I think so, too. They all seem to have eight legs, more than two eyes, which don’t look like compound eyes, a cephalothorax/two body segments rather than three, a lack of antennae, etc. It would probably be easier to tell looking at them head-on so we could see their chelicerae.
Edit: turns out the pedipalps are more of a giveaway.
Man, I wish spiders didn’t creep me out so much. They’re very cool, but my ancient lizard brain isn’t having it.
Get a pet jumping spider. They don’t eat much, don’t need a large enclosure, you can handle them, and their venom is not significant to humans (they don’t really bite anyway).
My partner has two of them on her desk, and catching them exploring or sunning themselves is a little happiness boost every time.
Fair warning, they have the same problem as rats… They live just long enough for you to get really attached to them. Lifespans are about 1 year for males, and up to 3 for females.
But, if you like them, you can always get a tarantula, which can live much longer.
Hmm. I do think I’d make a good, unusually benevolent, eldrich god. On the other hand, I still miss my beta fish that died 5 years ago. No telling how I’d react to the rise and fall of a spider family line, dozens of generations in length.
Tarantulas are cool, but I’d worry about dropping it. I know they typically don’t bite, and that their bites aren’t dangerous. Still, I don’t know if I could relate to it positively after that. It’s not rational. I’ve gotten mild dog bites and cat scratches from pets playing too rough, and those are much more dangerous. Tarantulas still pas the cuteness test, but I think the spider bias affects them more than jumping spiders.
I don’t think I’ve ever been uncomfortable having a jumping spider on me unexpectedly. It’s fun to watch them hunt. Watching the retinas in their big eyes move to track things is fun. It makes them seem more like adorable cartoon characters.
I know they typically don’t bite, and that their bites aren’t dangerous.
Fair warning, they may not be “dangerous”, but from the tarantula breeders I’ve talked to, some can “pack a whallop” which to me means painful as all fuck.
And yes, we are hardwired for some memetics about spider-looking things, but being amazed by them, understanding them biologically, & perhaps a bit of co-living (about as close to befriending them without them being “a pet” & still independent - you know, just seeing & saying hi to Clara every day, watching the life of a begin with ups & downs) may adapt how the association network in your brainhole is used.
(Just guessing.)
That’s very accurate. I don’t mind handling tarantulas or furry jumping spiders, but shiny spiders of any kind creep me out. Bonus point for terror if there’s webbing involved. Hobo spiders are probably the worst. They’re so fast and aggressive. I still catch them and take them outside, but it still feels awful. The only exception to the mercy rule is the shower. Shower spiders go down the drain immediately.
But I get what you are saying, it makes some intuitive sense.
In my case I think I’ve (as a kid) narrowed down the technical memetic part mostly to the very centre-point where the 8 lines end, so basically my brain recognising the legs (starting from the end of the legs) & then seeing how they “end” up in one narrow place (so, relatively to spider leg size, if the sternum looking from the bottom or the end part of prosoma from the top is “too tightly together” or even too perfectly round/octagonal shaped).
(And spiders differ very much in that regard, even the same one in relation to how well fed it is :D.)
Why? Idk, but doesn’t feel learned.
(It’s still there, but not the default/I have to think about it more actively.)
That I remember (again, as a kid) I was only triggered (differently than described above) by one “too smooth” species, the poor, harmless, misjudged beneficial, cute (well, as all spiders) wasp spiders.
I didn’t harm them but it’s a sad memory for me bcs the smol town (or the whole valley?) I grew up in basically doesn’t have them anymore. Bcs we hate flowers/biodiversity, but love grass & pesticides I guess. I should be glad they were even still around for me to experience them.
(No pics bcs you mentioned you only like unshaven butts & legs.)
For me, it was the fireflies. I grew up in suburbs at the edge of a city, where the rural land started, just about as far as city water and sewer reached. It grew pretty quickly, and by the time I turned 18, I was about as close to the city center as I was to the outskirts. In that process, every summer, there were fewer and fewer of them until one year they were just gone. I was busy, so I didn’t think much of it at the time, but looking back, I regret not making an attempt to make a habitat for them in our garden.
It’s hard to argue how we aren’t an infestation. The reach & environmental effects of humans per individual is outstanding even without factoring the explosive growth (globally only a few 100k or a few millions for 4 billion years, then a billon in a single millennia, then 9 billon in just 200 years).
Solitary unconnected gardens can’t help, it would barely be possible to sustain us normally if we all were extremely and unambiguously (and with much more knowledge) aware of & actively dedicating our lives to diminish environmental impacts.
But also our overall lives would be better. Imagine forest cities with tall buildings (without critter loss, so maybe glass covered streets?), clean every, waste treatment & reuse, no “waste”, etc.
If it helps, some models are showing it level off. If we advance climate science and use it to inform policy, we might be able to slowly contract our population while avoiding a “Children of Men” style collapse. I assume it would take a few thousand years to reach an equilibrium that allows us to maintain a habitable environment while still developing space-faring technology. The bonus is that the time it would take might change our practices into something a little more worthy of spreading to other planets if that ever becomes possible. I think with our current energy and pollution situation, we’ve guaranteed ourselves future hardships for many generations, but I don’t think it’s hopeless yet.
Regardless, other life has done similar stuff before. It resulted in mass extinction, but life moved on in some form. I hope the earth will be great with us in it, but if not, it will probably be fine without us, too.
I didn’t harm them but it’s a sad memory for me bcs the smol town (or the whole valley?) I grew up in basically doesn’t have them anymore. Bcs we hate flowers/biodiversity, but love grass & pesticides I guess.
Wasp spider actually primarily live in tall grass. Big, unmown fields of grass are a great place to look for them. But I guess pesticides don’t help.
Yes, you are correct, I was inaccurate in my description of events - they systematically cut grass & nothing looks wild anymore (but also less tall grass & there are less mixed meadows).
Nah, my mother loved spiders and we somehow regularly had fucking massive house spiders crawling around on the ceiling of the house when I was growing up. I swear she must have been bringing them into the house at one point or something, we definitely had a well above average amount of spiders for a good few years there.
There was only ever one at a time though, that I ever saw anyway, but they were those really big, hairy bastards that you can count the legs off from across the room and don’t look like they’re supposed to live in England.
Fast too, so fast, and eerily silent as they skittered, with too many angles protruding from their fat bodies. If you couldn’t see them so starkly outlined against the white ceiling, you’d never even know they were up there, and they’d cross the room in less time than it took you to walk there yourself.
My mum thought they were cool though and called them all Boris and she’d talk to them like they were bloody cats. Mad woman.
I am (thank fuck) not my mother and shit scared of most spiders*. My mothers’ behaviour did not impact my perfectly rational fear of potentially dangerous creatures crawling around my house. I know giant house spiders aren’t dangerous to humans, but plenty of other big spiders around the world are and I don’t think it’s wise to try desensitise human children to this, especially as more and more species now will be migrating due to climate change.
*Jumping spiders are cool, I like those ones. They’re surprusingly smart, and cute, and they’ve even evolved a vegetarian amongst them.
I know giant house spiders aren’t dangerous to humans, but plenty of other big spiders around the world are and I don’t think it’s wise to try desensitise human children to this
There is actually not a lot of them, really just a handful of species per continent (out of 53.000). It’s much easier to learn about the few medical significant spiders in your area and be cool to the rest of the spiderbros.
Alright, I tracked down the original source (no links provided in the news article …) and it seems they do mean the noble false widow when they say “common house spider”. Which I guess is technically correct, because it’s a common spider to find in your home (in the UK, Ireland and California, that is).
Anyway, the actual article is quite interesting and above my paygrade as an amateur enthusiast. The first thing that stood out to me was that they said “In addition to their medically significant venom”, refering to Steatoda nobilis. That is not what is widley accepted amonst arachnologists.
So I forwarded it to a friend who is a proper, published arachnologist. He immedietly replied with “Oh, yeah, the Dunbar study”. It seems to be kind of a one-off study so far (there are very few properly documented bites to begin with). The professional called the study “valuable” but also said that he was “sceptical of the interpretation”.
I would add that bites from Steatoda (and Theridiidae in generall, which includes black widows) are very rare and quite easy to avoid. They are very stationay spiders and can stay their entire live in a single web (the females. Males will wander around during mating season, but even amongst the black widows, only the mature females are considered medically significant).
I’ll still happily have Steatoda spiders in my flat with no worries. I know them, they’re cool.
Uff … this article. Talking about a common house spider, showing a picture of a noble false widow but labeling it a black widow … I’m gonna disect that in a minute, wait for my next reply.
Yeah, I also think its cultural and not an instinct. We don’t have screens on the windows, so letting spiders roam freely means I don’t get flies, which are objectively worse to cohabitate with.
I think so, too. They all seem to have eight legs, more than two eyes, which don’t look like compound eyes, a cephalothorax/two body segments rather than three, a lack of antennae, etc. It would probably be easier to tell looking at them head-on so we could see their chelicerae.
Edit: turns out the pedipalps are more of a giveaway.
Man, I wish spiders didn’t creep me out so much. They’re very cool, but my ancient lizard brain isn’t having it.
Get a pet jumping spider. They don’t eat much, don’t need a large enclosure, you can handle them, and their venom is not significant to humans (they don’t really bite anyway).
My partner has two of them on her desk, and catching them exploring or sunning themselves is a little happiness boost every time.
Here is one chilling out.
Thanks for the suggestion. I just might do that. They’re very cute.
Fair warning, they have the same problem as rats… They live just long enough for you to get really attached to them. Lifespans are about 1 year for males, and up to 3 for females.
But, if you like them, you can always get a tarantula, which can live much longer.
Hmm. I do think I’d make a good, unusually benevolent, eldrich god. On the other hand, I still miss my beta fish that died 5 years ago. No telling how I’d react to the rise and fall of a spider family line, dozens of generations in length.
Tarantulas are cool, but I’d worry about dropping it. I know they typically don’t bite, and that their bites aren’t dangerous. Still, I don’t know if I could relate to it positively after that. It’s not rational. I’ve gotten mild dog bites and cat scratches from pets playing too rough, and those are much more dangerous. Tarantulas still pas the cuteness test, but I think the spider bias affects them more than jumping spiders.
I don’t think I’ve ever been uncomfortable having a jumping spider on me unexpectedly. It’s fun to watch them hunt. Watching the retinas in their big eyes move to track things is fun. It makes them seem more like adorable cartoon characters.
Fair warning, they may not be “dangerous”, but from the tarantula breeders I’ve talked to, some can “pack a whallop” which to me means painful as all fuck.
Good to know. I definitely don’t want that. I should just go see a migration and enjoy them from a safe distance.
Omg, at least it’s alive in your pic, ty <3.
And yes, we are hardwired for some memetics about spider-looking things, but being amazed by them, understanding them biologically, & perhaps a bit of co-living (about as close to befriending them without them being “a pet” & still independent - you know, just seeing & saying hi to Clara every day, watching the life of a begin with ups & downs) may adapt how the association network in your brainhole is used.
(Just guessing.)
No problem!
That’s very accurate. I don’t mind handling tarantulas or furry jumping spiders, but shiny spiders of any kind creep me out. Bonus point for terror if there’s webbing involved. Hobo spiders are probably the worst. They’re so fast and aggressive. I still catch them and take them outside, but it still feels awful. The only exception to the mercy rule is the shower. Shower spiders go down the drain immediately.
Poor clean spiders.
But I get what you are saying, it makes some intuitive sense.
In my case I think I’ve (as a kid) narrowed down the technical memetic part mostly to the very centre-point where the 8 lines end, so basically my brain recognising the legs (starting from the end of the legs) & then seeing how they “end” up in one narrow place (so, relatively to spider leg size, if the sternum looking from the bottom or the end part of prosoma from the top is “too tightly together” or even too perfectly round/octagonal shaped).
(And spiders differ very much in that regard, even the same one in relation to how well fed it is :D.)
Why? Idk, but doesn’t feel learned.
(It’s still there, but not the default/I have to think about it more actively.)
That I remember (again, as a kid) I was only triggered (differently than described above) by one “too smooth” species, the poor, harmless, misjudged beneficial, cute (well, as all spiders) wasp spiders.
I didn’t harm them but it’s a sad memory for me bcs the smol town (or the whole valley?) I grew up in basically doesn’t have them anymore. Bcs we hate flowers/biodiversity, but love grass & pesticides I guess. I should be glad they were even still around for me to experience them.
(No pics bcs you mentioned you only like unshaven butts & legs.)
For me, it was the fireflies. I grew up in suburbs at the edge of a city, where the rural land started, just about as far as city water and sewer reached. It grew pretty quickly, and by the time I turned 18, I was about as close to the city center as I was to the outskirts. In that process, every summer, there were fewer and fewer of them until one year they were just gone. I was busy, so I didn’t think much of it at the time, but looking back, I regret not making an attempt to make a habitat for them in our garden.
That’s so sad.
It’s hard to argue how we aren’t an infestation. The reach & environmental effects of humans per individual is outstanding even without factoring the explosive growth (globally only a few 100k or a few millions for 4 billion years, then a billon in a single millennia, then 9 billon in just 200 years).
Solitary unconnected gardens can’t help, it would barely be possible to sustain us normally if we all were extremely and unambiguously (and with much more knowledge) aware of & actively dedicating our lives to diminish environmental impacts.
But also our overall lives would be better. Imagine forest cities with tall buildings (without critter loss, so maybe glass covered streets?), clean every, waste treatment & reuse, no “waste”, etc.
If it helps, some models are showing it level off. If we advance climate science and use it to inform policy, we might be able to slowly contract our population while avoiding a “Children of Men” style collapse. I assume it would take a few thousand years to reach an equilibrium that allows us to maintain a habitable environment while still developing space-faring technology. The bonus is that the time it would take might change our practices into something a little more worthy of spreading to other planets if that ever becomes possible. I think with our current energy and pollution situation, we’ve guaranteed ourselves future hardships for many generations, but I don’t think it’s hopeless yet.
Regardless, other life has done similar stuff before. It resulted in mass extinction, but life moved on in some form. I hope the earth will be great with us in it, but if not, it will probably be fine without us, too.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event
Wasp spider actually primarily live in tall grass. Big, unmown fields of grass are a great place to look for them. But I guess pesticides don’t help.
Yes, you are correct, I was inaccurate in my description of events - they systematically cut grass & nothing looks wild anymore (but also less tall grass & there are less mixed meadows).
Kill it with
firewaterI’m with you 100% spiders-wise but wonder if it’s cultural rather than lizard-brained. If I had a kid whom I could convince
then would this kid be down with spiders’ company?
Nah, my mother loved spiders and we somehow regularly had fucking massive house spiders crawling around on the ceiling of the house when I was growing up. I swear she must have been bringing them into the house at one point or something, we definitely had a well above average amount of spiders for a good few years there.
There was only ever one at a time though, that I ever saw anyway, but they were those really big, hairy bastards that you can count the legs off from across the room and don’t look like they’re supposed to live in England.
Fast too, so fast, and eerily silent as they skittered, with too many angles protruding from their fat bodies. If you couldn’t see them so starkly outlined against the white ceiling, you’d never even know they were up there, and they’d cross the room in less time than it took you to walk there yourself.
My mum thought they were cool though and called them all Boris and she’d talk to them like they were bloody cats. Mad woman.
I am (thank fuck) not my mother and shit scared of most spiders*. My mothers’ behaviour did not impact my perfectly rational fear of potentially dangerous creatures crawling around my house. I know giant house spiders aren’t dangerous to humans, but plenty of other big spiders around the world are and I don’t think it’s wise to try desensitise human children to this, especially as more and more species now will be migrating due to climate change.
*Jumping spiders are cool, I like those ones. They’re surprusingly smart, and cute, and they’ve even evolved a vegetarian amongst them.
There is actually not a lot of them, really just a handful of species per continent (out of 53.000). It’s much easier to learn about the few medical significant spiders in your area and be cool to the rest of the spiderbros.
Be cool to all animals, killing them is not OK.
But also, common house spider spreads antibiotic-resistant bacteria to humans, study finds, so maybe don’t be so blasé about letting them live in your house?
Alright, I tracked down the original source (no links provided in the news article …) and it seems they do mean the noble false widow when they say “common house spider”. Which I guess is technically correct, because it’s a common spider to find in your home (in the UK, Ireland and California, that is).
Anyway, the actual article is quite interesting and above my paygrade as an amateur enthusiast. The first thing that stood out to me was that they said “In addition to their medically significant venom”, refering to Steatoda nobilis. That is not what is widley accepted amonst arachnologists.
So I forwarded it to a friend who is a proper, published arachnologist. He immedietly replied with “Oh, yeah, the Dunbar study”. It seems to be kind of a one-off study so far (there are very few properly documented bites to begin with). The professional called the study “valuable” but also said that he was “sceptical of the interpretation”.
I would add that bites from Steatoda (and Theridiidae in generall, which includes black widows) are very rare and quite easy to avoid. They are very stationay spiders and can stay their entire live in a single web (the females. Males will wander around during mating season, but even amongst the black widows, only the mature females are considered medically significant).
I’ll still happily have Steatoda spiders in my flat with no worries. I know them, they’re cool.
Uff … this article. Talking about a common house spider, showing a picture of a noble false widow but labeling it a black widow … I’m gonna disect that in a minute, wait for my next reply.
i think it’s instinctive to go “OH FUCK” when something of sufficient size skitters about, but not instinctive to specifically hate spiders
and it doesn’t matter what the skittery thing is, if a mouse scurries across my floor i’m gonna get spooked too, and i think mice are cute!
I see mice outside and I’m like “awwwwwwwww”.
I hear about people seeing spiders inside and my pulse rate rises.
Yeah, I also think its cultural and not an instinct. We don’t have screens on the windows, so letting spiders roam freely means I don’t get flies, which are objectively worse to cohabitate with.