View Full Version : Spiders
It's irrational I know, but spiders scare the hell out of me. Am I going to be seeing a lot of them on the trail? How about in shelters?
ChinMusic
02-01-2009, 02:48
I hate spiders too. It's a bad hobby when you're an arachnophobe. Shelters, esp the upper lever (if there is one), will def have spiders.
Fortunately the AT is heavily traveled and someone ahead of you, or heading the other direction, will probably have torn down last night's webs.
Unless you are the first to break camp in the morning.
freefall
02-01-2009, 03:44
But like Chinmusic said, they prefer the upper reaches of the shelters and if you let someone leave in the morning before you, chances are they will break the webs that cross the trail.
I only saw one poisonous spider in `06 on the trail. A brown recluse was living in the corner of one of the information kiosks down in GA I think. He wasn't bothering anyone and I let him be.
I keep a rescue black widow as a "pet". The warehouse at work took down the racking she was living under and I saved her from being squashed. I feed her every few days and once it warms up, I'll find a nice spot for her back out in the "wild" so she can go make more little spiders.:)
Montana Mac
02-01-2009, 09:01
Hike at night and you will be amazed (well at least I was :rolleyes:) at the number of spiders. Their eyes show up in the head lamp like small jewels on the trail.
I have face planted myself several times in big webs. I usually do the, "Wow, did someone just mace this guy?" thing until I'm sure I don't have a spider in my mouth or running down my neck. (There are more spiders on this earth then any other animal.)
I usually am first out of camp in the morning so I walk along with one of my hiking poles flailing up and down in front of me. There are several techniques like the mentioned flailing, or Lipizzan Horse prance (two poles) or maybe the gladiator entering the coliseum.
john gault
02-01-2009, 09:34
Be Afraid, be very Afraid! (http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=27287&c=member&imageuser=6936)
I have seen very few in shelters, a better reason to be in your own tent! :)
mountain squid
02-01-2009, 10:26
Eckville Shelter in 2004.
See you on the trail,
mt squid
I saw a big one like in mtn squids picture at the Horseshoe Canyon shelter a few years back. I was just stopped for lunch so we just looked at each other.
mountain squid
02-01-2009, 10:33
:eek:I just looked on my desk and there is a spider crawling around. How ironic. Should I squish it?
See you on the trail,
mt squid
I stayed in the shelter just before Hot Springs and was told there was a nest of black widows after I left that morning.
SGT Rock
02-01-2009, 10:34
Don't be the first on the trail in the mornings then. Also, you might want to avoid trail shelters.
hopefulhiker
02-01-2009, 10:44
you might want to consider a tent with full bug protection... I remember one night that I called 'The night of a thousand spiders" They were all over my tent! I got in an zipped up quickly but a few got in with me.. In the moonlight I could see the outside of my tarp tent just crawling with them! It was like a B grade horror show! I was really glad that I had that bug netting!
jersey joe
02-01-2009, 10:45
Great pic mountain squid. If you thru hike, you WILL come into contact with lots of spiders. Either learn to deal with them or be prepared to be scared daily.
john gault
02-01-2009, 10:58
I have seen very few in shelters, a better reason to be in your own tent! :)
You’re setting the poor guy up with a false sense of security.:sun
Somewhere in Virginia I set my tent up (about 3 hours before sunset) and yes I keep my tent door closed so things don’t crawl in. After setting up I started throwing in all my stuff and yes I check it before throwing in. I then ate and did other chores before turning in a little early that night.
As I was dosing off (still not completely dark) I saw this thing up on my tent roof; it kind of looked like a big leaf, so I kind of ignored it. But every time I opened my eyes it seemed to be getting closer, you know how grainy things look when you don’t yet have your night-vision.
Then it appeared so close, I was thinking there’s no way this could be a leaf, so I get my light shine it up and there’s this big-ass brown spider hanging from a web directly in front of my face. I’m not afraid of spiders, I actually like them, but I about jumped out of my skin. I opened my door grabbed the strand of web he was dangling from and swung him out the door, but as luck would have it he hit the tent and fell inside with me. So now I chasing him around my tent with my journal trying to scoop him out the door.
Didn’t sleep to well after that and now I display a paranoid-obsessive behavior when putting stuff in my tent.
ofthearth
02-01-2009, 10:59
you might want to consider a tent with full bug protection... I remember one night that I called 'The night of a thousand spiders" They were all over my tent! I got in an zipped up quickly but a few got in with me.. In the moonlight I could see the outside of my tarp tent just crawling with them! It was like a B grade horror show! I was really glad that I had that bug netting!
1. Just curious where were you?
2. another handy use for hiking poles clearing trail
3. lota spifers on the Florida Trail. Kinda interesting ones
ChinMusic
02-01-2009, 14:36
There are several trails in Illinois and Indiana that I WILL NOT hike in September anymore because of the "arachnid-alley affect". I await the first good freeze before I consider these trails "fun again".
Spraying permethrin around the opening of your tent will lessen the number of crawlies successfully getting in your tent.
did my buisness in a privy, then lowered the lid, there was a brown recluse on the other side of the lid, never have i gotten out of a privy so fast
Brow Recluse spiders are definitely not what you want to see near your behind or anywhere else for that matter! Those give me the creeps for sure :)
4eyedbuzzard
02-01-2009, 15:19
I'm not a big fan of them in my tent/sleeping space. But look at it this way. 50% of all insects wind up killed by spiders. Spiders aren't known to spread any disease. Yeah, they might bite you if disturbed, but they don't hunt people to bite them or for food or blood or anything.
A world without spiders would be absolutely overrun with insects, many of which spread disease. Ya gotta love 'em if for no other reason than this.
Remember, you are rarely more than six feet away from a spider.
johnnybgood
02-01-2009, 16:32
Brown Recluse and Black Widow spiders are the ones ya need to recognize and be leery of . They are often spotted in privies and other dark places and can be only inches away from biting your @ss as Gaiter found out.
Jim Adams
02-01-2009, 18:10
I don't really remember the exact figure but it wasn't that long ago at a medical class that I was attending...the talk was about poisonious spiders. The percentage was somewhere near 95% of all black widow bites in the U.S. are on mens scrotums at a privy. It is worth the time to use some TP and wipe around the underside of the seat at a privy prior to sitting down!
geek
on the serious side, if all this spider talk is freaking you out even more, just keep in mind that most spiders eat mosquitos, so as long as they aren't on you or your stuff, let them be but be able to recognize the poisonous ones
johnnybgood
02-01-2009, 18:54
So true . I'm a universal blood donor and I'm convinced the mosquitos also know that.
I love this thread. I have always been terrified of spiders. And never snakes. I finally realized I need to deal with my spider fear and not just go nuts when one landed one me or my gear. Like most midwesterners, I have an old house with recluses and I have have been bitten by a brown recluse. Between sheet and leg. With not real ill effect other than a three week boil and penecillin shots when I was a kid. So now, I try to ID the spider. Nice wolfe spider pic you posted Mountian Squid. Those wolfe spiders almost get the size of dinner plates. They still give the me the absooute creeps. But I can hardly tell people to respect and not kill every snake if I freak out over a spider. Shake out clothes and shoes. I still have to breathe and think...orb weaver, wolfe, etc.
wolf spiders are another to watch out for, they won't kill you, but they can make you sick, or in my experience give you a nice little infected bite area right on the back of your heel (yaah antibiotics and emt/hostel owners that know more than doctors)
Serial 07
02-02-2009, 03:36
come, i don't know, virgina, shine your flashlight on the ground...that thing you see reflecting back sorta like a piece of metal would, is a wolf spider...or so i'm told...
wish i had known that, but the spider was behind me, so still wouldn't have helped, i never actually saw the spider that bit me, it was identified through the bitemarks/reaction
Serial 07
02-02-2009, 03:42
: terrorface smiley :
Rainbow_Brite
02-02-2009, 08:37
I hear you. I'm totally scared of spiders too. I wish I wasn't, but that's just the way it is. I thru-hiked in 2006, and yes, I definitely saw spiders. You just learn to deal with it, even if you are scared. I admit there were definitely nights that I tented because of them. You'll get through it though.
john gault
02-02-2009, 09:50
Yeah, Wolf spiders are cool, this one was at Black Rock Shelter. (http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=26233&original=1&c=member&imageuser=6936)
warraghiyagey
02-02-2009, 09:55
Also, you might want to avoid trail shelters.
And privvies. Along the northeast section privvies are a favored hangout for Wolf Spiders which are harmless but would certainly freak out any arachnophobes. . .
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Animals/Spiders/Wolf_Spider_8_eyes_PB032198.JPG
papa john
02-02-2009, 09:59
We get a lot of Banana Spiders down here. Huge webs and the spiders themselves can get to be very large. Harmless though and they keep the insect population under control.
I'll take bears, venomous snakes, dogs and wolves over spiders any day of the week. Having said that, it's not a major issue on the trail. If you break camp at first light, it might help to have a hiking stick or pole to break the many webs strung across the trail - as an alternative to your face. :eek:
PS: Wolf Spiders aren't "harmless". Almost all spiders have some venom. That's how they kill their prey. A large wolf spider certainly won't kill you, but they can give you a nice welt. And they are far more common than a Black Widow or Brown Recluse - as they can be found in leaf litter.
ChinMusic
02-02-2009, 10:19
We get a lot of Banana Spiders down here. Huge webs and the spiders themselves can get to be very large. Harmless though and they keep the insect population under control.
OMG, I spotted one of those beasts for the first time while golfing in SC. Being from Illinois I had never seen one before.
That was the LAST time I went into the bush to look for a ball......DEF not worth it.
Glad to hear they are harmless, they certainly don't look harmless.
papa john
02-02-2009, 10:25
OMG, I spotted one of those beasts for the first time while golfing in SC. Being from Illinois I had never seen one before.
That was the LAST time I went into the bush to look for a ball......DEF not worth it.
Glad to hear they are harmless, they certainly don't look harmless.
They are very scary but if you walk into a web they will make every attempt to get away from you. I think we had about 6 huge webs out in the backyard last year.
Frick Frack
02-02-2009, 10:28
We tented most of our hike mostly for this reason (my wife hates spiders....I hate snakes) but the spiders seemed to get in anyhow (probably on us when we entered the tent?). Remember there is usually a spider within 20ft of you at all times (at least thats what was stated on a Discovery special on spiders).
I've been bitten by a brown recluse. Takes steroids to counter act the venom and antibiotics. Get some sleep aids to counter the 'roids....
And, recluses are actually interesting. They are "shy" spiders. They like cool dark, quiet places. They like to hang out in clothes closets (think where you keep your winter quilts and such), and in stacks of newspapers. And, on their bite. By themselves, they don't have the fang strength to penetrate human skin. They have to have their backs up against something to get enough pressure. However, remember their favorite habitat. Lots of newspapers and quilts to back up to when you reach your hand in....
And remember....in Texas....we have Spiders building condos...
Mrs Baggins
02-02-2009, 10:55
Took a friend day hiking on the AT in PA, in the Michaux Forest area. She's not much for the outdoors. She was in front of me and all of a sudden started stopping dead in her tracks, letting out a huge scream, then walking a few feet and doing it again. Turns out the leaf cover on the trail had 1000s of little black and orange spiders in it. In Guatemala we got some kind of huge leggy spider in our cabin (floor boards had gaps). We could hear it walking on the walls! It moved too fast to kill it. Pitch black in the cabin, howler monkeys on the roof and peering in, giant spider running around, hot and humid, and we're completely under the covers scared out of our minds! (we couldn't leave the lights on. they were operated by a generator and that was shut down at 11 pm).
papa john
02-02-2009, 11:08
Took a friend day hiking on the AT in PA, in the Michaux Forest area. She's not much for the outdoors. She was in front of me and all of a sudden started stopping dead in her tracks, letting out a huge scream, then walking a few feet and doing it again. Turns out the leaf cover on the trail had 1000s of little black and orange spiders in it. In Guatemala we got some kind of huge leggy spider in our cabin (floor boards had gaps). We could hear it walking on the walls! It moved too fast to kill it. Pitch black in the cabin, howler monkeys on the roof and peering in, giant spider running around, hot and humid, and we're completely under the covers scared out of our minds! (we couldn't leave the lights on. they were operated by a generator and that was shut down at 11 pm).
Sounds like my last cruise on Carnival Cruise Lines!:rolleyes:
WritinginCT
02-02-2009, 11:10
I have sort of a love/hate relationship with spiders. I don't purposely go out of my way to kill them but here at my house we have a rule that I explained to the spider kingdom when we moved in- we live inside, they live outside and yes, that includes the eaves of the deck where I sit. lol... all kidding aside though- I generally leave them alone even in the house (unless they are above my head).
This past summer one of my screams filled the neighborhood though. :D We have a raised ranch with half the back deck being open the other half enclosed with an open doorway between them. I wasn't paying attention and went to walk out on the open part of the deck and came nose to nose with an ENORMOUS black and yellow spider in a huge web across the doorway. I don't know what kind he was, but after my heart started beating again I took a good look at him. He was easily 8-9" toe to toe and his body about the size of a half-dollar. Hubby relocated him back out by the shed later that day.
When hiking though, you're in their house. And you can get some *gorgeous* pictures of webs and spiders if you're observant. If you're not so observant and want to see spiders in CT - just visit any state park latrine/privy. :eek: Thank you kindly- I'll be the one digging a cat hole.
Spiders and bats are why we are not overrun by bugs :banana
I remove spiders from my home and let them outside, they do far too much good for the environment! :)
john gault
02-02-2009, 12:00
I remove spiders from my home and let them outside, they do far too much good for the environment! :)
I do the same, they are just too valuable to step on. Even when I'm hiking, I'm careful to remove all the spiders that have crawled on top of my tent in the morning before packing up.:sun
I don't really remember the exact figure but it wasn't that long ago at a medical class that I was attending...the talk was about poisonious spiders. The percentage was somewhere near 95% of all black widow bites in the U.S. are on mens scrotums at a privy. It is worth the time to use some TP and wipe around the underside of the seat at a privy prior to sitting down!
geek
One of the more valuable things my Dad ever told me as a runt.
I use a stick for the wipe around.
Those big yellow/black spiders look vile but are really your friend. Outside, of course.
Rain Man
02-02-2009, 16:08
Ahhhh, but see, you have a story to tell!!! LOL
Took a friend day hiking on the AT in PA, in the Michaux Forest area. She's not much for the outdoors. She was in front of me and all of a sudden started stopping dead in her tracks, letting out a huge scream, then walking a few feet and doing it again. Turns out the leaf cover on the trail had 1000s of little black and orange spiders in it. In Guatemala we got some kind of huge leggy spider in our cabin (floor boards had gaps). We could hear it walking on the walls! It moved too fast to kill it. Pitch black in the cabin, howler monkeys on the roof and peering in, giant spider running around, hot and humid, and we're completely under the covers scared out of our minds! (we couldn't leave the lights on. they were operated by a generator and that was shut down at 11 pm).
Desert Reprobate
02-02-2009, 16:10
I mix pesticide in the paint when I paint. Then I can sweep all the dead spiders and take them outside and set them free.
Rain Man
02-02-2009, 16:14
(my wife hates spiders....I hate snakes)
Hate? Or, fear? Two different things.
In any event, we should not hate, nor fear, either. They be our friends!
Rain:sunMan
.
Mrs Baggins
02-02-2009, 16:53
My dad truly despised spiders. He'd feed snakes and let yellow jackets land on his hand while he fed them bits of his sandwich. But when the black widows were out under the eaves of our garage he'd load his .22 rifle and shoot them right in their big bulbous bodies. He'd also fill a glass jar with gasoline, shove black widows into it with a stick, cap the jar, and set it on the very hot galvanized roof of the garage.
ChinMusic
02-02-2009, 18:03
I'm trying to reconcile these two quotes....
The percentage was somewhere near 95% of all black widow bites in the U.S. are on mens scrotums at a privy.
They be our friends!
Rain:sunMan
Montana Mac
02-02-2009, 18:09
The percentage was somewhere near 95% of all black widow bites in the U.S. are on mens scrotums at a privy. It is worth the time to use some TP and wipe around the underside of the seat at a privy prior to sitting down!
geek
Another reason to use a "cathole"
theinfamousj
02-02-2009, 18:26
Brow Recluse spiders are definitely not what you want to see near your behind or anywhere else for that matter! Those give me the creeps for sure :)
Having survived a Brown Recluse bite, let me tell you that it HURT and I was in the hospital for quite some time. There but for a tourniquet.
Here's my take on the spider thing. They eat other insects, some of which are intent in biting you. Spiders can't consume human beings. They bite when they are threatened. I live in a basement apartment. Spiders are part of life here. If I forget to shake out my slippers, I sometimes receive a bite on my foot (usually on top just below the ankle). The poor spider probably gets squashed. I usually get a raised welt similar to a flea bite. Sometimes I get a ring around the bite, but I know it's a spider that gave it (the local clinic affirms that spider bites can mimic those of ticks carrying Lyme Disease). Keep your shoes in a stuffsack or plastic bag if spiders worry you, and do the same with your clothing. Use a tent or hammock. You have no control of what critters are in the shelters. If you are still worried, take comfort in the knowledge that the same chemical that kills ticks (Permethrin) also kills spiders. They are both arachnids. Mosquitoes and ticks can do far greater and lasting damage than a common spider. Brown recluses and black widows deserve a wide berth, however. Follow the above advice as far as checking out privies, and you should be fine. Use a forked branch (hold it out in front of you) early in the morning on the trail to sweep away the spider webs. They were especially troublesome in Vermont, in my case, in late July. Take care, don't worry, and be happy (borrowed from Bobby Darren).
leeki pole
02-02-2009, 18:53
I too survived a brown recluse bite. Stupid me, I knew they were in my shed on the back 40 (them suckers are fast). So I go out to walk the dogs in flip flops (dumb) put my foot under the bush hog (dumber) and wallah, next day I've got a oozing bite on the top of my foot. They don't get better very soon and hurt like heck. After about six months it finally healed. Dry, dark and concealed spaces. That's what to look out for.
leeki pole
02-02-2009, 19:05
Just to say, brown recluses don't spin webs, at least down here. They're ground dwellers but really fast. Black widow spin really spindly webs, again dry and dark areas, and they're the only shiny black spider in North America. Folks say a wolf spider can bite, but I've never seen evidence of that. Other than them, I don't think you have a lot to fear. Garden spiders and marbled orb weavers spin those really cool webs, but they're harmless.
beakerman
02-02-2009, 19:10
Last spring the boys and I were out camping and when we took the rainfly off my tent the rood fo the tent was litterally covered with thousands of daddy-longlegs--you know those spindly looking ones that are supposedly not really spiders. They are completely harmless but to see that much mass of creepy crawlies was a little wierd. I think they just liked the color of my tent and rain fly.
I too survived a brown recluse bite. Stupid me, I knew they were in my shed on the back 40 (them suckers are fast). So I go out to walk the dogs in flip flops (dumb) put my foot under the bush hog (dumber) and wallah, next day I've got a oozing bite on the top of my foot. They don't get better very soon and hurt like heck. After about six months it finally healed. Dry, dark and concealed spaces. That's what to look out for.
A friendly note of instruction - there's no such word as "wallah". It's voila (with an accent mark over the "a" which I don't have access to in my computer). It's a French word which means, essentially, "look there", or "there it is".
Yes, indeed, brown recluse spider bites produce a deep ulcer (liquified flesh under the skin) and they are very easily infected.
Last spring the boys and I were out camping and when we took the rainfly off my tent the rood fo the tent was litterally covered with thousands of daddy-longlegs--you know those spindly looking ones that are supposedly not really spiders. They are completely harmless but to see that much mass of creepy crawlies was a little wierd. I think they just liked the color of my tent and rain fly.
I haven't checked into it, but I've been told that the venom of a daddy longlegs is more potent than that of a cobra. The only saving grace, according to my source, is that their fangs are too small to penetrate human skin.:-?
beakerman
02-02-2009, 19:51
I haven't checked into it, but I've been told that the venom of a daddy longlegs is more potent than that of a cobra. The only saving grace, according to my source, is that their fangs are too small to penetrate human skin.:-?
I think we are talking two different types of beasties. There is a cellar spider (that's what we used to call them) that some folks call a daddy longlegs. The ones I'm talking about are the ones that seem to be just a ball with long thin legs.
See this link: http://spiders.ucr.edu/daddylonglegs.html
ChinMusic
02-02-2009, 19:55
I had a spider keep me from getting lost once.
On a Sept hike at Knobstone we had a long day planned. My group was way ahead of me and I was struggling in the heat. I was trudging along in woe-is-me mode with my head down, pissed at the world. I ran smack into a huge web. After doing the spider dance, I was thinking, "How far are those guys ahead of me if this spider had to time to reload?"
I then noticed I missed a turn. Had it not been for that spider who knows were I would have ended up.
beakerman
02-02-2009, 19:58
Why can't I edit my posts on this forum?!! it's frustrating as heck.
Anywau the ones I'm talking about are the ones that are not spiders the opilinoids not the arachnids. the rest of it goes on to say that is totally a myth.
Come on people, spiders??? Now living in Alaska, we are talking Grizzleys but a Spider LOL :-?
I think we are talking two different types of beasties. There is a cellar spider (that's what we used to call them) that some folks call a daddy longlegs. The ones I'm talking about are the ones that seem to be just a ball with long thin legs.
See this link: http://spiders.ucr.edu/daddylonglegs.html
My source was referring to the opilionids, and, according to the link, was dead wrong. I will have to point that out to her. Thanks for the link.
Why can't I edit my posts on this forum?!! it's frustrating as heck.
Anywau the ones I'm talking about are the ones that are not spiders the opilinoids not the arachnids. the rest of it goes on to say that is totally a myth.
Answer to question - you need to be a donating member to edit your posts. Drove me crazy, too. I made a donation-problem solved. ;)
Tennessee Viking
02-02-2009, 20:19
They mainly go for dark, dank places. Usually in the upper reaches of the shelters or in the back corners underneath the platform.
The only scary one I saw was a huge wolf spider, the size my hand, at the rockwall on the Hampton TN Blue Blaze.
As lond as they are nice little non posionous spiders, they are good to have at shelters. They will catch the shelter bugs and eat them.
Come on people, spiders??? Now living in Alaska, we are talking Grizzleys but a Spider LOL :-?
Don't even get me started on fire ants.
Farr Away
02-02-2009, 21:13
My hiking partner and I took our boys on their first backpacking trip last August. Unfortunately, the trail we chose seemed to have a daddy long legs walking across it every couple of feet. _Totally_ freaked my five year old!!
beakerman
02-02-2009, 23:15
Don't even get me started on fire ants.
Fireants...I hate the little buggers!!! Kill them all and don't bother to sort them out either.
They are the only creature I know that will literally bite the hand that saves them. Back when I lived in NOLA (I got out two years before Katrina) we had a little storm come in and cause some local flooding. Iwas out int my yard taking photos when a mass of fireants came floating along and bumped into my leg...needless to say you ain't seen anything until you see a 35 year old man jumping around in the flood waters striping his close off and cussing up a storm:jump
I've never heard of fire ants. What do they do? Should I take time out from my spider fear to worry about them?
Montana Mac
02-03-2009, 08:26
Come on people, spiders??? Now living in Alaska, we are talking Grizzleys but a Spider LOL :-?
At least you can see them coming, most of the time. :eek:
I've never heard of fire ants. What do they do? Should I take time out from my spider fear to worry about them?
They bite/sting and I think the name comes from the fact that it feels like a burning needle when they do it.
Mrs Baggins
02-03-2009, 09:18
I've never heard of fire ants. What do they do? Should I take time out from my spider fear to worry about them?
They're very prevalent in the southeastern US, though it's said they are slowing moving northward. They build very grainy looking mounds in the yard (your "garden"), and other places where they can chew up the dirt. They remain underground most of the time - right up until you step on that mound. Then there are thousands and thousands of them swarming on your feet and stabbing you with tiny fiercely sharp red hot needles and they leave burning itching bumps. You can "kill" the mound with specially made poisonous granules but it will usually just pop up somewhere else. I've never heard of them moving indoors - that's for the carpenter ants. Huge black ants that eat wood and nest anywhere - like the inside of a tube of plastic wrap that I reached for in a kitchen drawer in Georgia...........:eek:
Back to spiders for a moment - - we were on a road trip and stopped at a Tennessee rest stop to eat lunch. I piled everything on the picnic table and was starting to make sandwiches when I noticed daddy long leg spiders appearing on the table surface. I leaned down to look under the table and my heart nearly stopped. The underside of the table was completely covered, throbbing pulsing moving, with thousands of spiders. Our using the table put them on the move. To this day (that was 11 years ago) I do not EVER sit at a picnic table or on any bench for that matter without first looking under it. When I'm hiking and want to sit down on a stump, log, rock, whatever, I give it several hard whacks with my poles first. I figure that will either make whatever is living on it 1) run away 2) be terrified enough to just sit still and hide 3) show itself brazenly and make me look for seating elsewhere.
john gault
02-03-2009, 09:19
I've never heard of fire ants. What do they do? Should I take time out from my spider fear to worry about them?
http://ipmworld.umn.edu/chapters/lockley.htm
Lot of ants, but I've never seen a fire ant in the mountains. We have them here in Florida and I remember seeing them (being bitten by them) as far north as North Carolina while camping during long distance bike trips.
you might want to consider a tent with full bug protection... I remember one night that I called 'The night of a thousand spiders" They were all over my tent! I got in an zipped up quickly but a few got in with me.. In the moonlight I could see the outside of my tarp tent just crawling with them! It was like a B grade horror show! I was really glad that I had that bug netting!
One night in the summer when there was a full moon, I put a piece of white tyvek outside the door of my tent. It was glowing bright white in the moon light, later that night I looked out there and there were hundreds of daddy-long-leg spiders all over the tyvek. They must have been attracted by the bright white material. They were just crawling all over that thing and the gear that I had placed on it. It was real creepy.
Panzer
nyushka42
02-03-2009, 16:01
Disclaimer: If anyone asks why I didn't go to a doctor, its because unless I'm bleeding gallons or have exploding boils, I fear them more than the injury.
In Georgia, I think at the Gooch Gap shelter, in my sleep I got bitten on the back of my calf right below the knee by something that I've never identified for sure. It was 5 or 6 bites that looked like pimples at first, and then I started getting worried when the area around them started going numb. I hiked throughout the day, and at the next shelter I took my knife & lanced the crap out & disinfected it like crazy. Next day did the same thing. Seemed to get better until a week later I was on the Greyhound for 15 hours to Fayetteville (after I injured my ankle and had to leave the trail), and the pimples/numbness reappeared again. Once I arrived at my destination, once again proceeded to lance/disinfect. Then I jumped into an over-chlorinated pool for a couple hours. Pimples never reappeared, and the numb skin was stiff for about a year. Now its fine, and just some dark marks on my leg.
People have suggested it was a mild reaction to a brown recluse, but I'll probably never know for sure.
Rain Man
02-03-2009, 17:08
Back to spiders for a moment - - we were on a road trip and stopped at a Tennessee rest stop to eat lunch. I piled everything on the picnic table and was starting to make sandwiches when I noticed daddy long leg spiders appearing on the table surface. I leaned down to look under the table and my heart nearly stopped. The underside of the table was completely covered, throbbing pulsing moving, with thousands of spiders.
Which was it? Spiders or daddy long legs? BIG difference.
Rain:sunMan
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Jayboflavin04
02-09-2009, 08:04
Spiders! I am like most. I dont kill them cause they eat the bugs!
But with all bugs(espcially tick,and spiders)....If I find one on me there might as well be a thousand. Like someone said earlier. I probably look like I have just been maced!:D
Me boys thanks ya for the privy post! I am sure it would be uncomfortable hiking with a swollen wrinkle bag. Or worse yet having to part with one or both of them.
Need to learn to identify the dangerous ones?
What is that saying....An ounce of prevention is worth a something somethin
Lots of spiders in the shelters if you sleep in them, best to tent nearby and just use the shelter for socializing. I solved the spider problem by letting someone leave the shelter befor I did, I called them the 'web catcher'
NatureTalk
03-01-2009, 21:50
If you don't like spiders, forget about hiking in Florida. We live in the woods, a normal suburban neighborhood. In the summer the big banana spiders are EVERYWHERE. They cover our house in webs, and between every other tree.
They are quite beautiful, and don't bite, but they're big and will surely creep out anybody with a spider problem.
Lots of little tiny spiders in our house too. I guess you won't be coming over for dinner now, eh? :-)
This is a fun thread with some great pictures. I have always been terrified of spiders. Not snakes. Unusual. I got a recluse bite at summer camp as a child, really not that big of a deal, but it was in my bunk and I missed 3 weeks of lake fun. They treat the bite way better now than they did in the 70's. Back then it was lance and enough penecillin shots to kill a horse. What I have done to get over this irrational fear of mine is to learn to ID them. I had to. I live in a 95 year old house and spiders are a fact of life but I had to get over the go bezerk factor. So I got our freebie conservation guide. They still give me the willies, but here is what I have learned: spiders are everywhere. Fun to see their eyes glow at night. The big ones are scary and they are wolf spiders. The two bad ones, the Brown recluse and the black widow are really reclusive. The recluse bites when it gets trapped between your skin and clothing or sheets, etc. Just shake out your stuff including your footwear. The only time I have encountered a recluse on a hike is when I came home and dumped my backpack on the floor and one crawled out.