Let me introduce you to some indigenous life...

Richard : I'm not even gonna ask why your yardman's willy was out where a black widow could get to it :) As far as JR and brown recluse spiders go, I dont think it'll work. I heard she's imune. I also heard she doesnt have any kids cause she eats her young. The Australian funnel spider might work, but too quickly. A small amount of suffering is called for in her case, IMHO. But maybe, if we threw her into a pit with boat-loads of brown recluse spiders, it may eventually work. And it would take some time....... :)

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"To die as a warrior means to have crossed swords and either won or lost without any consideration for winning or loosing. There is just not enough time and generally not enough strength in the resolve of any man to do otherwise"-Miyamoto Musashi
 
George!!!
You are too much like my husband. He bought black plastic ants and put them in my flour container. I opened the lid and screamed bloody murder. Ants and flour went everywhere!

And then there was the time he tied a rubber band around the handle of the kitchen sink sprayer. As soon as I turned the water on I was instantly soaked...grrrrr

:D :D :D Practical jokes...the shame of it. But they do keep a marriage lively huh?

J
 
Actually it's the Sydney funnel we spider :)
I'ts not in allof Australia. They'll kill you quick enough but only a few people have died since they started making the anti-venom. If you apply appropriate first aid and get to the hospital you will be ok. But I doubt there is any anti-venom in the USA. :)
We also have red back spiders - also will kill you. Funnel webs are worse because they are more active and will wander. I always check my boots or shoes If I leave them outside.
Redbacks aren't so bad ,they usually like bricks, rocks,pots andold junkand live there. Not as fast as funnelwebs and canbe easily squashed.
There is a well known song "Redback on the toilet seat" Thats not a worry these days though with indoor dunnies.
We also have tiger snakes here and brown snakes (maybe eastern brown) both again will kill very quickly, but if you apply first aid and get to a hospital quick you will be ok.
When I go shooting in summer walking through the paddocks with long grass I do watch where I tread.
We also have red-bellied black snakes -much more common -could probably kill a child but just make you sick. Don't do what I did when a black snake suddenly appeared in front of me when I was riding the motorbike in the paddock - I jumped off and ran like buggery.
Snake was then caught under the wheel but a few well placed rocks fixed him.

Another snake story - at my unclesplace a year or so ago they found a black snake inside the house - they tried to get it but it escaped somewhere in the houser. Next day someone goes into the kitchen and it's in the sink :) I think the eventually killed it.

So if you got to Australia you must -
check under the dunny seat -
check your shoes (ever wondered why aussies where thongs, what you call flip flops)
and check in your sink.
Snakes and spiders also frequently like cars.
Every few months I get the **** scared out of me from hunstman spiders(not poisonous but bloody big and scary) running accross my windscreen or fallingn on my leg while driving.
 
Okay, enough! I don't ever want to hear any more about insects and snakes in Texas!!! ;)

((Unless, of course, you mean George Bush! ... *Either* George Bush!)) :)
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Just to make all this "gun related"...

Several years ago we (EMS) had to take a gunshot victim to the hospital. A guy went to bed in his nice warm waterbed and found it was occupied by a large (at least LONG) snake that bit him on the lower leg!

He figured since he was going to die anyway, he was going to take that snake with him!

He grabbed a .45 auto and started blasting!

Blew many, many(!) holes in his waterbed (flooding his bedroom and living room), scared the living hell out of his neighbors, and (apparently with a ricochet off something) wounded himself in the upper thigh and was bleeding to death, hence the ambulance call.

Yes, he killed the snake. It was almost five feet long, had NO fangs, and was NOT poisonous.

The snake died of many gunshot wounds. The patient survived the (non-poisonous) snakebite and the bullet wound. No telling whether he survived the laughter of his friends.

We (EMS) were all sworn to secrecy but what the heck, this all happened years ago....


[This message has been edited by Dennis (edited August 28, 1999).]
 
I knew it - don't ever shoot a 45 at a waterbed - in it, less so. Er.. on it. Oh what the heck, its late :)

[This message has been edited by Elchimango (edited August 28, 1999).]
 
To take the discussion back to the brown recluse for a moment. A number of comments have been right on the mark.

The venom is very potent and works as described. A young child in central Indiana died of a brown recluse bite last year.

The spiders range is very large.

They are also small, as described, and not very aggressive unless you disturb them. Then they attck without hesitation. They like to hide out in close dark places, like wood piles, old store rooms, and the creases in bedding of motel beds that haven't been used for several days. (My wife likes to take a motel bed apart to check for spiders whenever we go traveling. And not that is not prelude to any special ritual since most travels the last few years have included sharing the motel room with two young sons.)

To echo a comment made above, if you have any of the signs of the brown recluse bite decribed above, get treatment, now.

And to take it back to guns, they are generally too small to make a good target. And you don't want to end up like the snake shooter.

Jim in IN

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-- TANSTAAFL
 
01paw said:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Richard : I'm not even gonna ask why your yardman's willy was out where a black widow could get to it[/quote]

Our house was built in 1840; my parents purchased it in the 1940's and added on a bedroom. Like many large Southern homes, (not a plantation house), it was built about 5 feet off the ground. When they added the bedroom, they put in a "servant's bathroom" under the house, and Gus was taking a dump when the spider crawled out from under the toilet seat and nailed him. Gus was quite a character; deadly accurate with a slingshot. No squirrel was safe when he was around; he carried his sling in his back overalls pocket, and kept a supply of rocks or ball bearings (when he could find 'em) in one of his front pockets.
Living in a house that old made of heart pine was interesting. Fire plan was to dive out the nearest window upon discovery of a fire. The entire thing would have literally burned to the ground in less than 15 minutes had a fire taken hold, and it wouldn't have taken much more than two or three minutes for a fire to get a hold.

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Shoot straight regards, Richard
The Shottist's Center forums.delphi.com/m/main.asp?sigdir=45acp45lc




[This message has been edited by 45King (edited August 29, 1999).]
 
Emergency nurse hat on! Unknown insect bite?
Get thee to thy nearest emergency department!
Do not pass Go! Do not collect $200! Don't screw around folks. The poster who had the cream and the wrap was incredibly lucky if it was, in fact, a brown recluse. The folks I have seen bitten had dangerous reactions with immediate IV antibiotic treatment. Don't screw around unknown insect bites and unknown spider bites. Give you a clue: give me a choice between being bitten by 10 black widows or one brown recluse...I'll take the ten black widows, thank you very much.
 
What is the size of a typical brown recluse spider? Quarter, half-dollar, silver dollar? Give me an idea, please?
 
I was in a, what seems to me, unlikely spot for a spider attack. I was in a Volkswagen dealership showroom looking at a camper, leaning over peering inside a new model. From under the vehicle, a spider ran out and went up my pants leg. I felt the bite, it wasn't too bad. I squashed the little critter while he was still in my pants. The bite was on my right calf. I pretty much ignored it for a couple of hours...until the itch began. As I scratched the bite I noticed that the bump was getting larger. Still, I wasn't alarmed, after all it was just a little "bug bite". Two days passed and the bite looked like a big rotten spot on an apple with a big, white yucky thing in the middle. This was the point at which I finally decided to go to the doctor. It was a big mistake to wait so long before seeking medical assistance.
The whole experiance lasted about two weeks. It was really hard to get this thing to start to heal up. I learned the lesson that spider bites must be taken seriously!

Will
 
Photos of the Brown Recluse:

Male Recluse:
564BRphoto1.JPG



Female Recluse:
564BRphoto2.JPG


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John/az

"The middle of the road between the extremes of good and evil, is evil. When freedom is at stake, your silence is not golden, it's yellow..." RKBA!

http://www.countdown9199.com
 
Elchimango,

It's even worse when they don't use the "compact" parking slots. :)

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John/az

"The middle of the road between the extremes of good and evil, is evil. When freedom is at stake, your silence is not golden, it's yellow..." RKBA!

http://www.countdown9199.com
 
Black widow bites can be really serious too. My dad got bit on the calf when he was working on a haystack 30 years ago. He didn't go to hospital because it was just a "little" spider. Well he got blood poisoning in his legs. I believe the condition is called Flabitus or something. Anyway, he has lots of leg problems, and they are the this sickly grey color. So if you get bit, don't be tough, just go get help.
 
George, that's funny. Yous a lucky guy. I really can't believe I haven't been bitten yet by a fiddleback, as I've killed dozens to hundreds over the years. I read in my Guinness book that there is a large spider in India that is extemely deadly from one bite, likes to hide in dark places like shoes, and is so aggressive that when a human gets close, it jumps and bites several times. Thank god I don't live in India. That's just the tip of the iceberg there. Maybe we could get Janet to take a trip there.
 
It's my understanding that Black Widow anti-venom can only be used once on a person. If true, don't get bit twice in your life-time!

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John/az

"The middle of the road between the extremes of good and evil, is evil. When freedom is at stake, your silence is not golden, it's yellow..." RKBA!

http://www.countdown9199.com
 
Just a reminder if your in Australia and get bitten by a snake or a spider get to hospital or you could very likely die. Our spiders kill - if I got bitten by a spider I'll go to hospital besides red backs and funnel webs there are other spiders that can make you very sick.
 
Spartacus-I heard that and endorse your advice about seeking medical attention immediately. The doctor who treated me identified the bite as a recluse. I have often wondered myself- I never did get a good "pre-mortem" look at the critter, the bite woke me out of a sound sleep and I smashed it pretty good. I also understand that the recluse likes a humid climate and this was out in the Big Bend area of west Texas, which is not exactly known for rain forest conditions- so go figure. I do know that my leg felt like one giant charley horse and that circular patch on my thigh was getting bigger and bigger all the time.
 
Brown recluses are nasty critters! My cousin was bitten by one on the calf, while she was sleeping. She's had about 11 surgeries or so to remove the continually rotting tissue around the bite. She has a huge hole in her leg and blood poisoning tracks up to her knee...
 
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