Let me introduce you to some indigenous life...

[Spectre]

I believe I was four. We were visiting my uncle at his home in TX.

There was a movie about deadly ants on tv that evening.

I had the choice of the sofa or floor. Being young and even dumber than currently, I chose the floor.

I woke in the middle of the night. Frightened of the dark, I slowly made my way to the bathroom.

When I lay down, there was a sharp, burning pain at the back of my neck. I screamed. Natural reaction was to grab my neck. The pain was now in my hand.

Somewhere about this time, my father picked me up. He assumed I had been/was having a nightmare, and he was laughing. The pain was in my other hand...the pain was gone.

I assume they could tell, when the lights went on, that I had actually suffered some physical trauma. That part, I don't remember. I do remember sleeping with my two older half-brothers after that. I was never happier to have big brothers in my entire life!

They later found and killed the scorpion.

I'm pretty sure that I've seen plenty of the male brown recluse, fwiw...

 

[Long Path]

George: When it flooded near my house 4 years ago, I saw the opportunity to really wake up my arachnaphobic roommate. As I rode my bicycle home, I saw that the street was crawling with 5" long crayfish. ("Crawdeds" we used to call 'em when I was a kid.)

I dug in a nearby trashcan to some up with a plastic grocery bag, and brought 10 of them home in it. When I got inside, I put them in the tub with some water, and went to sleep, aware of what my roommates abblutions consisted of, first thing in the morning. (He, he!)

I'll never, ever forget the screaming...!

The best part was, a couple of them had been cannibalized by the others, leaving some pincers drifting around in the muddy water. In his torpor, my roommate actually got one foot into the clawfoot bathtub before feeling something scuttling around!

It took a bottle of good single malt Scotch to buy his forgiveness! Worth it; he shares.