21 replies to this topic

[Catz]

TheLastLazyGun, on 15 November 2012 - 05:18 PM, said:

You don't have to worry about that.  It's just an urban legend.  The chances of you swallowing a spider as you sleep is almost zero.  Not only do most spiders have no desire to crawl into a person's mouth (they will stay well away from the mouth of an animal which they would see as a predator) but, in order for you to swallow a spider in your sleep, a series of unlikely coincidences will have to occur:

1)  If a spider crawled on your face, you will most likely feel it, so a spider would have to enter your mouth by "abseiling" into it from the ceiling on its silk thread;

2)  Then the spider would have to hit your mouth dead centre to avoid tickling your lips and arousing your attention;

3)  Even if it did that the chances are it would then hit your tongue, which has a highly-sensitive surface.  You would almost certainly feel it.  This would mean that the spider would have to land at the back of your throat without touching anything on the way in;

4)  And, after all that, you would then have to swallow at just the right moment.

So it is very silly to worry about swallowing spiders in your sleep because, basically, it is not going to happen.

Maybe, it's not the swallow part that's bugging me-I mean I might not even be aware that I actually swallowed something.  But the thought that something could crawl into my mouth..that just freaks me out!!  My mom once woke up in the morning and felt something in her mouth.  It was a spider leg!!!!!  Not kidding!

[libstaK]

I've never seen that particular type of spider.  Of course, in Australia a great many "household" spiders have the inconvenient capacity to kill you .  Which is why I allow daddy long legs to reside in rarely used corners of my home but spray, squish or otherwise eliminate all others - what I don't get I live in hope that my 2 cats will handle.

[DKO]

libstaK, on 16 November 2012 - 12:46 PM, said:

I've never seen that particular type of spider.  Of course, in Australia a great many "household" spiders have the inconvenient capacity to kill you .  Which is why I allow daddy long legs to reside in rarely used corners of my home but spray, squish or otherwise eliminate all others - what I don't get I live in hope that my 2 cats will handle.

Haha yeah I was going to say in Australia it's different. Other countries they say a spider bite is no big deal, here, you go to the doctors.

Even though I've never personally seen a spider that is likely to kill you.

[libstaK]

DKO, on 16 November 2012 - 01:06 PM, said:

Haha yeah I was going to say in Australia it's different. Other countries they say a spider bite is no big deal, here, you go to the doctors.

Even though I've never personally seen a spider that is likely to kill you.

Unfortunately I see white tail spiders at least 3 to 4 times a year .  On the plus side, I've yet to be confronted with a redback

[DKO]

libstaK, on 16 November 2012 - 01:11 PM, said:

Unfortunately I see white tail spiders at least 3 to 4 times a year .  On the plus side, I've yet to be confronted with a redback

Different worlds, I see Redbacks all the time. They're not that bad, they run to the corner of their web as soon as you get near them. Just don't stick your hand in their web.

My boss, ex English, was actually bitten by one last year at work. Didn't even go to the doctors! I said you should get it checked out just in case but he said it'll be fine. Only received a slight headache from it.

http://en.wikipedia....Bites_in_humans

[zenfahr]

I say give that spider a sock and be done with it. House Spider... lol

[ouija ouija]

I read another article about this today. Seems the woman who was bitten didn't even see what bit her and yet the medics are confident in saying it was just 'a creepy-crawly found in British houses'! There's no mention of her being allergic to spider bites. I guess it's just bad reporting/journalism. It seems the problem was one of severe infection. I still find it hard to believe it was a spider native to Britain.