# Scary spider stories thread



## RAXL

Oct. 28, 2005— Like the character Count Dracula and his real-life vampire bat counterparts, a small, East African jumping spider has a taste for blood, according to a recent study. 

The spider, Evarcha culicivora, lacks the ability to pierce skin and to sip blood, so instead it feeds indirectly on blood by choosing, as its preferred meal, female mosquitoes that have just engorged themselves with a victim's blood. 

The blood-hungry spider is the first predator ever identified that selects its prey based upon what the prey just ate. Similar to a protein shake, blood can be a highly nutritious drink that goes down smoothly. 

"Perhaps blood is a ready-made nutrient-rich liquid meal for which minimal energy expenditure in terms of processing is needed," said Ximena Nelson, lead author of the study, published in a recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


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## Dr Morbius

hey, I'm for anything that eats mosquitoes!


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## ScareFX

*Pet spider kills its owner*



> A police spokesman said: "It was like a horror movie. His corpse was over the sofa.
> 
> "Giant webs draped him, spiders were all over him. They were coming out of his nose and his mouth.
> 
> "There was everything there one could imagine in the world of reptiles.


http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004092008,00.html


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## Vlad

Burp


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## MacabreManor

I can assure you that this story will now be on my station's 9pm and 10pm news. It'l make a nice kicker, thanks!


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## Front Yard Fright

.


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## BuriedAlive

Play with fire, burn your fingers. Play with Black Widow spiders, get bitten and die. That's the risk he took having such animals. I wonder if the saying "don't bite the hand that feeds you" applies here. They bit his hand (and more), but his corpse was _feeding_ them.


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## slimy

One day, you'll read a story like that and say, "wasn't that slimy's house"?

This dude rocked.


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## Bone Dancer

I figure I will go that way, being found out in the yard putting up my props. Hope they just stand me up next to the fence with a lantern. I can be the caretaker then.


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## Lilly

Oh man,, I wanted to see apic of the guy covered in the webs...

There was a segment on our news a few weeks ago also about a guy that is keeping a black widow too.
he takes it back and forth to work so the kids don't play with it.
they found it alive in a bunch of grapes they bought at the store. 
He will be next in the stupid people tricks.


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## Ms. Wicked

That's just freaky.

Spiders will be spiders.


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## RAXL

And that's why I have arachnaphobia.


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## writer93

Oh lord that sent chills up and down me bigtime, thats why I dont have pet spiders. lol


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## Ghoulbug

Holy #[email protected]^!!! Now that is gross...Gee it is what....9:16AM...Now i am gonna itch all day!!! That is really stupid to have animals (or creatures) like that in ur house..Wonder how many of them got loose out of the apartment since they figure he's been dead for so long..I too would have liked to see the body all in webs and crap but that still freaks me out. YUCK!!!


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## darklord

that's one reason why you should not own Poisonous animals.


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## Sickie Ickie

or venomous?


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## Faerydae

Ack!! That's horrid! LOL!


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## BudMan

But what a great scene for a haunted house!


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## arcuhtek

Black widows can be found under just about any rock in a dark space here in North Carolina. Crreeeeepy!

I never knew they ate flesh...or was it just the decay they liked?


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## Johnny Thunder

*Humvee-sized, bulletproof meat-eating spiders*



http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/07/armoured_spiders_out_of_greenland/


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## Don Givens

Poor Al Gore, he has put on so much weight due to global warming it looks like his face was attacked by a nest of hornets.

Now I know that global warming is the reason I've gone from 160 to 176 pounds with in the last year. 

All of a sudden an inconvenient truth as turned into a rather convenient excuse for putting on some weight.

Thanks for the post JT, I feel much better about myself now that I realise that I am a victim of greedy industrialists and SUV driving soccer moms.


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## joker

Don Givens said:


> Poor Al Gore, he has put on so much weight due to global warming it looks like his face was attacked by a nest of hornets.
> 
> Now I know that global warming is the reason I've gone from 160 to 176 pounds with in the last year.
> 
> All of a sudden an inconvenient truth as turned into a rather convenient excuse for putting on some weight.
> 
> Thanks for the post JT, I feel much better about myself now that I realise that I am a victim of greedy industrialists and SUV driving soccer moms.


Holy Crapoly Don! Your right, and I thought I was just getting lazy while putting on a few extra pounds. I feel oh so much better now, thanks!


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## RoxyBlue

LOL, very funny article and extremely unlikely scenario, for which I am grateful because wolf spiders are already pretty damn scary and aggressive at their relatively petite size.


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## BuriedAlive

I was watching Monster Quest awhile back and they were looking for giant arachnids. Of course, the largest they found were of the African Goliath Bird Eating variety. But I recall a scientist on there saying something to the effect that it would be difficult for spiders to grow much bigger due to their anatomy and the way they require oxygen. Don't know how true that is, but I guess if something wants to mutate or evolve, it will. Of course, we're looking at it from the wrong side as them being things to be hunted. Wouldn't it be fun to domesticate them and put saddles on giant spiders to ride?


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## RoxyBlue

The oxygen/anatomy issue has to do with a limitation shared by exoskeleton-based creatures who rely on a passive breathing system. Spiders have respiratory organs, but not an active breathing system like ours. Air enters the body through openings in the abdomen and oxygen then diffuses into the haemolymph (a spider's equivalent of blood). There is a limit on how much body mass can efficiently be oxygenated using such a system, which effectively sets an upper limit on body size.

I expect the exoskeleton itself would also set an upper limit due to sheer weight.


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## Spooky1

I'm working on gene splicing to give spiders lungs so I can grow giant sized. I'll let you know how it turns ...... aaarrrgh...


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## Draik41895

Yes!I can finally take over the world with an army of super spiders!!!!!!!


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## sharpobject

I wonder if they would taste good. Could mean the end of world hunger.


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## Terrormaster

All praise Lolth! Our time in the dark comes close to an end and we shall rule the light as well as the dark - the world will tremble before Lolth and the Drow!


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## Kaoru

God I hate spiders....the thought of something like that just made my day. Thanks for the lovely picture. Terrormaster you must be taking something you need to share it with me!


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## BuriedAlive

Terrormaster said:


> All praise Lolth! Our time in the dark comes close to an end and we shall rule the light as well as the dark - the world will tremble before Lolth and the Drow!


TerrorMaster has been spending too much time in the Underdark. Next he'll be changing his name to Drizzt.

Roxy, thanks for the info. That was very informative, and I'm sure put a few people at ease about the giant spider invasion.


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## RoxyBlue

BuriedAlive said:


> Roxy, thanks for the info. That was very informative, and I'm sure put a few people at ease about the giant spider invasion.


...only until Spooky1 comes up with that gene mutation lung thing


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## Johnny Thunder

*Halloween fake spiders are deadly!*

Geez, that would stink.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...s-could-scare-arachnophobic-man-to-death.html


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## RoxyBlue

How debilitating this must be. Seriously, Halloween isn't the only issue - there's no place you can go that doesn't have spiders somewhere.


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## debbie5

How do you spell relief? T-H-E-R-A-P-Y. What is it called, aversion therapy?? where you are exposed to the thing you fear most? It's supposed be very sucessful.

I love these weird stories you find, JT!


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## The Creepster

I have a fear of people who are afraid of stuff


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## Johnny Thunder

*Ship of spiders*

Yikes - I see a new made for SyFy flick coming out of this one.....

_Authorities in the U.S. territory of Guam have turned away a ship after thousands of spiders overflowed from its cargo._

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38320429/ns/us_news/


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## RoxyBlue

That reminds me of the scene in Arachnophobia when the spiders start crawling out of the sink drain in large numbers - eewwwww!


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## hedg12

A sequel to Snakes on a Plane, maybe?


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## Spooky1

Are they radioactive spiders?


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## RoxyBlue

Are they ill-tempered?


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## The Pod

I was wondering what happened to that shipment.


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## MorbidMariah

That is sooo creepy! It's funny...I actually quite like spiders and if there's one or two, I feel no fear. But when there's swarms, of ANYTHING, I get extremely scared! I mean of ANYTHING...bees, spiders, mice, KIDS! hahaha


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## Lunatic

Whoa, that is freaky just thinking about it. That ship needs to be burned then sunk! Who knows what kind of environmental issue those things would cause. Your right JT, I see a movie in the making. MM, "swarms of kids"... now that is scary!


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## Terrormaster

@hedg: that's exactly what I been saying - gotta get Sam Jackson on the horn 'cause "Seriously, I've had it with the m-effin spiders on this m-effin boat!".

@JT: YES! We definitely need another good spider horror film.


Have they identified the type of spider yet? This happened about a week ago and they were supposed to announce what type.


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## scareme

Damn, I'm needing spiders for my haunt. I just saw a bag at Party Galaxy for $8. I bet these guys would be free. I'd just have to trap them.


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## Jaybo

Think about this for a second. There are thousands of spiders on this ship and probably a crew of about 20 to 30 people that live with them. Not allowed to dock. Just trapped on the ship out in the middle of the ocean. Spiders sharing your bed, your galley, and your head.I would NOT want to be a member of that crew!


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## debbie5

Most sailors usually get crabs,not spiders......


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## ELH Erin Loves Halloween

I think they should have hired Billy the exterminator for this job.


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## PirateLady

Think I would be abandoning ship and let the spiders have it...


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## Terrormaster

Lost at sea for weeks... Soon it will be "eat or be eaten"!


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## Howlinmadjack

debbie5 said:


> Most sailors usually get crabs,not spiders......


That's hilarious!!


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## Johnny Thunder

*Tarantulas on the loose in UK*

What delightful sounding pets!

_The rare spiders are able to blind people by shooting hairs in their eyes._



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7913369/Tarantulas-on-the-loose-in-Britain.html


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## RoxyBlue

I've heard of splitting hairs as a defense mechanism, but not spitting them


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## Terrormaster

*Mass of Daddy Long Leg Spiders in a Tree*

Now this is wicked creepy. I knew ants did this but my understanding was that spiders are generally anti-social and solitary creatures. But this is just freaky:


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## MommaMoose

That is tooo wild! Could it be a mating thing? Don't know anything about spiders so this kind of makes me wonder. Still ICK!


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## RoxyBlue

It's 'cause they aren't actually spiders They just look like them.

Wikipedia had this to say about the arachnids otherwise known as harvestmen:

"Many species of harvestmen easily tolerate members of their own species, with aggregations of many individuals often found at protected sites near water. These aggregations can count up to 200 animals in the Laniatores, but more than 70,000 in certain Eupnoi. This behavior is likely a strategy against climatic odds, but also against predators, combining the effect of scent secretions, and reducing the probability of each individual of being eaten."

And yes, it's creepy to see


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## GothicCandle

I didn't know this about those, but I watched a show on animal planet once about a true spider which live in large societys building and tending to one giant web. I can't remember what they're called. I'll try and look it up.

Edit:





sciencenews.org

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9820-societyfocused-spiders-live-and-hunt-together.html


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## PirateLady

Ok that's just creepy I don't care what they are.


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