troubles after their home was infested with an estimated 6,000 venomous spiders.

 

The Torsts bought their Weldon Spring country club home, which overlooks a golf course, in October of 2007. But they haven't been able to live in the house for years because of the massive infestation of brown recluse spiders.

 

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Susan Torst noticed the spiders shortly after she and her husband bought the house. The newspaper reports:

 

 

[she] saw spiders and their webs every day. They were in the mini blinds, the air registers, the pantry ceiling, the fireplace. Their exoskeletons were falling from the can lights. Once when she was showering, she dodged a spider as it fell from the ceiling and washed down the drain.

 

 

 

According to KMOV, the home has become known to locals as "the spider house." Earlier this week, an exterminator's brightly colored tarp tented the house as it was pumped full of pesticide. For the Torsts, the creepy, crawly ordeal has been anything but a day at the circus.

 

In 2008, the Torsts sued the home's former owners for failing to disclose that the house was essentially a fancy cave for spiders to breed in. A biologist consulted in the suit said the estimated number of spiders on the property was very conservative, since the numbers were drawn in the winter, when the arachnids are less active.

 

The Torsts also filed a claim with State Farm, their insurance company. The civil suit was found in their favor, but they've never collected the $472,110 that was awarded them. The house is now in foreclosure.

 

State Farm filed an appeal in 2013, but later dropped it. The previous owners filed for bankruptcy around the same time. Now the Torsts are suing again. Their attorney says that State Farm won't pay because there's a policy exclusion for insects. The lawyer points out that spiders are not insects.

 

Brown recluse spider bites are painful and can be very serious, depending on how much venom is injected in the bite.

 

“[The bite is] not going to kill you, but it will make you wish you were dead,” University of Kansas researcher Jamal Sandidge told KMOV.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/10/b..._n_5965116.html

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  • 3 weeks later...

Check this little fucker out. Always something nastier out there.

 

Tarantula Hawk. My wife took this photo by our pool when we first moved in. Fortunately we have eradicated them.

 

post-13077-1416954623.jpg

 

From Wiki

 

Behavior

 

The female tarantula hawk captures, stings, and paralyzes the spider, then either drags her prey back into her own burrow or transports it to a specially prepared nest, where a single egg is laid on the spider’s abdomen, and the entrance is covered. When the wasp larva hatches, it creates a small hole in the spider's abdomen, then enters and feeds voraciously, avoiding vital organs for as long as possible to keep the spider alive. After several weeks, the larva pupates. Finally, the wasp becomes an adult, and emerges from the spider's abdomen to continue the life cycle. Tarantula wasps are also nectarivorous. The consumption of fermented fruit sometimes intoxicates them to the point that flight becomes difficult. While the wasps tend to be most active in daytime summer months, they tend to avoid high temperatures. The male tarantula hawk does not hunt; instead, it feeds off the flowers of milkweeds, western soapberry trees, or mesquite trees (females feed on these same plants, as well).[1] Male tarantula hawks have been observed practicing a behavior called hill-topping, in which they sit atop tall plants and watch for passing females ready to reproduce. Females are not very aggressive, in that they are hesitant to sting, but the sting is extraordinarily painful.

 

Sting

 

The tarantula hawk is relatively docile and rarely stings without provocation. However, the sting, particularly of P. grossa, is among the most painful of any insect, though the intense pain only lasts about three minutes.[4] Commenting on his own experience, Justin O. Schmidt, entomologist and creator of the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, described the pain as "…immediate, excruciating pain that simply shuts down one's ability to do anything, except, perhaps, scream. Mental discipline simply does not work in these situations."[2] In terms of scale, the wasp's sting is rated near the top of the Schmidt sting pain index, second only to that of the bullet ant, and is described by Schmidt as "blinding, fierce [and] shockingly electric".[5] Because of their extremely large stingers, very few animals are able to eat them; one of the few animals that can is the roadrunner. Many predatory animals avoid these wasps, and many different insects mimic them, including various other wasps and bees (Mullerian mimics), as well as moths, flies (e.g., mydas flies), and beetles (e.g., Tragidion) (Batesian mimics).

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  • 4 weeks later...
Well looks like we're going to have to NUKE BALTIMORE

http://inhabitat.com/107-million-spiders-f...stewater-plant/

Rob, my brother has arachnophobia and lives close to Baltimore. Thanks for the link. :icon_mrgreen:

 

That is nuts. Wouldn't you do something back in 2009 when the infestation began... or any time between then and now? I actually want to see it in person. Maybe.

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Although the article did mentioned about the water being rich in nutrients, it seems more horrific to consider what other kinds of creepy crawlies are in the plant for the 107million spiders to feed on!

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Rob, my brother has arachnophobia and lives close to Baltimore. Thanks for the link. :icon_mrgreen:

 

That is nuts. Wouldn't you do something back in 2009 when the infestation began... or any time between then and now? I actually want to see it in person. Maybe.

:lol2:

"35,176 spiders could be found in every cubic meter of space"

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Although the article did mentioned about the water being rich in nutrients, it seems more horrific to consider what other kinds of creepy crawlies are in the plant for the 107million spiders to feed on!

 

Maybe the spiders could be said to be providing a free public service in helping keep the water extra clean :)

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For some reason the fake one freaks me more than the real ones.

 

 

Wdbc2KN.jpg

 

What about this little girl? I found her on my staircase one night, here in Hawaii. I hate the majority of spiders but thought this one was cute. My wife hates me for that, lol. I'd rather find these in my house all day than the giant Centipedes here. Those fuckers are vicious whereas these types of spiders are really friendly and mind their own business. Haven't found one in my bed yet. :)

 

Ian

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