Ok... well as the topic says... I hate spiders... always have, most likely always will.
My story of why, if you want to read it, or you can scroll down to the bottom of my post for the summary:
It all started when I was young, I was playing outside, it was twilight out, the phase between day and night. Well anyway, I was kicking a ball around, I kicked it into some small patches of grass, well, being the playful kit I was, I jumped in the grass mound and bent over to pick up the ball... as I do I see tons of little baby spiders running up my leg... frightened, I shake them off and jump back... as I look at my leg again, I found I jumped into another nest of them... after that I booked it a couple feet away and shook my whole body off. After this ordeal... I was petrified of anything arachnoid or small that could bite or sting. I would run from one everytime I see something like this. Lately I've been able to squish em without fear or anger, just natural.
My Story of what happened and info, scroll down to the bottom of my post for the summary.
I was sitting in my small white room at about 1:00AM... Friday the 13Th.... well... I was on the computer as usually, playing games, talking to friends, etc. What I didn't notice is a spider had crawled up onto my shoe, along my pants, and into my shirt.... it bit me on the belly as soon as it felt enclosed, unfortunately, since I've become immune to stings in the belly, from insulin shots, I didn't feel it, only a slight twinge, but I didn't mind. It kept climbing up and up till it found its way onto my chest, where I felt it, shook it off, and smashed it. I looked it over and called my doctor after a while, because I started feeling a bit sick. I described the spider to him:
Pitch black and shiny, with a stripe ending in a triangle along the back of its abdomen that ran like this: ( /\ ).
He looked it up and told me: "Thats weird, its called a Redback spider, native to Australia... are you sure thats what it looked like?" I checked again and said, "Yes." He asked if it bit me and the size of the bite or the spider. I checked all along the frontside, and sure enough found two small puncture wounds on my belly. I told him yes and then measured the bite, I forgot what it was but it was only a young one. He sighed with relief and told me that there are some reported deaths from adult poison, making my heart skip a beat. I asked him what the horrid toxin causes that was and still is coursing through my veins. He told me:
Dizziness, migraine's, confusion, weakness, slowness, and fatigue, along with other effects.
Well... I was pretty bummed and asked him if there was an anti-venom, there is but... not near us I don't believe. Well anyway I told him thank you, hung up, and went to bed. Next morning I woke up and sure enough... I had everything he told me it caused... and still do... even as I type this I still have it. I've been trying my best to fight it off, but its a toxin and won't go away for quite some time.
I have a one question and my conclusion to the question before the summary:
Q: How does an Australian spider travel from Australia, to the United States, in the middle of the United States in South Dakota, across mountains, planes, water, and predators, into our new house, into my room, and bite me?
A: Most likely because... Friday the 13Th hates my guts... and tries to harm me in the worst, most illogical, most diabolical ways every year.
Summary
Australian residing Redback spider came over to the US on Friday the 13Th, bit my stomach. I called the doctor and asked him a bunch of stuff, he told me the spider and the effects of its toxin:
Dizziness, migraines, confusion, weakness, slowness, and fatigue, along with other effects.
He told me that there were deaths with the adult ones, but a juvenile bit me, so it only caused these effects. The toxin now courses through me and I'm gonna be laid out for a while, thus, rekindling my fear of spiders that was caused from a childhood traumatic experience involving two nests of lots of the baby spiders crawling up my leg.
(L)Long Term effects and (S)Short term effects from this incident.
(L)Rekindled fear of spiders.
(L)Effects from the toxin.
(L)My webcomic will take a while to post.
(S)A nasty red spider bite wound.
(S)Insomnia from the trauma.
(S)Paranoia from the trauma.
Two things.
- It's a lot. Two words. :B
- OMG! You have my sympathy. D:
I don't know what else to say but sorry x.x
Ouch... Rest up. Get feeling better.
...And maybe spray your room.
Holy cheese, that's not nice. You should definitely spray the room; if it was young, there probably more, specifically adults. I'm not trying to scare you, just giving you the heads-up.
I suggest you do your insulin shots on your arms and legs for a while, that's where I do mine.
I would suggest you let someone know about the juvenile spider. Chances are, if there's one, there's more around somewhere. If it was NZ, there'd be a bunch fo Magfish guys outside in a day, hunting down the sucker (well, a while ago, anyway. I think they're a bit more blase about redbacks now, since they're already around, but you report a snake, and they're all over you...) and removing it ASAP.
Oh. Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries - basically the guys in charge of keepign the local flora and fauna unsullied by the evil growths that you overseas folk have. You may or may not have an equivalent in the US.
:3 i have a tarantula the size of a plate named Mr. Magician :3
Okays I dont know thats plain ironic or plan sad but i feel bad for yous man and my sister is afriad of spiders..Even the housespiders or garden kind
D: Erg, Redbacks... I hate those things. I've found my fair share of them too. They love to hide under the plastic furniture you put outside.
*hugs*
You have my sympathy you poor thing :hug
Let someone know about the spider D: I can't stress how important it is that the authorities know about any new species that may be moving into an area. Especially one as foreign as a redback. Depending on how well it adapts you could be looking at a serious ecological problem. Kinda like the carp and cane toads down in Australia.
yes...invasive species ;;
*cough*humans*cough*
Hm. That's weird, that a spider would make it to the other side of the world. I'd say that it probably came with some fruit or something, but what fruit is there from Australia that it wouldn't be easier (and cheaper) to get from Cali?
Well, good thing it was a small one. At the risk of making you paranoid, you should check chairs and shoes and such before you use them. There's a chance that there will be more of the li'l buggers.
Quote from: Xze-Xze on October 14, 2006, 09:40:14 PM
yes...invasive species ;;
*cough*humans*cough*
Too true :<
Why can't we all just get along?
There's a subtle difference between "Invasive" and "Dominant".
Quote from: Anara on October 14, 2006, 09:47:47 PM
Quote from: Xze-Xze on October 14, 2006, 09:40:14 PM
yes...invasive species ;;
*cough*humans*cough*
Too true :<
Why can't we all just get along?
i know..
why can't humans just stop having babies and die out for a while? :<
Then who would provide affordable cable television solutions? D:
He has a point...
Oh, haha, I remember, nobody does anyway. Yeah, Charter Cable, SCREW YOU. *ahem*
but what about cheetahs?
and lions?
and tigers?
And wolves?
and fuzzy lemurs?
Fun to hunt? :B
:<
Bill, you are the first person on this forum to make me cry :<
There there, just imagine me in a pith hat getting my face ripped off by a tiger. Better?
:[ :cry :cry :cry :cry :cry :cry :cry :cry :cry :cry :cry :cry
No! Happy things! Ketchup! Puppies!
:cry :cry :cry :cry :cry :cry :cry :cry :cry :cry :cry :cry :cry :cry
You don't like ketchup? How 'bout A1 Steak Sauce? It goes great with uh.. steak. Hence the name, A1 Steak Sauce.
Xze crying? This cannot continue. I don't want to do this, but if it'll stop the tears...
I hereby present... "Crappy Self-Portrait." No, it does not merit its own art thread.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Rictor_Lasanti/lineartoric.jpg)
Anyway, spiders. I personally think spiders in general are cool, since they tend to cut down on pest population, but, yeah, if I ever see a spider on me, I'm gonna freak out. Best of luck recovering.
I hope you heal quickly, Tait-Fox.
And you're in South Dakota? I thought I had the only working computer here! Howdy, neighbor!
Aaaah! There really are people here from South Dakota?
I've been meaning to ask, have any of you South Dakotans (or North Dakotans, for that matter) seen the campus of the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople?
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on October 15, 2006, 04:14:00 AM
Aaaah! There really are people here from South Dakota?
I've been meaning to ask, have any of you South Dakotans (or North Dakotans, for that matter) seen the campus of the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople?
Nope, sorry. Once I moved here my traveling days were over; I kind of dug a hole, and pulled it in after me.
I'm not actually from South Dakota, but I've lived here for about eighteen years. (Barring two very brief escape attempts to other states.)
Reminds me...
Where is Akisohida? :paranoid
Quote from: ITOS on October 15, 2006, 10:35:44 AM
Reminds me...
Where is Akisohida? :paranoid
Yeah... good question.
Anywho, yikes! That's really scary! I'm also arachnophobic (afraid of spiders), but not as badly as you are, it sounds like. So, you have my sympathies. Here's wishing you a speedy recovery! :3
S. Dakota? Yipes! Too close to home! I live in N. Dakota and and hearing about something like that happening near home state (let alone home town) scares the heck outta me! :erk
*waves north to KarlOmega1*
Nah, you get used to the spiders down here.
That, or they carry you off and no one ever sees you again...
Sorry to hear about that Tait-Fox. You mentioned insulin shots, leading me to believe you are diabetic. I'd just caution you watch your health rather closely. A mild poison that is little more than uncomfortable for most people might be harder on you due to your pre-existing health condition. I'm no expert on this by any means, I'd just advide you to err on the side of caution.
I'm curious, though, if you saved the spider and have shown it to a doctor or somone who can identify it for certain. It can often be hard to make an identification over the phone. You never know, but it could have been a totally harmless bug and you've just come down with something else completely by coincidence. But of course I'm not there so take my assessment as what you will.
Personally, I like spiders. I like them because they eat the things that would otherwise be trying to eat me or my stuff. But then I've never had a spider bite and live in quite possible the safest and most biologically benign part of the known universe. Would probably have to travel at least an hour to even have a chance at possibly coming across anything even slightly dangerous.
I just got around to reading this, and the spider you described sounded a lot like a Black Widow, which are very common where I live (Southern California), but I don't know about where you live. The venom more than likely won't kill you, but you'll feel like sh** for quite a while.
heh, spiders are cute, I love those small jumping spiders (for the record, you can play with them as much as you want, as far as I know, they won't bite in defense, and prefer jumping to escape, at least I've never got biten)
It's known that the amount of spiders who can be lethal without the person being allergic is really small, but many can hurt a lot, however I've got biten once and all I got was a little pain and a hard thing un my thumb that lasted for a few weeks
however, I think other bugs can be nastier, I usually don't have much fear of spiders, they usually only bite in last case, I'm usually more careful with bees or wasps, since they tend to be more aggressive
Gah, got attacked by a wasp last week. He managed to fly up one of my sleeves without me noticing, and started to sting me several times before I changed shirts. I thought there was a pin stuck in the shirt, or something. Not fun.
The wasps around here are fairly friendly. If one gets into my office, I can pick her up and take her outside bare-handed. Fourteen years, several times a summer, none have ever tried to sting me.
The bees here, on the other hand, are vicious little bastards. I've been standing outside on my front porch, and hear a loud buzzing and feel sudden pain...sure enough, a bee just decided I was ugly or something.