On 4 Oct 2005, at 1:07 am, Dave Land wrote:
On Oct 3, 2005, at 4:01 PM, Robert Seeberger wrote:
Most Recluse bite I've seen occured when people rolled over the
spider
in their sleep or crawled over one when working under their house.
The
spider bites when trapped.
Also, apparently, true of Black Widows -- they'd rather escape than
bite.
Rolling over on spiders in one's sleep reminded me of a spider myth
that
has come up twice in the past week among people I know: that most
people
unwittingly swallow four or five spiders per year in their sleep...
Here's Washington University's debunking of that myth:
http://tinyurl.com/3tk8h
The same site also debunks my practice of ushering my spider friends
outdoors when I find them inside:
Myth: "I'm very kind to spiders; when I find one in the house, I
put it back outside instead of killing it."
Fact: You can't put something "back" outside which was never
outside in the first place. Although some house spider
species
can survive outdoors, most don't do well there, and some
(which
are native to other climates) will perish rather quickly
when
removed from the protective indoor habitat. You're not doing
them a favor.
In any case, house spiders are mostly harmless and
beneficial.
Human property rights mean nothing to other species.
There was
spider habitat for millions of years where your home is
now. My
advice is, "just wave as they go by."
I just leave spiders alone in our house. Unfortunately they don't
seem to thrive so when a bluebottle or a wasp or crane fly gets in
the house I always think "where's a spider when you need one?"
Ed[1] tries to eat bugs but isn't very good at it. Maybe I need a pet
lizard.
[1] Our old greyhound.
--
William T Goodall
Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/
One of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that,
lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of
their C programs. -- Robert Firth
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