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When I was little my dad would always treat spiders with care and respect. I'm glad he did, because now as a grown-up I find them sort of adorable. Don't get me
by danaliv 10y ago
When I was little my dad would always treat spiders with care and respect. I'm glad he did, because now as a grown-up I find them sort of adorable. Don't get me wrong, I don't want them in my bed, but when I see one at home my first instinct is to protect it from my cat. :) They're good to have around—they eat the bad bugs!
- hellbanner 10y agoMaybe he learned about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portia_(genus) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portia_(genus) , which are known to hunt "intelligently" (They plot their route instead of acting only by reaction)
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- anotherevan 10y agoOh man, I just finished reading Children of Time[1] which involves sentient spiders. One of the main characters was named Portia. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29776274-children-of-time https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29776274-children-of-tim...
- ccozan 10y agothank you so much! I've read this book some while ago, I wanted to re-read it, but I forgot the name and couldn't remember it at all! OT: is there a place in internet where you can describe a book and someone maybe tells you the name author?
- animal531 10y agoGrowing up there was also Spider World, which I really really enjoyed.
- taneq 10y agoI really hope some new species of Portia spider gets named P. icarus or P. rorscharch or something. Probably 90% of the people I meet who know of Portia learned about it from reading Echopraxia (or from talking to people who'd read the book.)
- gpderetta 10y agoEchopraxia is nowhere as good as Blindsight, but it was worth reading just to discover about Portia spiders!
- taneq 10y agoDifferent books for different audiences. Echopraxia tries to be more accessible by having a baseline human as the main character and a vehicle for a bit more explanation, but in doing so it loses a bit of the hard edge that Blindsight had. I'm re-reading it now (we're just about back to Earth) and I think it's actually holding up pretty well.
- gpderetta 10y agoDefinitely. Blindsight was straight high-stakes first-contact horror, with a deep philosophical questions about consciousness. Echopraxia switched to action/adventure which didn't work as well for me. Also the philosophical themes (post-scientific discovery, god is a virus) weren't as interesting or believable.
- smhenderson 10y agoIt wasn't my dad but a friend at summer camp for me. I was all upset (upset like a ten year old that is) about a spider in my tent. He said, no, no, let him be, he'll eat the mosquitos! I wasn't convinced but took his advice. By the end of two weeks I had named him George. (Although in hindsight it was a probably a couple of spiders named George)
- jon_richards 10y agoMosquitoes don't get caught in spider webs. They just land on top of them, take a rest, and fly away.
- MrJagil 10y agoYou have any additional info? Sounds interesting.
- jon_richards 10y agoOnly first hand experience. Tried looking it up and didn't find anything.
- smhenderson 10y agoWell, I was ten so it sounded good to me...
- seanhandley 10y agoMe too! One of the first things I learned to say was "spiders are nice". I wouldn't want one crawling on me, but they are fascinating animals.
- jvolkman 10y agoWe get a lot of cellar spiders (long legs) in our house, which can be a bit startling but are otherwise harmless. The first thing I do when I find one is give it a name - like Dennis - which helps put my nerves at ease.
- ivm 10y agoThey are also very soft for arthropods according to this awesome video by @ThomasShahan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAYblesQA3w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAYblesQA3w Soft, fast, hairy, very efficient predators. Spiders are basically arthropoda cats. Some of them even purr: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27575-zoologger-musical-spider-purrs-like-a-cat-to-attract-mates/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27575-zoologger-music...
- lightcatcher 10y agoI think I liked spiders before I got bit by a brown recluse. Now I like dead spiders.
- Scramblejams 10y agoOuch. Mind sharing what it was like?
- lightcatcher 10y agoI was about 10 years old and at a bonfire at a summer camp in Texas. It was dark when I was bitten, so I never saw the spider. It felt like there was something between a mosquito and a cockroach on my ankle that was hard to shake off. The bite didn't hurt and I didn't notice it at the time. Next morning, I'm completely out of energy and feel awful. There's a region about 2 inches by 1 inch on my ankle that is pink, gummy texture, and looks like it's lightly coated in a white balm. A family member recognizes it as a spider bite and then we find the fang marks. Go to the doctor, who diagnoses as either a brown recluse bite with a light to medium amount of venom or a full dose bite from relative of brown recluse. Get some pills (probably antibiotics) and a cream to put on the area and told to stay off my feet as much as possible for next 2 weeks. Spend the next 2 weeks of summer mostly laying on a couch. Ankle is in mild aching pain, otherwise I feel fine. Watch ~.6cm of flesh of my ankle turn to mush and decide that spiders suck. End up with a scar similar to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loxoscelism#/media/File:BrownRecuse2.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loxoscelism#/media/File:BrownR... (warning: obviously mildly graphic). Scar has almost completely faded 15 years later, dislike of spiders has not. I still prefer spiders to ticks though.
- sanatgersappa 10y agoyou could have turned into Spiderman.
- Chris2048 10y agoNo, has to be nuclear spider.
- abandonliberty 10y agoA couple 1"+ spiders moved into my buggy basement in school and made it much more tolerable. We got along well. They liked to play this game where they would hide in my shoe. They lost :( . Then the mosquitoes came back and I moved out.
- hvidgaard 10y agoI hate spiders, I really do. I've been bitten by them a few times so I don't pick them up at all anymore. But I do get a container and put them outside if I find them in my house. They are, along with birds, really good at controlling annoying bugs such as mosquitoes.